Owners

Moving the Monolith: Organizational Agility

Modern-day companies tend towards size or complexity (the two are not mutually exclusive.) Both paths allow for highly specialized functions and a diverse array of abilities.

This comes at the cost, however, of agility. Capital construction asset owners in particular can integrate engineering, sales, contractor management, and other functions under a single umbrella.  Each function has its own culture and goals that can be difficult to shift on short notice. When this umbrella has to work with the many other limbs of the giant corporate monolith, that shift grows ever more difficult.

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Change Management in an Agile Capital Program

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological phenomenon that reveals a humorous, but worrying part of human nature. It dictates that people often perceive their ability inverse to their actual ability. Those with skill undervalue themselves, and those without overvalue themselves.

Any responsible manager constantly fights against this effect, using personal experience and hard data to gain greater self-awareness. But it can rear its head in one particular arena: change management.

Our 2016 CURT Owner Trends Study focused on change management as it relates to organizational agility, or the ability for a capital construction program to rapidly adapt to new needs. Responses revealed that while we think about change a lot, and talk about change a lot, we don’t always manage it well. And that’s something we need to figure out.

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Continuum Advisory Group Talks E/C/F Futures with Construction Industry Institute

The demands upon internal Engineering, Construction and Facilities (E/C/F) groups are increasing. They are being asked to do more with less faster to accomplish strategic business objectives. Continuum Advisory Group found this and more to be true in a recent study called “Order Takers or Value Creators – Engineering, Construction, and Facilities Groups as Critical Drivers of Organizational Performance.“

The study was produced in partnership with the Construction Industry Institute (CII). Continuum Advisory Group’s Matt Marshall presented the study’s findings recently with the Associated General Contractors of Colorado Subcontractor Relations Committee. 

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Innovation, Agility, and Strategic Imperative

The purpose of owner E/C/F (Engineering, Construction, and Facilities) teams may seem obvious: build stuff so that business happens. You wouldn’t be wrong, in the same way that a computer’s purpose is to “do math fast.”

The strategic benefits of that team can be harder to identify. Continuum Advisory Group recently completed a study to uncover these benefits and interview people changing the relationship between E/C/F and the internal clients they serve. Above all, we want to show others how.

In our new blog series, we’ll be exploring the results of the study in greater depth. Each blog is focused on one of the eight identified themes from our interviews with 35 diverse corporations.

In our previous installment, we discussed how E/C/F departments have to sell themselves. But here, the customers are not shoppers or buyers, but rather people within the organization. An innovative, agile E/C/F department will make that pitch much more appealing.

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E/C/F Maturity and Growth

The purpose of owner E/C/F (Engineering, Construction, and Facilities) teams may seem obvious: build stuff so that business happens. You wouldn’t be wrong, in the same way that a computer’s purpose is to “do math fast.”

The strategic benefits of that team can be harder to identify. Continuum Advisory Group recently completed a study to uncover these benefits and interview people changing the relationship between E/C/F and the internal clients they serve. Above all, we want to show others how.

In our new blog series, we’ll be exploring the results of the study in greater depth. Each blog is focused on one of the eight identified themes from our interviews with 35 diverse corporations.

Our first blog in the series covers how companies view their E/C/F departments, both where they are and where they’d like to be.

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Doing More with Less

Doing More With Less

Cars are a microcosm of human technology. We pour millions of dollars and hours into extracting more and more from arguably the same stuff: gas and metal. And efficiency isn’t just gas mileage, either. Take the Ford Mustang, for instance. The new V8 model puts out 435 horsepower with nearly the same size engine as a 90s model…which boasted a mere 236 ponies.

The fundamentals of the engine haven’t changed: gas, metal, air. What has changed is how those materials are used. The construction industry follows the same paradigm, in that ultimately we build things. But the journey there? The road can be bumpy, include detours and (at times) be long and winding.

Efficiency is more important now than ever. You have to do more with less.

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How Lean Construction Principles Create Efficiencies and Cost Savings

The construction business is not always one for subtlety.

When you’re building something huge – say a factory – brute force can seem like an effective way to power through the complexities of workforce coordination, materials management and other hurdles. And sometimes it works… but at a cost.

A big one, as it turns out. In fact, researchers have estimated that anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of construction resources are wasted on each project. Those resources range from tangible materials to abstracts like labor and morale.

Lean construction philosophy is focused on closing that gap. It challenges the notion that speed and quality are disparate ideas. It is the belief that you can reduce waste and increase productivity, safety performance and project value through advance planning, strategic thinking, proactive management, communication and artful leadership.

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Order Takers or Value Creators? | Engineering, Construction, and Facilities Study

Order Takers or Value Creators? Your Engineering, Construction, and Facilities (E/C/F) Department

Your facility is sort of like a favorite jacket. You wear it every day, so often that you forget it’s there. You walk through rain and wind, fixed on your phone or a friend or whatever else, and it’s your silent protector from the elements.

But then there’s a hole in it. Suddenly, you pay attention.

Your E/C/F department, when it’s functioning properly, may seem like it’s barely there at all. But imagine if that department played a more active, strategic role in your company. Imagine if you extracted all of its potential. Imagine if they stopped just taking orders and started sitting in your executive team meetings creating value for your company and shareholders. What could happen?

That proposition is the subject of a new, joint study between Continuum Advisory Group and the Construction Industry Institute (CII).

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Continuum Advisory Group Releases 2016 CURT Owner Trends Study

Continuum Advisory Group Releases 2016 CURT Owner Trends Study:

Insights to Leading an Agile Capital Program

Continuum Advisory Group has released the 2016 Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) Owner Trends Study, the newest installment of their Owner Trends series.

The study – a collaboration between both organizations – focuses on organizational agility in the capital construction industry. Organizational agility is a measure of a company’s ability to rapidly adapt to a changing market, either proactively or reactively.

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Coming Soon: The 2016 Continuum Advisory Group Owner Trends Study

Imagine you’re out on the ocean at the helm of a sail boat.

It’s dark, late at night, and the stars are hidden by the clouds. In the precious light you have, you glance down at a damp map…only to find it has changed. Look up, and somehow the stars seem different too, as if they’ve moved. The rules have changed just as you were figuring them out.

You grip the wheel again, but who is manning the sails? Who is bailing out the water? Can you count on them?

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