This week I attended an important training event in the City of London which I had organised and was to introduce. Its scheduled start was 9.30 for 10 in the morning. I had a choice of two trains to catch – one which would get me there just on time and one which would mean arriving early. I chose the earlier train. On my way to the station, I was held up by a queue at a temporary traffic light (which would certainly have got longer if I had arrived later) and then another traffic jam at the junction to the road to the station. I still just made the early train. Then in London there was a queue for the tube I planned to take going right out from Waterloo station onto the street. So, I started walking looking for a taxi – three refused to stop, one was taken by somebody just in front of me. When I finally hailed one it then waited for what seemed like ages in heavy traffic at a red traffic light. I eventually arrived with still enough time left to have a coffee at Pret a Manger and forget my eventful journey, before going to the training early, refreshed and ready to go. Had I gone for the later train the chances are I would have been late and missed my introduction.
What I had done, without consciously thinking about it in this way, was to leave a margin for error. This is a term “that probably originated in the popular reporting of results of public opinion polls but has made its way into more professional usage.” I know this may seem a bit obvious, but it is amazing how often people do arrive late to meetings for reasons beyond their control because they were trying to attend just on time. See this LinkedIn article 10 advantages to arriving early to meetings which says:
“One of the techniques of successful people is arriving early for meetings.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, formerly Gen. Eisenhower who led Allied forces to victory in WWII, was famous for his “when-to-arrive-for-a-meeting” philosophy. If you weren’t 10 minutes early for the meeting, you were late.”
One of the benefits is “You arrive with more peace of mind” so that “You are at a significant advantage if you start a meeting fully prepared, relaxed and focused — as opposed to the competitor who arrives out of breath, complaining about the traffic delay, and not fully organized. Put the odds in your favor.”
You also gain the chance to have conversations with your colleagues and people on the other side of a negotiation, which can prove invaluable in furthering and developing important relationships before the meeting actually starts. You can also set up equipment you are using to present. How many times does a presenter, arriving at the last minute, have technical difficulties in connecting their laptop to the conference screen, which is embarrassing and unprofessional – and wastes even more time.
However, reflecting on this topic I suggest that “margin for error” has a broader application in professional practice than just being on time for meetings. In a sense hurrying and last minute appearances are perhaps symptomatic of a deeper and more challenging malaise. The chances are that if we are rushing and leaving no margin for error on a regular basis, then this is a sign of a more general failure to manage our working (and also by extension home) lives and means that we are inherently not giving ourselves the space and time to deal with matters and make decisions. Everything gets done in such a rush, moving straight from one issue to another with no time to think, that the quality of our work and indeed our lives suffers.
See, for example, this blog Creating Margin: Time Management Tips to Avoid Overwhelm which observes “One of the most overlooked ways that people become disorganized is failing to build margin into their days. Lack of boundaries and good time management leave people stressed and overcommitted. Here are some specific ways – in the fabric of your daily life – you can create margin to slow down, be present, and truly enjoy your life” and “Modern life presents so many more demands than ever before and we have kept taking more on our plates without creating space to decompress and reset.” It suggests coping mechanisms around “building in restful ways to our daily lives.”
See also this Forbes blog The 5 Best Time Management Tips To Help Improve Your Life which advocates beginning the day early and prioritizing tasks commenting:
“If something unanticipated pops up: a sick pet or child, a surprise meeting, someone popping into your office and needing more attention than you anticipated, etc. make your schedule flexible so it gives you some margin for error time wise, and makes it easy for you work on something else if a particular project comes to a halt or you are waiting for feedback”
I also found this interesting LinkedIn blog ‘Margin for Error’ in Project Management which observes in the different context of projects that “‘Margin for Error’ is the ‘room’ or ‘space’ or ‘leeway’ to make mistakes and still not jeopardize the successful outcome of an endeavor.”
As the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis said: “Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing”.
While the writer Victor Hugo suggested “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
And the American author Zig Zigler shrewdly observed “People often complain about lack of time when lack of direction is the problem.”
What I had done, without consciously thinking about it in this way, was to leave a margin for error. This is a term “that probably originated in the popular reporting of results of public opinion polls but has made its way into more professional usage.” I know this may seem a bit obvious, but it is amazing how often people do arrive late to meetings for reasons beyond their control because they were trying to attend just on time. See this LinkedIn article 10 advantages to arriving early to meetings which says:
“One of the techniques of successful people is arriving early for meetings.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, formerly Gen. Eisenhower who led Allied forces to victory in WWII, was famous for his “when-to-arrive-for-a-meeting” philosophy. If you weren’t 10 minutes early for the meeting, you were late.”
One of the benefits is “You arrive with more peace of mind” so that “You are at a significant advantage if you start a meeting fully prepared, relaxed and focused — as opposed to the competitor who arrives out of breath, complaining about the traffic delay, and not fully organized. Put the odds in your favor.”
You also gain the chance to have conversations with your colleagues and people on the other side of a negotiation, which can prove invaluable in furthering and developing important relationships before the meeting actually starts. You can also set up equipment you are using to present. How many times does a presenter, arriving at the last minute, have technical difficulties in connecting their laptop to the conference screen, which is embarrassing and unprofessional – and wastes even more time.
However, reflecting on this topic I suggest that “margin for error” has a broader application in professional practice than just being on time for meetings. In a sense hurrying and last minute appearances are perhaps symptomatic of a deeper and more challenging malaise. The chances are that if we are rushing and leaving no margin for error on a regular basis, then this is a sign of a more general failure to manage our working (and also by extension home) lives and means that we are inherently not giving ourselves the space and time to deal with matters and make decisions. Everything gets done in such a rush, moving straight from one issue to another with no time to think, that the quality of our work and indeed our lives suffers.
See, for example, this blog Creating Margin: Time Management Tips to Avoid Overwhelm which observes “One of the most overlooked ways that people become disorganized is failing to build margin into their days. Lack of boundaries and good time management leave people stressed and overcommitted. Here are some specific ways – in the fabric of your daily life – you can create margin to slow down, be present, and truly enjoy your life” and “Modern life presents so many more demands than ever before and we have kept taking more on our plates without creating space to decompress and reset.” It suggests coping mechanisms around “building in restful ways to our daily lives.”
See also this Forbes blog The 5 Best Time Management Tips To Help Improve Your Life which advocates beginning the day early and prioritizing tasks commenting:
“If something unanticipated pops up: a sick pet or child, a surprise meeting, someone popping into your office and needing more attention than you anticipated, etc. make your schedule flexible so it gives you some margin for error time wise, and makes it easy for you work on something else if a particular project comes to a halt or you are waiting for feedback”
I also found this interesting LinkedIn blog ‘Margin for Error’ in Project Management which observes in the different context of projects that “‘Margin for Error’ is the ‘room’ or ‘space’ or ‘leeway’ to make mistakes and still not jeopardize the successful outcome of an endeavor.”
As the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis said: “Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing”.
While the writer Victor Hugo suggested “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
And the American author Zig Zigler shrewdly observed “People often complain about lack of time when lack of direction is the problem.”
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