Collaboration is a skill that asks people who work together to look beyond personal interests towards outcomes that will benefit the entire group. Collaboration is a great way to address challenges, since it has the potential to tap each person’s creativity when finding a solution to a problem.
The workplace, similar to a sports team, is a competitive environment. Jenco is continually competing with other electrical contractors for more work from our customers and each employee is competing with every other employee for their position within the company. But how successful would any sports team be if the teammates did not find a way to work together on game day to be the best team that they could be out on the field? I assure you, they don’t win championships.
Technology Challenges Happen
Too many times when a project has problems, or is not able to produce a profit for the company, people within the organization turn to WHO was at fault instead of WHAT could have been done differently to produce a better outcome. One example that comes to mind is the first time anyone attempts to use any new technology. I’m sure most of you have heard someone say they don’t want to use this new item because ‘we have always done things a certain way’. The problem is the first time you use a new technology it’s very common the adoption and subsequent use is not the most efficient. Remember the first time you used a computer? Programmed a VCR? Sent an email on a smart phone? Performed layout installations using BIM? In some cases, we have employees refuse to embrace technology because they think that they can do it better and cheaper ‘how they’ve always done it.’
Banding Together To Beat Our Competition
To stay competitive in the electrical contracting business and grow as an organization, we need to continually find ways to lower our costs of putting construction in place safely at a profit. When we find new ways to build our product at a lower installed cost we are able to recognize those savings when we bid future projects and beat our competition. By doing that we can grow larger as a company and actual put more electricians to work, not less. But when we are not competitive because we cannot find lower cost methods to produce our products the company will have fewer opportunities to keep everyone working.
What can you do the next time you’re faced with a problem situation?
- Look to work with others on a solution vs. finding a person to blame
- Cooperate with your fellow teammates and use or create best practices to resolve the issue
- Share your key learnings with others so other teammates can benefit and be more willing to share their learnings back with you
Ultimately teams that work together for our common goal of putting construction in place, safely at a profit will outperform and be more valuable than individuals working alone. Help to build a stronger team at Jenco so we can all enjoy more opportunities in the future to earn a living for ourselves and our families.