Climbing the Mountain - Continuous Improvement

Growing a contracting business is exceptionally challenging.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

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.




Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Next Steps
When starting an incentive compensation program, the best thing you can do is start relatively simply and create a good plan for reviewing the results and then improving the program.
Leadership Spotlight - The Diffusion and Multiplication of Perceived Behaviors
As a leader, you are always under the spotlight and must behave that way. All of your actions and perceived actions will be replicated throughout the organization. They will not be replicated in the way that you think.
Production Tracking - The Basics
Schedule + Production are two foundational key results the Foreman will achieve through their planning. The heart of any production measurement is simply “Earned Budget vs. Actual Cost”.