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Looking In The Mirror

July 31, 2006

Guy Kawasaki makes some fantastic points in "The Art of Firing Peope" with the last one probably being the most important - Look In The Mirror.

This simple statement is probably one of the key things missing in the process of becoming a great leader or great company - not just as it relates to firing someone but as it relates to everything about excellence. Think about the honest answer to two simple questions:

How much time do you spend at the beginning of every day planning out the most important thing(s) to be done?

How much time do you spend at the end every day reflecting on what you did and how much of that time is spent thinking about what you did poorly, what you shouldn't have done and what you should have done?

Your success is directly related to how much time you spend on these two simple activities - and don't think that having a drink with your team and talking about everything that you did right counts!

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Project Management Productivity Book

July 30, 2006


Project Productivity For The Whole Project Management Team

Project Productivity for the Entire Project Management Team

For a while now I've been working on codifying all my thoughts about how to manage profitable construction projects from the field through project management and accounting - all as part of the system of building a successful construction company.

So far this has boiled down into a series of modules, each 2-3 hours in length that get at a few key points the project team can use to improve performance immediately. Over the last year these four modules have been the most requested by contractors. We use three of them as the base for our Pre-Planning Facilitation and almost every Construction Company Development program we do is built on at least a couple of these modules.

We have assembled them all in a 4 part book that includes group activities. Use this with your project team and start improving performance today.

1. Pre-Planning for Profits
2. Imacted Jobsite Productivity
3. Production Tracking (The Feedback Systems)
4. Change Orders

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KA$H!

I have never heard this acronym before - it is worth repeating:

K = Knowledge
A = Attitude
S = Skills
H = Habits

The full article called Get Bigger Than Your Job by Mark Matteson has some great tips for building a more successful career and life.

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Lack of Resources = Strength!

Seth Godin makes some very strong points regarding how too much money and resources can actually be counter productive. We see this on a regular basis with contrator clients - when business is "good" they have some free cash flow so they often spend it on paying for professional services that they could easily do themselves with a little "elbow grease and innovation."

What inevitably happens is that the market shifts just a little and isn't so "good" forcing them to do some really innovative and dificult things on their own - thus learning and becoming stronger as a company; as a team. The lack of resources and temporary pain actually gets them a lot closer to being a "great" company.

When it comes to professional services whether it is consulting, accounting or legal - if you think you can do it yourself then try. If you think you need help then get as little help as you can regardless of how much help you can afford. In the long-run you will be better off.

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Your Website as a Recruiting Tool

Contractor Magazine recently had a great article about the use of the web for recruiting new talent.

I have had great luck with this and the process of building a simple recruiting & screening web portal for contractors is relatively easy. This is a great addition to your website and with the increasing cost of classified ads the ROI is fantastic.

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Journeyman Licensing & Quality

Young Plumber is Unlicensed and Proud of It

This letter makes some very good points regarding licensing and this is a hard discussion. I agree on one level that some sort of licensing sets a level but also agree that licensing is absolutely not a predictor of competency.

This is the same as the union vs. non-union argument. There are very good technicians and companies on both sides of the fence - there are also horrible technicians and companies on both sides.

The bottom line is that licensing does not guarantee quality and lack of licensing does not guarantee lack of quality.

If you want to hire a good contractor interview them, look at other work they have done, talk to other customers - follow the same procedure for hiring good technicians. Do not ever rely on a watered-down test created by a committee to determine quality.

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Contractors, Technology & Productivity

Contractor Magazine just published an article about the 2006 CFMA IT Survey discussing how contractors today are using IT to improve productivity. Other than simply making the processes in the business more operationally efficient IT also has the power to provide rapid feedback to the project teams. By using technology to more closely integrate accounting and operations you can develop desktop displays similar to the one in the link below.

Desktop Display Example

When combined with a good business plan, the right training an the right "People Processes" this rapid feedback system provides the infrastructure of success.

