Winning the “When”
Efficient time management is a fundamental ingredient for success in any industry – especially construction. It’s a rare construction company indeed that doesn’t wish there were more hours in the day. How do great contractors seem to get more out of the 24-hour day than others?
Watch Digging Deeper this week as Dennis emphasizes the importance of instilling strict time management disciplines and highlights a few areas which may be in need of attention and improvement. What time discipline strategies work for you? Please share with us in the comments below.
Time is running out for enrolling your high-potential NextGen leaders to The Contractor Business Boot Camp. The Denver class beginning in August is more than half full. Contact Charlotte today at [email protected] to find out more about the program.
Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht with FBI, Digging Deeper.
Today, I want to talk about, Winning the “When," in quotes, the “when," and I wrote about this couple of weeks back, but
wanted to talk about it today.
Great construction companies have a certain discipline to them, and that discipline is that things happen on time. The
when probably in construction is consistently more important than how. If you get buyout done on time, if you get your
reports in on time, that allows the internal machine of the company to move. Certainly, you've got to get your payroll in
on time. If you don't pay people on time, that's very much a problem. But really, there are a million things in your company
that have to happen on a timely basis and happen on time, and when they do, the engine turns, and things get done well.
When I say the discipline of doing it on time can be more important than how, I think the discipline for doing work on time
actually spills over to doing it well and doing it with quality. Those same traits and that same discipline that promotes
getting things done on time also promotes getting them done well. What it is, everything has to be done, so if we do
everything a little bit late, does that really help us get things done? Or can we just move the whole cycle up and make all
those things happen on time, get on time, stay on time, be on time?
I think the answer is yes, we can, but you may have some people that have trouble with that, and they may need some
training or some support, and sometimes it is a matter of support because people have too much on their plate. Perhaps
they can't get it all done on time, so that may be a matter of job design or how much support they have or whatever. But
for the most part, you want them to be able to get their work done on time and you want them to have the discipline for
getting it done on time.
In order for on-time to be important, time must also be valued. There's an efficiency of time that you probably see most
often in things like your company meetings. Do people show up on time? Do they show up ready for the meetings? Is
people's time wasted as they wait on a decision or they stand in line at the door waiting to see you, or they take too long
of breaks, and they don't come and go from their breaks very well? Even getting to work and from work, there's again,
that timeliness. Not that everybody has to arrive at the exact same hour or leave at the exact same hour, but if you can't
rely on when people are going to be there, again, that may muck up the whole operation. So, time has to be valued so
that it's not being wasted, and there should be efficiency to your meetings and discipline to your meetings and those
things, as well.
Again, great companies have that discipline, and they almost have a rhythm to it, almost like a fine music or something
like that, that things happen, they happen on time, people can count on them, and that rhythm oftentimes is a weekly,
monthly rhythm that they have to them. Their culture is such that being on time and being timely with the work is an
expectation. By the way, that expectation must be set as an example also by the leaders, because if the leaders don't set
that example, it'll likely follow through the organization.
My encouragement to each of you about winning the when is to do a self-audit. Perhaps just in your mind, look at the 50
things that are most important to happen on time in your organization. Are they occurring on time? Do people get their
invoices approved on time? Just one example, but is buyout done on time? Are some submittals in on time? Are they
reviewed on time, sent back out on time? Are we finishing our projects on time? Are we done, done and off the project
on time? Those are the big things, but of course, in construction, everything has to happen on time.
So, do a little self-audit. If 90%, and that may sound like a high bar, if 90% of the activities in your company do not occur
on a timely basis, you probably need a major intervention to try to change the culture and give things back so they happen
as a discipline, as a rhythm, and you can then win the when.
Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper.
