Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

[00:00:00] When you have a shit ton of fires to put out, or communications falling through the cracks, or processes just feel like a hot mess, is one of your first thoughts to hire a new supervisor or director or manager of something to oversee this stuff? If so, you might have a vertical org chart that needs to come crumbling down.

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Construction Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence, your go to podcast for innovation, success, and streamlined excellence in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your host and expert in operations and processes. I've seen the transformative effects of adopting people focused, tech forward, lean practices.

And these changes not only boost company revenue, but also restore peace of mind for owners overwhelmed by the daily grind. Our trailblazing tactic today is going to uncover [00:01:00] why you unnecessarily hire sometimes. and how to fix it so that you're not overspending on salaries for underperforming teams.

It's all in the difference between vertical and horizontal org structures. If you are all about leaving behind the daily firefighting and moving towards a future of freedom and predictable success, then you're in the right place. Discover more about us and catch up on past episodes at constructiontrailblazers.

com. All right, let's get into it. So first off,what are vertical org structures So, org structures, we might all call these different things.

Some people say organizational design, most commonly we're thinking org charts. So we're, when we're in that HR app, like our work day or paychecks or something, it's our fun little visual, the flow chart, if you will, of all the people on our team. And if you have a vertical org structure, organizational structure, then you have a lot of layers of management.

So when you open up that visual, that flow chart, [00:02:00] you're scrolling down and up more often than you might be scrolling side to side. Okay, I like to think of this as you're playing a game of Donkey Kong, so there's way too many floors that Mario has to climb up to get to the top. It's a challenge and instead of just getting more points and being excited like we would if we were really playing Donkey Kong, instead we're really just exhausted and it's costing us a lot of money because this is a business.

It's not an arcade game. Right? So in our vertical org structures, we have a lot of layers of management and it can be very, very slow to make decisions. It takes a long time to implement those decisions and to see progress. Change management is just a whole lot harder because there's way more variables to try to understand.

There's tighter budgets to work within because we're paying for a lot of high level salaries. We're paying for a lot of management or director level salaries for people that are maybe really doing lower [00:03:00] level work or maybe they, again, they might have the skill set to do higher level work but.

There's not enough people at the bottom doing all that day to day work, right? So the opposite of this is going to be our horizontal org structures. Or you might think about this as a flat structure, because you're going to scroll more side to side on this visual. There's less layers of management here.

So, If, you know, if our vertical orc structures, if the exhausting version of this is Donkey Kong, where Mario is, you know, hopping so many different levels, jumping over barrels, jumping on flaming ladders, all those things, the opposite of this is going to be an easy level of Super Mario Bros. Okay, so this is where we're just hopping along our mushrooms, and because we've got a good structure in place, we can explore what's down that plant pipe, or we can take the time to jump up and get all the boxes and all the coins in a level.

So we're more likely to end the day, if you will, end this level with more points, with more money in our pockets, [00:04:00] and we get to choose when we are challenged, or we at least have the energy, the thumb, the dexterity to deal with fires and issues as they come up. So flash structures, can be hard to maintain as you take on bigger and bigger projects and get more demanding customers, but they're going to be so essential because you have a lot of flexibility, right?

So in that vertical structure, everything is slow. Everything is harder. There's a lot more people that need to say yes to something, or it's kind of that game of telephone. We say something at the top and then it's got to go through all these different levels of management to get to the bottom because we just don't really have a good connection between that same thing.

C suite, and our frontline employees, right? So a lot more flexibility in our flatter horizontal org structures. I do want to make a note here that it can make change a little too easy sometimes, right? So while this is definitely the structure that we want, we also have to be mindful that the managers and leaders that we do have in place are thoughtful, that they are [00:05:00] deliberate, so that When we are making decisions, when we're making change, it's for the right reasons.

And we're not just changing things for the sake of change because we can. But another, besides that, another really great component of having flat structures is it is way easier, way easier to empower your employees, to enforce accountability in your employees, to train them to be the leaders you want them to be because of that flexibility, because of that flat structure that we have.

I also want to back up here and say management is not a bad thing, okay? It's bad when we feel we need to introduce new layers of management just because we're experiencing some issues instead of really understanding what those issues are and what the real team gaps are. So it's easy, like I said, it's, it's hard to maintain a flat structure as we take on bigger and bigger projects and we have more demanding customers because for most of us, we don't have great processes in place.

