Recently, I had the opportunity, thanks to Bosch RefinemySite, to attend the Lean Construction Institute Congress. It had all the usual suspects in attendance, along with all the expected topics and sessions. However, the one that stood out for me was the closing keynote presentation delivered by Retired General McChrystal, the former leader of JSOC, the US Military’s Joint Special Operations Command, a person who is about as far from being a “construction person” as you will find.
I am also not sure he is really a “Lean” person, and the talk he delivered was clearly one of his regular presentations, not at all adopted for construction or for this audience. He didn’t use the “lean terms” that I had been bombarded with all week. He didn’t refer to in-country intelligence gathering as “Gemba” or planning meetings as “Scrum Sessions” (I am not even sure if I got that last reference correct).
What he did do is relate his experience taking over the command of a group of very diverse Special Forces teams, each formed under a different branch of the military, each with their own special skills, each with their own way of doing things; and now they were being told to come together to operate as part of a larger team, for the good of the overall mission. He referred to them as the most highly trained and skilled operators in the world, equipped with the best tools and gear available. The individual team’s ability to complete their tasks was undeniable, yet as a combined team trying to reach a common goal, they were not doing well, and the overall mission was suffering.
What Does this have to do with Construction?
He talked about one of the big challenges of JSOC was that it was made up of so many different groups. Seals, Delta, Rangers, Airforce STS, etc. Each of these groups was the absolute best in the world at what they do. The problem was that they didn’t get along. The Seals hated Delta, Delta didn’t like the Rangers, and no one wanted to talk to the Airforce, because “why would you”.
Come on…this is us!
The concrete crew hates the plumbers, the electricians are always in the plumber’s way, and no one wants to talk to the elevator people (because why would you).
There is also a great parallel in the command-and-control structure. The challenge being, how do you maintain control of these multi-step missions, with requirements that must be met, rules that must be followed, while allowing highly trained operators to still make decisions in the field when needed? General McChrystal described coming to the realization that there is a difference between “complicated” and “complex”, and he discussed the lessons he learned in dealing with each. Again, there is an absolute direct parallel here with the construction industry.
Complicated tasks are those with many steps. Important steps that cannot be skipped or overlooked. Ordered steps that must be completed in sequence in order to ensure success. Complex tasks are those with many variables. Variables that cannot all be anticipated, or variables that may present themselves in unpredictable orders or combinations. Treating complicated and complex as the same thing, and controlling them in the same way, was leading to failure in the field. We experience the same issue in construction.
In construction, we have tasks that are complicated. We love to control these tasks from the top down. We do this with checklists, permits, and other forms of step-by-step instructions. When a task or operation is complicated, this absolutely works. But we also have complex tasks. Tasks that may present us with many different conditions, or combination of conditions, that we cannot accurately predict. This is when our checklists fail. They fail because the field conditions that we encounter every day are variable. Not everything is ready. There is another trade in our way. There was a plan revision. The inspector didn’t show up. The inspection didn’t pass. Someone damaged our work. It rained. Its windy. The superintendent is telling us to do something else. Three people didn’t show up today. The work in place doesn’t seem to match the plans. The materials weren’t all delivered. I can keep going here for a long time…
How do you account for all this on a permit or checklist?
The answer is, you can’t. Nor should you try.
Then How do we Maintain Control?
That’s the big question. How do we maintain control of our crews in the field when they are presented each day with a set of variables that we cannot possibly predict? What good is the checklist if it doesn’t tell them everything they need to do?
The answer is, we need to recognize the difference between complicated and complex. We also need to recognize that many of our tasks are both, complicated and complex. We can checklist the steps in the complicated task. And we should do this. It helps crews remember to complete each step. It can help them remember to complete them in a certain order. It helps to ensure that some of the critical steps that management wants to dictate, are completed and not overlooked. But we really need to recognize that some of the steps will be complex, and we need to stop trying to break these down into mandatory checklists.
This is where we must stop and rely on the skills and training of our operators in the field. Our skilled trades and crafts people. We need to provide them with the skills and training they need to make informed decisions in the field, and then we need to empower them to do so. Trying to make those complex decisions from the top, through uninformed process checklists that rarely match the variable field conditions, just sets us up for failure. It also disrespects the people we rely on in the field.
The Answer
Checklist the complicated processes. Include little details that you don’t want skipped or forgotten. Do this with check lists or permit forms or instruction manuals. But let your trained field personnel make the decisions in the field on complex tasks. If they need more training to do that, then get them more training. Identify the skills they need in the field to make these informed decisions and create a path for them to learn and develop those skills. Support them in their decisions, and make sure they have a team they can consult with when needed, but respect them enough to make sure they understand that we cannot control everything in the field from the office. When we give our people the skills and training they need to make informed decisions, they can solve complex problems in the field with a much higher degree of success than any checklist.
Your Thoughts...
Does your company have checklists that don't work? Is it because the task is complex? Let me know in the comments section below.
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