Issue #40: Why Micromanagement Melts In July

Welcome back, everyone!

This week I’ve been thinking about how bad financial decisions get made — not by rookies, but sometimes by smart, seasoned developers.

A colleague told me about a client who scrapped an entire townhouse strategy after hearing they could save GST by switching to rentals. Never mind that the new plan probably makes less money — the tax savings were shiny and immediate, so math became optional.

Apparently no one thought to compare the two pro formas. Or create one at all.

It happens more often than we’d like to admit.

At LandLogic, we help fix that.

If you need help returning to first principles on any project, hit reply.

We’ll bring logic. You bring coffee.

It's spring, and as another year of BILD awards goes by, I’ve also been thinking about something else: customer satisfaction.

In a housing market defined by affordability pressures, inflation, and supply chaos, it’s tempting to cut corners to protect margin.

But back in ‘01, I thought micromanaging every lot was the key to customer satisfaction. What I got was sunstroke and a lesson in trust.

Which brings us to: The Great Drainage Inspection of ’01.

The Great Drainage Inspection of ‘01

SCENE: My cubicle, West of Toronto, late July 2001 (I might be off by a year or two, either way — I'm old). The fax machine is spitting out revised grading plans while I'm juggling three different subdivision phases and a Diet Coke that has lost all its fizz. Outside, the summer heat is already making the asphalt soft. The phone rings.

DEVELOPMENT VP: "Mills! Conference room, five minutes. We need to talk about lot grading."

ME: (eyeing the stack of unfinished work) "Sure thing. Which project?"

DEVELOPMENT VP: "All of them. Bring your level."

That's when I knew this conversation was about to go sideways. In my experience, when executives start asking for surveying equipment, someone's about to have a very long day.

The Setup

For context: We're in the middle of the biggest customer satisfaction push in company history. JD Power has arrived in the Toronto homebuilding market, and our CEO has decided we're going to win their award or die trying. Every conversation, every meeting, every decision gets filtered through one question: "Will this improve our customer satisfaction scores?"

The CEO has been dropping hints about "hands-on leadership" and "attention to detail that sets us apart." Apparently, this has filtered down to my VP as "personally inspect every square foot of dirt."

DEVELOPMENT VP: (spreading site plans across the conference table like he's planning D-Day) "I want to physically walk every lot on the Meadowvale project. All 318 lots. Check the grades myself with the level and rod."

ME: (trying to keep my voice level) "That's... ambitious. Any particular concerns with our civil engineering consultant?"

DEVELOPMENT VP: "No concerns. This is about excellence. JD Power excellence. I want to personally verify that every single lot drains properly."

ME: "Well, I should mention some logistical challenges. About sixty lots have houses under construction, so we can't access final grade elevations. Another forty are intentionally left low for site balancing—"

DEVELOPMENT VP: (cutting me off) "Perfect drainage equals perfect customer satisfaction. When do we start?"

ME: "There's also the small matter of setting up the level every few lots, reading elevations against the drawings, checking flow patterns... We're talking about multiple days of surveying work."

DEVELOPMENT VP: (waving dismissively) "How hard can it be? Point, shoot, check the numbers."

I realize he thinks a surveyor's level is basically a fancy telescope.

The Preparation

ME: "Just so we're clear, you want to verify the drainage on 318 individual lots using surveying equipment?"

DEVELOPMENT VP: "Exactly. Nothing says quality like executive-level spot-checking."

ME: "In July. In 35-degree weather. On lots that are mostly dirt and construction debris."

DEVELOPMENT VP: "Comfort is the enemy of excellence, Mills."

ME: (pause) "Should I pack water?"

DEVELOPMENT VP: "I'll bring my golf hat. How long could this take?"

I spend the next hour trying to explain construction sequencing, temporary grading, and why lots don't match the final drawings until houses are complete. But he's convinced that personally verifying every drainage swale is the key to customer satisfaction dominance.

So I book us for Friday at 2 PM—the hottest part of the day, naturally—pack my surveying equipment, and prepare for what I'm certain will be the longest afternoon of my career.

The Reality Check

Friday arrives. The temperature hits 34 degrees by noon. I meet the VP at the site office, where he's sporting pressed khakis, a polo shirt, and what I can only describe as "office-appropriate footwear."

ME: "Ready for some surveying?"

DEVELOPMENT VP: (looking at my boots, hard hat, and surveying rod) "This is a lot more equipment than I expected."

ME: "Welcome to precision grading verification."

We start with lot #1. I set up the level, take a backsight reading, explain how we're checking drainage flow toward the rear swale. The VP watches intently as I work through the calculations.

DEVELOPMENT VP: "So this number means...?"

ME: "The lot drains properly. Just like our engineering consultant said it would."

DEVELOPMENT VP: (wiping sweat) "Great! One down."

ME: "317 to go."

I watch the colour drain from his face.

Lot #2: The Beginning of the End

By the time we reach the second lot, the VP is discovering that "executive-level spot-checking" involves a lot more standing in direct sunlight than he anticipated. I'm setting up the equipment while he's seeking shade behind a lumber pile.

