Urgency vs Precision
November 12, 2024 • As the topsy-turvy COVID and post-COVID eras move into the rearview mirror, our proprietary Black Box strategy for managing the legal leasing process remains essential.
Originally published in December 2014, it’s the blueprint for landlords, tenants, brokers, and attorneys who want to consistently achieve best-in-class, high-performance commercial leasing results.
Please enjoy this republication of Part Two of our series: Opening the Black Box: Urgency vs Precision.
In the Black Box, the first axis represents the conflict between the urgency mandate and the need for precision.
Our focus today is on the precision vs urgency axis: the conflict between the need to get everything right and the reality that time kills deals. To effectively traverse this axis, the starting point for me with every new client is to earn the right to move fast. By demonstrating command over the details and nuances of the transaction at hand, I make sure that my client gains a strong level of comfort that they made the right choice of attorneys.
Simultaneously I find out where my client’s focal point is on the urgency/precision continuum generally and specifically for the lease we are working on.
Achieving Precision
Some of my clients read every word of every document they sign, and for them, precision down to crossing every “t” and dotting every “i” is crucial. I have other clients who take more of a big-picture approach. In fact, one said to me just yesterday: “We are not interested in crossing the ten “t’s” in every sentence, eight out of ten will do. We are much more interested in getting the deal DONE. But of course,” he added, “we need to protect ourselves and make sure the document accurately reflects the deal.”
As this client articulated, no matter where a client stands on the precision vs urgency axis, every client needs to know they have an acceptable amount of precision insurance. And no lawyer worth their salt would ever finalize a document they knew to be sloppy, wrong, or ambiguous.
Respecting the Urgency Mandate
The tension at the other end of this axis is urgency. The longer your lease lingers in the black box, the more likely it is that the other party will be distracted by a cute new puppy or the shiny penny over there that will overtake the lease in the box.
Ultimately, the reality that time kills deals must prevail. We aggressively manage the urgency/precision conflict every step of the way to make sure the process doesn’t jeopardize the desired outcome. And that’s just one of our strategies for creating value as we toil away in the Black Box.
In our next post we’ll take a deep dive into the second axis of conflict: the need to accommodate the other side vs the desire to get it all.
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View all four parts of the Black Box series here on our News + Views page.