Explanation:
Serotonin date 1 is the near chemical need that certain managerial and project staff have to possessing a date for every deliverable even before such a date can reliably be provided. Very often they are being driven by people further up the authority chain for whom the project plan is the nearest they get to the reality of actual business, such pressure results in the people afflicted with this dependency just wanting a date at any cost: “Can I have a date, even if it’s an estimate?”
An easy way of detecting such a person is if in a lot of their phrases you can swap the word “Date” with the word “Fix”… “I need a Date today”.
This dependency can be battled surprisingly with the help of those who are actually suffering from it, you expand their deliveries to include the dependant tasks that are causing the uncertainty and then their energy can be used to assist you in pushing down the unknowns, and ultimately providing them with their “Fix”.
Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.
- or junky date if you are feeling crude[↩]