Sunday, November 11, 2007

Paralysis by Paralysis

I used to hear the old saw "paralysis by analysis," referring to engineers keeping product from shipping because of needing more analysis. Well, OK. But it turns out that we all have a similar phenomenon we have to deal with sometimes. This "paralysis by paralysis" is marked by an inability to decide what to do next. We're frozen in place while we figure it out. We're afraid of doing the wrong thing. We may have forgotten something important, and so we go on a desperate search for a lost memory. And in between, we hit this really annoying period of total confusion. Sound familiar?

You might ask yourself:
  • Which is worse: to do the wrong thing, or to do nothing at all?
  • If I were prepared for my next action, what difference would it make?
  • Is it better to ask forgiveness than permission?
This paralysis will leave you with the shivers, because the boss might come along.
  • What happens then, if you do a good thing, but it's the wrong good thing, and the boss asks what's going on with the right good thing?
  • What happens if you're paralyzed, doing nothing, and the boss comes along?
Action leads to more action -- as long as good deeds go unpunished. LOL The same way, inaction leads to more inaction, though with short bursts of misplaced, unappreciated fanaticism.

You've got to overcome this!

There is no substitute for planning and prioritizing.
  • Take maybe 15 minutes at the start of the day to figure out what tasks will give you the biggest payoff. Those are the tasks you concentrate on.
  • And you've got to commit to following the payoff, and concentrating on those high-payoff tasks.
  • Take maybe 15 minutes at the end of the day -- you're winding down by then anyway -- to examine yourself and the payoff on your tasks, and ask yourself whether you did the right thing. If the answer is no, then you can think about how you might have misjudged what makes a big payoff.
  • Be willing to hold on to some discipline and see what happens. If nothing else, your patience will make you stronger.
  • If you feel paralysis coming on, and you fear the coming of the boss, then take pre-emptive action: go see the boss, and get clarification on a couple of tasks. Let the boss prioritize for you. It'll not only get you off dead center, but it'll delay the boss's next visit.
  • Don't forget: some actions have to be taken, and some jobs finished, before we can really see what's next. What you think may be an order of events may be masked by something that has to be done up front.

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posted by Ron @ 11:45 PM

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