Construction Craft vs Management Training

Contractors who can effectively develop management talent will dominate during the next decade.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
D. Brown Management
April 3, 2018 2 minute read
Share

Project delivery methods are rapidly evolving while project complexity is increasing and schedules are tightening demanding more from management.  

Opportunity For Improvement: Construction Craft vs Management Training.

We can learn a lot of lessons from how we develop craft labor versus how we develop a Superintendent or Project Manager or any other manager.  

  • The skills for a craft including the tools required are broken down into detailed lists that can be used as both a training and an evaluation guide.  
  • Crafts people spend about 4 weeks per year for up to 5 years in classrooms and labs during their apprenticeship.  
  • Apprentices are intentionally moved around to various projects working with someone experienced ensuring they get the on-the-job training across all skills. 
  • Experienced crafts people know that part of their job is to train apprentices; it’s in the culture.  

A solid crafts person is exceptionally valuable but it is the Project Manager and Field Supervisor who organizes them to be truly effective.  

How intentional are you about the development of your managers?  

How much would it be worth to improve their effectiveness by 10%? 

Schedule a call to learn how we help teams improve

Alignment from Strategy to Execution
Misalignment between how projects are estimated and how they are built creates subpar outcomes at best and sometimes results in catastrophic failure. Alignment is not a task to be completed. It is an ongoing process starting at the top.
Related Article
Who Holds What Risks in CMAR Project Delivery?
Construction is risky for all parties. Effective contracting for construction work is about assigning risks to those who are most capable of mitigating those risks. Compensation for the risks assumed must be appropriate.
Related Article
Root Cause Analysis to Behavior Level
Contracting businesses and projects always have problems. What’s important is that a team develops the skills and routine habit for continuously improving. When troubleshooting a problem it’s important to do Root Cause Analysis (RCA) down to behaviors.
Related Article