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Last Minute Panics Should Be The Exception

I have written before about Patricia Katzand the advice that she shares through her blog and ezine.

Patricia's goal is to get the reader to think a little, to "take pause" in our busy lives and to ensure we remember what is important.

I have never seen her suggest that work is not important in fact she is a very career oriented person ... but she suggests that maybe we need to drive our lives, not have our lives drive us.

I related to the following "message" in one of her newsletters from a number of years ago ... but certainly as relevant today!.

I am probably guilty of this practice too often, and she is right ... it is a toxic practice if it becomes "the norm".

“If you don’t choose to do it in leadership time up front, you do it in crisis management time down the road.”

Stephen Covey

Enjoy Patricia's thoughts, and subscribe to her blog!


PAUSE - The Voice of Sanity In A Speed Crazed World
Volume 8, Number 36 - November 19 , 2008
Publisher: Patricia Katz - 誰
Optimus Consulting 2008


Are you familiar with the term, Hail Mary? Devout Catholics will recognize a Hail Mary is a Rosary prayer. A struggling football quarterback will throw a Hail Mary in the dying seconds of a losing game. He'll toss the ball as long and deep as possible. desperately hoping to connect with a receiver in the end zone to put a few more points on the scoreboard.

As I work with clients to resolve their challenges of Overload and Overwhelm, it seems that Hail Marys are becoming more common in the workplace, too.

Workplace HM's come in many forms. An HM could be a late afternoon, last minute request to handle the details of a project that will mean the receiver stays late and misses dinner. An HM could be a middle of the night email fired off with a request for a last minute bail-out on a project may have been in the works for weeks. Welcome to hustle and hassle central!

Now, we've all found ourselves in tight situations and we've probably tossed out a few HMs ourselves. And, the truth is, when we're on the receiving end of an occasional HM, as team players, we're usually happy to pitch in and lend a hand.

However, in some workplaces, HMs have become an everyday management (read mismanagement) practice. As a recurring pattern of behaviour, HMs don't lead to winning results and answered prayers. They do generate great grumbling gobs of resentment and bitterness.

It's true that HMs escalate during busy, unpredictable times. But, repeatedly pleading busyness and overload is no excuse for poisoning the work environment - creating hard feelings and damaging relationships in the process.

At the core, HMs signal an individual's or a team's inability to plan ahead, communicate in a collaborative way, set limits, and treat colleagues with the respect that they deserve.


Give your workplace a Hail Mary check up in the days ahead. If you've noticed an increase in the number of last minute panicky hand-offs, bring it to the attention of the offenders.

Share this message with an invitation to talk about it. It could even be that as you notice who's generating those HMs, you may need to hold a chat with yourself!

Here are a few helpful Hail Mary conversation starters:

* How often are HM's happening? Between whom? In what circumstances?
* What's the impact - short term and long term - on the work, the workplace and the relationships?
* How often do we look at or inquire about the impact of HMs on other priorities and tasks already on the worklist? How can we make that conversation part of the equation?
* What could we do to anticipate tasks so we could communicate and share the work earlier and more fully before zero hour knocks on our door and a Hail Mary pass rockets in our direction?

Good advice from Patricia Katz!

"Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others."


