top of page

3 Key Strategies to prevent calamities on your project caused by this dangerous component

Writer's picture: Andrew PhilipsAndrew Philips

Can you identify the #1 source of most project calamities ?


Imagine you're in the middle of an amazing home renovation - a super exciting project. And then things start going wrong. One thing after another. Excitement turns to dread. You can't bear the thought of going to site to discover the new disasters waiting for you.

Whenever Homeowners tell stories about their Home Makeover projects, they often seem to be tales of frustrations, annoyances and catastrophes of one kind or another. Some describe how they've lost money or how the project costs spiralled out of control. Others groan about the time being wasted and missed deadlines.


There's a striking similarity to all of their stories. They don't usually moan about the materials and component parts, equipment and machinery. It's something else that causes the problems, something else at the heart of what makes Home Makeover Projects so incredibly messy, and complicated and likely to come unstuck.


Can you guess what it is ?


So what is the one single thing that has caused problems on building sites since as far back as the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza more than 4,500 years ago and is still causing trouble today ? What has been a similarity between projects throughout history from the Pyramids, to the ancient castles of England to your dream Home Makeover Project. Yes, it’s the people ... from the slaves and slave masters, to the peasants, masons and carpenters of old ... the operatives, the architect and designer, the driver delivering materials and the building control officer from the local council, even you, the Client ... all those wonderful, helpful, often highly skilled people ... who together can turn your dream project into the catastrophe you never wanted it to be.


Humans are incredible. But when we come together to collectively do something, we have a unique ability to turn any inspiring challenge into a nightmare. When humans are added into the mix, that's when the trouble starts.


So what can you do to prepare for dealing with these wonderful but complex contributors to get the best out of them and keep them from causing the trouble you want to avoid ?


You need to consider two perspectives which are critical to understand if you are going to lead your project to a successful outcome.


Firstly ... Construction in the context of a Home Makeover Project is an art-form not a scientific endeavour. Your Home Makeover Project is art in action, creativity in real time, rather than a controlled scientific procedure.


And that’s because it's a fundamentally creative process. Think about it ... even if every one of your contractors, constructors, artisans, crafts-people have participated in hundreds of projects, they have never built exactly what they will build for you. It will be different from any other bathroom, kitchen or extension they've ever created before. It may have similar components but it will be different.


Which means this is their first time doing it. And that makes your project a dress rehearsal. Everything they don't know they don't know, they will discover during the first - and unfortunately only time - they do it. And that's the same for everyone on the site. Which is why it's such a messy process. Everyone is learning, everyone is finding a unique way to get the job done.


Compare this to Elon Musk's Tesla assembly engineers target 100% accuracy 100% of the time ... which they can do because they are doing exactly the same things at a micro scale over and over again for each of the thousands of identical cars they manufacture.


Secondly ... many of the people who work on the project will not have worked with each other before - most will meet on your project for the first time. The combination of teams, operatives and trades means the plumber may be working alongside an electrician he's never seen before. So not only are they doing this thing the very first time, they are playing with team mates who they don't know at all.


A sports team is the exact opposite. Team members get to know each other so well they can anticipate each other's next move, their coaches drill them in offensive or defensive plays over and over - those players can do their stuff in their sleep. But that's not what our site crews have to deal with.


So how to solve this problem. Since appointing robots isn't yet a possibility for most of us, we have to deal with these contrary humans and their one-time shot to get it as close to perfect as possible.


Here are three key strategies to focus on:

  1. Proactive People Management

  2. Detailed Design Planning and

  3. Crystal Clear Communication

Each of these are huge topics and multiple expert books have been written about them. But for the purposes of working to achieve a successful outcome on your Home Makeover project I want to share a few, easily actionable steps you can take.


Let's start with Proactive People Management - three things you must do : Respect, Encourage, Be positive

  1. Respect : All the people on site are only human - they bring their imperfections, their good and bad moods, their own daily struggles onto your site with them. So make every effort to make your site at least a friendly, welcoming and pleasant work environment. As the Client, the way you treat everyone who works on the site will have a huge impact on how they work for you. Treat them fairly and with respect and you will earn their respect and they will give you a better service.

  2. Encourage : Human beings respond better to encouragement than to punishment. Praise before blame. Hunting down the culprit and then administering a blistering reprimand in front of the whole team will never achieve the result you need even if it makes you feel better in the moment. Always use a reasonable tone and avoid unnecessary threats and punishments. Remember everyone is carrying their own burdens and heavy baggage. Making them feel even worse will get you nowhere. Kindness, sensitivity and reasoned and reasonable interaction gets the best results. And it doesn't prevent you from escalating the situation if you don't get the positive responses you need. Imagine how you would like to be treated and then try to behave that way.

