TOCICO

When asking someone to complete a task, their first response is often: 'When do you need it by?' A discussion may follow about what’s possible, ultimately leading to an agreed-upon date. This process guarantees a few outcomes: Either the date is impossible, or it includes built-in safety time. The work will not be completed early. The work probably won’t be late. When a project schedule is provided, the same behaviors emerge. People see the deadlines, use up safety time, and manage their tasks accordingly. However, in a project with interconnected tasks, just one late task can delay the entire project. While this may already seem problematic, the reality is even worse. Fixed dates create a massive, hidden drag on project flow. The lost time is significant, yet the issue remains concealed, and traditional productivity improvement methods fail to address it. The typical result: teams work hard, projects remain slow and delayed, and improvement efforts have little impact. This session will examine real-world examples to uncover where that time goes, why it matters, how the issue perpetuates itself, and what can be done to resolve it. (Spoiler: the solution may have something to do with Critical Chain.)