Looking back at the first four months of 2012, here’s what I did:  Answered emails, dealt with problems as they arose, answered emails, prepared for and attended meetings, answered emails. Here’s what I didn’t do, at all, during one third of an entire year:  Think. One day into a late April holiday, admittedly aided by the latest edition of Fast Company, a...
Read More About Killing Myself (Or, At Least, My Brain Cells) »

I have long admired Brian Burke; Ron Wilson not so much – I’m more the players’ coach type.  (I realize that I’ve just contradicted myself, Brian Burke is hardly the ‘players’ coach type’.)  Certainly, though, in terms of thinking about leadership, the firing of Leaf’s coach Ron Wilson is worth pondering.  Here’s a view with which neither Burke nor many others will likely agree. ...
Read More About Leadership, Mob Mentality & Ron Wilson »

This Steve Jobs mania is a challenge for me.  We are all celebrating not just his genius, but his relentless pursuit of perfection, his refusal to compromise, his unconventionality, his prickly personality, his unforgiving drive.  We all want to be more like him (including me).  The thing is, we would never hire him, and if we found him in our midst, we would get rid of...
Read More About Steve Jobs Mania Revisited »

  “The Privilege Of A Life Is Being Who You Are”    - Joseph Campbell I believe that there is a paradox available to us that we are missing.  I am all for effective teamwork, and understand that everyone needs to contribute according to their capabilities (when I go onto a construction site, people worry that I’m going to injure myself, so...
Read More About Celebrating The ‘I’ In Team (Part IV of IV) »

" We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, the trip takes us ."   - John Steinbeck  These four blogs are striving (OK, struggling) to express what may be wrong with the conventional wisdom around how companies should be managed.   Corporations are all about rationality and control. They set clear goals, clear strategies and tactics,...
Read More About The Trip Takes Us (III of IV) »

‘People living in competition, all I want is to have my peace of mind.’        - Boston (of course)  Lots of people brag about being ‘Type A’ personalities. I probably did, until I read that the term was coined by a cardiologist who discovered that these personality traits are the leading cause of early coronary disease and premature heart attacks. Constant...
Read More About Peace Of Mind (II of IV) »

‘Half the game is mental, the other half is being mental.’                               Jim McKenny, Toronto Maple Leafs Defenceman, 1970-78  What a great quote, even if a bit politically incorrect. It applies to far more than hockey, right? And I’m going to say that it gets right at why so many people...
Read More About Half Mental (I of IV) »

We struggle with the right balance between central control versus individual freedom around here. We have, at EllisDon, a very autonomous culture. We strive to maintain a strong core culture (and we don’t mess with financial controls), but we try hard to give everyone here as much freedom as we can, in the offices, on the sites, from top to bottom. We are not perfect at this but we try very...
Read More About Freedom Or Control: EllisDon vs … Apple? »

What is the right balance between central control versus individual autonomy in a company? We have, at EllisDon, a very autonomous culture. While striving to maintain a strong culture and financial controls, we try hard to give everyone here as much freedom as we can, in the offices, on the job sites, from top to bottom. We are not perfect at this I know, but we try hard and we certainly...
Read More About Control Freaks: Can Steve Jobs Possibly Be Wrong? »

This blog is not intended in any way to be disrespectful or unsympathetic to Jack Layton. It attempts to go a bit beyond politics - honest, and I doubt Jack would be offended by it.  However, prior to the recent Canadian election campaign, and after Jack’s previous cancer treatments, when his hip ‘spontaneously shattered’ very many people suspected that the NDP Leader’s illness had...
Read More About What if Jack Layton Knew All Along? »

I sort of golf with a couple guys, when we can. One is my cousin, who has selflessly taught me the key fundamentals of a stupid game: six foot gimmes, guilt free mulligans, no single malt before noon (he always has a gallon of Caesars, somewhere). He also teaches Mike the proper emphasis of the key profanities. He is a great tutor, afflicted with stilted students.  I often debate with...
Read More About No-One Died on Sunday in Augusta »

I often read that corporations don’t care, period. By their very nature, they can’t. Their only reason for existence is to maximize shareholder return. It’s inherent in this goal that people must be regulated and controlled, and therefore the human spirit and its creativity get crushed. You are a cog in a heartless machine … (blah blah, then they go on to make some other point about how to...
Read More About Corporations: Killers Of The Human Spirit? »

Seriously. It’s such an overused buzzword now that it gets routinely ignored – most importantly by the people closest to the action who know how to improve things. I love this story: Guy named Herb Barnes from our FM group suddenly appears in my doorway about nine months ago, salutes and says ‘Permission to talk to the boss, sir!’ (It was neither respectful nor disrespectful, Herb’s a happy...
Read More About Lets Kill Innovation »

Why Not Turn Performance Reviews Upside Down?  At EllisDon, we try and focus the process on Career Path Planning – for obvious reasons – but it’s still tricky: People sitting down with their ‘bosses’ to hear about how they are ‘perceived’ to be doing; the good, the bad, sometimes the ugly, and what they need to do to improve.  Everybody needs and wants the feedback, but it’s...
Read More About Upside Down Performance Reviews »

Recently, the front page lead story in the Toronto Star concerned allegations of kickbacks and hidden charges against a Toronto construction company on a federally funded project. Let me say clearly that I have no idea whatsoever whether or not those allegations have substance.  But let’s all of us acknowledge that these kinds of questionable practices occur in our industry – it is all...
Read More About Integrity »

It’s pretty much etched in stone: ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure.’ And this: ‘If you can’t measure it, it can’t be improved.’  I’d like to enthusiastically suggest that the overriding focus on ‘measurement’ as the key criterion to be considered in business management and leadership is … OK - wrong.  Everyone knows the arguments in favour of this thinking – they rule,...
Read More About The Big ‘Measurement’ Myth »

Old Procurement Models Are Finished (for Subs too):  And every project has its own. Sometimes it’s price. Other times, expertise and assumption of risk are the keys. Our international competitors often price the M&E themselves, then go to subcontractors for ‘component’ pricing after bid close. Previous relationships are crucial, except when they aren’t.   Money Used...
Read More About Ten Reasons Why the Construction Industry's Traditional Business Model is Toast »

I am not sure whether arrogance and complacency are twin brothers or photo negatives of one another. But what amazes me is that they are so hard to recognize in ourselves, and in fact never seem to get identified until after the irreparable harm has been done.  I have sometimes recognized arrogant behavior of my own, but only years after the fact; perhaps sooner if someone punched me...
Read More About Things are Good, Lets Get Arrogant »

At EllisDon, we suck at showing appreciation. We know that, because in our employee engagement surveys, that’s what we consistently get told. So every year we talk about it, and try to do better – and every year we get the same message. Actually I think we have improved – I can see people working harder at this kind of positive communication – and every year our ‘appreciation’ mark is still...
Read More About Up, Down and Sideways: The Mystery of 'Appreciation' »

We are proud at EllisDon to have finished first or second the last four years running in the Hewitt ‘Fifty Best Companies In Canada To Work For’ survey. The results of this effort are hugely important, not because of our standing, but because the study measures ‘engagement’ – how many of our employees really like their jobs at EllisDon (and how many don’t).  Here’s the rub: This year,...
Read More About Do You Hate Your Job? »