This week's post was written by Jack Woelber.
I
have been with Interstates for nearly 22 years. During that time many things
have changed, including our clients’ needs. When I started, it seemed as though
we had more lead time to plan and prepare, more construction time to accomplish
the work on site, and more time to get a plant up and running. Today our
clients feel the pressure to produce sooner, more consistently, with higher
quality, and with better controls.
Interstates
has adapted a lot over the years as well. Our internal tools and processes have
continued to evolve and develop, allowing us to become industry leaders in a
design build methodology that meets the demands of our client base while adding
unique value.
If
you think things haven’t changed that much in the past 22 years, spend a little
time reflecting on what life was like in 1994. You were excited to have just
acquired your first plain paper fax machine, your mobile phone weighed several
pounds, and Al Gore was still in the process of inventing the Internet. You
probably didn’t have an individual email address, and if you had a PC at home,
you were one of the first.
While
many things have changed, the need to communicate with our clients and
understand their needs, and then match that understanding with how we deliver
results, has not changed. Early in the discovery phase of a project, it is
important to understand both what the client wants as a final result of the
project and what is important to the client during the project. Because we are
an integral part of helping our clients achieve their goals, this process is
critical to their success.
The
discovery process uncovers unique things the client wants to accomplish and why
those goals are important. It helps us to understand what might be negotiable
and what might not be negotiable. And we can ask, “Are there other ways to
achieve the same desired result?” Through the discovery process we determine if
we have the tools, systems, capabilities, and resources to help them meet their
objectives.
Most
often, we find that the systems and tools we have in place do meet the needs of the client. Through
creativity and adaptation of what we already have in place, flexibility allows
us to deliver the specific and unique requests of our clients. However, if
through the discovery process we determine we can’t deliver what the client
wants, we may have to help them find another way. We have to continually
balance the needs of our clients with the capabilities of our internal
processes. We need to make adjustments as the market changes, but we can’t be
all things to all people. Creativity, understanding our clients’ needs, and
matching our ability with what allows our clients to succeed will win every
time.
Continue leading the
Interstates Way!
Jack Woelber
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Book Smart, Street Smart
This week's post was written by Doug Post.
We've seen it in the movies. The green lieutenant, fresh out of West Point, struggles leading his platoon until an old, crusty sergeant takes him under his wing and teaches him the ropes of the real world. The lieutenant is "book smart;" the sergeant "street smart." By the end of the movie, the sergeant proudly watches a capable, confident lieutenant lead by practically applying his West Point lessons on the battlefield.
Interstates leaders must also be "book smart" and "street smart." At the end of the day, the result of our work is a successfully running industrial plant. The result of our leadership is a company that is built-to-last in a tough, unforgiving marketplace.
Street-smart leaders know how businesses and people work. They know how to implement initiatives and run the business in a way that is practical and motivates people. They understand what it takes to meet client needs profitably this month and this year, are aware of market forces and competitors that affect operations, and adjust accordingly. They get things done with and for others.
My favorite example is our response to a Central Soya extraction explosion in the 1990s. Darrell Ramhorst and Larry Den Herder didn't know how they could best help this key client, but that didn't keep them from trusting their guts and getting on a plane that very day to go figure out what they could do to make a difference at the plant site. Over the next weeks and months they became an instrumental part of the client's recovery team.
Other street-smart examples of Interstates leadership include: LPG kicking off its industrial growth by focusing on small, "dirty" jobs no one else wanted, and Larry Den Herder willing us to proposal "wins" by digging in and figuring out how to get clients to award us projects. Imagine the negotiating, the scrappy tenacity, the hustle, and the awareness of client budgets behind accomplishing these wins.
Book-smart leaders are intelligent, continuous learners who comfortably deal with concepts and complexity. They shun easy answers and seek simplicity on the other side of complexity. For example, they see quality issues as more than a quick fix via a QC checklist and a training class. While these tactical steps may be necessary, book-smart leaders also examine hiring practices and organizational culture as potentially more fundamental causes of the problem. In other words, they think broadly and seek to understand the underlying system.
Their system-thinking skills mean they see similarities between diverse areas of thought and practice, and they can apply them to Interstates. Peter Drucker is a unique example of this quality, spending years mastering Japanese painting so that he could improve his creative thinking and expertise as a management guru.
To lead at Interstates, we ask that you be a practical, lifelong learner. Pursue two avenues. First, find your "sergeant," whether this means working for a few months on a job site, getting involved in a startup, or asking an experienced, savvy leader to mentor you. Second, network and read widely so that you are broadening our people’s views and creating growth opportunities. Interact with others in our core business sectors – and outside of it. Read new and old books by a diverse set of authors so that your thought isn't limited to our time, our practices, and your worldview.
Continue leading the Interstates Way!
Doug Post
We've seen it in the movies. The green lieutenant, fresh out of West Point, struggles leading his platoon until an old, crusty sergeant takes him under his wing and teaches him the ropes of the real world. The lieutenant is "book smart;" the sergeant "street smart." By the end of the movie, the sergeant proudly watches a capable, confident lieutenant lead by practically applying his West Point lessons on the battlefield.
Interstates leaders must also be "book smart" and "street smart." At the end of the day, the result of our work is a successfully running industrial plant. The result of our leadership is a company that is built-to-last in a tough, unforgiving marketplace.
Street-smart leaders know how businesses and people work. They know how to implement initiatives and run the business in a way that is practical and motivates people. They understand what it takes to meet client needs profitably this month and this year, are aware of market forces and competitors that affect operations, and adjust accordingly. They get things done with and for others.
My favorite example is our response to a Central Soya extraction explosion in the 1990s. Darrell Ramhorst and Larry Den Herder didn't know how they could best help this key client, but that didn't keep them from trusting their guts and getting on a plane that very day to go figure out what they could do to make a difference at the plant site. Over the next weeks and months they became an instrumental part of the client's recovery team.
Other street-smart examples of Interstates leadership include: LPG kicking off its industrial growth by focusing on small, "dirty" jobs no one else wanted, and Larry Den Herder willing us to proposal "wins" by digging in and figuring out how to get clients to award us projects. Imagine the negotiating, the scrappy tenacity, the hustle, and the awareness of client budgets behind accomplishing these wins.
Book-smart leaders are intelligent, continuous learners who comfortably deal with concepts and complexity. They shun easy answers and seek simplicity on the other side of complexity. For example, they see quality issues as more than a quick fix via a QC checklist and a training class. While these tactical steps may be necessary, book-smart leaders also examine hiring practices and organizational culture as potentially more fundamental causes of the problem. In other words, they think broadly and seek to understand the underlying system.
Their system-thinking skills mean they see similarities between diverse areas of thought and practice, and they can apply them to Interstates. Peter Drucker is a unique example of this quality, spending years mastering Japanese painting so that he could improve his creative thinking and expertise as a management guru.
To lead at Interstates, we ask that you be a practical, lifelong learner. Pursue two avenues. First, find your "sergeant," whether this means working for a few months on a job site, getting involved in a startup, or asking an experienced, savvy leader to mentor you. Second, network and read widely so that you are broadening our people’s views and creating growth opportunities. Interact with others in our core business sectors – and outside of it. Read new and old books by a diverse set of authors so that your thought isn't limited to our time, our practices, and your worldview.
Continue leading the Interstates Way!
Doug Post
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