From Breakdown to Breakthrough

by Hal on July 6, 2006

in PM practice

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There is a community of lean construction leaders in Northern California who get together each month at a dinner meeting to help each other with their lean construction initiatives. People from DPR, Turner Construction, Sutter Health, Herrero Construction, and Southland Industries are regular attendees. The group often invites speakers. This coming session will feature Chauncey Bell. He'll be talking with them about breakdowns.

In our work with clients we've come to rely on breakdowns to forward our clients' interests. We also show teams how they can create project circumstances so breakdowns don't result in missing the project promise.

I've written extensively on breakdowns starting with Designing Breakdown-Tolerant Environments [1]. Before I go further, here is a working definition of a breakdown:

An interruption while in the midst of fulfilling ones commitment that puts the completion of the commitment in jeopardy.

I won't repeat what you can read in the series. But I do want to tell you about one change in my perspective in the last three years. If you want a breakthrough in performance, then look to create a breakdown. When I wrote about breakdown-tolerance environments I was speaking about robustness to inevitable uncertainties that can interrupt. But I never intended to avoid all breakdowns. A well-placed breakdown might be just what is needed to get people to shift their common sense.

Unfortunately, I won't be present for Chauncey's talk. However, three people from Lean Project Consulting will be there. I'll get a report from them and post next week. Until then, I'll leave you with this thought from Chauncey,

"You can leave success to good intentions and chance, or you can design the way you make your changes. The choice is yours."

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 John Leeper July 7, 2006 at 7:31 am

This sounds more like Landmark Education then Lean Construction.

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