Two Restaurants on Saturday Night

Leaders of construction companies have to make many decisions with less than perfect information.

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On one hand you never want to make a decision without good information.  On the other hand there is value in the timeliness of a decision and many times there will be imperfect information regardless of how much time you wait.

Leadership Tools: 2 Restaurants On a Saturday Night

The best leaders have a complex 5D Model in their heads at all times.  They have mental models of the market with the competition, their projects and their business as a whole. This “Situational Awareness” along with the ability to act decisively is crucial.  

Many times we are looking for perfectly formatted data in some sort of a report but there are indicators all over the place.  Consider two restaurants; Saturday evening; similar locations; similar food. One is packed consistently with a wait and the other is nearly empty serving a couple tables at a time.  

You don’t need detailed financial information to know there are problems and begin the troubleshooting process.  There are many similar indicators on projects and within contracting businesses. The more you train yourself and your team to “see” these then act upon them the better your team will operate.  

Part of the learning process is to see the indicators then to dig rapidly for supporting data to better evaluate.  

What are your main proxy indicators for productivity, safety, quality, morale, etc.?




Field Productivity - The Improvement Pyramid
An improvement of a few minutes per day to actual installation time compounded monthly is worth about $800K per year for a $25M contractor. What is it worth to you? Improvements to field productivity can be viewed as 4 major stages of a pyramid.
Coaching and "GPS Feedback" - John Wooden Example
The best coaches and superintendents all have an eye for detail and constant communication. Winning in construction or sports is about ensuring that thousands of details come together correctly. The game (or project) is won far away from the scoreboard.
Cash Flow Tip 5 - Flowchart Your Cash Flow
You can only see the full value-stream of cash flow including the waste, the people and the opportunities for improvement by mapping out every step.