Denial

Denial
Bob the Last-Minute Manager was almost late for
his scheduled appointment with the CEO. But, in his
mind, there was a perfectly good reason why he had to
make a mad dash for her office and why he arrived out
of breath. His mother had called. When she heard
he’d been put on probation she reminded him that if
he had gone into medicine as she had suggested—no,
pleaded—he would have been much more successful.
“Doctors make so much more money than engineers
who become managers,” she chided. “You should have
listened to your mother.”
Thankfully, the CEO didn’t seem to notice that
Bob was gasping for air. She invited him to take a seat
and got right down to business. “Bob, I believe there
are three fatal traits of last-minute managers. They are
common to all procrastinators, but they aren’t
necessarily the result of procrastination. They are
more often than not the actual cause.”
Hearing the words “last-minute manager” again,
Bob took a deep but solemn breath, fearful that the
CEO was going to pinpoint some of his faults.
“First,” the CEO continued, “procrastinators delay
taking action regarding their priorities. They keep busy,
but often on the wrong things. They put off action on
important things. As a result, the high priority items are
often delayed. It becomes a lateness issue.”
“I see,” Bob said, unable to look her in the eye.
“Second, even when they do get to the point of
establishing their priorities, they jump from one task
to another, believing that it’s important to keep all the
balls in the air at the same time. Eventually, they
complain about having too many ‘loose ends’ to tie up.
That becomes a quality-of-work problem.
“Finally, whether procrastinators want to admit it
or not, they cause stress for themselves and others.
They cause stress for themselves because they run
around and try to get things done at the last moment.
They cause stress for others who are forced to worry
about deadlines to bail out the procrastinator.”
“So the issues for procrastinators are lateness,
poor quality work, and causing stress for themselves
and others,” Bob interjected.
“That’s it exactly,” said the CEO. “Priority—the
first P—has the biggest impact on lateness. With that
in mind, did you finish your assignment?” she asked.
30 / Denial
“I did,” he replied as he handed her the
questionnaire. “I was surprised that there were only
two questions, though.”
The CEO said nothing as she reviewed Bob’s
answers. He waited . . . and waited. After a few
moments, the CEO put the paper down and smiled.
“Tell me,” he asked hesitantly, “did I get my
priorities in order?”
“As I told you yesterday, there are no right or
wrong answers. Priorities are constantly shifting. It’s
impossible to make a list and have it stand for all time.
The list is going to change.”
“Please explain what you mean.”
“Have you ever been to the emergency room in a
hospital?”
“Yes, I have.” Bob replied. “Our son, Jared, broke
his arm sliding into the catcher at home plate last year.
We spent hours just sitting around in the emergency
room before anyone saw him. It was far from the most
pleasant experience.”
The CEO empathized. “Broken arms don’t count
for much, do they?”
“They sure don’t,” Bob agreed.
“The explanation behind your long wait is the
triage nurse, of course.”
“I’ve heard the term ‘triage’ before, but I’ve never
bothered to find out exactly what it means.”
Denial / 31
“It’s a term that originated in the battlefield setting.
It’s basically a system of assigning priorities for medical
treatment of casualties on the basis of urgency, the
severity of the wounds, and the patient’s chances for
survival. So in the ER, chances are every automobile
accident victim came ahead of your son’s broken arm.”
“That’s true. But what does that have to do with
business?”
“We’re going to expect everyone at Algalon to
‘triage’ every activity. That way, they’ll always handle
the important things—the priorities—first, instead of
dealing with things on a first-come, first-served basis.
People who know what’s most important are seldom
late when dealing with these high priorities.”
Bob responded with an expression that said, “Tell
me more.”
The CEO pointed to a chart on the wall.
Yes Maybe No
Want to do Want to do
and but don’t
have to do have to do
Have to do
but don’t
want to do
32 / Denial
Don’t want
to do
and don’t
have to do
“As you can see, there are four categories of daily
activities that we all face.
• The things we want to do and have to do;
• The things we have to do but don’t want to do;
• The things we want to do but don’t have to do;
• The things we don’t want to do and don’t
have to do.
“The first two are in the ‘Yes’ column. The third
is in the ‘Maybe’ column. The fourth is in the ‘No’
column. The worst of the last-minute managers
actually perform some of the tasks in the ‘No’ column.
That’s a tragedy!”
“I can see how that would be true,” Bob agreed.
The CEO continued, “It’s easy to do the ‘want to
and have to’ tasks. It’s easy, too, to do the ‘want to but
don’t have to’ tasks, because they are personally
rewarding. There’s a ‘want to but don’t have to’ item
on my list today. I’d love to go golfing. But if I were to
do that, it would interfere with the ‘have to’ items on
my list.”
“That makes sense to me,” Bob agreed . . . while
reflecting on the many times he had gotten this out of
order.
Denial / 33
“Bob, I noticed that in your answer to the first
question, ‘health and fitness’ were more than halfway
down the list. That may be a ‘have to do but don’t want
to do’ item for you.”
“You could be right. I have always thought of
repetitive exercise as being boring, although lately I’ve
gotten more enthusiastic about my visits to the club.
Also, I find my days go better if I have an early
morning walk. So exercise seems to be moving to the
‘want to do and have to do’ category. It’s exhilarating,
and I sleep better, too.”
