It is a basic human need to see one’s work go from start to finish, and leaders need to do more to empower their people with this perspective.
Have you ever seen the lawn cutting or power washing videos where someone takes an overgrown yard or filthy patio and completely cleans it up? I occasionally get seduced into watching one while scrolling through social media and they are hard not to watch. I will confess I am a fan of doing my own lawncare (no one will have the quality standard I have) and would practically pay someone else to let me powerwash all day. It’s so gratifying to see the tangible results of my work.
Believe it or not, there is a lesson for us in those videos that could help our businesses immensely. I would bet most of us who are owners or mid- to high-level managers in AEC firms feel pretty gratified by the work our companies do. In many cases, depending on our scope (and the client of course) – we get to see it all – from the initial sale all the way through to final completion of whatever project it is we are involved with. That is satisfying and motivational to us, and helps fuel our passion for what we do.
But what about everyone else? What about all of the entry-level and mid-level design and technical staff who never get out of the office or away from their computer screens? What about the marketing staff who grind out qualification documents and proposals and provide presentation support? How are they going to get that same connection to the clients and the work that the owners and higher level managers get, improving the quality of what they do and gaining the resulting satisfaction that comes from seeing tangible accomplishment?
Maybe we need to do more to give those people the same connection and satisfaction from their work. Let’s bring some of them to the actual presentations to win the project. Let’s bring some of them into the initial client meetings as observers if nothing else. Let’s take some of them on the initial site visits. Let’s get some of them out of the office on construction administration visits. Let’s get some of them to the topping off ceremonies on projects they helped design. Let’s get some of them to the grand openings of whatever the facility is so they can make the connection between what they do as individuals to the final result.
Yes, there is a cost to do this, but how much more motivation and how much less (very costly) staff turnover would we have if we made a conscious effort to do more of this? And wouldn’t their actual work quality improve if they had more direct client interaction?
I will never forget how excited my ex-wife was years ago, to see a project she worked on as an entry-level landscape architecture grad at EDSA while on our honeymoon in Bermuda. It was The Princess Hotel – now called the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club – and she had worked on color studies for the exterior before it was painted. Seeing the final result of her work in the flesh was the connection she never got in her low-level job. Maybe getting more of that would have kept her going when she was tired or kept her working at the company – who knows?
One thing I do know for sure. It is a basic human need to see one’s work go from start to finish. I’m going to run with that and not ignore it.
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.