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Pre-Planning & Project Success

Chris Higgens is a successful project management leader who honed his skills while working logistics for the Army Rangers - a demanding job that left him wll positioned for becoming Bank of America's "Mr. Project"

When looking at his #1 rule for success you can learn a lot about managing projects - construction or otherwise:

First, he says, spend less time "doing" and more time "planning." Higgins warns that teams are often too quick to act and too slow to think. "If you spend enough time planning," he says, "execution time can be very short. If you work on the fly, you do things fast. But you may do the wrong things - which slows down the project."

Pre-planning on construction projects can increase profitability while decreasing schedule time substantially.

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Don't Lose Focus (Advanced)

Building a strong business has to do with creating value each and every day both for the customers and for the owners and stakeholders in the business.

Previously we commented on avoiding a focus on the top line and focusing on bottom line, net profits.

We consistently encourage contractors to integrate their accounting and operations systems to measure net profit down to specific teams in the organization to help keep everyone focused.

This month in Contractor Magazine consultant Matt Stevens takes this a critical step further by discussing Return on Investment (ROI) - both at the company level and then breaking it down to the project level.

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Don't Lose Focus

"Top line is VANITY - bottom line is SANITY"

Excellent quote from Jeffrey Fox and his book How To Be A Marketing Superstar

The revenue trap is something that many estimators and contractors fall into - only go after customers and jobs that have a good bottom line. Going after revenue for the sake of revenue will only hurt your cash flow and stretch your resources thin making profitibility even more difficult.

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Difficult Practice Makes Perfect Execution

This morning I found this article from Presentations Magazine on "Murder Boards" which basically is just a very challenging way way to prepare for a presentation. As with everything in life the harder you prepare the easier and more successful the actual execution will be.

If you are reading this and thinking that "presentations" are only for speakers, consultants and sales people I submit to you that 90% of what you do is a series of presentations and the best people spend the appropriate amount of time preparing.

John C. Maxwell in his book The 360 Degree Leader makes a comment that you should always prepare 10X for a meeting with your boss - in other words for every minute you plan to meet spend 10 minutes preparing.

That is phenominal advice and I can honestly say that in my experience when I have spent the time it has paid off and when I have "winged it" that has also showed.

Spend the time - be prepared - practice - it will pay off.

What about spending the same amount of time preparing for an interaction with people who work for you?

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FMI Project Management Survey

July 25, 2006

FMI project management survey: Perfect PM elusive

It is amazing that financial management skills are cited as one of the most lacking traits in project managers - for a contractor project managers control most of the things that produce profit and cash!

There are many reasons why project managers typically have poor financial skills starting with the normal separation of accounting and operations inside the company. Many contractor owners and executives actually don't think the project managers should be involved in financial details very much - this is one of the dumbest thought processes out there and will continue to produce poor results.

Project managers need to be educated constantly on how everything they do impacts the bottom line - we did one such presentation recently on cash flow & project managers for the Dexter+Chaney user conference and also have training modules geared towards teaching project teams profit dynamics, construction financial basics and even presenting a brief roadmap for integrating accounting and operations.

At the end of the day the contractor is trying to (1) make a profit, (2) generate cash and (3) utilize assets effectively. If the project manager does not understand how their actions relate to one of these three things then how can you possibly expect them to perform well?

Jack Stack makes some fantastic points about getting a team focused by teaching everyone The Great Game of Business - this book is well worth reading for all contractors.

Most of my approach toward improving performance with the project team has to do with more closely integrating all areas of the company and getting the whole project team to really focus on "dollarizing" their actions - especially during the project pre-planning process.

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Getting To The Truth

Tom Peters reminds us of a very simple truth about management and that is that you will never hear the truth again regardless of what level you are at - whether you are a new crew leader, accomplished superintendent or the owner of the company.

The example is from General Norman Schwarzkopf's autobiography which is a fantastic book.

From the moment you take on any management responsibilities you will need to make it your #1 priority to find ways of getting the truth - the more management responsibilities you take on the harder you will have to work to get the truth.

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Dispatch Software / QuickBooks

Service Software & Service Management Software, Dispatching and Dispatch Software

For contractors using QuickBooks who need a more robust tool for dispatch and customer service management.

Reference Air Conditioning By Jay - Scottsdale, AZ as a contractor using the system.

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