Where Are You in the Process? Feat. Jake Williams

The Superintendent Who Polished Himself into a Bottleneck

There is a superintendent who spends three weeks perfecting a schedule. He reviews every activity. He adjusts every duration. He color-codes every trade. He cross-references every milestone. And when he finally presents it to the team, the trade partners look at it and say you have no idea what you are talking about. Three weeks wasted. Not because he lacked skill. But because he did not understand where he was in the process. He was early. He was supposed to create the rough framework and get input. But he treated it like the final deliverable. And that perfectionism created a bottleneck that delayed the entire project.

Here is what happens when leaders do not know where they are in the process. An assistant superintendent creates lift drawings. But he waits to release them because he does not have the sleeve drawings from MEP yet. He does not have the embed details from the curtain wall shop drawings. So he holds the drawings waiting for perfection. Meanwhile, the foreman needs to see the layout to plan crane picks. The field engineer needs to coordinate reinforcement. And the project manager needs to price the work. But nobody gets anything because one person is waiting for perfection when he should have released a draft with big black letters that say DRAFT DO NOT USE. That delay cascades through the schedule. And the project falls behind because someone did not understand their position in the process.

The real pain is the wasted time. Time spent polishing something that will go through three more people before it becomes final. Time spent perfecting details that someone else is better suited to refine. Time spent creating a finished product when what was needed was a rough framework to start the conversation. And the tragedy is that this perfectionism feels responsible. It feels thorough. It feels like quality work. But it is the opposite. It is a bottleneck disguised as diligence. And it costs projects speed, collaboration, and results.

The failure pattern is predictable. Someone early in the process treats their work like the final deliverable. They spend days or weeks perfecting something that should take hours. They do not involve others because they want to present the finished product. And when they finally hand it off, it either needs major revisions because they missed critical input or it sits on a shelf because it arrived too late to be useful. Either way, the perfectionism backfired. The system failed them by never teaching them to ask where I am in the process and what does well enough look like at this stage.

I watched a project engineer struggle with this exact problem. He was facilitating pre-installation meetings. But he felt like he needed to have all the answers before the meeting. So he spent days researching how to install the work. He prepared presentations. He created detailed sequences. And then he presented all of this to 30 and 40 year experts who looked at him like he was wasting their time. The problem was not his effort. The problem was his misunderstanding of his role. He was not there to teach experts how to do their job. He was there to facilitate the meeting. Get the right people in the room. Make sure the documents are available. And let the experts share their knowledge with each other. Once he understood where he was in the process, the meetings accelerated and the quality improved because he stopped trying to be the expert and started unlocking the expertise already in the room.

This matters because knowing where you are in the process determines what good looks like. If you are at the beginning, good means rough framework that invites collaboration. If you are at the end, good means polished final product ready for delivery. And the people who succeed are the ones who can shift their definition of good based on where they are. The people who fail are the ones who apply end-of-process standards to beginning-of-process work. And that mismatch creates bottlenecks, delays, and wasted effort.

Where You Are Determines What Good Looks Like

The key insight is this. Perfection is a moving target. What perfection looks like at the beginning of the process is completely different from what it looks like at the end. At the beginning, perfection means getting the rough framework out fast so others can contribute. At the end, perfection means polishing the final details so the deliverable is ready for use. And the mistake most people make is applying end-of-process perfection to beginning-of-process work. They spend days perfecting a draft when what was needed was hours creating a framework.

Here is how to know where you are. Ask yourself how many people will touch this before it becomes final. If the answer is three or four, you are early in the process. Your job is not to perfect it. Your job is to create the rough framework and get it to the next person. If the answer is zero or one, you are late in the process. Your job is to polish it because you are the last quality check before delivery. This simple question changes everything. Because once you know where you are, you know what good looks like. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

The envelope game illustrates this perfectly. Give someone 20 pieces of paper, 20 envelopes, and 20 stamps. Tell them to fold all the papers first. Then stuff all the envelopes. Then seal all the envelopes. Then stamp all the envelopes. That is batching. Now give someone else the same materials. Tell them to take one piece of paper, fold it, stuff it, seal it, stamp it, and set it aside. Then repeat. That is one-piece flow. And every single time, the one-piece flow person finishes two to three minutes faster even though it looks slower. Why? Because batching creates inventory. And inventory creates delays. The person batching cannot hand off the first envelope until all 20 are done. The person flowing can hand off the first envelope immediately. And that speed matters when you are early in the process and others are waiting for your output.

