“Any crane accident is bad press for the construction industry” bad press? Really? Is it just bad press? Hope you can feel my sarcasm here! but I read yesterday an article about Crane Safety in a construction magazine that started with the above statement. With more than half dozen accidents in less than a year, crane safety is something that has been getting my attention; making me feel unease particularly when I’m around cranes in jobsites, why? please keep reading.

Some of the highlights of the article: “OSHA’s current crane safety standards, drafted in 1971 and not updated since 1988 and 1993, are overdue for major revisions” “Currently, states are not required to adopt OSHA’s most basic crane safety recommendations” “Advocates for uniform crane safety standards say the increase in accidents last year is a sign that the old, inconsistent way of doing things is failing”

16 year overdue? most basics recommendations no required to be followed? Old, inconsistent way of doing things is failing? (these phrases have been pounding in the back of my head since yesterday!) how come? this can’t be happening in the construction industry (should I start crying now over my headache?)

I thought you might want to see this David.

Just witnessed yesterday one of the best weekly subcontractors meetings I've ever attended.  50 minutes to cover the agenda. The meeting started by reviewing the Plus/Delta from the previous meeting (5 minutes) then Safety and House keeping (5 minutes) and review of PPC (88%) and Variances for the current week (5 minutes). After this they reviewed the Make Work Ready Plan starting from week 6 then working their way backwards to week 1 (10 Minutes). As I expected the majority of the time was spent coordinating next week work. There were 22 different subcontractors in the meeting; this means that they went over 22 WWP's in only 20 minutes.

The superintended finished up with a Plus/Delta (5 minutes) and adjourned the meeting by thanking everyone for their participation, preparedness and for being on time.

Plus:

What????? Ok, please stay with me here and allow me to illustrate this using Genesis 11:7:

"Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

This was the Divine punishment to the builders of one of the first big projects of humanity, the Tower Babel, punishment that originated nations and their languages and stayed with us ever after (particularly with builders). As you see builders started suffering from communications problems in the very early ages of civilization.

Last month I had the opportunity of participating with one of my clients in an SAT (Study Action Team) with a group of Lean facilitators. The book; "Move the World" by Dean M. Brenner, a book about persuasion. One relevant key point on leadership I highlighted and wanted to share with you:

"Without good leadership most teams are dead on arrival".

Why is this relevant for me? Because lack of leadership is something I consistently see in projects, particularly when I arrive to start a lean implementation. Some of the project teams I've worked with don't even know about the existence of a "leadership" in the project. Can you believe this? When I specifically ask project team members who their leadership was some answered that their leadership was somebody in the project, others answered that it was somebody in the main corporate office, other just didn't know who the leadership was.

That's probably what Sir Winston Churchill will say to the project management team featured on the video below. Do you see anything familiar on this video? I do and I'm sure you will too. Lack of ownership, collaboration, communication, leadership, commitment and coordination are the "Plat du Jour" in construction sites around the world. But, you already know this, right? so what's the big deal? Well this is just my way to encourage you to keep going, yes, but not through hell. Let's keep going on changing and improving the construction industry and, keep going through Lean heaven instead. Let's post soon a video here telling a Lean heaven story. Have a great weekend mis amigos!

For those of you who couldn't find it.

I think I will never get enough when it comes to listening to the “Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra” under the excellent conduction of Gustavo Dudamel in the album “Fiesta”.  Dudamel’s passion it’s inspiring.  His unpretentious style and humbleness is unique.

When I saw Dudamel conducting for the first time, I got an immediate flashback to a conversation I had on 1994 about leadership with my Venezuelan mentor Beltran Fermin. I can almost hear him say as if it was yesterday  - “A leader is like conductor of an orchestra; he leads the team and brings out the best from every player; humbleness is the most important quality of a leader”, his reflection always stayed with me. Beltran’s conduction shaped my career and my life.

While giving an interview to the BBC of London in 2007 Dudamel reflected on what makes a good conductor:

I’m this writing this in between calls from clients. Just finished up with a client that finally “got it” and understood that he needs to lead, show others the way, but to do that he needs to “walk the talk’ he said.  I took 5 minutes to reflect on how important is for the Lean leadership to understand their role. I consistently hear this from most of the people I coach but few of them really understand the power of “walking the talk” and leading by example.  First thing that came to my mind was something I read about Gary Convis in “How Toyota became #1” by David Magee. Chapter 3 –“The Power of Humility” page 48 “He not only preaches Toyota’s unique way of doing business, he practices it every day – living the philosophy of respect for people”.

I need to remind this to my clients. I wonder if I’ve been a good example. I need to keep this in mind, practice it more; every day.  Be an example!