Deadlines are interesting. At the time they seem to be the most important single item in one's life, at least for me. But maybe that's because I am a little obsessive. At work, we had a deadline to meet that appeared so important, that senior execs came from all over the country along with about 60 added worker bees. When the deadline was announced, we all scoffed. Then within 48 hours our staff more than quadrupled. Changes in management happened overnight. Those higher on the food chain pushed lesser managers out of their offices, and it seemed as if all hell broke loose.

We were given about 5 weeks to produce about three and a half months of work. Amazingly our team made the deadline, with a couple of days to spare. That was only due to 12 and 14 hour days, no time off for a month (or more) and twice daily status meetings. The flurry of activity was amazing. What was more amazing was watching the transformation of the office. All of the stops were pulled. The frenetic atmosphere was contagious. We were even fed lunch and dinner every day. Anything and everything to keep us in the office working.

Now that it has passed, the extra energy is still there, being put into a new direction of being proactive and taking on the next stage of development before being given a new deadline. Absolutely amazing to me. More so because this is merely the instituting of standard corporate procedure and sticking to it. Also, having enough people to do the job helps. For example, I relinquished my supervisory duties to two or three senior managers, who did nothing else but the task I was working on. My other tasks I still kept, but even that I was given help for. Two draftpersons, a junior engineer and help from a few interns doing research for me on several items. That's what it ook to meet the deadline, and it needed to become a crises before anyone of real authority stepped up and did something.

Sadly, the motivating factor was not so much disappointing the client as it was missing a payment milestone. That had a direct effect n the exec's paycheck because they did not meet their projected sales numbers. So they didn't get their bonuses. That's when it became a crisis.

Well, the deadline passed, people are going back to their remote places, and pretty soon the free meals will stop too. But it was good while it lasted.

Mitch