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| While You Complete Your Other Routine Tasks, Introduce A New Project |
Knowing we can do this start and go process well helped us to make the bigger decision to paint the rest of the house. It will be a large undertaking. During the process of shopping for new paint, we also decided to alter the main color just a little bit. We decided to try out a little warmer main paint. It still goes well with the trim color and the new color looks a lot nicer than our original selection. There are some interesting notes to observe with this kind of project. Number one; large projects are very easy to start but more difficult to finish. Number two; working together on a single-focused, large project can test the relationship strength between partners. Number three; what is the best method for dovetailing a new and large project into our already busy life schedules? How will we blend this new project into our current patterns of life movements? What will we both be willing to give up?
I like to observe these kinds of projects. They represent a lot of interesting fundamentals about how people work together to get the job done. The phrase, "Get R' Done" comes to play on projects like this. I like to examine the effects a large project has on the organizational skills of a leader. I also like to examine the effects a large project has on the skills of two leaders learning how to work together. My wife and I are leaders in our own patterns of life. I have a business I manage and she has a business she manages. We have been business leaders in our own ways for nearly thirty years. She is strong in hers and I am strong in mine. We share desks at home. We sometimes share computers. We have learned how to make our tandem work well. Our house is nearly 3,000 square feet and three stories high. Painting it together will require cooperation, respect, team work, schedule management, a lot of work and respect for task application. Even though my wife and I have learned how to work together well, we are completely wired differently.
My wife is a serious "Get R' Done" type of personality. She will race to the end just to get a project completed. She will not necessarily get hung up on the quality of play. She will however, get hung up on how long the project is taking. My wife is one of those task masters that prefers wrapping a project up well ahead of any due date. Set a time limit on any project and she will always beat that schedule. Always.
I, on the other hand, am a slower paced operator. I prefer to pay closer attention to the details of a project. I do not like to paint out of the lines, for example. I do not like to skip something that does not necessarily need painting right now, but could improve the whole project if it was added to the work. I like to work slower and with more quality of result. She and I are wired differently. We truly recognize these differences in approach.
Since we are wired in two different worlds, we decided to arrange our work patterns to respect how each of us is wired. She gets to do the roller work on the main body of the structure. Her rules of work are to move fast, no trim work and remain away from doing any detail painting. Her job is to just 'roll and go.' We laugh at the few times she caught herself trying to tuck the roller up close to the trim and do some of the detail stuff with the roller. I repeated this phrase, "Hey, what are you doing? Your job is to just roll and go. Stop doing the detail trimming. Just roll and go. Stay away from the edge work." I, on the other hand, am the trim detail-er. I do the tedious trim touch work. I make sure the lines are done correctly so we do not need to re-paint the trim that we did last year. I am the assigned finisher. At present time, we are one third done with the project. So far, we are having fun and the house is looking great. Plus we both love the new color. It was a great color choice. Everything around our house looks great with the warmer tones in the new color selection. That becomes an extra plus to the project.
What does all of this have to do with operating a business model successfully? It has everything to do with functioning correctly. Large business projects should be part of every business model. If you are not working on one right now in your business model, find and develop one to introduce. My wife and I are always introducing new projects for our business models. Always. Not only are new projects important, finishing them is critical. Closing projects up with a completion sign hanging on their activities is a must if you plan on winning big in business. New projects are crucial elements in the profile of most successful business models. The good ones always have a good project going on. They remain busy adding value to their running business model. Do not introduce projects, however, if you have no intention or ability to finish them. A line-up of unfinished projects is a very cumbersome thing to place upon the shoulders of a struggling business. Do not make that simple mistake. Introduce projects and learn how to finish them within a reasonable period of time. Get serious about this responsibility. It matters a whole bunch!





