We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

I heard this quote again today and it really got me thinking.  I think one of the key things in life is to get into some routines.  I’ve written before about my morning routine and that process has really helped me with a number of my goals.  By the time I leave for work, I’ve done over 1000 crunches, done my pull-ups, push-ups and dips, walked a few thousand steps and listened to over an hour of interesting and stimulating audio content.

I’ve also established some “standard work” on my Friday mornings at the office.  Fridays are a planning day at Walters & Wolf.  All the PM’s spend the morning reviewing and updating their schedules and checking status on their orders.  So, while it is quiet, I decided to set up a routine for myself also.  We have a management meeting each monday and I have several deliverables.  On Friday morning I create my report on any over budget items we had that week, I read my chapter for the book we are working on and write my 2 or 3 key points to share in the meeting, I make sure I’ve sent out my written compliments for the week and I create my improvement video for the week and publish it to YouTube.

The practice of just doing a small thing each day is gratifying.  Our minds are designed for the small wins.  The little accomplishments that happen consistently over time.  It reinforces success each day and making and keeping small commitments helps you feel empowered.

I think this is a lot of what happened at Fastcap for Paul Akers.  He started the morning improvement walk and the morning meeting at his company.  He did these consistently every single day and never gave up.  Those disciplines, done consistently over time, resulted in excellence for his company.

So, try establishing some small habits that you can commit to each day.  Even if it is something as small as flossing your teeth or doing a few push-ups.  Begin working toward excellence by creating a habit.

How often are you failing?  Most people would not want to admit to failure.  We all want to acknowledge the successes that people have.  We want to celebrate the “wins”.  But in reality, if you aren’t failing, you probably aren’t taking enough risks.

Failure spurs growth.  In the last month or so, I’ve experienced a couple of key failures.  First, we hired a consultant to help us with a project and it did not work out.  We spent a lot of time looking for the right firm, we then spent a day with the top two companies, we all agreed on who we should hire and we brought them on to help us.  We began the project with the best of intentions, but after a couple of weeks, it was apparent that we had made a bad decision.

Now, in most peoples worlds, this was an epic failure.  Look at all the money that was wasted.  Not to mention the time spent by all the people involved.  But in fact, there were some great things that came out of it.  First, it helped our team understand exactly what we want.  We were not clear on this before we hired the consultant so we did not get the expected result.  We also learned a number of things about ourselves.  We gained a lot more trust within the group and we were able to make the decision quickly and admit our mistake.  So, while we did have a failure, it actually helped us to know exactly what we really need to move forward.

We also had a major failure with our new curtain wall system.  We had designed the system, created all the dies and then began building our first units and putting them into the test booth.  The first problem we found was that the gaskets weren’t seating right.  We managed to work through that and start our testing.  Half way through the structural test, one of the floor line clips failed and we blew out the units.  So here we are having spent all that time and money to build the units and test them, and we can’t finish the test.

Again, pretty bad, right?  But actually, the failed test allowed us to research the gasket problem further.  It turns out that it was actually worse than we originally suspected.  We were able to get new gaskets designed and delivered before we built the second set of units.  The second test went exceptionally well.

As my boss is fond of quoting:  Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently (Henry Ford I think).  I really find this to be true.  First, if you aren’t pushing hard to stretch your limits, you probably won’t find yourself failing.  Each failure helps you see where the limits are and helps you find a way to get around them.  This in turn spurs your growth and your knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.

So what will you fail at this week?

Everyone has heard of the golden rule:  Treat others the way you would want them to treat you.  Not as many people have heard of the platinum rule:  Treat others the way they want to be treated.  The difference is subtle but profound.  In most of our communication and interactions, we approach things from our own paradigm.  We don’t often stop to think about the other person’s paradigm.  Our paradigms are the lens through which we see and interact with the world, and we are all different.

How does this apply to the construction world?  In construction, we are constantly being assigned to new projects.  Each project has a different set of external people (Architect, Contractor, Owner, etc…) and a different set of internal people (Engineers, Drafting, Vendors, etc…).  You can’t take a “one size fits all” approach to either your external team or your internal team.

What I typically see, is that people tend to interact in the way that works for them.  If you like email, you tend to send emails.  If you like face-to-face conversations, you tend to do that.  Some of the time, this may work out for you because the person you are interfacing with just happens to have a communication style that is similar to yours.  Many times though, I find that the problems we get into on our projects come down to poor communication between the team.

One way to look at this is through the DISC model.  If you aren’t familiar with DISC, there are tons of resources on-line that can give you a complete overview.  Basically it is a way of looking at peoples preferences when it comes to interacting with each other.  In brief, people fall into 4 categories.  High D is command and control.  Usually your CEO types.  Think of General Patton.  High I will be more like your consummate salesman.  Extroverted and loves to interact.  High S is your more feeling types.  They will be concerned with other people on the team and making sure there is harmony.  The high C’s on your team are more engineering types.  They love data and detail.  This is a complete oversimplification and most people have a mix of these but you get the general idea.

