Laws Control the Lesser Man

Growing construction businesses need processes and accountability systems the same way society needs laws, police, courts and jails.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

You can also never create enough laws or prisons to correct an underlying lack of strong values and shared mission.

Quote: Laws control the lesser man, right conduct controls the greater one. Mark Twain.

As a contractor starts growing leadership needs to put some processes in place to keep things running smooth.  This is called enabling bureaucracy because it is the standardized set of rules that allow sustainable growth. As a contractor grows past about 150 people or starts to expand geographically there will likely be a point where too much process starts to creep into the business.  This is considered coercive or stifling bureaucracy.  

Leaders must always be working on the balance between aligned mission, culture or behavioral norms, processes and accountability systems.  

If you find yourself and others pulling heavily on the process and accountability lever with diminishing returns the likely problem is lack of balance with people and their behavior. 


Learn More:

Compliance Will Only Take Safety So Far

Books:

Schedule a call with us to learn how we help contractors scale their businesses sustainably 




Organizational Change and Sustainable Growth
Improving the rate that change is adopted across the whole company becomes increasingly more important and more challenging as a contractor grows. We will cover the basics of change, including how it is linked to strategic choices and management.
Short-Interval Plan (SIP) Workflow vs. Tool
Few things will improve project outcomes more than intentional planning and deliberate execution of your Short-Interval Plans. (SIPs). The SIP tool is the tangible task, the workflow is the much more valuable piece that creates great outcomes.
Seven Basic Project Team Objectives
Every construction project team has seven basic objectives. Expand on these to build great evaluation, development, and troubleshooting tools for your business.