On What Planet Are They Operating?

Even if we were on Pluto, our 45-day permit process took 474 days to complete with word of final approval yesterday.  That's 10 1/2 times longer than the advertised time frame, even in Pluto days.

So, though I joke that some federal and state agencies are operating on a different planet when it comes to meeting time frames, there's no known planet where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers taking 3,032 days to conclude a 45-day permit process is on time.

Yes, 3,032 days to complete a 45-day permit process is mind boggling to contemplate.

On Earth, if our permit were a child, it would be a third grader at 8 years, 3 months, and 21 days.

Even on Mars, the permit would be getting ready for preschool at 4 years and 3 months old.

To be fair, we concluded the permit itself over three years ago.  However, we agreed to monitoring of the on-site wetlands spawned by the permit.  That five-year process that was satisfied in four years took over seven years to get final word.

So, on what planet are they operating?  No known planet in our galaxy.

The Pig Likes It, And You Get Dirty

I've not read the book Never Wrestle with a Pig, but I might want to.

A "Business Digest" fax I got yesterday had a great excerpt from the book.  There was a lesson for property management in there.

The gist of the excerpt is:  "You don't need a lot of reasons to undo a bad decision.  In fact, one will do.  Indeed, I suspect a lot of corporate miscues and folly would be avoided if more people had the courage to question midstream the sanity of continuing to pursue a patently bad decision to its logical conclusion."

I can think of a few career examples of that.  I can think of a few current ones too!

The Science of Picking Bricks

In 2003, the building above was painted.  The before and after picture is fairly dramatic.  Job well done.

It's the in between that had a lesson.  Big lesson.

Our folks were testing their limits and opted for a green shade for the building's paint.  I signed off on the little paint cards, and we authorized painting to commence.

There's no defense, though, for the lime green aka Kermit the Frog color that went up on it.  As soon as we saw it, we halted the contractor and the lessons for the future began.

We remembered those lessons and still apply them when it comes to picking colors for anything.  We're now picking bricks for our new building and those lessons are being applied.

Lesson one was to never believe paint cards.  You have to go see a building with that paint if you are going to pick that paint. 

In picking the new brick color and texture, we're going to look at existing buildings that use the ones we are considering.  Mandatory tour.

Lesson two was to stick to what works.  We decided at that point to never go beyond the color schemes that we already had deployed on our campus.

In picking brick colors and mixes, we are sticking to brick colors that are similar to what we already have on our campus.

Lesson three was to get opinions of stakeholders.  We still have to make the decision, but we get input from our customers' leadership and personnel.  And we truly listen.

We'll be setting up some brick sample walls and inviting our customer and Board (they're paying for this) to give it a look before we make our final decision.