Helen Keller - Blind vs Vision

As a contracting business grows it becomes more important the team is aligned around a common vision and culture.

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This becomes even more critical if the company has more than one geographic location.  

Quote: The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. Helen Keller.

A company’s vision is defined as the desired future position of the company.  

A company’s culture is defined as the behavioral norms of the group.  

More importantly as Rick Lochner points out - “The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”

Robin Dunbar’s research points to the average person being able to maintain about 150 stable relationships with team dynamics changing at certain sizes; approximately 5, 15, 50 and 150. 

Managing at each of these levels requires additional structure around communication and process.  This is required for operational effectiveness as well as aligning the team around what Cameron Harold describes as a Vivid Vision.  

At the project level it is nearly 100% about organizing information, material, equipment and labor to build things.  At the senior leadership level of a growing contractor it is nearly 100% about aligning the team around the right vision, mission, strategy and culture.




Quote about Winning - Bob Knight
There is an excitement about winning and definitely a need to instill that vision and passion in your team. This however is just the top of the mountain and reaching the summit is momentary. It's the discipline of preparing to win that is critical.
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Leaders of construction companies have to make many decisions with less than perfect information. Many times we are looking for perfectly formatted data in some sort of a report but there are indicators all over the place.
Building Ships and Vision
There is a lot of work in building projects and building a construction company. It is easy to get mired down in endless to-do lists, processes and problems. The one thing that holds this all together accelerating performance is the company’s vision.