DEVELOPMENT VP: (mopping his forehead) "Is this level broken? It's taking forever to set up."

ME: "It's precision equipment. Each setup takes about five minutes if we want accurate readings."

DEVELOPMENT VP: "Five minutes times 318 lots..."

ME: "About 26 hours of surveying time, plus travel between lots."

He stares at me like I just told him we need to personally inspect the moon.

DEVELOPMENT VP: (glancing longingly at his air-conditioned car) "You know what? I trust your process here. You've got good systems in place."

ME: "Are you sure? We've barely scratched the surface of lot-by-lot drainage verification."

DEVELOPMENT VP: (already walking toward his car) "I'm confident our quality control measures are sufficient."

And just like that, the great grading inspection of 2001 was over after two lots and approximately fifteen minutes of actual work.

He never mentioned it again.

The Lessons

Customer service absolutely matters—especially when you want people to recommend you to friends and family. But here's what that sweaty afternoon taught me about quality control:

Trust your team. We had qualified grading contractors, experienced engineering consultants, and established inspection protocols. The VP's instinct to ensure quality was right, but micromanaging the execution wasn't necessary. Good people do good work when you let them.

Trust your processes. Systems that work don't need executive-level spot-checking every time. Rigorous quality control happens through proper procedures, documentation, and accountability—not through VPs with surveying equipment they don't know how to use.

Know your role. The best leaders focus on setting standards and ensuring accountability, not on personally executing every task. There's a difference between being hands-on and getting your hands dirty unnecessarily.

Sometimes enthusiasm isn't enough. The VP's passion for excellence was admirable, but passion without practical understanding leads to wasted time and frustrated teams. Better to channel that energy into supporting the people who actually know how to do the work.

And guess what? We won the JD Power award that year anyway.

The real customer satisfaction came from having confidence in our systems and letting the experts do their jobs. When leadership trusts the process, everyone performs better—and nobody has to survive 318 lots in 35-degree heat wearing office shoes.

Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is step back, let the machine work, and save the hands-on inspections for when they're actually needed.

The Unsung Apps That Work Overtime

No AI this week...sorry guys, just plain everyday tech for you today. Two tidbits of information, both on your iPhone (sorry, Android users).

Turns out the device I use primarily for scrolling LinkedIn and taking blurry site photos has been hiding some actual useful features. Who knew?

#1: The Advanced Tip Calculator

You know that calculator app you use to figure out if your tip after lunch?

Turns out if you rotate your phone sideways, it becomes a scientific calculator. Cool, but not earth-shattering.

BUT—and this is the part nobody talks about—there's a tiny button that lets you convert between imperial and metric.

I featured this in a LinkedIn post a while back.

Watch me blow your mind: A 54-foot lot (sorry about the decimals) is also 16.451 metres wide. You’re probably thinking… where is he working on lots that are 54’ wide? Who could afford that? That is a story for another day.

No more frantically googling "acres to hectares" during land negotiations while pretending you knew that conversion all along. Your phone's been quietly judging you this whole time for not knowing this feature existed.

I've been doing these conversions on napkins and Excel spreadsheets like some kind of medieval land surveyor. Meanwhile, my phone's been sitting there like, "Greg, I literally have a built-in converter app."

#2: The iMessage Ingredient Incident

I was in BC last week when Kirsten texted me our secret Mills family popcorn recipe. (Yes, we have a secret popcorn recipe. No, I can not reveal the recipe. Reply nicely to this email with “Popcorn,” and I might secretly send it.)

When her text arrived with "1 TBSP" in the ingredients list, I accidentally hard-pressed on those measurements.

Boom.

My phone instantly converted 1 tablespoon into:

• 0.5 fluid ounces

• 14.79 milliliters

• 0.0625 cups

• And seven other volume measurements

I immediately started texting myself random measurements like some kind of conversion-obsessed lunatic:

"800 meters" turned into 2,624.672 feet.

"0.25 cups" became 59.15 millilitres

It's like having a unit converter that actually works, hidden inside the app I use to argue with contractors about change orders.

[For those who are detail-oriented, like Kirsten…Yes, my battery is at 5%... and yes, I had to call a client... and yes, I was late making the call...]

Is this of any actual use to anyone…

The Real Game Changer

Last week, I was texting a potential JV partner about our latest project: "We're looking at a 12-acre site."

I forgot I was dealing with someone under 35, so without thinking, I hard-pressed on "12-acre" and boom—my phone converted it to 4.856 ha.

I quickly copy-pasted that into my response: "That's 4.856 ha of pure development potential."

Then he texts back: "Holy shit, Greg. I thought you were stuck in 1987 when you said acres. Thanks for that quick metric conversion. When can we meet?"

Still working on closing that deal, but my new iPhone toolkit definitely got my foot in the door.

Turns out, accidentally discovering iPhone features is my new business strategy. Who needs fancy AI when you've got fat fingers and a conversation-obsessed phone?

The best part?

Now I can sound globally sophisticated while secretly having no idea what a hectare actually looks like in real life.

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See you next Friday.

- Greg