Ah yes, the ACEI scale: ASAP, Critical, Emergency, and In progress. In Progress being the only thing that actually gets done. The rest is conjecture. ASAP will never get done.

My dad used to joke he kept three piles of papers on his desk at work: "urgent", "very urgent" and "no longer urgent".

Any earlier than "possible" is obviously "impossible".

But you don't have to do things 'as soon as' they're 'possible'. It does have meaning.

Or a Windows Update that requires a reboot.

Sounds like you have a dysfunctional organization.

With apologies to Cardinal Richelieu, give me 6 items from the policies of the most functional large organization, and I will find something in them which will hang it.

If you don't see dysfunction, you're not looking closely enough. That's not to say all organizations are equivalently dysfunctional or that we shouldn't strive for better. I'm just saying that "dysfunctional" isn't a damning accusation.

Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying to resolve problems all the same. Teams not having control over their work is inefficient.