Resolutions, Revolutions, and Resets

Words: Dick DentingerThe winds of change are all around us. You can feel it in the air, in the conversations we all had over the holidays, and in our interactions at work and all about town. Throughout history, we have used our national elections to make changes in the mission and direction that the citizens of our country want to steer the mothership that is America. While the results of change from elections are dramatic at first, it’s always a gamble on how effective the new leadership will be. This time around, there’s a thickness in the air with a sense of resolve to revolutionize the status quo and reset the table.

Periods of reset, while never perfect, often result in changes that have a positive impact on our construction industry by inspiring confidence to build, restore, and invest in our marketplace. Such hope and inspiration can produce timely and effective change, which will help to reset our country, bringing confidence and stability.

As 2025 kicks off with the inauguration of new leadership in Washington, DC, each of us is automatically part of the reset that is about to take place. This new year will be filled with plenty of strategic moves by the leaders we've elected, which will likely cause wild swings of emotion as we navigate our way. Some changes will be welcome, and others will be uncomfortable. Hopefully, it will cause a shift in bringing unity to our country through the creation of safer cities, more reasonable economic conditions for our households, the resolution of global conflicts, and most importantly, more opportunities for prosperity for all Americans.

This practice of resetting is also evident in the sports world. On a micro level, the sports industry builds in reset opportunities. Timeouts, halftimes, bye-weeks, and all-star breaks are opportunities to recharge and reset. On a macro level, when a sports franchise is experiencing little or no success, they frequently clean house of the leadership and decision-makers. General managers, head coaches, and coordinators are unceremoniously fired, and fresh faces with fresh ideas are ushered in. In a chess match of sorts, rosters are shuffled to reset the stagnant mood and negative culture that is swallowing up a team. These changes are often necessary and demanded by their customers—the fans and sponsors. Without their customers’ support, the business of the team will fail regardless of fancy logos and all the pomp and circumstance throughout the season.

Making resets and intentional and strategic changes should not be unnerving to any of us. It’s human nature to react to how the environment is impacting our effectiveness in whatever we do for a living or in our personal lives. January of each year is always full of news stories about New Year’s resolutions. We proclaim a fresh start with bold diet plans as soon as the ball drops at midnight to signal the fresh start of a new year. Sometimes we resolve to exercise more, sleep better, see our family more, or attend church more consistently. We switch up our workout plans if we were already exercising but have become stagnant. If our clothes are no longer able to disguise the extra pounds we’ve gained from eating poorly, we rigidly begin counting calories or perhaps start a trending diet plan to improve our health. As the weeks and months roll along, we do better on some of these resolutions and worse on others. Either way, we almost always experience some success that is relevant to the effort we put into the reset.

In our business lives, it’s also important to take the time to recognize when a reset is necessary or is happening in our industry’s climate or the economy. Usually, it happens whether we like it or not. It’s a force we can’t control when the economic conditions shift. Housing construction, multi-family projects, or school district bond referendums shift like the tide on a shore. The market resets and its boom or bust. It’s our responsibility to embrace the change and find a way to navigate alongside the reset to find our opportunity to prosper.

Once we know the environment in which we are competing, it’s a particularly important skill to be able to recognize opportunities to reset our performance on specific jobsites or in our offices. These can be critical as we make a resolution to intentionally cause a shift in a stagnant environment or an underperforming sector of our business. Perhaps by reshuffling our crew on a jobsite to produce new energy. Encourage someone to try a new position within the company. When we see a relationship with a customer is dissolving, or perhaps has never materialized, perhaps we should revolutionize the approach with the client by either deciding to no longer waste any more time and talent on that customer and instead redirect the energy on another prospect. Or, more likely, choose to change the chemistry of the relationship by assigning a different contact in our offices to that customer. A totally different personality type may be exactly what is needed to bear any fruit with that lead.

When a market resets, it’s up to each of us to recognize how our business can ride along with the changes happening around us. To most effectively prosper, we need to look for any resets or resolutions within our own operations that will improve our performance. Cheers to you all in 2025, and good luck on achieving your resolutions.

Resolutions, Revolutions, and Resets

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