VUCAD: Delayed Feedback
Delayed Feedback is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, elements of VUCAD to understand, but often the hardest to live with. It refers to the gap of time between when someone makes a decision and when you discover the outcome of the decision or the gap of time in waiting for new information that may change a decision. Playing the waiting game is difficult because one is relying on someone else to provide information; these answers are needed but can’t be accessed yet. Delayed Feedback is when a person has to wait for something that can help complete a personal task or goal.
Because one is not sure of when the other person will be finished, what are the options? Either sit and do nothing, take action without waiting, or wait and start working on other things that don’t require the other person. When faced with delayed feedback, individuals often freeze and ruminate over options, afraid of making the wrong decision. They may wait for additional information before taking any necessary action and then take action too late.
People will try their hardest to wait because the information they do need is vital to a decision that will eventually be made or not. But, as the deadline for the decision approaches, people start to get anxious, possibly to the point where they try to find (sometimes faulty) alternative ways of obtaining the answer they need. But people fail to realize “you’ll get it when you get it, not when you want it.”
Therefore the solution to Delayed Feedback is not contingent on other people; it’s simply to create a time-management plan. Many people get stuck when Delayed Feedback strikes, letting it get in the way of their goals. Creating and implementing a time-management strategy centers around one ideology: plan for the worst, and hope for the best. Thinking through what is KNOWN to be needed for a task or goal can be worked on because it’s already necessary. But the timing of when it is worked on will help mitigate and prevent Delayed Feedback. If one can handle Delayed Feedback well, they excel in time management by anticipating their time and incorporating it into their strategic planning.
Even with communication tools such as video conferencing and email, some information still takes time to access. Delayed Feedback has been greatly reduced by technological innovations, but sometimes only sitting patiently and waiting....is what’s necessary.
With such a massive shift to adopting digital work, Delayed Feedback is inevitable. Whether one’s internet connection is too slow, they work in a different time zone than the rest of their team, or they’re simply waiting on a text - it's what one does with the "waiting" time that matters.
Time is precious; regardless of whether one chooses to do nothing or make an ill-informed decision in the face of Delayed Feedback, time is lost either way. Don’t be stuck back at Square One. What time management strategies will you use to try to get ahead of Delayed Feedback this week?
