Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to ask for help when trying to get a project done? This happened to me on one project where we were working on a high end tech store. The 100% deadline was fast approaching and my team wasn’t in a great position to get it done. We had two weeks to go, but we were 60 labor hours of experienced engineer short.

I went to my manager to discuss the situation. I had a list of the work to get done and a plan to do it. I told him we needed two senior engineers full time to make sure we got everything done. He listened and let me explain. Once I finished he said that it looked like there was a lot to get done, but that no senior engineers were available. Instead, he offered that I take a team of 7 interns and new starters to get it done.

This was outrageous. I needed people who could work independently to get us over the line. Further, they had less than one year of experienced combined! I objected to the interns, but my manager said that’s all there was available and that I could take it or leave it. He said that sometimes we just need to find a way to make things work with the resources we had. Begrudgingly, I accepted his offer and then set out to make the work happen to meet our deadline. I pulled together my motley crew and we got to work.

Recognizing that these interns and grads had very little experience doing the actual engineering, but they were all strong modelers. They could reliably make the drawings look the way they needed for issuance. So, I started there. We printed out a set of plans and sat down for our first meeting. The 8 of us sat at a table and I prepped them for the large amount of work that we had to do. Once they understood the urgency, we went to the plans.

We went through the drawing set, sheet by sheet marking up everything that needed to happen. Each sheet got assigned to one of the team members and they got to work. All day, I was answering questions and giving further direction for the markups. We got to the end of the day and printed up another set. We met the following morning and performed the same exercise. They were more comfortable now, so I got less questions and I was able to get calculations and selections done in advance of the connect the next day.

We continued this cadence for the next two weeks and we were able to deliver a spectacular set. It was very hard, but the all star team of grads and interns was exactly what the project needed. Looking back, there were lots of lessons learned which I have been able to apply to teams over and over again during my career. Hope you can too!

1. Get on their level - Outlining the circumstances and how you are going to tackle them sets the tone for the effort. Let your team know that no questions are bad questions and not to hesitate if they run into roadblocks. Be available to answer questions 100% of the time without any judgement give the young staff confidence that you can be approached.
2. Leverage their strengths - Figure out how to make the most of your team. You might not have time to teach them the calculations that needed to get done or the equipment selections that needed to be made or how to coordinate with the other trades. Lean into the team strengths and you will be able to make the most out of your resources.
3. Communicate your needs upward - Make sure your managers understand your upcoming needs. They will have a lot more flexibility if you can let them know early. Had I not gone to may managers when I did, I might not even have received my army of interns.
4. Be flexible - Sometimes things won’t go your way. It is important to not let that get in the way of progress. People may change jobs, clients may change direction and existing conditions may not work with design. Remember your objective and keep pushing towards it.

Hope you can apply some of these tips today!