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Why Is This Taking So Long? A Cognitive Bias Decision Tree
A handy guide for understanding the planning fallacy, self-serving bias, and other reasons your project is behind schedule
I’ve worked for some of the largest publishers.
I’ve labored for some of the most successful brands.
I’ve done my share of work for creative agencies.
And after all this time, I’ve realized there’s one thing all of them have in common: hoo boy, none of them can finish a project on time.
It’s not that the people I worked with weren’t smart (they’re wizards). It’s not that I’m not diligent (tho I do like naps). It’s not that the projects were bad ideas (some were!), or that the project manager didn’t know a Gantt Chart from a gardenia.
No. It’s more than that. In fact, I’ve never even *heard* of a project at any company, anywhere, that has gone precisely as planned.
There’s a reason for that.
In fact, there are two very powerful reasons for that:
- Cognitive bias
- Random chance
These two factors affect our lives and our work more than any others, and we consistently fail to plan for either, or…
