Business Strategies: Rephrasing and Simplifying Quality
A New Tactic, Career Advice, and Strategies to Improve the Industry
A New Tactic: Rephrase the Question
I want to expand on my note a few weeks ago on 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. (This is part of my ongoing quest to identify why quality is seen as something separate that many feel they don't have time for.) The main ideas I'm taking away so far are:
There's a problem with the “big rocks” analogy: There’s too many rocks to fit in the jar, and the jar is of a finite size.
No matter what time management system we put in place, the faster we get through our tasks, the faster new tasks show up - and we still never get to the tasks that we actually want to work on (or that we should be working on). For example, the faster we answer email – thinking that we can “focus on what’s important” only after we achieve Inbox Zero – the faster more emails come in that “need” answering. (I believe "need" in the context of email is relative, however there are exceptions.)
There's an infinite number of tasks that we could be doing on the job. We need to choose which ones we will do over others, and be comfortable with that discomfort of not doing the other things.
For the teams claiming they don't have time for certain tasks (quality, schedule, safety, or otherwise), dig into "why" they choose to do certain tasks that they do. Next time you talk with one of your project teams and they tell you they don't have time, rephrase the question in your mind (perhaps not directly to them): "Why are they choosing to do other things?" They most likely won’t be aware that they are choosing other things as they are trying to navigate the daily pressures of the jobsite.
Where is the friction in the process?
What tasks would they be comfortable not completing?
How can you coach them on how to decide what tasks to work on?
Career Advice: Treat Everyone With Kindness
In construction, it's easy to become the difficult person to work with. In many cases, it’s in fact rewarded because there’s a perception that it “gets the job done.” Yes, there are times when we need to be firm and hold others (including ourselves) accountable, but we must also remain respectful and kind to one another.
A superintendent I worked with used to say: “Leave your feelings at home in the coffee can.” In reality, this works in the short-term, but the long-term perspective is what matters.
It's a small world and people will always remember how you treated them.
Improvement Idea: Simplifying Our Quality Systems
How can we simplify our quality systems?
Project quality plans are often diluted – spread out across multiple documents and shared locations. Even our terminology – quality management, quality assurance, quality control – is too complicated for the teams in the field installing the work. Project teams are incentivized to utilize cumbersome corporate processes, yet utilization remains low or the program itself is unimpactful.
Do we need a movement for simplifying quality in the industry?
Can quality can be achieved without cumbersome tools?
How can we reduce the number of steps?
How can we give back authority to project teams?
How can we help teams to accomplish the objective without getting lost in the process?
Are there are too many steps, documents, meetings, checklists, and work instructions which create unnecessary work for project teams?
What I’m Writing Next
I'll be wrapping up Part 6: Create a Compelling Business Case for Quality, of the Business Case Framework.