Learning and Communicating Complex Ideas

The business of contracting is getting more complex every year.

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The only way to keep up is to become experts at accelerating the development of teams

Reading List: Learning and Communicating Complex Idea. Tim Urban's 10 Point Scale of Understanding.

Training construction teams to learn, teach, prioritize then act is something we have been working relentlessly on since 2005.  It is one of six key strategies that we see contractors must execute to deal with the talent shortage that will become 3X worse in the next few years.  

The other day this article was sent to us by Tim Harris who works with several of our clients helping them shape their recruitment marketing strategies. In the article Tim Urban discusses his process for learning and communicating complex ideas. 

Tim’s scale of understanding (1-10) is an excellent way to even begin to understand what we know and what we don’t know.  One of the problems with social media and the speed which we all run today is that there is very little focus on the deep understanding of a topic.  We tend to believe that if you can’t make a complex idea simple enough to fit into a few hundred words then that is a failure. If only the world were that simple…


What if you looked at your job roles and rated your team on on this 1-10 scale? 

Where are the gaps?

How can you close them rapidly?  




Zero to One - Advice From Peter Thiel
Construction as craft and as a business has been around for thousands of years. Contractors build and maintain the infrastructure that enables society to grow. That history comes a lot of pride. It also brings a lot of difficult to change habits.
Best Methods for Presenting Changes During the Design-Development Phase
Always be conservative, forthright and provide a clear roadmap to successful project delivery. The biggest thing you want to avoid are changes during construction or delays. Both will impact the income projections and possibly project viability.
Growth and Opportunity
Contractors that are growing profitably, have great reputations with their customers, and have a good culture are able to attract and retain the best talent even with the talent shortages the construction industry will face in the next 10+ years.