Learning and Communicating Complex Ideas

The business of contracting is getting more complex every year.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

The only way to keep up is to become experts at accelerating the development of teams

Reading List: Learning and Communicating Complex Idea. Tim Urban's 10 Point Scale of Understanding.

Training construction teams to learn, teach, prioritize then act is something we have been working relentlessly on since 2005.  It is one of six key strategies that we see contractors must execute to deal with the talent shortage that will become 3X worse in the next few years.  

The other day this article was sent to us by Tim Harris who works with several of our clients helping them shape their recruitment marketing strategies. In the article Tim Urban discusses his process for learning and communicating complex ideas. 

Tim’s scale of understanding (1-10) is an excellent way to even begin to understand what we know and what we don’t know.  One of the problems with social media and the speed which we all run today is that there is very little focus on the deep understanding of a topic.  We tend to believe that if you can’t make a complex idea simple enough to fit into a few hundred words then that is a failure. If only the world were that simple…


What if you looked at your job roles and rated your team on on this 1-10 scale? 

Where are the gaps?

How can you close them rapidly?  




Retirement Onboarding and Ownership Transitions
The onboarding and integration of a new team member is something the best contractors rigorously manage as one of the 9 critical talent processes. What we don’t always pay as close attention to is what Sue Weiler-Doke frames as “Retirement Onboarding."
Lean Principle - Observation (Gemba Walks and Learning to See)
One of the most important tools for improving productivity is going to the jobsite or work area and observing for an extended period of time with the intent to understand but not to immediately interact. Observation progresses through about 7 stages.
Private Equity and Construction
All of the trends that are changing the construction industry today require economies of scale and capital to truly take advantage of. Private Equity firms are seeing that trend and taking a bigger interest in the construction market.