99% of the unpredictability of construction comes from people. PEOPLE need to manufacture, install, and coordinate thousands of things that go into a construction project. The human factor is the root cause of construction being hard, inconsistent, and unpredictable. It comes down to people making poor decisions, not being disciplined and diligent, or letting their ego get in the way.
Think about it… except for Acts of God, (weather, power, etc…) or just bad luck, look back at a few of your recent issues. Drill down to the root cause. Odds are it was human error?
The human factor alone can throw a project off in safety, quality, time, and cost.
- Estimates
- Production planning
- Scheduling
- Personal issues
- New experiences that change perception
- Degraded relationships
- Decisions on safety
- Rushed installation
- Manufacturing issues in time and quality
- Economy and cost escalation
As a leader, human error is very discouraging. At times, almost paralyzing.
Why is it your fault when other people continue to screw up. Why should you continue to bust your ass when they don’t care? Why continue to put so much of your energy in to just a few people without success? So, why?????
Because you are a leader.
You take responsibility for all of it… the good and the bad. You know that when other people succeed or screw up, it ultimately affects the overall project and the overall team. Have confidence in yourself, that when you set the bar high and don’t quite reach it, people around you will be amazed at what you HAVE accomplished…not what you HAVE NOT accomplished…and those around you that really care about you will continue to push you to be better and to find new ways of reaching that bar.
You will grow.
You will get better.
Every.
Single.
Day.
The solution is to give EVERYONE the opportunity to succeed EVERY DAY. Yes, even the ones that may not see it or may not have your best interests at heart. When you do that, those around you will know that you have put in an extraordinary effort to help people succeed and even larger effort to keep people from failing.
Think of it this way: Your team is like huge fly wheel.Each member makes up the ring, the spokes, and the energy source.
“A flywheel is essentially a very heavy wheel that takes a lot of force to spin around. It might be a large-diameter wheel with spokes and a very heavy metal rim, or it could be a smaller-diameter cylinder made of something like a carbon-fiber composite. Either way, it’s the kind of wheel you have to push really hard to set it spinning. Just as a flywheel needs lots of force to start it off, so it needs a lot of force to make it stop. As a result, when it’s spinning at high speed, it tends to want to keep on spinning (we say it has a lot of angular momentum), which means it can store a great deal of kinetic energy. You can think of it as a kind of “mechanical battery,” but it’s storing energy in the form of movement (kinetic energy, in other words) rather than the energy stored in chemical form inside a traditional, electrical battery.” Taken from https://www.explainthatstuff.com/flywheels.html
As with a fly wheel, in the beginning, you will need to put in a lot of energy into every person on the team (some more than others) to get it spinning. The more effort you put in, the more energy that is created, the stronger and faster the fly wheel turns. When you get it up to speed it will virtually keep itself running with only minor adjustments and strategic doses of energy. Your team will find momentum that is almost unstoppable.
Please remember, people are not fly wheels, they are people with all of the emotions and flaws that go with it. There will always be a few that cause friction trying to slow the fly wheel down. At times, even you may run out of energy and desire to keep that wheel going. That is when you ask for, and draw on, the stored up kinetic energy of your team. With that collective energy, you will ALWAYS overcome the forces trying to slow down your team.
Be A Builder 
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