A decisions-needed list that gets owner decisions on time
The lighting supplier's order confirmation arrives on Tuesday: the lobby pendants the owner chose last Friday are made to order, ten weeks from the factory, and the lobby must be finished in six. The owner's representative is surprised; nobody told her the choice had a deadline, and only the supplier knew it.
Keep a list of every decision the owner still has to make, date each one from the first work that depends on it, and go through the list with the owner every week. Owners are rarely late on purpose. A choice due "before tiling" looks months away when the order must go in two months before the tilers arrive, and the owner cannot see a supplier's lead time unless you show it. A dated list turns your lead times into their deadlines.
Build the list
- List every decision the owner owes: selections, choices within allowances, alternates, answers only the owner can give, and changes awaiting approval. The specifications and drawing notes name most of them.
- Find the first work that depends on each, often earlier than it looks: fixtures go in last, but the valves and carriers that suit them go into the walls at rough-in.
- Work back to a needed-by date — that work's start, less the lead time, ordering time and a buffer, as for long-lead items — and write it as a calendar date.
- Give the owner what they need to decide: samples, prices and a stocked alternative, with one named decision-maker on their side.
- Review the list with the owner weekly, earliest date first.
- Record each decision in a decision record and order that week; when a date passes, write to the owner the same day with what slips and the new latest date.
Common mistakes
- Giving the deadline as "before tiling" instead of a date.
- Taking the date from installation when rough-in or ordering comes first.
- Asking for a decision without samples, prices or options.
- Letting a missed date pass in silence, then raising the delay months later.
Checklist
Every line on the list has
- The decision, in one sentence
- One decision-maker on the owner's side
- The first work that depends on it
- A lead time from a written quote
- A needed-by date on the calendar
- What a late answer costs in days
Check your understanding
The owner's representative asks to push the paint colour decision back two weeks. Painting starts in ten weeks, and the paint is stocked locally. What do you answer?
