Early Is The New On-Time

Promise made, promise kept - That's a principle I hold dear. 

This was taught to me early in life by my grandmom, who raised me.  She believed that we should keep our promises for ourselves (self-image) as well as for others (politeness, reputation).  In her day, it was a basic measure of integrity, whether you are keeping a promise as an individual, a city or even a nation.

Unfortunately, when it comes to being on time or on schedule, we live in a nation of tardies.  This is profoundly true in the technology and creative community.  When I worked at Yahoo, the parking garage was almost empty until around 9:30, then it gradually filled up - and stayed full well past 6pm.  Meetings never started on time, as most participants filed in fashionably late.  When seasoned execs joined the company (after the dotcom bust), they were horrified by this cultural practice...wondering how people could get-stuff-done in such a slack environment. 

Worse, the advent of the mobile phone has enabled anyone to run late, so long as they call (or text) to say they are "stuck in traffic/meeting/etc."  In the old days, you didn't like to be late because of the stress of the unknown, but now that your manager can say, "It's OK, take your time," then why run on time? 

This mentality has bled into enterprise level tardiness: Product launches and project implementations that run late or are re-scheduled at the first sign of complication.  Over the last decade, it's culminated into a late-running nation of professionals that can't be depended on to be on time.  

But that's coming to a screeching halt in the frugal "performance economy" - where excellence is the admission price to being gainfully employed or patronized by customers.  Being late now signals a lack of commitment or maturity that's unacceptable when so many (more dependable) options are available.  So, I've made it a new policy to be a little early for everything: Turning my book into my publisher.  Dialing in for a conference call.  Showing up for a sound-check or keynote.  

Why?  First, it gives me an internal sense of integrity, that I can be counted on.  In my next book (Today We Are Rich), I talk about internal integrity as the 'sealer' for one's confidence.  Second, early can often delight others that depend on you - and finding an easy delightful-surprise is always good when the Customer experience counts.  In fact, being early (instead of late or barely on-time) is one of the best ways to increase the positive emotional experience of everyone that comes in contact with you. 

There's a bunch of ways to approach being early, and faking yourself out with fast running clocks or artificial deadlines isn't the solution.  Here's a few things I've been doing: 

1 - Personal: Have redundancy when it comes to alarm clocks.  I use 3: My iPhone, a battery operated travel clock and wake up call.  Never depend on a hotel clock, they are seldom accurate.  Always double estimate traffic times.  Leave a meeting that's running late, if it's causing you to be late for the next one.  Announce your full-stop time if you are meeting2meeting, and don't let anyone talk you into being late.  Even your boss will appreciate you filing out of an ops meeting to be on time for a client call.  

2 - Enterprise: Determine a soft-launch, launch eve and scheduled launch based schedule.  Make the soft-launch comfortably in front of the scheduled launch, and let your most demanding stakeholders in on the preview.  On the launch's eve, be prepared to pull an all nighter to finish and never accept the 'delay announcement' as an option.  If you miss the soft-launch, that's a great time to reset expectations (which is also key to the Customer experience.) 

3 - If you do run late, pay the price.  Over compensate those you let down to the point of pain on your part.  This will raise the stakes, forcing you to be on time the next time.  

Comments

[Tom Cornish]

I consider lateness to be extremely disrespectful. It not only implies that the person who is late does not prioritise the meeting, but that they value their time more highly than yours.

I completely agree with this post. Promptness should be one of the key factors people are judged on - it's on a par with a firm handshake and eye contact.