“That’s great,” the CEO acknowledged. “But in
answer to the second question, you indicated that an
appointment with your doctor would be at the bottom
of your list.”
“Yeah, I believe that’s how I answered.”
“If you’re generally in good health, I can
understand why you might blow off an appointment
with your doctor in favor of a social event or a meeting
with a client.”
“Well, I am in pretty good health.”
“That’s good to know. But let’s say that your
appointment with your doctor was to verify that your
chemotherapy treatments had successfully eradicated
cancer from your body. What then?”
34 / Denial
Bob answered without hesitation. “My appointment
with my doctor would probably be the most important
event on my calendar. It would be a ‘want to and
have to.’”
“Right! Another example: Your social evening out
is with friends who are moving to New Zealand the next
day and it could be years before you see them again.”
“That would move up on my list, too.”
“So the point is that situations—your knowledge
of the existing circumstances—dictate your priorities.”
“I guess so.”
“Our goal is to make certain that everyone who
works here understands that priorities change. Our
guiding principle is that we must know what to do and
when to do it.”
“Can you explain that?”
“Okay, I’ll do the best I can. People often create
meaningless tasks for themselves, and then allow
those tasks to move to the top of their priority list.
Worse yet, they will let others create meaningless
tasks for them. If you are able to develop an open,
candid relationship with your supervisor—something
we are going to strongly encourage in our company—
you will be in a position to question assignments that
don’t appear to be true priorities. Then the two of you
agree to ‘triage’ them, and delete them from the list of
assignments.”
Denial / 35
“Does that mean there are actually some things
that I shouldn’t do at all?”
“Exactly. Here’s a personal example. In my last
position, I thought that one of the most important
aspects of my job was to read all of the trade journals
that crossed my desk. I was, in effect, creating
meaningless tasks for myself. Finally, it occurred to me
that I was so consumed with reading this mountain of
material that I was ignoring the more important tasks.”
“Ouch! I’ve done that myself,” Bob admitted
sheepishly. “In retrospect, after flipping through
hundreds of pages, I seldom learned anything all that
useful. But at least I could scratch ‘read industry
magazines’ off my list.”
The CEO laughed. “I’m sure there are useful
things in many of the publications, but if the ideas are
all that earthshaking, they’ll eventually come to the
surface anyway. I eventually canceled subscriptions to
the least relevant publications, or passed them on to
other people who could better utilize the
information.”
Bob nodded his head in agreement. “I thought I
would be more valuable to Algalon if I acquired
volumes of knowledge from as many sources as
possible, so that’s why I read all of those magazines.
But my job isn’t to glean all of that information, it’s to
manage a production process.”
36 / Denial
The CEO nodded. “A lot of managers believe
that activity translates into productivity—and that
productivity translates into results. So they create long
to do lists filled with activities. Then they complete all
of those activities and, after they do, they believe that
they’ve been productive. When they eventually
discover that there are no meaningful results, they are
mystified. After all, they’ve been busy. They’ve
crossed things off their lists. In the meantime, the
important tasks have been ignored and they haven’t
delegated a single thing. They haven’t triaged their
activities. They have become last-minute managers by
default. It’s all a form of denial, really.”
“Denial?” Bob asked.
“Bob, do you know what the number one killer of
adults in America is?”
Bob thought for a moment. “Cancer, I imagine.”
“Good answer. But try again.”
“Heart attacks?”
“Another possibility. Do you have another guess?”
“Strokes?”
“Could be.”
“I give up.”
A pained look crossed the CEO’s face. “I
personally believe that the number one killer is denial.”
“Denial?” Bob asked as he considered her
statement.
Denial / 37
“Yes,” the CEO replied, tears building in her
eyes. “We just talked about how important your
appointment with your doctor would be to you if its
purpose were to check up on the progress of your
cancer treatments. . . .”
“That’s right,” Bob acknowledged.
The CEO struggled to continue. “My dad died of
denial. For more than two years, he experienced
severe pains in his abdomen. He even wrote about it
in his journal. My mom discovered the horrible truth
almost three years after he died—when she read what
he had written. When it came to his health, my dad
was a last-minute manager. He didn’t know how to
prioritize. So instead of going in for regular colon
exams for early detection of cancer, he went into
denial. He visited his doctor too late. As a result, he
endured four drawn-out surgeries, ten weeks in the
hospital, and two months in a nursing home. Then he
died. Of denial. Not of cancer. But of his last-minute
solutions to a dire situation.”
The CEO wiped her tears away. “I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t tell you this kind of heavy stuff in our
sessions.”
Compassion overtook Bob. “That’s all right,” he
said. “I’m sorry about your dad. He must have been
very special to you.”
38 / Denial
“He was. He never missed one of my soccer
games. He never missed a piano recital. But he missed
my graduation from grade school to junior high. He
died two weeks before it—at the last minute. And I
still really miss him. I miss him so much.”
Bob and the CEO were silent for an uncomfortably
long time.
Finally, the CEO spoke. “So Priority emphasizes
triaging and making sure that what’s most important
gets your immediate attention. That helps last-minute
managers overcome their lateness tendency.”
“What about the other two traits—poor quality
work and stress creators?”
The CEO smiled. “Remember, we have two more
P’s to go!”