The Delusion of Speed

 

Have you ever watched someone who is rushing to get a project done cut corners, make a mistake and then spend more time fixing the mess than if he had done it correctly the first time? What went wrong? The answer is that the person succumbed to the delusion of speed. This false feeling of progress is our topic.

The Basics

The issue with the delusion of speed is that the actor is skipping or hastily performing a task in order to meet, or get ahead of, the schedule. If a person rushes, the likelihood of error increases. In other words, the actor is paying more attention to speed than he is to quality. The end result is that the person has deluded himself that goals are being, or will be, accomplished faster when more time will be lost due to corrective actions being required.

What Causes It?

Many factors can cause the delusion. For the sake of this article, we'll look at four broad categories: management, client, planning and personal issues

Management Issues

Intentionally or not, management can send the message that a schedule or timing is all-important. The end result can be that the project team begins to place more priority on hitting dates than on meeting expectations. Planning, testing, training and other tasks begin to suffer as individuals (or even the whole team) shifts the focus to hitting the schedule. Yes, there are times this is necessary, but what I …

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