The most expensive activity on a major project is waiting

 

Not engineering.

Not procurement.

Not construction.

 

Waiting.

 

I once saw a major project lose 6 weeks waiting for a decision that took 10 minutes to make. 10 minutes.

 

The engineering team was ready.

The contractor was ready.

The site was ready.

 

The decision wasn't.

 

And while everyone waited:

• Resources were reassigned. 
• Momentum disappeared. 
• Risks increased. 
• Costs grew quietly. 

Nobody saw it as a delay. 

Because everyone was busy. 

That's the trap.

 

In large CAPEX projects, activity creates the illusion of progress. But projects don't move because people are busy. They move because decisions are made.

 

After nearly 40 years in project leadership, I've learned that the biggest cost rarely appears in a cost report.

 

It's the cost of waiting:

• Waiting for approval. 
• Waiting for alignment. 
• Waiting for certainty. 
• Waiting for the perfect answer. 

The larger the investment, the more expensive waiting becomes. Because while leaders are waiting to decide, the project is already deciding for them.

 

👉 What's the most expensive delay you have seen caused by a decision that came too late?