Masonry Magazine April 2006 Page. 20
Contractor
to Contractor or simply out of state. We understand that this is a contribution to the industry as a whole, as well as a contribution to our own future of skilled workmen.
Masonry: Your company has successfully completed more than 1,000 projects, all with varied budgets and levels of detail. What has been your most difficult masonry project and how did you overcome the obstacles?
Jensen: We see projects designed with more difficulty as the years pass. In other words, most of the projects we do today, if I were to compare a similar project 10 years ago, we see far more emphasis on reinforced masonry than we did 10 years ago for similar-type projects. In addition, fast track design has an additional impact on new projects.
Also, less emphasis is put on modular design, that is, designing the structure to fit the masonry component. As a result, you find obstacles such as walls they design that aren't even accessible from the elevated floors of a high-rise. We often need to engineer a custom scaffold or outrigger system to even access these conditions. These are things we didn't see 10 years ago.
Nearly every one of our jobs has some or a lot of these obstacles that we need to overcome. It requires more out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity today than it ever has.
Masonry: What do you feel is the biggest misconception about the masonry industry?
Jensen: I'll break this down into two parts. The first part is that when I was an apprentice in the late '60s, the biggest misconception then was that masons make too much money, but at the same time, the conception was that we were artisans at our trade. The basic misconception today is that masons make too much money because there's not enough artistry to their work and computer skills are not generally required.
Masonry: What would you do to change that misconception?
Why Don't Employees Want to Change?
MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
If change is a constant and a must for any business to survive, why can't we get our people to change when it's needed? One thing we know for sure is that the greatest businesses are not developed over night. Bill Gates didn't just wake up one morning and became the richest man in the world. And as I like to explain in my seminars, if we change one thing today, one thing tomorrow and one thing the next day, over a period of time we will have built a tremendous organization.
I only like to work half days anymore. I don't care if I work the first half or the second half, but 12 hours is long enough. During my time at work I have one main goal each day. The goal is to call as many shots and make as many changes as I possibly can to make the future of the companies brighter. Of course, a lot of our people especially our long-term employees reject this constant change, but we make the changes anyway.
Often when we are making changes, things will get worse in the short term before we see improvements. It is sort of like learning to play golf. If you want to improve your game, you have to make swing or grip adjustments. These adjustments will make your golf swing feel uncomfortable at first. In fact, your game will usually get worse over the short term. This is when most golfers give up, therefore never giving themselves the opportunity to get better over the long term. These players will never get below the 80s in most cases and usually stay in the 90s regardless of how much they play. That's why there aren't many exceptional golfers out there. For the golfer that sticks to his or her guns on the swing changes will become a much better golfer in the end.
When we started paying our office staff based on monthly profit and loss, the first few monthly meetings were tense. As we presented the numbers, you could actually feel the tension in the room, especially on the bad months. Now, three years later, we have employees coming to us and saying that they believe these meetings have driven their division of our companies into making business decisions that have greatly increased the bottom line for their company. Of course, since they all get paid part of the increased results of the company, they have become excited to attend these monthly meetings. Had we not stayed the course and dropped these meetings due to the growling, we would have never known the tremendous impact the profit and loss payouts and meetings have now had on our companies.
A friend of mine that is always looking for a quick get-rich scheme told me at a party that he is going to get rich quick, he just didn't know how yet. I replied, "There is only one way to get rich. Slowly."
The next morning you start work, ask yourself this question: "What changes will I make today that will change the way we do business tomorrow?" Measure your success based on how many shots you have called by the end of that day. Remember that your business won't be built overnight, but over a period of time. If you make one change today, one change tomorrow and one the next day, over a period of time, you will have built a tremendous organization.
Damian Lang is the author of the book "Rewarding and Challenging Employees for Profits in Masonry." To order a copy of his book or to attend one of his seminars held specifically for mason contractors, call Lang Masonry's Kerri Huch at (800) 417-92172.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Mastery Contractors, Inc. and EZ Grost Corp.