They go brown quickly.
Everyone in valuation agrees on what should improve.
Everyone nods in the meetings.
Everyone means to get to it.
And then the idea sits.
Long enough to go brown.
Valuation, on both sides of the table, has no shortage of smart people or good intentions.
Fee appraisers have lists.
Chief Appraisers do too.
Everyone already knows what should change.
- Report consistency could be improved
- Comp support could be tighter
- Data could be fresher
- Reviews could be more consistent
- Turnaround times could be shorter
- Data could be leveraged by the bank
None of this is controversial.
None of it is new.
And yet, very little of it happens.
Not because people don’t care.
But because ideas are allowed to sit.
Step 1: The Constraint: Gap Between Knowing and Doing
The enemy isn’t incompetence.
It’s time…and execution.
On the fee side, production always wins.
There’s another report due.
Another revision request.
Have to keep volume up.
So improvement gets postponed.
“I’ll do it later” never happens.
Nothing is wrong.
But nothing is getting better.
On the bank side, the decay shows up downstream.
Reviews take longer.
SLAs are missed.
RMs are annoyed.
Trust erodes one file at a time.
Friction doesn’t look dramatic.
It looks normal.
Step 2: Stop Misreading Each Other
This is where friction sneaks in.
Banks assume resistance.
Appraisers assume moving goalposts.
Both are wrong.
What’s really happening is simpler:
Everyone is working with ideas that sat too long.
By the time change is discussed, it’s already stale.
By the time feedback is given, momentum is gone.
Not because people disagree but because timing was missed.
Step 3: Treat Ideas as Perishable
The firms and departments that quietly outperform aren’t more innovative.
They’re faster.
They operate with a simple rule:
If it’s worth discussing, it’s worth testing
If it works, it becomes standard
If it doesn’t, it’s dropped quickly
No grand rollouts.
No endless debate.
Just movement.
Just get on base.
Because in valuation, timing matters.
An idea delayed too long doesn’t mature.
It spoils.
And once it’s brown, you’re no longer improving quality.
You’re just explaining why the system tastes off and hoping no one notices.