But I Want the Model Home Look on Day One
We made the decision several months ago to have a house built in a relatively new neighborhood versus buying something that we might want or need to refresh and renovate. We’re now just two weeks out from our closing which is super exciting and also a bit daunting because we need to pack up all of the things we’ve been living with over the past two months and start making decisions about what to do first with the house.
The style of house we chose happened to be the same as one of the model homes so I’ve seen what finished could look like, and I want that to be what we have when we move in this month. I know it’s not realistic in the least, and my husband is working hard to temper my expectations on how fast some of the items will happen. As he rightly points out (though I don’t like it), we have plenty of time to do all the things…there is no rush.
It’s a brand new house so the work we need to do is more about deciding what rooms get painted something other than the neutral already on the walls, what color scheme, how quickly we do it, and is it painted by us or someone else, which of our old furniture we’ll replace, what kind of window treatments we’ll have and then the bigger things - finishing the basement and adding a patio. All fun, but just a lot of decisions that will need to be made.
When we look at running an organization, there is always the vision of how we want it to operate, how successful we’ll be, what kind of employees and culture we’ll have, etc. If you’re scaling, you want all the things to be in place tomorrow and working perfectly. However, along with that vision of what success looks like comes the list of all the things that need to get done to make it happen. Often, we want to do all the things at the same time because they all do need to get done.
The challenge is slowing down, identifying any sequencing that needs to happen for effectiveness reasons, and then prioritizing the activities from there. With too many moving parts, leaders and their teams can’t stay focused and get things over the finish line.
We’re better off committing to no more than 3 at a time and adding new ones as we finish the original list. This is where the sequencing is essential.
We can have it all in our organizations and our homes, but not all at the same time unless we have unlimited resources…and that’s generally not the reality. We need to lay out clear priorities.
Regarding the house, the top priority is picking out and planning the washer an dryer delivery since that was not part of the original purchase. But close behind that priority is selecting a paint color, some additional furniture and rug, and deciding what pictures to hang in my new office. I think this is the room I’m most excited about because it’s bigger than I’ve had before, and it’s not doubling as a guest room.
What is the most significant organizational priority you need to focus on for this quarter?
If I can help, let me know.
I’m excited to share one link where you can find all of the Canopy Strategy resources.
Check them out here and let me know which ones are most useful for you.