So as your company starts to expand and you need more people to take [00:06:00] on all this work, There are things that are, there are more fires that are going to start popping up, right? We're going to amplify the issues that we were already having, but were sometimes easy to mitigate or didn't cost us too much money because we had a smaller team, right?

But now we're seeing those same fires pop up across multiple teams or multiple projects. And so then we, We panic. So we're like, Oh my gosh, someone needs to be watching this. Someone needs to be on it. So we start introducing new layers of management or even maybe that same tier. Maybe it's all still mid level or a senior manager or something, but we just start introducing more of them and start separating our departments more and more to make these specialized departments.

Which, specialization can be a great thing sometimes, right, but if every department is way too specialized, what's going to happen, because it's specialization, comes silos, right, and so now we've got more silos, plus more people that need to be involved to make a decision, plus Processes that were [00:07:00] already broken in the first place.

So it's just more and more issues. It's the Band Aid on an issue. It's not solving anything that we really need to solve in order to take on these big projects and still maintain high profit margins. Okay. So I just want to be really clear again, management is not a bad thing. I'm not saying have a CEO and then go directly to, you know, lower level employees.

It's great to have mid level management and senior management. We just want to make sure that we are hiring for the right reasons and not just because we're panicking for oversight, So, all right, we've got that down. We understand this is why flat structures are important. So, how are you even going to create a flat structure, all right?

We all know I'm all about action. I don't want to just leave you with the strategy and the concept. I want you to understand how you can actually do this. So, we're going to have two examples here. One, assuming that you are in a vertical structure now and need to break that down and move toward a flatter horizontal structure.

And [00:08:00] then I'll dive into what then I'll dive into the other example of maybe you aren't in a vertical structure right now, but you're maybe about to grow and you want to avoid vertical structures. All right. So again, first example, let's start off with the assumption that you are operating in a very vertical structure right now.

You have lots of managers on your team. And. most likely an underperforming team, right? And you need to move toward a more horizontal, flatter structure. So you're going to start with one department. If you've listened to any of my other episodes on construction trailblazers, then you know I'm all about simplicity, not just the action item, but simple action, simple strategy, right?

And when we are taking on a big project, like tackling our org structure, then starting small is how we're going to keep things simple. So I just want you to start with one department. Or you can look at maybe two or three departments that collaborate frequently, right? So maybe these are a lot of specialized departments that are siloed and really should have been one department to begin with, right?

Look at, you're going to pick that on your [00:09:00] own depending on your team and your, So focus on that and then you're going to start determining who you really need in what roles. I want you to break down all of these departments or just one department and evaluate all the positions you have in place, the processes that those positions are involved in, and what you're Expectations are in this department.

So earlier, if I mentioned that when you have flat structures, it's easier to empower your employees and enforce accountability. And a big part of accountability is going to be expectations. Okay, so we want to have again, clarity in positions or people, processes, and expectations. And that's how we're going to start determining who we really need and what roles.

What salaries, what positions do we really need to be spending money on? I also, I don't want to advocate for you just firing people, okay? So, just because we're moving to a flatter structure, we probably overhired in the first place. So, I'm not going to lie here, you most likely will need to let go of some people.

[00:10:00] But these are real people's lives, right? So I'm not just going to straight up advocate for you to fire people. Maybe you can look at how can you leverage this person's skills in another department, or can you, can they tackle goals and projects that have been left on the wayside? And if they started tackling these goals, maybe if we created a new position in a new department for them, then we can open up this new revenue stream or something.

Right? So let's get creative there. Okay. But again, ultimately, we're not just going to give people busy work and be paying salaries just for the heck of it, okay? Want to have a lot of clarity in positions, processes, and expectations. Because if you've ever worked in corporate, then you know there are some people that are like, yeah, they've worked here for 10 years and no one knows what he does.

Right, or like he's the manager, but really we all go to this other person. We don't want those people on our team. We don't want that environment. We don't want to invite that kind of gossiping into our team. So we want to make sure that we've got clarity on what this person is doing and are they providing value to the company.

Okay, so [00:11:00] as you start to realize the ideal structure in this department. And really who you want to be in what positions. You also want to make sure that you are investing in your employees. So do they know what's expected of them as they have less management support, right? Or are you just ripping away managers that were supporting them, right?

And now they have No idea what to do, who to go to, right? Make sure you have a strong change management strategy here and make sure that those employees that are left, they have the support that they need to continue excelling without feeling overwhelmed, without feeling like, okay, I got, now my manager's gone and I I'm left with my, Manager's manager, but I don't have a relationship there, so I can't go to this person with an issue, right?

