Climbing the Mountain - Continuous Improvement

Growing a contracting business is exceptionally challenging.

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It's especially challenging at the different sticking points. These growth sticking points are compounded by several long-term trends the industry is facing.

Continuous Improvement: It’s a Journey; Not a Destination. Improving Productivity is like climbing a mountain. Just plan the next 10 feet; set an anchor and get the whole team up to that level. Repeat a few hundred (or thousand) times. Gotta fall in love with being on the mountain; not just being at the summit. Set your first standard. Plan the work to that standard. Do the work to plan. Check against plan. Act on improvements to planning, doing, and standard. Set a new standard when you find a better way.

 

Growing a contracting business is like climbing a mountain. Trying to master plan every detail won’t work. There is no perfect playbook that fits every contractor and every team. Like climbing a mountain, the best thing you can do is create a reasonable plan, create some contingency plans, train yourself and your team hard, and then get to work.  

Just plan the next 10 feet; set an anchor and get the whole team up to that level.  Repeat a few hundred (or thousand) times. You and your whole team gotta fall in love with being on the mountain; not just being at the summit.  You are only at the summit for a moment in time before you need to get climbing to the next one or you slip back down into a valley and need to climb back up.  Keep your team aligned while you climb.  

Learn more about the management tool of Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) to see how some companies align their teams to achieve results.




Weekly Percent Planned Complete (PPC) and Project Performance
Improving the project planning and delivery process starts with improving predictability around the schedule. Nearly every Superintendent and Foreman is familiar with the Short-Interval-Plan (SIP) and typically fill one out weekly looking ahead 1+ weeks.
PICK SMART Improvements
Contractors will never have enough resources to solve all problems or take advantage of every opportunity they face. There are a couple tools that can be used to align the team around the best utilization of resources:
Focused Resources = Maximum Results
Contracting is a relatively low-margin and high-risk business. Contractors can’t afford to spread out their resources on projects or in their businesses. Leaders must put maximum resources behind their biggest bottlenecks or opportunities.