ON THE EDGE
Holiday History, and a Lesson for Project Managers
by Carl Pritchard, Pritchard Management Associates
October 31st is the end of a month. On the old Celtic calendar, however, it used to be the end of the year. That was important. It was a time for closing out the concerns of the year gone by and focusing instead on a "fresh start" November 1st. It was a time of celebrating the harvest. It was a day of acknowledging the dead, as well. Catholic tradition was similar. They had a day of all souls ... in May. But they also had a conflict: They were recognizing the dead in May, and the indigenous Celtic culture recognized the dead at the end of October. Pope Gregory II solved it. The Church's "All Saints Day" is now November 1st, as it has been since it was moved in the 8th Century. And that makes the day prior "All Hallow's Eve" or Hallowe'en (today, simply "Halloween").
It's more than a compelling factoid. Moving a holiday is a big deal. Imagine a suggestion to change something major ... like New Year's or your country's independence day. Imagine something even more major ... like moving the deliverable date for your next milestone!
The migration of All Saint's Day from Spring to Fall was no accident. And although there's contention over whether or not it was capitulation to the pagans, there was enough of an impetus for Pope Gregory II to make the move. Why would he have done such a thing? It would take a significant shift in life as we know it to make it happen. To move a date that had been established for hundreds of years would be a big deal.
In the 1930's FDR moved Thanksgiving. He did it to expand the Christmas shopping season during the Great Depression.
In 1971, Richard Nixon moved Washington's Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February (now "President's Day").
And Columbus Day (now "Discoverer's Day" in some states) moved from October 12 to the second Monday in October in 1971 as well.
Veterans Day is the classic, however. Recognizing the Armistice that ended World War One, November 11 was the official Veteran's Day holiday until 1971, when it moved to the fourth Monday in October. That was temporary. While All Saints' Day, Thanksgiving and Presidents' Day have stayed moved, veterans are a force to be reckoned with. Through an intense 7-year lobbying period, they got the date moved back to where it acknowledged the true date of the Armistice, November 11. In 1978, Veterans' Day was back "home."
These are significant in that they represent the tendency of organizations and individuals to want to keep dates where they are, even if it's less than expedient. FDR learned this in the 30's. He had to make a case to move Thanksgiving, and it took years before some of the states finally went along with his seemingly bizarre scheme to move the holiday back a full week just to increase the holiday shopping season.
This ties to our project management realities when it comes to schedules and plans and deadlines. What made the successful date moves successful? What made the failures fail? Three keys seem to predominate:
- Political support
- A clear rationale
- The ability to overcome emotional ties
Political support for changing a deadline or milestone is not borne out of surprises. It's borne out of communication. It's developed through the clear sharing of information in an effective way. Data is cultivated and presented to small audiences at first and then to larger audiences as the opportunity evolves. It's never totally "sprung" on an audience. By the time it is presented to a large, base audience, there are enough "nodding heads" to build a bit of a bandwagon effect in getting others to acknowledge that it might be a good idea. Lesson #1: Get support internally early before spreading the message around. FDR, Nixon and Gregory II knew did that well.
The concept of having a clear rationale for moving deadlines means having more reasons than just "it'll be better/easier". The rationale has to have benefits all the way around. The early church wrestled with opposition and an occasional appearance of weakness. Having holidays fall at the same time as the traditional local rituals made it easier for all parties to look like they were part of the same faith. Nobody stood out. Everyone had a vested interest in the change. The pagans would be less likely to be persecuted. The Catholics would have the appearance of a higher level of control. FDR moved Thanksgiving because the nation was in the Great Depression, and shopping for Christmas was the major annual retail event. Nixon won with the Monday holidays because it meant the proliferation of three-day weekends, not only for Federal workers, but for anyone who followed even part of the Federal calendar. Lesson #2: Find a rationale for the change that the whole body of stakeholders can appreciate.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is overcoming emotional ties. In the Christmas classic movie, Holiday Inn, they poke fun at the Thanksgiving change by having an animated turkey move back and forth across the calendar. When Nixon moved Veteran's Day, the level of ownership and passion associated with the Armistice proved too great to overcome in the long term. Even arbitrarily set deadlines and milestones evoke passion. Once they're established, they take on a life of their own.
Over a decade ago, one former employer had originally set a deadline date for a move two miles down the road in Washington, DC. The date was set and everyone was braced for it. When the date changed just days before the move without warning, notice or reason, a sense of corporate anarchy set it. People were angry, and the reactions from individuals and labor unions were visceral, even though the original date had simply been arbitrarily set. Deadlines become real. Milestones have owners. People believe in them. While we want others to believe that deadlines have meaning, if they may move, we want to soften their relationship with the dates. In another move by another employer, the original deadline was provided as a "window" of time, gradually narrowing to a single date within the window. The milestone for the move never became carved in granite until it was ready to be memorialized. The move's timing never came into question. Lesson #3: If a date may move, identify the conditions under which it may move or don't provide a single hard date until you know. And if that can't be done, be SURE Lessons #1 & #2 are applied.
Between now and the end of the year, many project deadlines will be overcome by events. The holidays have a nasty way of doing that. If a deadline or milestone is going to be missed, be sure to learn the lessons of an ancient pope and two past presidents: communicate early and often why the date is changing, have a clear rationale for the change, and strive to minimize the emotional attachment to the date before trying to shift it.
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