Can't Read the Label From Inside the Jar

By definition it is impossible for any of us to know what we don’t know.

D. Brown Management

July 2, 2018 2 minute read

Quote: You can't read the label from inside the jar.

We could be in the top 5% inside our domain and better off spending time scaling the machine rather than perfecting it.
We could be missing something major and not be able to see it.
We could be in a very high-leverage position where even a small improvement could have a huge impact.
We could be missing so much context for the model that we have difficulty seeing how new information fits in thereby limiting our Situational Awareness.

Who are the top 5 people inside your organization that help each other refine your models of projects, your company and the industry?

Who are the top 5 people you are mentoring and coaching to help them refine their models?

Who do you turn to on the outside of your organization that is experienced and unbiased to help give you perspective?

Continuous Improvement: Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA)

Improving productivity in construction is exceptionally challenging. It must be embraced as a journey and not a destination. It must be made into a game so that people clearly see what winning looks like and fall in love with the process.

field productivity lean construction management

Rigorous Questioning Develops Critical Thinking

Thinking is really just about asking ourselves then answering a series of questions to help us make a good decision. Critical thinking is quite simply asking ourselves a more complex set of questions then answering them from a larger base of knowledge.

Conceptual Estimating - Turning Drawings Into Estimates

Conceptual estimating requires a contractor to take early stage conceptual drawings and turn them into detailed estimates with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that is useful during the initial programming, schematic, and design development phases.