Yesterday was February 29, the day that is added to our calendar every four years. Leap Year was the invention of Julius Caesar. Earlier Roman calendars had 355 days in a year. Every year, seasons lagged by 10 days, so the Romans decided to add an extra 22 day month every other year to compensate for this. You can imagine that this was very confusing to remember. Caesar agreed. In 45 BC he attempted to fix the 355 day calendar with a 365 day calendar. He added more days to each month to make up the difference. However, as he discovered from his court astronomers, the length of time that the earth took to get around the sun and complete a year’s orbit was actually 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes. So to fix this extra time dilemma, an extra day was added to February every fourth year.

Ah, but you may have caught the problem with the math. If you multiply the extra 5 hours and 48 minutes by 4, you don’t get a 24 hour day. So as the centuries went by, the Julian calendar was actually ahead of schedule, adding an extra 48 minutes every four years. You may not think that is a big deal, but after a few centuries, it all begins to add up. In the 16^th century, Pope Gregory XII had the matter investigated and discovered that the Julian calendar was off by 11 days. How do you solve that problem? Pope Gregory and his advisors came up with a solution. At the end of each century, the 00 years would not be leap years unless they were evenly divisible by 400. So in our lifetime, the year 2000 was a leap year, but years 2100, 2200 and 2300 will not be. The Gregorian calendar adds one day every 400 years and compensates for the fact that the earth’s rotation (one day) and the earth’s orbit (one year) are slightly out of line with each other.

What lessons can be learned from our Leap Year history lesson? Have you ever had to deal with a problem that started out very small, but over time it became larger and larger, to the point of absurdity? What happens when the larger problem is discovered? In most businesses, there is panic to make a correction. There is a tendency to ascribe knee-jerk solutions to complex problems. That is how the Romans ended up with an extra month every other year. It seemed like an easy solution, but no one was looking at the reason the 355 day calendar was not working. The answer lies in finding the root of the problem and then making a plan to fix it. That usually takes some time. In Julius Caesar’s case, he had his astronomers track and chart the sun’s position to find the actual time it took for a year to take place. This did not happen overnight. Before they could fix the problem they had to understand the problem – a year lasted 365-1/4 days, not 355 days.

Another lesson learned is understanding our limitations. It would be nice if we could slow the earth’s rotation so the last day of the year synced up perfectly with the orbit of the earth around the sun. Obviously that is not an option, but in business, many times we seem to think we can do the impossible. There is a God complex that can get you into big troubles. Many times this is led by an over-zealous (or over-bearing) boss who thinks that by coming up with a plan on paper, it means the problem is solved. The team is told the plan and asked to all buy in to the solution. Next, they are told to sell the idea to the customer. You might even bring in some motivational conference speaker to get the team all charged up to go out there and make things right. All along, anyone who questions the plan (or the competency of the boss) is cast aside as a malcontent and less than a team player.

In marketing, we must be careful that we are not overselling the things we hope we can do, but are totally beyond our scope of control. This is where having a strong idea of the boundaries of your business offering comes in handy. Marketing should toe that line, but not cross over. Your business is probably based on solving a problem for your customers. You may sell a product or provide a service that they need. It is the job of your marketing to put your best foot forward. However, there is a limit to the effectiveness of your products and services. Make sure you are not making promises you do not have the ability to keep.

What should you do when the problem you are facing is beyond the scope of your ability to fix? Ignoring the problem is not an option; it will just get you more off track. The next best thing is to compensate for the discrepancy. In essence, come up with a February 29^th solution. Study the root cause of the predicament. Make sure you understand it. Then make the incremental adjustments you need to make things as close to right as you can get them.

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Leap Year 2012: The Science and History Behind Feb. 29, Huff Post Science, February 29, 2012

The History of Leap Year: Who Invented Leap Year? by Mary Bellis, About.com