How many projects have you been involved with that unfolded as scripted by “The Plan”?  As of yet, I haven’t been.  Yet time and again we make detailed plans with thousands of activities interconnected together in a labyrinth of logical ties.  Usually “The Plan” was prepared by a handful of “experts” that somehow were able to visualize and understand in detail how the project should be prosecuted.   We then cajole, order, beg, plead and scream at our subcontractors with dictums to get “back on schedule” or else.

Projects don’t unfold exactly as we would like because it is humanly impossible to visualize, analyze and take into account every little detail of a complex undertaking.  In other words, stuff happens that wasn’t foreseen.   Just as adding decimal places to a computation, which is easy to do on today’s calculators and computers, does not make the answer  any more accurate,  using all of the “whiz bang” functionality of today’s scheduling software does not inherently mean that we have represented the real world more accurately than before.

Here we can learn from a profession that undertakes “projects” that are extremely risky, dangerous and very uncertain.  From the Army’s Field Manual on Operations:

Do you talk to yourself when you plan? I do. Let’s say I am planning a picnic. I wonder what’s playing in the park, so I find the concert schedule and look it up. I wonder if it will be a nice night, so I check the weather forecast on the computer. I say to myself, I will need a tarp, a blanket, a bottle of wine, some cheese, some crackers, a corkscrew, a cheese knife, some plates, some napkins, some glasses, and some friends. Since I don’t have any cheese in the house, I will have to allow time to go to the store on the way down. If I don’t want to go on a picnic by myself, at this point I need to start making invitations. I call a few people, ask them if they want to come, and see what they are willing to bring (you bring the red wine, I’ll bring the white, you bring hummus and vegetables, I’ll bring cheese and crackers). What time should we meet? Do you have my cell phone number?

Another way to say this is, I am making assessments, making predictions, consulting other predictors, finding out what has already been scheduled, making requests, negotiating, anticipating contingencies, and making promises. In the end, we have a plan.

What I see about this plan is that I can get only so far by myself. I can talk to myself all day, write down a list of things to bring, a schedule, and even a budget, but up until this point, I have only my own predictions and assessments. Only when I begin to involve others do I begin to develop a plan that anyone is committed to.

Look at your plans, schedules and budgets. Are they a list of wishes, hopes, and guesses, or are they a set of mutual promises?

 

Manufacturers, inspired by Toyota as a role model, have learned to take customer satisfaction seriously.  In businesses such as construction, where each product is custom-made, the practice of negotiation to understand the customer's conditions of satisfaction has also achieved its rightful level of importance. 

In manufacturing, a single process is used to make a large number of products.  The process is designed and then can be improved incrementally as the participants contribute their ideas for kaizen. 

In construction, a one-time process is used to make a single complex product.  The product is usually so complex that the process can't be understood and fully designed in advance.  The Last Planner ® System offers the possibility of continuously negotiating the process by which the product will be built through the discipline of planning.

Throughout my career in the AEC industry I've heard the term pre-plan or pre-planning. I've even heard it uttered from some of my LPC colleagues. The term never made any sense to me. It's one of those terms with an unnecessary prefix, like "irregardless". For as much as the term "pre-planning" is used in our industry, I could only find one on-line source that defined "pre-plan"... Wiktionary. It's definition..."planning in advance".

Isn't all planning done in advance? Otherwise it's improvisation.

We have to contrived a word to make it seem like we already plan but we just need to plan little bit more to be successful. It seems to me that we are just hiding a problem. Our industry as a whole just doesn't know how to plan well, we don't learn from our experiences, and therefore we can't deliver repeatable results to our customers.

 

The administrator of the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration spoke at the Greater Portland Construction Partnership (GPCP) yesterday evening. The GPCP meets quarterly to "enhance the construction industry's performance" and has a foundation of in the domain of safety.

 

A Toyota executive* says that to be able to deal with issues, they first have to have a cordial environment. This for him is OASiS representing Ohayo (good morning), Arigato (thank you), Shitsurei-shimanshita (pardon me), and Sumimasen (excuse me; I'm sorry). Being polite are the first step in creating a culture that encourages open and collaborative communication. Especially with people on the front lines. Especially when we need them to say whatever they must to whoever in the organization. 

 

A colleague of mine (thanks Rebecca McCoy) suggested another acronym - GETS. Good morning, Excuse me, Thank you, Sorry. Anyway, the point isn't this sillyness. It's having a cordial environment.