  3. Be positive : Positivity gets better results than negativity. When humans get together in tough circumstances, the tendency is to collectively spiral downwards into negativity. It’s a default mode for project teams to talk themselves into a storm about the challenges they are facing and how hard it is to solve their problems. So focus on stopping the negative-speak as quickly as possible by taking these steps :

    1. Acknowledge the challenge and validate their anxiety about the problem to be solved.

    2. Redirect their negative energy to focus on possible ways to solve the problem. Get everyone involved thinking creatively.

    3. Work the problem together and focus on building a solution-oriented mindset. When people think collectively and work a problem together, they have great power to solve the challenges that face them.

You need to bring positive energy to your team, relentlessly, as you focus them on problem solving and inspire them to overcome the challenges.


After People Management, you must focus on Detailed Design Planning. This is the #1 Secret for Home Makeover Project Success. You can discover much more about this if you download the Free Gift offered at the end of this Blog Post.


Note that more than any other factor on Home Makeover Projects, how well you pre-plan and pre-think what you're going to be building, will pre-determine the success of the project.


And I can guarantee it will save you money and time on any home makeover project. I explain why in more detail in the video that comes with the Free Download. More about that at the end of this Blog Post.


Finally - Crystal Clear Communication.

There are eight secrets to achieving communicating effectively. All communication must be :

  1. Targeted - it has to be aimed at the right person. A scattergun approach is inefficient and ineffective. It doesn't work. Choose carefully who you send emails to. Avoid copying to “all” on the team. This applies to meetings as well as to emails. Don't have huge meetings with 20 people on site - anyone who is not part of the conversation will get bored, lose focus and stop concentrating. And then they'll miss the one important thing they needed to hear.

  2. Direct. If you need folk to focus then don't start with a long introduction about what the weather is like, how they're doing, whether they had a great weekend. Busy site teams need laser focus on important matters.

  3. Specific. If something needs doing in a particular way by a particular time on a particular day, then say so. If the reason is easy to explain then do so but avoid being over complicated.

  4. Detailed but only as much as necessary. Provide sufficient detail to get actions taken. Too much information confuses busy people or makes them switch off. Short and sweet is best.

  5. Written. Never expect site operatives to remember the things they have been told in conversations on site. Make sure they take notes - don't let them come to meetings without a notebook or their iPad or smartphone which they can use to take memos, make notes. It is essential to make notes yourself when it comes to key decisions, issue significant directions, particularly instructions and then to circulate them to relevant team members afterwards. This is on you. Email is effective but there are other software options and apps you can use too. "Slack" is great for team communication, but only if everyone uses it.

  6. Shared wisely. Make sure decision makers and takers get copies of instructions and information that is likely to affect their costs, their progress or changes something still to be completed. But don't burn through everyone's attention span expecting them to pick out relevant items from amongst a long list of other items. Batching items really helps with this - electrical to the electricians, plumbing to the plumber and so on. Where there are overlapping items then send those to relevant team members.

  7. Appropriate to the group. Don't discuss project costs and payment information that's relevant only to the team leader or owner or partner or director. If you're having a payment dispute with the millworker, the electrician and the plumber don't need to know nor do they need all the painful details.

  8. Accessible. Make sure the information is available on site. If instructions are being issued, then keep a handwritten book of instructions on site so there can be no doubt about what was instructed to whom and when.

It usually becomes fairly obvious quite quickly on a project when communication is not going smoothly. Develop whatever system is needed to suit your project and the teams working on it. But do use these tips to help you to make sure you and your team communicate clearly and effectively. Your project will get bogged down if you don't.


Next week we’ll be exploring ... the four key elements of all projects - and how they dominate the outcome of every project.


To make sure you never miss a Blog Post, follow the link below to become a Blog Subscriber. And visit our website at www.thediypm.com where you'll also find links to our weekly Podcast Episodes, our blog posts and details about our upcoming Project Masterclasses and Training Courses.


If you have a question about a project you're planning or already running, please reach out and email me on faq@thediypm.com. If you have a challenge to overcome then others are also facing the same or similar challenges. I'll be answering Subscriber questions in FAQ editions every few weeks. It’s always reassuring to know you’re not alone in your Project challenges.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Get access to our Free OnePager ...

and make sure to download the essential Project Design Planner - you'll find the link in the OnePager (also absolutely Free).

There is an Explainer Training Video which shows you how to follow this Easy-to-Follow Strategy so you can start using it immediately without any prior experience.

Anyone can do it.


 

Become a Blog Subscriber today ...

Commenti


bottom of page