Hungry Gustav - Life Nonpareil

High Productivity Curse in Construction Management

Productivity in management? Well, yes, that's what executives want anyway. They are pushing their middle managers to be ever busier loading them with procedural nightmares and thinking their project, operations, construction and whatever else managers are productive if they live at least 12-hour work days running around like headless chicken. The consequences are hardly believable and although terribly obvious nobody dares to challenge the 'work hard' madness.

What's wrong with an 8-hour work day? You think it is not possible to live an 8-hour day because you wouldn't be able to complete everything? Well, guess what, you are overworked and potentially inefficient. Yes, there are people around us that can complete everything necessary in 8 hours while others would need at least 50% more time to achieve the same. But much more dangerously, being overworked dramatically reduces your efficiency and even though you might be a mean efficient machine in your normal life work overload will turn you into an inefficient headless chicken, let alone the suffering your family will be exposed on a daily basis. You will be running around firefighting, infinitely and tirelessly trying to tie up lose ends thinking how damn good you are, perhaps even feeling sorry for yourself. Sounds familiar? I bet it does because this is what construction professionals call 'normality'.

The problem is that 'construction normality' is utterly abnormal leading to a vicious circle of ever more firefighting reducing you to a monster chicken just like those Jamie Oliver was showing in his shows. So, all in all, life is good no matter the suffering because hard work is what we should do, right? Well, no! Nothing wrong with hard work, don't take me wrong but it is wrong that construction professionals are overworked. They should be ruthless efficient machines within an 8-hour work day but it is unreasonable to expect the same ruthlessness within a 12, 14 or even 16-hour day. Sorry, that's inefficient, period.

Imagine being a project manager and having a whole month or even more to evaluate your past project before being assigned to a new job, imagine being responsible for just one project at a time and imagine having an 8-hour day with no exception. Utopia? No, that is real and smart efficiency but it is far more difficult to overthrow the status quo we're trapped in now.

Newcomer's conversation with a train attendant

I was on a train back from London today and was listening to a conversation between a 'newcomer' and a train attendant.

'Newcomer':

"Could you please tell me when we will arrive in Swindon?"

Attendant:

"No problem sir, we will be there at 9:30pm."

'Newcomer':

"Sorry I'm a newcomer here. How do I know..."

Attendant:

"Don't worry, we will be calling at Swindon, and Reading and Didcot Parkway beforehand"

'Newcomer':

"Sorry sir but I'm a newcomer here. How much time is till we get there?"

Attendant:

"We will arrive at 9:30pm so it's about 40min, which is just over half an hour sir."

I sometimes feel as if not all of us live on the same planet...

Radical new approach to project programming? Oh my...

I am reading the latest issue of Construction Manager and have spotted an article that reveals the radical new approach to project programming (Title: Calling time on delays to complex projects). Perhaps I am missing something but I don't think that effective time management strategy at the design stage is anything new, nor is the idea that contractor's planner should do work alone. There is nothing new in all this! I have been shouting for the past 10 years or so that construction planning is not merely forecasting but deliberate process of continuously improving already pre-planned activities involving ALL who participate in the execution of these activities.

They then go on and talk about different 'densities' in a time model that will depend on how close one is to the work to be carried out. Again, part of my contribution from PhD research is a proof using Chaos theory revealing that detailed planning beyond two working weeks is not feasible and as such planning requires different 'densities' where immediate work to be carried out has to be planned in a far greater detail against work that is further down the line.

Admittedly the article is somehow hurting my ego but then again I feel happy because they are finally realizing how important different 'densities' in planning are, and not just for large complex projects as they suggest. On the other note the article also proves how much the sector is losing out because practitioners are not reading academic papers.

Google Wave Revolution

Have you heard of Google Wave yet? You should be aware of this new web application from Google as it will revolutionize the way we work and perhaps even bring down the barriers that exist between teams and people within organizations. It is not just about people that are really close to you, Wave will enable seamless communication between co-workers, partners and even language is not a barrier any more. I have just signed up for a test run so hopefully I can try it before it is actually officially launched to the public. You want to know more about Google Wave? Watch the attached video and discover the magic!