Who Will Do What by When?

From the New York Times Corner Office column today - an interview with Mark Toro, Managing partner and chairman of North American Properties - Atlanta Ltd.:

"We developed the phrase: "Who will do what by when?"  So if somebody says during a meeting, "We've got to get this lease signed," everybody knows what the following question is going to be.  I type the acronym so often in e-mails - "WWDWBW" - that my phone just auto-fills it.

So we've trained ourselves and each other that we're also trying to do it with people we work with, including tenants and lawyers and architects and engineers and bankers.  We developed a system where before we hang up the phone with somebody, we'll say, "When do you think I can have that?"  And they might say, "I think on Tuesday,"  Then on Tuesday, you call back, and if they don't have it, that's Strike 1.  We track people who deliver and those that don't.

There are only two types of people in the world: people who do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it, and people who don't do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it."