7 Habits of Highly Effective Projects

Best in Class” owners of capital programs may know something that your organization doesn’t. In a year where the Dodge Outlook Report predicts that total U.S. construction starts for 2016 will rise another 6% following gains of 13% in 2015, top facility owners used their secrets to not only deliver world-class facilities but to improve productivity, attract talent and build competitive advantage. What makes this even more compelling is that leading owners were able to greatly increase construction put in place while keeping a lean staff.

But what are these habits? How can you learn them and put them to use in your organization? Great questions. First, you need to understand what a habit is.

Famed leadership guru Stephen R. Covey provided the best definition of a habit some 25 years ago and is still true today. He shared (and I am paraphrasing) are the intersection of when people combine the knowledge of what to do with the skills on how to do it and then have the desire to do it. When it comes to capital programs, the same could be applied to our projects. A habit of capital program teams are when you combine your standard operating procedure with effective training and use your leadership to inspire.

Best-in-class facility owners understand this dynamic very well. They realize that it takes more than mere words. They have learned that creating lasting change within their own teams and extending that change to their construction managers, their architects / engineers, and their general contractors, they have to define their processes well, train teams on how to follow them and create a desire (incentive) for the team to want to do something differently.

Over the 20 years that e-Builder has been in business, we have had a very unique vantage point on how leading facility owners separate from the rest of the pack and become truly best-in-class. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to work closely with owners on “what to do” and “why to do it” and then help them with the training needed to enable that process on a web based construction management platform. After all these years, we can boil much of what we learned into 7 Habits that leading owners exhibit – time and time again – that makes their projects successful and their organizations thrive.

The 7 Habits are as follows:

• Be Proactive
• Forecast Completion
• Automate to Operate
• Win-Win & Pay Fast
• Empathize, Adapt & Overcome
• Collaborate to Accelerate
• Relentlessly Improve

Each one of these habits have the ability to become “game changers” in your organization. In fact, they will tell you that you don’t have to do all seven to make a difference. However, best-in-class owners create momentum and greatness in one habit and then move on to the next – further extending their position as best in class and attracting the top talent to their organization.