In many households this time of year, ‘tis the season of decorated trees and wreaths; stockings and candles. Some homes receive the royal treatment: garlands up and down every staircase, fully coordinated trees in multiple rooms, and a perfectly arranged nativity scene on the mantle above the fireplace. Others are more minimalist with maybe a wall hanging or blanket and a tree with a few ornaments. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, consider substituting whatever holiday you do decorate for (Hanukkah, Eid al-Fitr, Chinese New Year, Diwali, etc.). Your decorations say something about who you are, which goes double for procurement professionals. For a little bit of fun in this holiday season, let’s talk about what your decorating style says about your procurement personality.
The Iron Triangle
I’ve talked about the iron triangle previously; it’s the great tradeoff between cost, quality, and speed/lead-time that is found at the core of everything a procurement team does every day. When I attended the SIG Conference this year, one of the sessions I attended was about your procurement personality, which also pivoted on the iron triangle. While we strive for low cost, high quality, AND shortest lead times; we know we always have to sacrifice one or two to maximize the remaining priority.
The sooner we understand ourselves well enough to know whether we prefer to prioritize cost, quality or speed, the better we can find the company or team that fits our natural alignment. While today’s topic is light-hearted, consider using it to help you figure out if you’re in the right place. Someone who is constantly trying to get every last drop of savings out of a deal is likely to feel out of place in a company where the leadership team is perfectly willing to pay more to get a higher quality product. Similarly, you might find you have more friction in your relationship with a partner (spouse, significant other, mate, etc.) if they always hunt for bargains and you tend to procrastinate and are willing to pay more to get things quickly. Let’s launch into the priorities and how they show up in your holiday decorations!
Prioritizing Cost
Just like with sourcing a Christmas tree, the low cost option tends to be a popular one. For holiday decorations, this looks like using the same decorations year after year, which were perhaps handed down through the family or made by the kids as school projects. Often these decorations look a little worn, but we don’t notice because they are dear to us and are the physical embodiment of past holiday memories. Often those who prioritize low cost but still want to decorate will have more handmade decorations made by someone in the family. There may also be fewer decorations as a way to focus the holiday decorating budget on fewer pieces.
Cost-conscious decorators are probably not lining up at the Hallmark store every July when the Christmas tree ornaments for the year are first released (one of my mother-in-law’s favorite rituals for years and years. She definitely did not prioritize low cost in Christmas decorating or anywhere else!). Those who prioritize cost are probably also not going on extravagant trips for the holidays and might even be hosting for their family. If they do travel for the holidays, they’re the type that use their airline miles/credit card points or will travel by car to get to family and friends (and will stay with family or friends on the other end instead of renting a hotel room, if possible). Of course, procurement professionals are frequently working through the holiday because there’s always some contract that didn’t get signed and the stakeholder needs it done THIS YEAR!
I tend to fall into the “prioritizing cost” category when decorating my own house. I also don’t decorate excessively as it is a lot of work and I also currently have five cats (!) that want to mess with all of it. And yes, I host, mostly my husband’s family but who attends varies a little each year.
Prioritizing Quality
Decorators who prioritize quality tend to be a little more extravagant with decorations. These are the people with color-coordinated trees, fresh wreaths on the door, and Instagram-worthy decor. They might participate in their local Tour of Homes (is that a thing outside of the US Midwest? It’s kind of a big thing in smaller Iowa towns.). When it’s time to get out the decorations, there’s a whole production to pull them out of carefully organized bins, check all the lights to see if they work, make note to replace any items that are broken, etc. It’s possible these decorators decide on a new theme or color scheme every few years according to trends, their mood, the age of their families, and a number of other factors. Even though they often replace their decorations, they also have a whole section of their garage or basement dedicated to decorations and are willing to spend the space to store them.
It definitely takes resources in the form of money and time to be a quality-first holiday decorator. I truly admire people who do this; it’s not ever going to be me. I’m for sure a handmade-ornaments-that-look-a-little-worn kind of person. If I was tasked with decorating to an Instagram-worthy level, I’m sure I could, but it’s not my natural inclination.
Prioritizing Time
The “lead time” scenario for holiday decorating shifts toward “prioritizing time” in this setting. People who prioritize time have their decorations up in November (or even October!) when life is a little quieter. They’re just as likely to buy the few key decorations they need as they are to store them, unless things are small or easy to store. They’re using a pre-lighted Christmas tree and skipping decorations anywhere more hidden (holiday towels in the guest bathroom, anyone?). They might be hiring their outdoor decorating done as well as anything else that can be hired. If they’re not hiring someone to do their lights, they’re probably more likely to buy new lights than try to untangle the mess of last year’s lights. It’s not decorations, but these are also probably the people ordering gifts from Amazon on the last day Amazon says those gifts will arrive in time for Christmas (and always paying to have Amazon provide the gift wrapping).
There have been years where I was a person who prioritized time. When my kids were young and my job was super demanding, I was ok with trading money for time. My kids are a little older now and my day-to-day is less demanding, so I’m able to go back to my natural cost-oriented inclination.
One of the reasons I struggled with the startup world was that they simply have to “move fast and break things” and prioritize speed over everything else. While I can do things quickly, constantly leaving money on the table and sacrificing quality in order to get things done fast really bothered me. So in this year-end time when we tend to reflect, take a moment and ask yourself if your natural inclination aligns with your company priorities. If it doesn’t, ask yourself if that’s causing friction either with your own peace or between you and your stakeholders. If asking that question caused some discomfort, consider talking to a career coach. I can highly recommend either Sarah Decker or Monica Chang.
Hopefully your holiday season is merry and bright, and you have some time to consider your alignment to the iron triangle before we head into next year. If you’d like to talk about how you approach the iron triangle, let’s chat. If you’d like to get these articles weekly straight to your inbox and never miss one, sign up for my newsletter.
My book, Transform Procurement: The Value of E-auctions is now available in ebook, paperback and hardcover format: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F79T6F25
