Investing for Sustainability - Growth Hurts

“I can’t afford to invest more in talent development or process streamlining because we have a bunch of bad projects.”

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

This may come from the different levels - for instance a crafts person who is too focused on individual productivity to train their apprentice.  It may come from the Project Manager who is too overloaded with work to train their Project Engineer.

Leadership Tools: Growth Hurts. How effectively are you investing your dollars?

The only way a contractor can truly grow sustainably is to build a culture that is focused on continuous personal-development and teaching others.  Truly great development hurts - it stretches our brains to grow the same way physical exercise stretches our muscles. Most of your team will resist this level of exertion and insist there is an easier way.  Most of your team will rationalize away performance problems and downplay the need for training.  

The management teams of growing contractors systematically lead their teams through extremely rigorous training building them to dominate tomorrow’s construction environment.


Look at your business and the stage of growth it is in.  

Is your team prepared (or preparing) for the next stage of growth?

What pain are you avoiding today that will be 10X worse in the near future?  




Situational Awareness - 5D Project Model
5D is not just for BIM! The best project team members have a complex 5-dimensional model of the project in their heads at all times. They see not only the finished product in 3D but can take that model apart down to the components of each system.
The Quit Option
Most people rarely quit in the middle when they can see the end. They just have trouble getting started because the overall “Big Goal” seems too complicated.
Best Methods for Presenting Changes During the Design-Development Phase
Always be conservative, forthright and provide a clear roadmap to successful project delivery. The biggest thing you want to avoid are changes during construction or delays. Both will impact the income projections and possibly project viability.