Parkinson's Law

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." - Cyril Parkinson

Parkinson's Law is the famous dictum that states whatever time you allocate to a task, that is how much time a task will take. At first blush it isn't a groundbreaking statement. But over the years we have seen our fair share of the pernicious effects of Parkinson's Law on businesses when too much or too little is allocated in the way of staffing, capital, and space.

Have you ever wondered why it's so easy to pack a small storage unit with furniture that can fill an entire house? Or perhaps how you squeezed through a difficult operating period in your business with limited capital? Parkinson's Law doesn't merely apply to time - it also explains why limitations counterintuitively help us achieve more than we thought previously possible and why tasks nearly always consume the resources that are allocated to them. After all, necessity is the mother of all invention.

If too much time is allotted to perform a scope of work or project, there is no sense of urgency and the work expands to fill the team's time. But is it a productive use of time? Likewise, if a company or department of an organization has a large and growing budget (or a massive growth investment), the capital tends to disappear into any initiative imaginable. But is it a productive use of capital? On the other hand, when strict limits are put on baggage weight and size for flights, those space and weight limits tend to be used quite efficiently.

Structured limits around time and capital can be a simple forcing function for productivity and creativity because new limits create a sense of urgency. Perhaps a bit of structured limitation in your business would go farther than you think. Challenge your employees by putting structure and limits on time allotted to a project or capital to an initiative and you may be surprised at how well your team performs when they have something to strive for. Structure in time management, space management, and capital management is the best way to combat a bloated P&L and wasted time.

Try asking your team a few questions to kickstart the discussion:

1) If you had only 1 day to complete the project, how would you do it?
2) How would you accomplish the project if you had half as much capital available?
3) How would your operations look if you had to make do with half as much space?

How Pfizer creates the vaccine (New York Times)
+ "It’s the start of a complex manufacturing and testing process that takes 60 days and involves Pfizer facilities in three states. The result will be millions of doses of the vaccine, frozen and ready to ship."

Just-in-time auto manufacturing is having a rough time (The Hustle)
+ "In the last few months, the auto world has taken one helluva beating:

• The Texas snow debacle closed a refinery that produces 85% of US resins, used to make seat cushions. Toyota paused several plants as a result

• A March fire at Japanese chip manufacturer Renesas — which supplies ⅔ of the industry — sliced production capacities

Ford, for example, could see a 50% production hit and miss out on $2.5B in profits.

Companies are working to improve by stockpiling inventory, building vertically integrated supply chains, and, in the case of Tesla, signing exclusive deals for access to raw materials."

Mapped: the state of small business recovery in America (Visual Capitalist)
+ "During the pandemic, many small businesses have either swiftly pivoted to survive, or struggled to stay afloat. This map pulls data from Opportunity Insights to examine the small business recovery rate in 50 metro areas across America. So, has the situation improved since the last time we examined this data? The short answer is no—on a national scale, 34% of small businesses are closed compared to January 2020."

A massive chlorine shortage could kill your summer pool days (Fatherly.com)
+ "Why has chlorine forsaken us? The reason for the chlorine shortage comes partially from the pandemic, as demand for chlorine tablets greatly increased last summer because people were mostly stuck at home, relegated to hours and hours of sharks and minnows. And while we are seeing signs of a return to normalcy with the vaccine rollout, chlorine demand remains high because, hey, swimming is great. Pool industry experts estimate that chlorine usage could increase by almost 60 percent compared to a typical summer, which many believe could cause prices to jump by nearly 70 percent."

Digital media trends, 15th edition (Deloitte)
+ "With so many entertainment options, asking consumers about their favorite activities can lead to valuable insights. For our respondents, watching TV and movies at home continued to be the overall favorite, with 57% ranking it in their top three (out of 16 entertainment activities). This was the top choice for Millennials, Generation X, and Boomers (figure 2). When we looked at Generation Z, however, there were distinct differences. Playing video games was their favorite activity (26%), followed by listening to music (14%), browsing the internet (12%), and engaging on social platforms (11%). Only 10% of Generation Z said that watching TV or movies at home was their favorite form of entertainment."

6 strategies for leading through uncertainty (Harvard Business Review)
+ "Throughout our careers, we are conditioned to come up with the answer — as in a single, definitive, correct answer. Given that our brains are hardwired to see uncertainty as a risk or threat, it’s physiologically normal to feel stress when faced with unfamiliar situations. This is especially true for high achievers who have built their career on knowing or finding the “right” answer. Although avoiding these unpleasant feelings is a natural human tendency, it can become a significant barrier to learning, future growth, and ultimately performance. Rather than avoid these feelings, we must learn to acknowledge and embrace the discomfort as an expected and normal part of the learning process. As described by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, leaders must shift from a “know it all” to “learn it all” mindset. This shift in mindset can, itself, help ease the discomfort by taking the pressure off of you to have all the answers."

Flowchart: are you working for a toxic boss? (Visual Capitalist)
+ Visual Capitalist does a wonderful job summarizing scenarios in which it may be necessary to make a change. It is also worth reflecting on as an owner - do you fall into any of categories described here?

Why it’s nearly impossible to buy an original Bob Ross painting (The Hustle)
+ "Though he died in 1995, the late TV painter remains an omnipresent cultural staple. His Chia Pet perm, nap-inducing voice, and meme-worthy sayings — “Happy little trees!” — have transcended time. On YouTube, old episodes of his show, The Joy of Painting, boast ~450m views. Online, you can acquire Bob Ross paints, Bob Ross brushes, Bob Ross underwear, Bob Ross coffee mugs, Bob Ross energy drinks, Bob Ross watches, and Bob Ross toasters. But there’s one thing you won’t often see for sale: his artwork."

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