Four Dimensions of Effective Improvement Teams

Construction project owners are demanding more complex projects delivered faster, with higher quality and at a competitive cost.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share
Leadership Tools: 4 Dimensions of Effective Improvement Teams. Teamwork, Complexity of Though and Planning, Disciplined Execution, and Change Adoption.

Contractors must continuously improve their operations in 3 ways to remain competitive and grow profitably:  

  1. Efficiency - Doing things with less waste improving quality, speed and cost
  2. Capabilities - Providing more services such as offering more advanced preconstruction services
  3. Capacity - Ability serve growing customers; possibly in multiple geographies

To accomplish this contractors must identify areas of focus then put together effective improvement teams.  There are four major dimensions we look for when putting together these teams:

  1. Teamwork - Can they effectively work together?
  2. Complexity of Thought & Planning - Everyone is different; does the team have the right mix to solve the problem?  Do you have an opportunity to develop capabilities in high-performers through the team?
  3. Disciplined Execution - Some people are great starters while others are amazing finishers and if you don’t have some disciplined maintainers on the team then any short-term gains will be lost quickly.
  4. Adoption of Change - Everyone is different in different circumstances and a mixture is critical for making lasting improvements.  

What’s the #1 area you need to improve in your company this year?  

Do you have the right team?

Are they meeting regularly?

Are they committing the right resources?




Market Share and Margins (Economic Theory and Practice)
When evaluating or deciding on a market strategy, it is helpful for contractors to understand some economic theories and real-world examples of how margins and market share relate to each other.
Missing Person Protocol
One of the biggest challenges of growth is keeping an ever-increasing number of people aligned. With nearly everyone being over-scheduled and focusing on competing priorities, a missing person protocol is critical for successful meetings and decisions.
6 Progressive Levels of Standards Development
Standards progress through six basic levels as a contractor grows based on impact, frequency, and quantity of different people doing them. Optimum outcomes including scalability are based on choosing the right level - higher is not always better.