Client approached me and asked for consultation. I told him such activities take certain amount of time and that we are already late. He should decide if we’re about to go forward.

Time passed (as in Electric Monk sense of Time Passing)

Even closer to the deadline, the client confirmed the go-ahead and decided to put all available resources on the task. We then proceeded with the consult and the work to be done. I won’t reveal the actual outcome, but the job got done.

Reflecting on this particular experience (and many many others), I think this behaviour is hero-like. When it matters, we can do it, we can go all-hands-battle-stations, we can pull it off against all odds.

To be honest, setting and delivering against impossible deadlines is sometimes really exhilarating experience, but the keyword here is sometimes. I followed up with this particular client and saw this pattern many times. The whole company was drama and hero worshipping oriented.

When I calculated the average hours the people in the company worked, I saw they were slightly above average (some overtime). When I evaluated productivity, it was only average.

Conclusion: in times of “normal operation”, people were tired, not really engaged, tried to get some rest before the next “damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead” event.

Stupid.