Coming Back - Stronger
COVID-19 has made staggering impacts within the United States and around the world. According to NPR’s Jim Zarroli, 26 million jobs have been lost in the United States in the last five weeks. With this many people out of work, the biggest waste is coming from unused talent. It breaks our hearts to read about. While staying safe and protecting each other is the best path forward, it is crucial to begin planning for our comeback.
In 1895 the United States was facing a panic. The country was in an economic tailspin that had already lasted two years and there was a major run on the US Treasury’s supply of gold. In that day, dollars were backed by the guarantee they could be exchanged for gold. With the economy on the brink of collapse, JP Morgan stepped in and organized the sale bonds on behalf of the US Government to shore up the economy and stop the run on gold. The private banking industry essentially loaned the country the money to stay solvent. Morgan organized private bankers to stop a similar panic in 1907
Today the construction industry can play a role helping the economy recover from this panic. There are at least two significant ways the private construction industry can help support an economic recovery.
The first is by testing and demonstrating safe ways of working in the new environment. The country needs to return to work but it must do it in a safe manner. We will be living with COVID-19 and fear of COVID-19 for much longer than we can afford to hide from it. The CDC, OSHA, and other organizations have produced guidelines to protect workers. Do we know if they work? We can find no data available. Fortunately for the Construction Industry much work across the country has been classified as essential and is continuing. This is a huge opportunity to establish best practices for working safely together, test them and refine them as we learn more. To support this an industry collaboration has begun to collect the data. Please contact us to participate.
The second way the industry can help is by carefully planning the restart of work. If you have ever started running after a long break (Relevators love to run) you know that getting started again, even if it is something you were really good at can be tough and hurt. It is crucial for the economy to get moving again as fast as possible. Sometimes in construction attempting to go as fast as possible means abandoning planning. Has someone ever told you on a fast track project that they don’t have time to plan? We have, often. It usually ends up just like attempting to restart a running routine too fast… tough and with pain. From supply chain disruptions, to understanding current conditions of work in place to learning to work with new safety procedures there is no shortage of planning required.
Even if your project has been stopped or delayed, it is time to incorporate remote daily huddles, integrate organizational technology, and set up the procedures that we want to continue when we are back on site. Smooth the edges out now so that when the time comes, we know exactly how to move forward.
If we begin planning after all of this is over, we will be far too late. In order to support each other through this challenging time, we need to be thinking ahead. Getting out of this means so much more than overcoming the virus, it also means overcoming the hardships experienced by the millions who have lost their jobs. When this is over, we need to be prepared to move forward full steam ahead. For our people, we need to comeback stronger than ever before.
Business transformation leader and strategist driving operational excellence!
4 年This is an interesting perspective and way to approach how the industry can lead in the way of how we can work safely! Thanks for writing it. Hopefully you've inspired some innovation!