You can't make yourself think faster
- The product of a knowledge worker’s job is decisions
- Good decisions are supported by a lot of thinking
- The number of decisions you make doesn’t matter—only how good they are
- Schedule time to do nothing but think
- You can’t make yourself think faster
- For many organizations, the dominant message is to hurry up all the time
- Speeding up often results in poor decisions, creating future problems
- Delaying non-critical tasks doesn’t save time in the end
- When under pressure, the quality of decision making plummets
- Different perspectives gets missed
- Edge cases get missed
- Thinking ahead gets missed
- You can make better decisions by reducing the pressure you’re under
Reference
… managers put pressure on their subordinates through a range of methods. DeMarco lists the following examples:
- “Turning the screws on delivery dates (aggressive scheduling)
- Loading on extra work
- Encouraging overtime
- Getting angry when disappointed
- Noting one subordinate’s extraordinary effort and praising it in the presence of others
- Being severe about anything other than superb performance
- Expecting great things of all your workers
- Railing against any apparent waste of time
- Setting an example yourself (with the boss laboring so mightily there is certainly no time for anyone else to goof off)
- Creating incentives to encourage desired behavior or results.”
You can't make yourself think faster
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