ESCO Contractors, LLC

April 15-19 is National Work Zone Awareness Week. Work zones represent one of the biggest safety risks our employees regularly face. When approaching a work zone or out on the road, some tips to help keep you and road workers safe are: • Pay Attention and Eliminate Distractions – Do Not Text and Drive  • Slow Down and Watch Out for Workers  • Keep a Safe Distance Learn more about work zone safety in our 2023 Safety Report: https://lnkd.in/gnrMy7XX #NWZAW

Is an ounce of prevention worth more than a pound of cure? Often times referred to as the "Deming Cycle", many know it yet fail to understand the importance of the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle. Do well-intentioned staff and managers simply plan out their work and just do it without checking out how effective their efforts have been and then adjusting to do it better? Are we in a societal norm of "Just do It" like a famous sneaker manufacturer once advanced? Failing to plan causes most issues. It is said that anywhere from 50%-75% of issues in a project or program implementation comes from ineffective initiation and planning. That can surely be debated and the impact depends upon the implementation scenario. However, what cannot be dismissed or heavily debated is the existence of the negative consequences of not checking how your "plan" and "do" are going and then making necessary adjustments. Negative consequences will always rear their ugly heads when one fails to check and act upon any findings of deviation. Helmuth von Moltke, an 19th century German Field Commander, simply stated that "No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force." So, who is the enemy? The enemy is anything and everything that works consciously or unconsciously towards impeding the success of your plan of operations. It can be as simple as unknown technical considerations to alienated and adverse stakeholders. You see the PDCA cycle in everyday life. Football coaches will often script the first 10-20 offensive plays in a game to test, probe, and consider the defense (enemy) being deployed against their ultimate success, scoring and a win. Aircraft, ships, and other vessels constantly are having to adjust course due to the effects of winds, waves, etc. that may be in contrast to their ultimate goal, their port of call or final destination. So, why do so many program and project managers plan and implement but not check and act (adjust) as necessary? What good is a risk management plan if the risks (and opportunities) are not updated, re-qualified, re-quantified, and re-prioritized? What if your stakeholders and their power and interest in your project/program change, especially towards the negative? Those that fail to check and act on a regular basis eventually become nothing more than an ad hoc firefighter getting buried by that which should be planned for and managed in a forward and predictive management plan. The old wive's tale that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure certainly applies here and is very true, even if it's not used in a medical nature. ESCO Contractors, LLC OBP3 #projectmanagement #programmanagement #pdca

The world today is full of consultants, partners, consulting partners, etc. Those of you that may have read some of my previous posts would say that I have attested to being any number of the same. Yet, I sit and muse that those terms are as incorrect in describing my approach to work as they may be offensive to the same people I seek to help. Consulting is simply being engaged in the business of giving expert advice to people working in a professional or technical field. In addition, an antiquated definition of partner is one that shares. So, do they really share anything other than advice? Do they share in the pain as well as the gain? You likely answered “no” to both of the previous questions in your head. Some of you may have even been shouting out “NO!” and now your co-workers or your pet is wondering what the heck they did. Working in a broad range of the utility business has given me the insight that those defined goals, or how to get them implemented, likely changes every three to five years. Why does this happen? It happens because that’s how long it typically takes an organization to realize that they are not making any headway towards implementing and realizing the new goals and often promised results. Chances are that a consultant was paid to recommend several organizational changes, create catchy phrases and slogans, and make process changes that seem correct on the face, but don’t get to the core of why they are needed in the first place. Relating my life to the arts, I can’t help but align this repeating process and associated frustration with a 2002 Audioslave song, “Show me how to live.” The late, great Chris Cornell belts out the lyrics of that song and details the struggles of a man recognizing his gift of life from a creator and how imperfect and difficult that life is. He pleads that he has not been shown “how to live” and if you have ever watched the music video, the video and song ends in a fiery car crash.   Maybe this is all a little over dramatic, but it all tends to track with what I see daily in the industry. Getting to the chase, I am in the business of, and I work as a goal alignment and realization professional through the precepts of decades of experience and the standards of organizational, portfolio, program, and project management by the Project Management Institute (PMI). The definition of shared pain and shared gain is that there is one common goal: to align the interests of both parties so that they are working towards the same goal. The only question(s) remaining is(are), what tailored application of those precepts is required for each situation? If you would like to or are in need of having a Goal Alignment & Goal Implementation Specialist (GAGIS) engaged within your organization, please reach out to me and let us help "show them how to live.” It’s a pretty good and fulfilling life…. ESCO Contractors, LLC OBP3 #opm #managementconsulting #goalalignment #implementation #winningtogether