Depending on your personality, procrastination is either the perfect application of deep, nuanced thinking, or the misapplication of over-analysis.

If your bias is towards judgment, you would be more comfortable with the latter view. If you are a perceiver, then you would be more comfortable with the deep, nuanced thinking viewpoint.

Judgers, according to the MBTI, prefer to make decisions, rather than spend time thinking about issues. They like schedules and lists and timeframes. They like to be around people like themselves and get frustrated when no decision is forthcoming.

Perceivers prefer to wait when decisions have to be made. They may rationalize that they need more information but they won’t generally make the decision even if sufficient information is given to them immediately, because they prefer a spontaneous approach to life. Their tendency is to believe that there is a better decision out there, and that waiting is the cost of that decision.

Which ever way you view it, procrastination is the bane of our existence. The research seems to indicate that we are born with a tendency to procrastinate so there is not a huge amount we can do about it. It’s in our DNA so the only result we can achieve is to assuage it a bit.

With great effort, serious procrastinators can convert themselves into effective perceivers, ie. people who spend time to understand an issue, but who will make a decision when sufficient evidence is present, or sufficient external pressure is applied.

Helicopter Parents

The main social influence for procrastinators seems to come from having authoritarian parents, which is obviously very relevant here in China.

Many young staff in China have parents who got them their job; make them packed lunch every morning; pay their bills when they don’t make enough money; give them money when they don’t have a job; check websites and friends for new jobs for them; and even find customers for them if they are in sales/marketing.

Young people in this kind of family build over-confidence rather than self-esteem. They are very brittle because they know in their hearts that all their success is based on the actions of others. They don’t know how to control their own impulses, except in areas where their parents have specifically coached them.

If you are looking for an internal locus of control you can forget it. They don’t have personal goals or intentions, even though they will give you a long list at interview, and in a crisis they are completely lost. They will tell their manager that they are going to deal with this issue and that issue, and the manager might get the sense that they are actually going to do something.

But often this is just a lie they tell themselves to get time to meet with mummy and daddy, or their tribe (their urban tribe, not the ones living in the jungle). When they tell their different social groups what they plan to do, the members of each group will indulge them. Each member will know full well that their friend/daughter/son/colleague won’t actually do anything but they will see their role as being supportive; “Yes Becky!, you can do it!”

Many of these kind of individuals go way beyond procrastination. They are just plain incompetent, and sooner or later they will be caught out.

It’s sad to see but the crisis is catching a lot of these kinds of people. In the past they might have had some time to throw off the shackles, but the speed at which the current crisis has kicked in has taken everyone by surprise.

The upside is that they are being forced to grow up; fast. The downside is that it is HR’s job to ensure that they have some direction, and become effective in the office or factory.