URGENT VERSUS IMPORTANT: FOLLOW THE CRITICAL PATH DAILY

The wheels of your production machine are turning. People are busy, activity is high, and individuals seem to be pulling their weight. When you observe them, they’re all working on important things, which makes you feel good.
           However, do they understand what is critical and urgent versus simply important? The wheels may be turning, but are the critical components of your projects moving forward or somewhat spinning in place? Are production days eventful or simply busy?
           Remaining on the critical path can actually reduce stress.
           For example, let’s say you sold three homes in January. All are dirt starts. Important activities include entering the sale into the system, notifying construction and purchasing of the sale, confirming customer choices before construction starts and setting appointments at the decorating center. You find your team working on all of these and things seem good. A few weeks go by, and all the information is put together to complete nice, neat sales packages; the customers all sign off; deposits are remitted; and everything is a go. One problem: building permits for the homes haven’t been submitted yet. The important is complete, but the critical and urgent is not. Lost urgency creates emergency and we recognize this is a tragedy because this emergency was totally avoidable and unnecessary.
           You can’t build what isn’t started, you can’t close what isn’t built, and you can’t get paid until you close. Those lost weeks cost you dearly in many ways, but the highest cost to your operation is the cost of “team deception.” The team members were busy, good things happened, but in actuality, everyone failed to accomplish the single most important thing to a home builder: getting the homes started. The deception was the team believing they were focused on critical things. The deception originated with…the leader. Don’t deceive the team.
           Whether we’re builders, developers, suppliers, contractors, attorneys, title  and lending professionals, engineers or architects, we must assure that our team understands the difference between urgent versus important activities in our operation.
           Human nature will cause some to work on important things that they like doing, but leave urgent, pressing, critical things undone because they are more difficult and/or less enjoyable. Remember this: People will focus their efforts on that which is regularly kept in front of them, reinforced daily, explained clearly and driven home forcefully.
           This means training and follow-up, so they will follow through with minimal time wasted. Wasting time reduces morale and increases stress because the urgent still remains to be completed. Nothing wastes more energy and time than closing down a major activity and restarting another for no other reason than confusion and mistaken priorities. When people know they are working exactly on the things they should be, morale remains high, even in a difficult environment.
           Keeping your team on the critical path does not overwhelm them. Clearly prioritizing expectations and needs for the team as well as individual team members on a weekly and sometimes daily basis keeps them refreshed. This will flush out individual and group activity to assure the team is relevantly working toward the same set of goals, and they clearly direct their roles toward the most urgent and pressing needs first.
           By doing so, the important things will still be completed. When all team members solidly focus on urgent activities first, they will not only feel successful, they will have the confidence that they are acting in ways that lead to ultimate operational success, and feel great about it.

Jim Janco is president of encompass group: performance evaluation and strategic planning, consultants specializing in new home and mixed use development. Email jim at encompassgroup@comcast.net or call (303) 618-0423 or (970) 389-6313.