Question:
How to preemptively avoid the inevitable bully's
1. Sell a canned package. Period. Don't be there for
much of the job. Build the canned package off site. A good
case for telecommuting if you are an employee.
2. Make the client and staff generally liable for
shortcomings and changes by having them provide and certify
materials diagrams as accurate etc.. be nice and
pleasant..just act casually but stamp official add names, and
confirm with memo's. Have this a pre printed format project
sheet and if challenged say that after 30 years in the
business etc...this is what you will need to provide high end
service on the clients request. Then STICK to it. Write
them a memo that details what a was given, mentions any
shortcomings and say that you will provide what you can from
that. Being nice and reasonable and all...but leaving it
documented that the material or bogus material was in fact
provided... which is pervasively common. But now YOU have it
on paper...and the client is listed as reponsible. I press
for thier signature on the bottom line... with bully's thats
the first sign of a problem... those wont sign.
Answer:
Ive been in the business for over 40 years, to the highest
levels. I know what works and what doesn't.
Trust and decency and long relationships work supremely
well... Texas Instruments is a prime example of a corporation
that operates on that basis and gets its world class high tech
facilities built for about a fourth what it costs and in way
less than a quarter the time it takes for instance in Silicon
Valley. I have a long career in both locations and with TI
and many firms such as IBM in silicon valley (project and
consulting basis, not as an employee)
Ive been senior engineer on projects into the hundreds of
millions of dollars..and am now semi retired doing hands on
work in these areas... lately industrial controls systems.
There is a time and place for taking extensive measures to
preclude the effects of various frauds in the E and C
business...
There is a time not to take such measures... there is never a
time to be unobservant.. and it always pays to take ongoing
notes, that helps one fathom, collate and make sense of the
observations over time.
in some parts of the country those measures are entirely
uncalled for as you suggest...in other parts of the country
and with certain players, the ONLY way to operate if you
intend to survive is by means of such agressive and well
documented measures...
and you find... that the decent people dont mind good record
keeping and accurate memo's... it just proves thier own value
and competence.......and in fact the use of such fades to zero
in those cases, in many cases, with myself for example perhaps
half the work I do under 10,000 dollars is with no
contract...some of it is arranged verbally with no records.
There is mutual trust.
Do not confuse such operations with the need to operate in an
entirely different way with bullies.
....its only the jerks and bullies who go ballistic when they
see you documenting thier crap.
And yes these do hate that... and they DO gear up to try and
sink your boat even worse as they can see your memo's etc as
founding amuntion for a legal case against them......and it is
by those tactics of continued abuse that they increasingly
hang themselves...as those are documented as well. In
triplicate... distributed to all concerned, with time stamped
photo's, that include the faces, and vehiclies of the parties
involved.
Yes indeedie...these DO hate that. They also hate it when
they drop the ball and the job begins to crash and you have it
all documented including friendly advice on the front end of
the job 'order the tanks now or we will not have them
when its vital to keep the job on track'...
These drop the ball predictably in those fashions...and yes
they hate to be held accuntable in writing as they try then to
blame the project managment for the delay and cost overruns
into the millions. So in those cases, and to keep the
peace, LYING becomes the dominant strategy on such job sites.
Those jobs and such tactics bankrupt thier owners, and
corporations and such become uncompetitive in world markets.
Lying creates confusion that ruins the health of the
associated major players as well.
The tactics I use, at the first sign of lying on a project,
preclude lying as a management strategy.
Sorry... thats just how it actually is. About 10% of a
clients representatives are in that category either by
catering to a single bully on a project, or by being a bully
on the project...if you fail to handle these jerks, they WILL
handle you...
It only takes one or two jerks on large project to sink it.
Handling jerks is not an option...its a vital necessity.
The cases of that are legion. typically these will double or
triple project costs or ruin a project entirely, or end up
killing a bunch of people as happened with *both NASA shuttle
disasters...in both cases good concientious engineers
protested the launch conditions...O rings in cold weather on
the first disaster, and insulation foam breaking off on the
second...in both cases jerks in NASA management over rode
these well documented concerns.... and please...get this.
This is NOT my opinion, it is the findings of the US Senate
investigating committee... "inexcusable abuse and ignorance"
was the among the terms they used.
the tactic Ive used over the years to save my clients from
bankrupcy and worse has been the tactics I've made note of...
we dont have those sorts of problems on my projects...we do
have a lot of happy owners and contractors...and we also have
about 10% totally alienated trasher boys lurking around, on
the owners side often... finding fault at each step of the
way...who fade into the woodwork as the job completes on
schedule and on budget despite them.
We preclude the destructive effects of this trasher contingent
by prearrangement with firms CEO or owner...if the CEO or top
managment is of your strip though, unable or uwilling to
recognise the problem...we decline the work... then sit back
in virtually all cases and watch the ongoing collapse.
I still have the letter I wrote to Boeings CEO in 1989
regarding sloppy machine tool tactics at Boeing and how AirBus
was not making those mistakes... these tried to laugh me off
saying AirBus had only 4% of the world market and that no way
could Boeing be toppled.
Today..one of those guys is in prison, the others have quit or
been fired, what remains is a Boeing corporation with a
miniority share of the world Aircraft market, even after its
mergers... AirBus is now dominant, and growing as Boeing
continues to loose market.
Why? The corrupt good old boy bully culture at Boeing was
not handled. It was not even recognised as a problem... just
as you fail to recognise the problem.
The good old boys 'won'.
Impressive these types. Arrogance and blindness are thier two
chief characteristics. Fatal in all cases...and in fairly
short order.
