The Church of the Sacred Deadline
My first encounter with The Church of the Sacred Deadline came early in my working life. Proud of my recently earned doctoral degree, I was working in research and development when my group encountered an interesting, perplexing, but not insurmountable problem.
My department regularly sent representatives to project meetings and project review meetings, and I looked forward to learning how the 'wiser heads' would respond to the information we had prepared. We knew the cause of the problem, and we knew how to fix it, and we knew just about how long it would take. We were pleased, and we were proud. We had a solution in hand, and it would work.
What we didn't know was that the 'wiser heads' didn't want to know, or hear, or think about, any of this. They were fixated wholly on meeting an arbitrary deadline, developed from a model, created by a consultant, based on an idealized concept of assembly-line work. The fact that R&D has almost nothing in common with bolting car seats into place, and that the presupposition that everything will always happen on time [and perfectly] is sheer idiocy when applied to research of any type, was never, apparently, even considered when this conceptual model was evaluated and purchased.
And the reason for that, I understood much later, was that, to the 'wiser heads', the real product was not the product of our R&D; it was not the final product sold to consumers; it was, first and foremost, the Deadline.
Because from the Deadline cometh the Press Release, and the Press Release in turn begetteth the Stock Price. The whole, sole, and only object of the exercise was to Meet The Deadline so that the Stock Wouldn't Lose Value. The product itself was almost immaterial, except as a source of Good Press.
Based on my observations in this and similar environments, if it had been possible to advertise and market boxes filled with nothing but air, this option would have been eagerly embraced. Reality was not merely inconvenient; it was inimical, and those who insisted upon dealing with it - and mentioning it in public - were regarded as untrustworthy, if not subversive.
Consider this well when next you purchase... almost anything that required any thought to produce. And give thanks to the heretics unseen, who worshipped at the altar of Reality to produce a working product, while the Sacred Deadline was met at the cost of their time and sweat... and health... and happiness.
My department regularly sent representatives to project meetings and project review meetings, and I looked forward to learning how the 'wiser heads' would respond to the information we had prepared. We knew the cause of the problem, and we knew how to fix it, and we knew just about how long it would take. We were pleased, and we were proud. We had a solution in hand, and it would work.
What we didn't know was that the 'wiser heads' didn't want to know, or hear, or think about, any of this. They were fixated wholly on meeting an arbitrary deadline, developed from a model, created by a consultant, based on an idealized concept of assembly-line work. The fact that R&D has almost nothing in common with bolting car seats into place, and that the presupposition that everything will always happen on time [and perfectly] is sheer idiocy when applied to research of any type, was never, apparently, even considered when this conceptual model was evaluated and purchased.
And the reason for that, I understood much later, was that, to the 'wiser heads', the real product was not the product of our R&D; it was not the final product sold to consumers; it was, first and foremost, the Deadline.
Because from the Deadline cometh the Press Release, and the Press Release in turn begetteth the Stock Price. The whole, sole, and only object of the exercise was to Meet The Deadline so that the Stock Wouldn't Lose Value. The product itself was almost immaterial, except as a source of Good Press.
Based on my observations in this and similar environments, if it had been possible to advertise and market boxes filled with nothing but air, this option would have been eagerly embraced. Reality was not merely inconvenient; it was inimical, and those who insisted upon dealing with it - and mentioning it in public - were regarded as untrustworthy, if not subversive.
Consider this well when next you purchase... almost anything that required any thought to produce. And give thanks to the heretics unseen, who worshipped at the altar of Reality to produce a working product, while the Sacred Deadline was met at the cost of their time and sweat... and health... and happiness.
posted by Stormchild at
Friday, August 31, 2007
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