Failure is a Potent Teacher

Failure is a very potent teacher for construction contractors if:

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share
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




Asking Good Questions
The ability to ask good questions will improve your learning, teaching, hiring, selling projects, building projects, and growing your contracting business. The discipline of formulating good questions often answers the original question and many more.
Contractor Exit Strategy 6 of 6: Sale to Employees (ESOP)
Contractor Exit Strategy 6 of 6: An ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) is a qualified defined contribution employee benefit plan designed primarily to invest in the company’s stock.
Evaluating Levels of Importance and Desire
Your feelings about what is "Really Important" or "Urgent" are often lying to you, or at the very least, stretching the truth. Your calendar tells you the truth, even though you may not like what it says.