Investing for Sustainability - Growth Hurts

“I can’t afford to invest more in talent development or process streamlining because we have a bunch of bad projects.”

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

This may come from the different levels - for instance a crafts person who is too focused on individual productivity to train their apprentice.  It may come from the Project Manager who is too overloaded with work to train their Project Engineer.

Leadership Tools: Growth Hurts. How effectively are you investing your dollars?

The only way a contractor can truly grow sustainably is to build a culture that is focused on continuous personal-development and teaching others.  Truly great development hurts - it stretches our brains to grow the same way physical exercise stretches our muscles. Most of your team will resist this level of exertion and insist there is an easier way.  Most of your team will rationalize away performance problems and downplay the need for training.  

The management teams of growing contractors systematically lead their teams through extremely rigorous training building them to dominate tomorrow’s construction environment.


Look at your business and the stage of growth it is in.  

Is your team prepared (or preparing) for the next stage of growth?

What pain are you avoiding today that will be 10X worse in the near future?  




Bill Walsh - Planning the First 25 Plays
Construction success depends on both the ability to rigorously plan as well as the ability to quickly react to changing field conditions. This is similar to sports and a lot can be learned from the disciplines of great coaches.
Growth Trajectories for Talent Development
Most people want to think about the growth trajectory of their lives, careers, and business as being a steady climb up a 100% grade - reality is very different and organizational development must align with reality.
Issue 8 of 9: Industry Trends
Construction Ownership Transition Issue 8 of 9: The Construction Industry is Seeing Large Shifts With Several Interrelated Trends. How well the company is positioned will have a huge impact on valuation and cash generation.