02
There are several ways to become more proactive. Best-in-class contractors work in a time
management quadrant that emphasizes important tasks — not urgent tasks. Urgent activities
are a staple of organizations that are constantly in a firefighting mode. These are often tasks and
activities that are someone else's responsibilities, given to you to manage. You can often spot
these as action items in your court even though the deadline might be driven by someone other
than you.
These are typical reactive lagging indicators:
> Actual costs versus budget costs
> Actual schedule milestones accomplished
Of course, to get to the promised land of working on important items, you must first complete the
urgent tasks. Once best-in-class contractors have completed as many urgent tasks as possible,
they can begin to plan for future action items.
For example, proactive contractors often track and review the following forward-looking leading
indicators:
> Estimate to complete (ETC)
> Estimate at completion (EAC)
> Potential change orders
> Project risks
> Contingency utilization
> Two-week look ahead
> Cash flow forecast
> Workflow aging and cycle time
> Quantities installed
> Cash flow to date
BE PROACTIVE [CONT.]
Page 4
