Property development is all about persistence. You will never make it to the finish line (at least on time and on budget) without unwavering persistence in almost everything you do. Persistence is about challenging the status quo and not accepting mediocrity. Persistence is about persevering to find a better, faster, cheaper or more valuable alternative to the solution that is first presented. It’s persistence with people that is most important. Persistence to a point of course! It’s a fine line between being just persistent enough to achieve what you need and being a pain in the butt that paradoxically slows things down.
This series is my who’s who list to be persistent with and when you might need to restrain yourself.
The Bureaucracy
Here are some of the things you might typically hear from council, local authorities, government departments, utility operators and the like:
“It’s in the queue.”
“We have 20 working days to process this application.”
“There has been a request for further information and therefore your approval is on hold.”
“We have limited resource and cannot attend to your request at this time.”
“We have no record of that information. Can you resend.”
“The person looking after your consent is on vacation and the file has been reassigned. When that person has reviewed the file they will be in contact.”
“We have not assigned a person to this file yet.”
“You (referring to your consultant) have not provided us with the correct information in the format that is required.”
“You (referring to your consultant) have not provided all the information that is required.”
What you want to hear:
“Hi, my name is Bob and I will be looking after your request. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly on my cell phone at any time. In relation to your request, I will be working on it on Wednesday, expect to finish it by Friday, have my manager sign off on Monday and formally inform you on Tuesday. If I have any questions I will email or call you directly by Thursday.”[1]
And if they need to, they do it, by Thursday.
To get from ‘what you typically hear’ to ‘what you want to hear’ requires a special kind of persistence. Let’s create a new name to be added into the Oxford dictionary and call it ‘persistochology’. We’ll define that as ‘the behavioral psychology of being politely persistent to extract certainty from a bureaucratic organization without having them take offence and red tape up any door that you are trying to open’.
It’s a delicate balancing act. In countries where bribery proliferates, at least the ground rules seem so much more transparent — pay up and get results! For the rest of us, you need to be persistent to get the answers you need. But this comes with the warning that officials can swamp you with jargon and excuses if you stray and become too officious. Many public organizations have statutory time limits in which to respond. However, there are so many ways they can stop the clock. Good relationships help. However, half the battle is finding out who is dealing with your request. Steadfastly find out who that person is, then determine how far is too far when trying to attain an answer. Note, we are not even talking about trying to influence someone to your way of thinking or to approve something that they have discretion over (i.e. outside the rules). This is just to get some certainty and the all-important ETA.
I have found it’s people not policy that greases the wheels of action. When you find that someone who can make the proactive action leap to what you want to hear, then take that person to lunch, put their name in your phone speed dial contacts, send their office morning tea cupcakes and always send a Christmas card.
The moral of this section: Persistence has a pay-off. Without persistence, development projects can flounder and every day equals extra dollars.
[1] I wish I was being cynical. If you do encounter a Bob (they occasionally exist) then treat ’em like gold.
Andrew Crosby
+64 21 982 444
andrew@xpectproperty.com
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