Laws Control the Lesser Man

Growing construction businesses need processes and accountability systems the same way society needs laws, police, courts and jails.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

You can also never create enough laws or prisons to correct an underlying lack of strong values and shared mission.

Quote: Laws control the lesser man, right conduct controls the greater one. Mark Twain.

As a contractor starts growing leadership needs to put some processes in place to keep things running smooth.  This is called enabling bureaucracy because it is the standardized set of rules that allow sustainable growth. As a contractor grows past about 150 people or starts to expand geographically there will likely be a point where too much process starts to creep into the business.  This is considered coercive or stifling bureaucracy.  

Leaders must always be working on the balance between aligned mission, culture or behavioral norms, processes and accountability systems.  

If you find yourself and others pulling heavily on the process and accountability lever with diminishing returns the likely problem is lack of balance with people and their behavior. 


Learn More:

Compliance Will Only Take Safety So Far

Books:

Schedule a call with us to learn how we help contractors scale their businesses sustainably 




CMAR - Strategic Market Choices and a 3-Part Approach
Being truly competitive (or not having to compete at all) with the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) project delivery method requires advanced business development and preconstruction capabilities.
Definition of Sustainability
How sustainable is your construction business? Not your ability to build sustainable buildings, but the true sustainability of your business.
Building a Systems Development Team - Starting
Most Systems Development teams start with someone doing report writing or other forms of data extraction and integration, such as creating a dashboard or streamlining through imports.