Sunday, March 23, 2008

parkinson's law



we are all familiar with parkinson's law even if we don't know it as that. "the work expands to meet the time alloted" he hypothesized. and we almost invariably do that. i suspect that is why there is a long line at the post office the night that taxes are due by midnight. i suspect students let the work expand until something is due the next day. but why? if we could actually make the time alloted be something easier, less stressful but maybe it is easier to let it slide until we can't let it slide, even if whatever we have to accomplish gnaws at us until we finally get it done because we have to get it done. and then we adopt the phrase that larry the cable guy has made famous "get er done".
so if parkinson is right and it is a law that the work expands to meet the time alloted, are all people in advertising and are all students and are all people in industries and business' with deadlines doomed to let the work expand to meet the time alloted? and if that is true, is this a factor that should be taken into consideration when developing a strategic or communication plan?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think this principle should be considered in strategic plans. It's a matter of quality. Although work expands to the amount of time one allots for it, the quality should also increase with the time spent. When determining how much time to allocate in a plan, the issue of quality should be central to the discussion.