Dear Bob ... What is it about management culture that causes some to delay decisions until after the last minute before giving me the assignment? Is it (as I suspect) common to most large organizations, and which if any have come up with ways to deal with the problem? More to the point, what are some of those methods... - Crisis delegated Dear Crisis ... It depends on the manager. Many are under Dear Bob …What is it about management culture that causes some to delay decisions until after the last minute before giving me the assignment? Is it (as I suspect) common to most large organizations, and which if any have come up with ways to deal with the problem? More to the point, what are some of those methods…– Crisis delegated Dear Crisis …It depends on the manager. Many are underwater these days. They’re like the old plate-spinning act in the circus – they keep getting more plates spinning until they have only just enough time and attention for the plate that’s wobbling the most. They get that spun up just in time to rush for the next one.Not that this makes your life any easier when it happens. If that’s the situation, your best course of action is to offer help early and often. “Do you have anything going on I can take off your hands?” can make you a lifesaver, and actually make your life easier because you get the advance warning you need.There are other managers who simply find making decisions difficult. So they dither until the deadline. If that’s what’s happening to you, there isn’t much you can do about it, other than suffer and hope that eventually, somebody notices their deficiency and extricates them from a responsibility they aren’t up to handling.There’s a larger answer, which gets to what organizations can do to prevent this kind of thing from happening, and that’s to train managers in how to delegate. It won’t fix the manager who delays, but it will provide that manager’s boss with better tools to make sure the procrastinator stays on track. It’s a lot like project management in that respect: When you give someone an assignment with a deadline, there are ways to find out they’re behind before the deadline arrives. Mostly, it has to do with paying attention.– Bob ——– Technology Industry