Early Identification as a Trainable Skill

The ability to identify potential changes early is a skill that can be tested, trained, and managed just like a craft skill.

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Early identification of changes and conflicts is the first key to success

Change Management: Early Identification is a Trainable Skill.
  • Find a set of drawings and specifications that have some obvious and not so obvious conflicts or missing information on them. Develop a test and scoring system out of this. Rank your own team then consider which positions to use this for when hiring. 
     
  • Observe the people taking the test and watch for best practices used by the top performers, such as methodically going through the documents, how they mark things, etc. Watch for worst practices by the bottom performers, such as skipping around or not being organized. Use these specific examples for training.  

  • Develop a set of questions that can be asked to guide people toward finding all the issues.  Organize these into checklists and use them to help manage the project.
      
  • Force yourself into deliberate practice on early identification, leveraging best-practices in learning

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”  ― Zig Ziglar


Early Identification as a Trainable Skill
Change orders are a fact of life in construction. Improve profitability, cash flow and customer satisfaction by effectively managing changes. Build a foundation for success with 12 steps to improve pricing and 11 negotiating strategies for the whole project team....

Related Training
Early Identification as a Trainable Skill
Change orders are a fact of life in construction. Improve profitability, cash flow and customer satisfaction by effectively managing changes. Build a foundation for success with 12 steps to improve pricing and 11 negotiating strategies for the whole project team....

Change Management Fact #1 - It Will Happen
Projects are complex with evolving requirements and changing site conditions. Mistakes will be made. It is how the collective project team manages these changes that ultimately determines success at all levels.
Early Identification is a Process - Effectively Using Checklists
Few things will improve customer satisfaction, profitability, cash flow, risk, and team stress more than early identification of change orders. This is a process and a trainable skill. Checklists are some of the most valuable tools in that process.
Changes - Early Identification is Always Better
Early identification of changes and conflicts is the first key to success. The capability to identify changes and conflicts early in the process is a combination of organizational structure, systems, management, training, and coaching.