THERE are advantages to delaying certain decisions. In a recent outburst by a retiring government official decrying delay of a decision as a political tactic, there is a hidden agenda, even when this is too obvious to be kept secret. Delay of a decision on a disqualification issue makes the candidate viable, for a while.
Procrastination, which etymologically means “forward to tomorrow” refers to deferring action and avoiding a sense of urgency on anything.
Delay is considered a valid subject in behavioral economics. Delaying a deed has economic consequences. Opportunity cost is one concept that delay brings up. Not doing something in a timely manner (say, the sale of a property prior to the pandemic) is sure to incur opportunity losses.
Lawyers use delay as a reasonable strategy. They routinely reschedule the submission of their response to a “show cause” order. Can a decision be “dribbled” until after the retirement of a pesky judge? Delay as a strategy is surely taught in law school as it seems to be used too often by its practitioners.
Cramming is one form of procrastination seen as a bad management practice, seemingly disdainful of planning or an orderly allocation of time. (You lack a sense of urgency.) The student who submits his book report a week ahead of the deadline is seen as more conscientious than the one panting to get the report through the door with only minutes left before the teacher shuts it. Online submissions can be timed to the last second. Still, the procrastinator may have gotten more help and insights from those who submitted early. He may even get a better grade than the eager beaver he copied from.
Another form of procrastination involves deferring gratification, like getting a massage only after working out in the gym. Reward is seen as having to be earned and therefore needing to be delayed.
Does deferring gratification mean getting unpleasant tasks out of the way first? Do they pay for airline tickets two months in advance and check-in at the airport two hours before departure? Are they always 15 minutes ahead of schedule in attending meetings? In a virtual meeting, they are also ahead of schedule— I’m now at the “waiting room.”
The two types of procrastinators are often at odds with each other. Those who defer gratification are natural masochists who hate crammers on sight.
Deferring gratification is seen as a good character trait. Postponing difficult tasks until the last minute is not viewed in the same light. Crammers are never on time and have the most optimistic estimates of drive time (flying time of crows). When setting the alarm clock for a certain time, crammers only wake up to stop the ringing and then go back to sleep, only to scramble awake later predictably behind schedule for an appointment. They postpone meetings regularly. Even working from home, crammers can be late going down the stairs, and forgetting their shorts.
Still, delaying tactics can offer advantages.
The late opinion-giver learns from the mistakes of eager beavers whose ideas get shot down first. In a panel discussion, the last panelist has the most brilliant insights, synthesizing or demolishing previous ideas.
The “first mover” advantage is overrated. Pioneers can lose money as their copycats learn the business and avoid their mistakes. In the fast-food business, the copycat who introduced “unlimited rice” was acquired by the pioneer at a premium.
Most noteworthy entrepreneurs and successful leaders in their youth were crammers, or even copycats. Pressed for time, these enemies of urgency and getting there first bent the rules to get their assignments submitted in the nick of time, without having to put in the required days for research and writing. In this, they depended on pleasure-deferring classmates to bail them out.
The Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus had appended the word “Cunctator” (or Delayer) to his name, preferring delay and a war of attrition and keeping close rather than engaging Hannibal and his elephants in a pitched battle. This wearying strategy worked at that time. It is too at the heart of the guerrilla strategy (hit and hide) in more recent wars against formidable foes, as in the Vietnam war. And more recently in Afghanistan.
Of course, the ultimate delayer is the one who just opts out of the process — I have better things to do. Is this dereliction of duty going to be harmful? What will the surveys say? And more importantly, the elections in May.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