How to Operate at the Right Level

Start by labeling your work with DRAFT when you are early in the process. Put it in the subject line of emails. Put it in big letters on drawings. Put it at the end of schedule activities. The word DRAFT is liberating. It tells people this is not final. This needs your input. And it gives you permission to release work faster because you are not claiming it is perfect. You are inviting collaboration. And that invitation accelerates the process because others can start contributing while you are still refining.

Next, communicate your position in the process. When you hand something off, say this is a rough draft to make sure I am headed in the right direction. I value your input. Help me get this right. That language changes the dynamic. It signals you are early in the process. It invites feedback. And it prevents people from assuming you think you have all the answers. One owner said it perfectly. When you work in a silo and hand me the finished product, it makes me feel like you do not value my input. And it comes across as arrogant. Once you understand that handing off drafts is actually more respectful than handing off finished work, you will never go back to perfectionism.

Then delegate appropriately based on where you are. If you are a senior superintendent, your job is to create the rough framework of the schedule and let assistant superintendents fill in the details. If you are a project manager, your job is to outline the approach and let project engineers develop the specifics. And if you are a field engineer, your job is to coordinate the inputs and let the trades refine the execution. The higher you go in leadership, the earlier in the process you operate. And early in the process means rough drafts that invite contribution, not finished products that shut people out.

Signs You Are Operating at the Wrong Level

Watch for these patterns that signal you are misunderstanding where you are in the process:

• You spend days or weeks perfecting something that gets major revisions from the first person who reviews it
• People tell you they wish you had involved them earlier instead of presenting the finished product
• Work sits on your desk waiting for perfect information instead of going out as a draft for others to review
• You feel overwhelmed and over-committed because you are doing work others should be contributing to
• Trade partners or team members say you do not value their input because you present instead of collaborate
• Deliverables arrive late because you spent too long polishing instead of releasing early for feedback

These are not quality standards. These are bottlenecks. And the fix is understanding where you are in the process and adjusting your definition of good accordingly.

The Power of Early and Often

One author spent six years drafting a book because he could not release it. The pressure of creating the final publishable version paralyzed him. But when his publisher said you can call this a draft if you want and revise it later, the pressure lifted. He released the book. It became a bestseller. And he realized the perfectionism was not protecting quality. It was preventing progress. The same thing happens on construction projects. Perfectionism feels responsible. But it is actually fear disguised as diligence. Fear of being wrong. Fear of looking incompetent. Fear of losing control. And that fear creates bottlenecks that delay projects and frustrate teams.

The antidote is releasing early and often. Get the rough framework out. Label it DRAFT. Invite feedback. Incorporate input. Release the next version. And keep iterating until it becomes final. This approach is faster. It produces better results because more people contribute. And it builds trust because people feel valued instead of bypassed. The teams that succeed are the ones who understand that speed early in the process creates quality at the end. The teams that fail are the ones who sacrifice speed for perfectionism and end up with neither.

Ask Yourself Where You Are

Here is the checkpoint. Look at your current workload. What are you working on right now? And ask yourself where I am in the process. Am I early and creating rough frameworks? Or am I late and polishing final deliverables? If you are early, release it. Label it DRAFT. Get feedback. Move it forward. If you are late, polish it. Make it right. And deliver quality. But do not apply late-process standards to early-process work. And do not hold onto work that others are waiting for because you are chasing perfection that does not exist yet.

Then ask what should I be doing that other people cannot or will not do. And what can I hand to someone else that would give them the opportunity to contribute. These two questions unlock delegation. They help you assess your place in the line. And they ensure you are performing where your position has the most impact. The current condition is leaders are overwhelmed, over-committed, and under-utilizing people around them. The challenge is to know where you are in the process and operate at the right level. Get rough drafts out early. Invite collaboration. And stop bottlenecking your team with perfectionism that belongs at the end, not the beginning. As Jake’s father said, “We are seldom if ever able to achieve perfection with our work. But if we set our sights on anything else, we often miss the mark completely.” Aim for perfection. But release drafts along the way so others can help you get there. On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to know where you are in the process?

It means understanding if you are early creating rough frameworks or late polishing final deliverables, and adjusting your definition of good accordingly.

How do you know if you are operating at the wrong level?

If you spend days perfecting something that gets major revisions immediately, or if deliverables arrive late because you waited for perfect information instead of releasing drafts.

What is the power of labeling work as DRAFT?

It gives you permission to release work faster, invites collaboration, and prevents people from assuming you think you have all the answers or do not value their input.

How does this relate to delegation?

Understanding where you are in the process helps you know what to delegate. Early-process work should be rough frameworks that others refine, not finished products that shut people out.

Why does perfectionism early in the process create bottlenecks?

Because it delays handoffs to people who are waiting for your output, wastes time polishing details others are better suited to refine, and prevents collaboration.