Definition of Sustainability

How sustainable is your construction business?

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Leadership Tools: Definition of Sustainability: The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

Not your ability to build sustainable buildings, but the true sustainability of your business.

  • Are the market(s) that you are in stable or at least counter-cyclical to each other throughout various economic cycles?

  • Are those market(s) growing, stacking the cards in your favor that your company will continue growing?

  • Do your customers love you to the point where they keep coming back to you for projects?

  • Do you have good business development capabilities that will create predictable revenue growth?

  • Do you have good talent development systems, ensuring that your revenue growth does not exceed your ability to grow and retain leadership talent?  

  • Are you generating enough free cash flow to support your growth?

Sometimes, an outside perspective can be invaluable for helping assess and improve your sustainability. 

What does your scoreboard say?  




Weekly Percent Planned Complete (PPC) and Project Performance
Improving the project planning and delivery process starts with improving predictability around the schedule. Nearly every Superintendent and Foreman is familiar with the Short-Interval-Plan (SIP) and typically fill one out weekly looking ahead 1+ weeks.
Lean Principle - Observation (Gemba Walks and Learning to See)
One of the most important tools for improving productivity is going to the jobsite or work area and observing for an extended period of time with the intent to understand but not to immediately interact. Observation progresses through about 7 stages.
Appearance and Experience of Management Control
As your career develops and you grow into roles of greater responsibility, one of the biggest challenges is what Jennifer Garvey Berger calls “The paradox of the appearance of increasing control and the experience of decreasing control.”