Survival. That’s what we’ve been focused on since the economy fell off into the great abyss a couple of years ago. Do whatever you need to do to land projects and then use whatever means possible to get the work done. Since all of your help is no longer around, the burden is on you to just make it happen. Nights. Weekends. Holidays. Drafting board. Slide rule. Abacus. Whatever. Just get it done.

Survival mode is great when your primary goal is, well, survival. But, survival mode is no way to run an organization long term, much less grow that organization into a sustainable, thriving enterprise. A person can only tread water for so long before they eventually sink. Growth and continual improvement is not just a nice goal for a business; in the information age, it is essential!

Building a top notch organization means moving beyond mere survival and spending time developing systems that facilitate smart, strategic growth. What better time to develop these systems than during a down cycle? As people are added to the team over time, they are equipped with the right tools from the start.

This week, I was asked by one of my architectural colleages to provide a budget for a potential new project. I get at least a couple of these requests each week which is, of course, a very good thing. The problem is that I usually spend an unecessary amount of time and effort essentially creating these from scratch – only to produce a budget that could easily be standardized based on some well-defined criteria.

So this time, I resisted the urge to reinvent the wheel yet again and forced myself to spend a couple of hours creating an interactive spreadsheet that automatically generates a budget statement based on some simple user input. It’s pretty slick, if I do say so myself. Turn on the check boxes for the scope items that need to be included. Answer a few basic questions (region, site acreage, building area, etc.). A basic fee is then calculated from the selected scope items and an adjustment factor is applied based on the other user input.

The result of this extra effort to create a useful system is a more consistent product that can be used by the whole team to generate accurate budgets in a fraction of the time.

Imagine the impact of implementing one new system each week for the next year – systems that increase productivity, automate repetitive tasks, and help us produce more consistent results.

Why bother?

It’s not about creating another tedious form, or learning new software, or implementing checklists that never get used. It’s about arming ourselves with the tools that give us a significant strategic advantage in the marketplace.

What systems are you working on to move your team beyond survival?

A.J. Whitaker, PE, PLS
aj@engipreneur.com

http://www.engipreneur.com