Business English: Why do people sometimes call the things that cause project slowdowns "the long pole in the tent"?
I looked up on google to see what "the long pole in the tent" means and it I found "Something or someone that prevents or slows progress to completing a task." Although I do understand what the phrase means now, I am curious why are project slowdowns referred to as "the long pole in the tent".
Answers ( 1 )
This is a straightforward transfer from building tents - the big ones, not the camping ones. The center or "longest" pole is the hardest to put up, the most labor intensive due to its weight and unwieldy nature, and the length of the longest pole in the tent will determine the maximum height, in the same way the hardest / most difficult problem / segment will determine the length of the project.
Similarly, in Project Management, you'll sometimes hear them talk about items being "on the critical path" - this means that a delay in one of these items will cause delays to the entire project. Many workflows in a project can be done in parallel, but some cannot start until another has finished. A segment of the project that MUST be completed before other segments can begin is "on the critical path."
There are lots of good examples of critical path and "long pole," but consider something that is familiar to most people - cooking a meal. There are items that you have to do first - shop for ingredients, for example, or thaw the fish - before you can move to the next step. You can make the salad in advance, but you can't cook the fish until it is thawed - thawing the fish is on the critical path, making the salad is not. If you want to predict when the food will hit the table, it is useful to know what part of the preparation will take the longest - does the meat need to marinate for several hours? Do the potatoes need to bake for 90 minutes? Whatever the portion of the meal prep is that takes the most time is "the long pole in the tent."