Copy of Shaping the Dream: QUALITY TRAINING FOR QUALITY OUTCOMES...IT IS TIME...NOW!

I published this 4.5 years ago. I wondered what your experiences say to you about our industry since then? Good, bad, no change? Give me 50 words or so on your experiences…I would love to hear your thoughts.

Dreams are shaped by vision--Visions created by observations, analysis and synthesis.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Thought revolves around the 6 levels of thought order that describe how one?indicates what level the brain is acting...are we at Level 1 (Knowledge: define, identify, recognize, tell) where the brain just understands or recognizes? The Dream begins around levels 5 Evaluate?& 6 Create.

By the time you arrive in construction, find a craft that is a good fit and get yourself on?1 or 2 projects, you have worked your way up through Level 1. By that time you arrive at Levels 2 Understanding?& 3 Applying,?you are making headway into the realms of upper-level helper. Within 4-6 years you arrive at Journeyman. During this time you continue to learn and ripple up and down this continuum or thought?line of Bloom's Taxonomy or the HOTS line (Higher Order Thinking Skills). You are learning daily, understanding,?applying and analyzing?daily! Life is good. Right?

Being honest, you also know there is much more to learn, there is much more $$$ to be made and you would really like to do that! You also learn and understand that you don't want to be on your tools until you retire. How does that happen? On top of all of this there is also, for some of you, another thought...one that says, "Perhaps I could dream this big...and become that!" You know what I am talking about...commissioning tech, quality control/quality assurance inspector or technician...construction manager even. Your dreams are very specific and laser-like focused! You Dream BIG!!!

Dreaming...planning a future that is not reality, and taking that vision and making it a reality requires many small steps coupled with....wait for it....wait for it....GUT CHURNING LEAPS OF FAITH.?JUST DO IT!!!--take a GIANT LEAP OF FAITH.

IF you are in the construction industry you are likely experiencing at least a continuing frustration if not GROWING frustration with the companies for whom you work. In my brief 12 years in industrial construction I have worked for 10 construction companies. For me it seems like each job loses more and more organization, structure, engineering quality and design and standards of excellence. I have worked in Power, Plastics/petroleum, Nuclear and Pharmaceutical/Bioengineering. I worked for Fluor, Becon/Bechtel, Shaw, CB&I, Gemma Power Systems and Day?& Zimmerman to name a few. You might agree with me...each job holds its own difficulties, but each Contractor handles a project in similar if not identical fashion: Recruitment, Safety orientation, Specialty tool familiarization/training and that's about it. Right?

I remember my first big job. Shaw Construction at Cliffside Steam Station for Duke Energy. The drawings were great, design was straight forward and our supervision was pretty tight. Each crew had about 8-12 men/women supervised by a foreman. Each General Foreman ran 2 to 4 crews and answered to a Craft Superintendent?that ran 2-3 General Foreman. Things worked out pretty well...until things got busy and things got missed and no one was being held accountable. Quality suffered. Supervisors did not?walk down work executed by their people, and Punch Lists grew and grew. What about you? When was the first time you really understood that Quality Control/Quality Assurance was part of the process? Better yet, when was the first time you realized that a lack of QC/QA was why you as a team were failing?

I propose this. Today's General Contractors handle projects in the same way because they have not been given a reason to change.

Perhaps now that we are seeing many of them fail to meet schedules and budgets, some are failing and filing for bankruptcy, or just plane going under, we will see a SHIFT in the PARADIGM or philosophy of PROJECT MANAGEMENT. What is THE ULTIMATE YARDSTICK of SUCCESS for PROJECTS? You have to get the bid, I understand that...but when you get that bid, what next? I propose that today's EPC Firms will begin to experience renewed success when they structure QUALITY AWARENESS AND QUALITY TRAINING in their workforce training?after hire, and then continue that training with all hands AND SUPERVISION. We trained some of our supervisors and craft administrators on this site to ensure proper completion of QVD's (Quality Verification Documents), and that training paid off nicely. Just imagine what dividends we could have realized if we delivered training about the 4-Levels of QUALITY EXCELLENCE! Code, Specification, Drawing & Detail!

Our site recently received training for our CWI's, and that training was delivered by a Quality Director for?Fluor. I was blessed to chat with him on this topic. He was gracious enough?and listened and spoke honestly. When all was said and done, my take-away was this: placing QUALITY TRAINING in the post hire-in training schedule and then continuing that training--THE TIME HAS NOT COME FOR THAT.

Well, my reply to that and to anyone that is listening is this: When will that time come? I say that time is now, and in fact passed. Some companies are gone because they missed that TIME. How many more will go before THE TIME IS GONE!

Remember: Make it a safe day, or not, the choice is yours.

Also, remember that there is always time to do it right the first time--correctly and with quality.