A person on TV last night who is in charge of disasters, said that in disasters, ANY disaster, the three biggest problems they have are:
1. Communication
2. Organization
3. Cooperation
Seems to me that the above three “exactly†apply to the construction industry. I think our biggest problem in addressing the above is that we do not emphasize enough importance to the “proper usage of each of them.
And IMO, the biggest problem we have in not emphasizing their importance is not by concentrating on their “basicsâ€, but by first concentrating on the very basic of their basics. If one were to apply that last sentence to each of the above three items, you are forced to get to the very basic concept of “communications†for example. What is the basic type(s) and purpose(s) of communication? How does it apply to our businesses, and as important, how does it develop from it’s very basic form, to higher forms, and then again, in “what†forms, and then again, addressing the effectiveness of each type of form in order to reach what end up being proven as the best form.
Of course, then we must address “how†we can assure that what is “communicated by us to someone else, or them to us, is understood or perceived verses how the one ho initiated the communication intended to be perceived?
And that last paragraph is just about “communication.â€
What I’m posting may seem to be more appropriate in a college Psychology course, but if one thinks abut it, it does belong here and for one reason: Virtually every single problem, or worse, a disaster, can be attributed to a breakdown of one or more of the above three items.
And above I have only concerned myself with just “communicationsâ€, one of the three. And the communications I’ve address of course impact those with employees, vendors, customers, subs – everyone with whom we contact and who contact us.
I guess the above is one of the draw backs of being human. Lower forms of animals use grunts, pitched sounds, etc. that do represent basic forms of communication that are rarely if any misinterpreted. Not so for us. Yet in reality, even with such human super duper abilities to communicate, organize and create cooperation, we do half a**ed jobs at how we handleall of them, and as a result, arise problems of our own creation.
So, before I go further, do I sound like I’m going off the deep end, or not?
Replies
Sonny,
Thank you for making this point. I am very surprised at the lack of response. Though i am somewhat new to the business i have to say that the most aggravating aspect is dealing with the poor communication/business skills of many contractors. I am so tired of belligerent dishonest contractors. Of course in every walk of life there are always some intentionally dishonest people.
I'm assuming what you are talking about are the people that are trying(at least in their own minds) to make a genuine effort to do their job well. What i have found however, is that a lot of these guys just don't want to make the effort to learn how to communicate and do business in a constructive way. Characteristics that contribute to this disaster effect you talk about are mental laziness, being easily threatened by what is not understood, by others, short sightedness and an unwillingness to empathize with the other parties situation.
I have found that by trying to be reasonable and speaking in a non-confrontational tone, that this is often taken as a sign of weakness, and unfortunately often invites further abuse. I am dealing with a situation right now with a contractor that i thought i had a pretty good relationship with, he has been pretty helpfull in several ways which i greatly appreciate, but now he is insisting upon additional payment well beyond what was contracted for. He is pretty much confrontational in our conversations and really has not made any effort to adequately account for the extra pay he is seeking but is certain he is entittled to it. Compounding the strained communication is that he keeps poor records, and is insisting there is an outstanding balance due. Fortunately i keep all my receipts. My feeling that is that he underbid the work and is trying to make it up with additional charges.
The point is however, here is a situation were we could have had a pretty good working relationship and perhaps done some projects together, but now it's just so much aggrevation.
Anyway, this topic if very important and I'm glad you brought it up.
-David P.
Edited 9/18/2004 12:37 pm ET by dperfe
Thanks for your post.
Understand that the motivation for tradesmen becoming business owners is because they make the mistake of thinking that because they have the “technical†skills, they can therefore own and operate a business that utilizes those trade skills. It’s like a cook thinking he can successfully own a restaurant, or an electronic genius can own a Dell computer Co.
Businesses utilize many, many “skills†of which certain “technical skills†are but one.
Financial skills, organizational skills, PR skills, marketing skills, Production supervision skills, HR skills, inventory mgt. skills, and the list goes on. What most of these new entrepreneurs don’t understand is that the re first “salesmen†and second “managersâ€, managing those other above skills, whether those skills are inherent of them as a one man operation or skills of many employees.
Each potential contractor should read Michael Gerber's’ book entitled: “The E-Myth Contractor - Why Most Contractors’ Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About Itâ€, or for all small businesses, “The E-Myth Revisited - Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About It.â€
Yes, we have many incompetent contractors, and we have some con artists. Unfortunately, the public also is saturated with con artists.
Contractors problems are many, and why we have about an 85% plus failure rate during their first 5 years of business.
Most contractors, being tradesmen first, really want to do a good job, but because of the above lack of business skills, they fall down, some quickly. And as with most businesses regardless of the industry, they are under capitalized the day they start their business, so they are always playing catch up, but rarely do “catch up.†Unknowingly, they start digging their own hole the day they open their business doors.
I’ve learned that a business is like a puzzle with several parts. If one part is missing, success is not obtained. If 2-3 parts are mangles, success is not obtained. Each part must be in really great shape, like the “systems†that propel a car or truck. Sure, a slipping trans, or V8 running on 7 spark plugs, will operate, but it’s driver will never win any races, and considering competition and the business world at large, business is “always†a race. I once read in a business book an statement made by it’s author: “It’s a cold hard fact of life that in the business world, there are no rewards for effort, only results.†How true, and those “results†had better be nothing less that great.
I did not expect to see many comments about my original post, but as with you, was surprised to not see even one. It’s the nature of the mind set within our industry, and others, i assume. What does surprise me is that it looks like we probably have about 8-10 lurkers for every poster here, and it’s those lurkers who really lose out. Passivity will always be a loser to interaction. And in IMHO anyway, there is no such thing as a dumb question, only answers that never get publicized. The word “Whyâ€, and it’s subsequent answers, is the reason why we no longer live in caves.
I often like to quote Albert Gray: “Successful people form the habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do.â€
Edited 9/18/2004 6:44 pm ET by Sonny Lykos