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




Levels of Strategic Decisions (The Basics)
There are many "Strategic Possibilities" developed from "Strategic Brainstorming" that must be explored to make choices that will best position a contractor to win over the long-term. These "Strategic Decisions" must be made and integrated at all levels.
Cranes and a Construction Business
There is a lot of intentionality around all aspects of every crane lift, including systems for double-checking and approvals. There is far less intentionality around the business equivalents for contractors and that dramatically impacts performance.
Definition - Capability
A team or company’s combination of skills, competencies, knowledge, processes, tools, and behaviors that allows them to Carry Out particular activities or achieve certain goals. Capabilities create the outcomes that customers are paying for.