So how do you apply this?  First, you will find your communication will be more effective if you communicate in the other person’s style.  For instance, if the general contractor is a high D, it will probably not help you to hit the job site on Monday morning and start asking how his weekend was.  However, if your superintendent is a high “I” it will probably help if you spend a bit more time talking about the weekend rather than just launching into your list of questions.

I was in a PM’s office and they were complaining that one of their team members had not followed his instructions.  I suggested that maybe it would be good to confirm the verbal instructions in writing.  This did not go over well.  He didn’t understand why he should have to document what he had told someone verbally.  It seemed like a waste of everyone’s time.  So, I asked him:  What is your preferred communication style?  His answer:  Verbal, face to face communication was his preference (he is a very high D).  I then asked him:  What is your team members’ preference.  He said he wasn’t sure (he had never asked).  I then asked him:  What is this person’s first language?  It turns out, it isn’t English.  So, I said, if you were living in their country, don’t you think it would be good to be able to read the instructions also to be sure you fully understood what was needed?  He actually agreed with me.  Looking at what would be best for the other person would greatly increase the effectiveness of the conversation.

Communication is what the listener does.  You are not communicating effectively unless the person you are communicating with actually got the message.  By being agile and changing your communication style to match the other person, you may find that you get much better results overall.

One of my favorite ways to get new ideas and learn new things is through podcasts.  I’m always amazed at the number of people who are not listening to them.  Back in 2005, when I was new to my position, I was looking for information to help me be a better manager.  At that time, podcasting was fairly new.  I discovered a podcast called manager-tools and I was hooked.  There is so much great information out there and it is all Free!  I thought I’d share what is currently on my playlist:

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminars  This is a podcast from Stanford University.  They bring in a speaker each week to talk about starting, funding or running a business.  The content here is amazing.  I’ve gleaned so many great ideas from these podcasts.  I always recommend this one for a start:  What I wish I knew when I was 20 from Tina Seelig.  I really find it inspiring and I find myself going back to it all the time.

Manager Tools  and Career Tools  This is one of the first podcasts I found.  Every podcast is actionable.  It really gets to the heart of how to become a great manager.  There is so much content it can be a little overwhelming so it might be good to start at the Basics page.  This is where I learned the power of having weekly one-on-one’s with my team.  Great resources on interviewing, managing and how to be a great employee.  Can’t recommend it enough.  They do tend to talk a lot, but if you can get past that, it’s great.

HBR Idea Cast  These are from the Harvard Business Review.  They pick one of the articles from the magazine and do an interview based on it.  Lots of interesting content.

The American Innovator  The podcast is from Paul Akers at Fastcap.  As you know, he was one of the inspirations for our lean journey and he has some great information on his podcast.  Sometimes he interviews people and sometimes he takes you on one of his trips.  Lots of great stuff here too.

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast  I found this when I was searching for leadership information.  Andy Stanley is the pastor of Northpoint Church.  He has a great way of distilling concepts down to simple phrases.  I really like his approach to leadership.  His idea of one sentence job descriptions is excellent!

The Entreleadership Podcast  This podcast is from the Dave Ramsey group.  He mixes interviews with authors with ideas from his seminars.  Again, good information for leaders and managers.

Mark Graban’s Lean Blog Podcast  Mark applies lean to healthcare but he interviews people from all industries.  This is where I first heard Paul Akers ideas on 2 Second Lean.  It is a good podcast and will help you learn more about the lean movement.

Read to Lead Podcast  I just discovered this one at the end of last year.  Interviews with people who have recently released books.  I get a lot of ideas on what to read from here.

A few others that I subscribe to are:  Beyond the To Do List, The Leadership Dojo, Managing the Grey, This is your Life, The Accidental Creative, Chris LoCurto, LSS Academy Podcast, Prolific Living Media – The Daily Interaction and North Point Church podcast.

As you can see, there are lots of interesting things out there.  Most podcasts run 20 minutes to an hour.  The things I listen to have changed over time.  Some podcasts have ceased and lots of new ones have started.  Some have just too much talking and some don’t grab me.  But for the most part, the ones you see above are in a steady rotation for me.

I suggest using the Downcast app on your phone.  You subscribe through the app and then it will automatically download the episodes so you can listen to them when you are in your car or out exercising.  I’ve tried other apps but this one works great and does everything I need.   You can also get all these through the iTunes store if you like that method better.

I’d love to hear what podcasts you listen to for ideas and inspiration!