Failure is a Potent Teacher

Failure is a very potent teacher for construction contractors if:

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Leadership Tools: Failure is a Potent Teacher.
  • You don’t define failure just as CATASTROPHIC events that seriously damage your business.  
  • You define failure broadly as ANYTHING that is not adding value to the customer or slowing your progress.  
  • You embrace failure as part of the learning process diving deeply into the Root Cause Analysis (RCA). 
  • You develop a culture and systems so that everyone on the team thinks about the business as a series of interrelated cycles.  Consider all the interrelated cycles from the installation of a light fixture in the field to to the monthly project review meetings to the annual business planning process.  
  • Your whole team views each cycle as an opportunity to improve (PDCA)
  • You have developed structured processes for continuously updating your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as your team learns then rolling them out across the company improving the whole team’s capabilities.  

Book Resources:

The Five Elements of Effective Thinking

Thinking in Bets

Related LinkedIn Posts:  

Churchill - Failure is NOT Fatal

Fail 9 Times to Succeed




Issue 2 of 9: Culture
Construction Ownership Transition Issue 2 of 9: Is the Culture Truly Ready for Succession? Why does it matter to the employees what happens with succession? How does that impact value?
Management System Hierarchy Example
A management system has hierarchies from culture through to the individual steps in a procedure. These hierarchies must be integrated with strategic decisions, the organizational structure, and training to create a competitive advantage.
Definition - Standard
Level of Performance required. May relate to a job role (person), team, company, materials, equipment, facility, etc. Required by business model as part of achieving strategic objectives.