Episode 168 - When Deadlines Backfire

<p class="p1"><strong>Summary</strong></p> <p class="p2">Are deadlines always a good thing? And when might they backfire? This week we explore research focused on exactly these questions.</p> <p class="p3"> </p> <p class="p1"><strong>Transcript</strong></p> <p class="p2">Welcome to episode 168 of the Leadership Today podcast where each week we bring research to life in your leadership. This week we explore when setting a deadline might backfire, leading to a reduced chance of delivering.</p> <p class="p2">If you want someone to complete a simple task for you, are you better off setting a one week deadline, a one month deadline, or no deadline at all?</p> <p class="p2">A team of researchers explored just this question. They randomly selected New Zealand participants and offered a $10 donation to charity in return for completing a 5 minute survey. Their findings showed that a shorter deadline of one week resulted in a greater response rate than a one month deadline. 6.6% completed the voluntary survey with the shorter deadline, versus 5.5% for the longer deadline. The researchers believed the one month deadline provided the greatest opportunity to procrastinate, and it also saw the lowest number of completions of early responses. So a shorter deadline is definitely better.</p> <p class="p2">Interestingly, providing no deadline to complete the survey actually worked best, with 8.3% of people voluntarily completing the survey. Like the one week deadline, not providing a deadline at all led to a higher number of early responses to the survey than a long deadline.</p> <p class="p2">So how do we apply this research in our leadership? The most direct application is in surveys. When I was heavily involved in employee surveys we used to apply a combination approach. Our initial survey requests typically didn’t include a deadline. After two weeks, we would then provide a one week deadline to those who hadn’t completed the survey. And we would always keep the survey open a week after the deadline. For whatever reason there i