We don't want that. Make sure that there is relationship, there's support, there's resources in place for them to excel. We don't want to skip a beat here. All right, so that's what you're going to do if you are trying to flatten. If you're trying to take away all the unnecessary layers of management. Now let's go with the other example.

Let's [00:12:00] assume that you are not currently in this messy org structure and you're just preparing for a phase of growth. So, you know, you've got some big projects coming up, you know, you're going to have to hire, you want to do it in a smart way, that's not going to leave you with a bunch of management level salaries and lower profit margins and more issues, right?

You're going to do a very similar thing by evaluating people, processes, and expectations in each department. It's going to be a little bit easier for you because you have a smaller team to start with, right? I like to say

that all businesses come down to sales, service or product delivery, and cash management.

So no matter how complicated of a business you have, what industry you're in, those are the three categories that it takes for a business to function and to make money in the first place. Okay, so you're going to break down these categories for your business, what it takes for you to operate and for you to achieve excellence in sales, in service and product delivery, and cash management.

Of course, we're going to have HR in there, we're going to have [00:13:00] team management, hiring, recruiting, all those other things, right? But we want to start with these three basic categories, and then we're going to identify all of the people, all the positions, and the processes related to these categories. And from there, then we're going to say, okay, as we start to grow, as we start to start to take on this type of project or have this type of customer, then where are we going to see the need for team growth first?

I want to point out here that we'll obviously see a lot of need in that service or product delivery, which means our ops team will be expanding. But don't forget about administrative support as your companies grow. Okay, admin support is a bit tricky because we don't want to have an office manager. That, you know, sometimes we hire an office manager for some of those overflow admin things and then they really only have 15 to 20 hours of work a week of like routine stuff, but then we don't want to add things to their official job description because we want to keep them open for like the random stuff that pops up.

But. Then they don't have enough random stuff. [00:14:00] So we're still paying a full time salary for a part time role. Okay, the other flip of this is that we underestimate how much work is on our admins. And if we have one or two admins company wide doing all the behind the scenes stuff for a very large team. So we want to, Be very clear again about what these processes are and what the positions we're going to need are going to be so we have the right administrative support.

So we don't have high level managers doing a bunch of admin work, okay? So anyway, okay, so you're going to break down sales, service, product delivery, or sales and operations, and then cash management, figure out our processes, our people, where we're going to see the need for growth first, and then we're going to identify what are the expectations of these roles, and what are the levels of management that we will need to oversee these roles, right, so how many people, and Strategic Initiatives would be reasonable for one manager to do and to manage and what would their responsibilities outside of managing and [00:15:00] developing their people would be?

Okay, we don't want to hire people just because we need someone to oversee things. We want to be thoughtful and intentional about what their day to day is really going to look like and in turn what value we are paying their salary for. Make sense? All right, all of this only works, again, if you have very clear roles and if you hire people that have flexibility that are going to fit into your culture, okay?

We don't want to hire people that are like, you stay in your lane, I'll stay in mine, because we're going to need people that can be flexible as we try to figure this out, right? And who are willing to help in other areas when needed, right? And the big point here is Clarity in roles but also clarity in our expectations.

We cannot have accountability, we cannot hire correctly, we cannot achieve excellence in our businesses if we do not have clear expectations and ways to follow up on those expectations. Alright, [00:16:00] so, remember, if you want to be playing the easy levels of Super Mario with your teams and not the beast levels of Donkey Kong, then you want to have a flatter, horizontal org structure.

And to shift towards this, you're going to start small. You're going to pick one department and really dig into those roles, those positions. people in positions, dig into your processes, and what your expectations are. And remember, you don't just want to rip away managers from your employees without making sure that your team has the support that they need to thrive.

If you're curious on what it means for your team to thrive, to drive excellence, and hold themselves accountable, then our Transformative Lean Manager Blueprint is for you. Might just be the thing for your team. It's a custom designed course that we are offering that will equip your team with the skills and tools they need to lead with efficiency, contribute strategically to your company's success, and maintain a high level of operational excellence.

To find out more, just email us at Hello at [00:17:00] ConstructionTrailBlazers. com. And as always, we want to encourage you to share your story of excellence or even your challenges with keeping your org chart flat. You can share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn or that same email address. Hello at ConstructionTrailBlazers.

com. All right. Thanks for hanging out with me on this episode, and I hope to see you next time.