Allocation of Management Resources

Most new initiatives that contractors try often fall short of expectations due to poor management time allocation during start-up.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
D. Brown Management
February 23, 2018 2 minute read
Share

We work with a lot of contractors and rarely see truly bad ideas or teams that truly can’t execute.  

Management Tools: Time Allocation for New Initiatives.

The more common problem is usually management resource constraints; especially at the critical executive leadership level.  When a new idea (or problem) comes up the best management talent can see both the mountain top, the mountain and the path to success very clearly.  

Moving from a new idea into a sustainable system managed mostly by others is the challenge.  Make sure you prioritize management time effectively on the initiatives that will have the biggest impact.   

  • Allocate enough time for truly developing the concept ensuring that the team that will be start-up and long-term management are fully in alignment.  This ALWAYS takes longer than expected. 
  • Allocate 2-4X that much time for heavily managing the PDCA cycle in the first 3-6 months spending a lot more time Planning, Checking and Adjusting than Doing.  This will ensure smooth scaling and easier routine management.

Learn more about how we help teams learn to execute better 

Production Tracking - Lessons Learned
Look at productivity as a daily “Jar” where your objective is to pack as much “Earned Value” into it as possible. Look at your costs in three major categories and focus on tracking what matters the most.
Related Article
Cash Flow Myth 1 - Profitability Does Not Equal Cash Flow
Cash flow does not equal profitability. While in theory these two critical scoreboard metrics are disconnected in reality cash flow is a pretty reliable predictor of profitability both good and bad.
Related Article
Working Like an Owner
Success in anything significant can never be guaranteed, but there are many things you can do that will nearly guarantee failure. If you do the following consistently, without any expectation in return, you will see opportunities open for you.
Related Article