Chapter 2 — Leadership Lessons from SCRUM and a French Economist
Troublemakers have a superpower when it comes to planning and building things.
They can see things that others can’t because they’re exceptional at seeing hidden risk and the downside to decisions that get made.
When they’re particularly vocal about taking a certain direction on a job it’s for a very good reason.
Construction and Project Managers are terrible at seeing the problems that the Troublemaker sees.
And a lot of the time the Troublemaker is branded difficult/negative and too hard to work with when they dig their heels in regarding a decision they don’t agree with.
The problem is you can’t fit what a Troublemaker sees into a spreadsheet or Gantt chart, which is a real issue because spreadsheets/Gantt charts are the language Construction & Project Managers speak.
Kathy Colby sums up the major downfall of Construction and Project Managers best…
“Smart people {which Construction and Project Managers usually are} are terrible at predicting the future. That’s because they rely on past data to make their decisions” ~ Kathy Kolbe
They don’t have the Troublemaker 2020 vision.
Just to put some context around what I’m going to talk about next I need to tell you about the French Economist Jean-Baptiste Say
Jean-Baptiste Say was a French economist in the 1800s who said this…
“The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.”
A Troublemaker does the exact same thing as an entrepreneur; the only difference is the Troublemakers resources is their team.
I first used SCRUM on a shutdown in the Pilbara in 2017
At smoko on the first morning of using the SCRUM board one of my Troublemaker supervisors came up to me and said…
Fuck me Beanie I’ve got more done in the first few hours this morning that I usually get done in 3–4 days.
That’s the power of having a visual plan {SCRUM board} up in everyone’s face so they can see exactly what they need to focus on.
Long story short we finished the shut safely, ahead of time and I was told at the time it was the most profitable project that the company had ever completed.
That was despite the fact that…
- The P/O for the project was issued so late by the client that the company I was working for almost knocked the job back.
- There were two other major shutdowns in the Pilbara at the time so resources and available people were almost non-existent.
- Hardly any of the team had ever worked together before.
- It was a locked timeframe as the plant we shutdown was a supplier to major industry and the Liquidated Damages were significant for both them and us.
- We had an unproven spreadsheet Project Manager that was more hindrance than a help and I didn’t have the patience at the time to educate him on SCRUM properly.
We did, however, have a couple of strokes of luck go in our favour…
- I had one of my main Troublemakers as my right-hand man, and the other supervisor I mentioned earlier kicked goals as well.
- We ended up with two killer lads on the tools that got us over the line.
- There was a young engineer on the job that made up for the PM.
- We had an awesome female Troublemaker that helped drive the safety.
What the SCRUM board did was allow those awesome Troublemakers to get on the same page and get the job done.
A SCRUM board is the Interface that Troublemakers and Construction/Project Managers need to get them both speaking the same language and get traction on a project.
Here is a quick breakdown {we will go more in-depth in later chapters} of how SCRUM works.
The SCRUM board is broken up into five main categories.
Backlog | Ready | The Pen | Today | Done
The Backlog
The backlog is where anyone adds a task that needs to be completed, which is written on a sticky note so it can be moved and the progress tracked.
Ready
When a task {sticky note} is moved to the ready column it must be written in such a way that everyone is very clear on what done looks like.
Let me give you an example of a poorly written ticket {by me} that actually happened on the shutdown.
I wrote a ticket that said “organise a scrap bin”
At a stand up I asked if it was done and the answer I got was yes.
Anyway I was on-site two days later and my main Troublemaker said to me, I thought that scrap bin was done?
That’s what I was told at the standup two days ago I replied.
“Well he said it’s still not here”
So I got on the phone and called the person that told me it was done and said where’s that scrap bin to which he replied…
“I’ve done that” I sent them an email”
As I said earlier Karratha was fat out with shutdowns running at the time so the bin company had just ignored his email, and it wasn’t done at all.
This is how I should have written the ticket…
- Call the bin company.
- Organise a P/O and send it to the bin company.
- Confirm visually the bin is delivered and in place on-site.
One other important note is that each task should have the responsible person’s name on it, so everyone knows exactly who is responsible for which task.
The Pen
If a task this is supposed to be in progress is held up for any reason it goes straight into the pen.
This ensures that bottlenecks that have the potential to be show stoppers are constantly monitored.
Today
These are the tasks that must happen today.
A good rule of thumb is to limit everyone to their top three tasks for the day.
My personal golden rule here is that if everything is a priority, then nothing is.
Done
It’s extremely important to ensure that your wins are tracked, to keep everyone focused and to build momentum.
The Stand-Up
Is a daily meeting where you run through the board quickly and ask three key questions…
- What did you complete yesterday?
- What are you working on today?
- What’s holding you up?
At the end of the Stand-Up, everyone must have their top 3 tickets that need to be done that day in the today column.
An important point here is you don’t use SCRUM to create a blame game.
If you do that you’ll just create animosity and people will lie to you about what’s really going on.
Trust must be established and maintained at all times so that people are compelled to raise their hand immediately if something goes wrong or they’re struggling to get something done.
A SCRUM board that’s done properly means that anyone can walk into the room at any given time and in a couple of minutes know exactly what everyone is working on and know exactly where the progress of the project is at.
We will go more in-depth in later chapters as to how you use SCRUM even more effectively including using planning poker {yes with a deck of playing cards} to get accurate time frames that tasks can be completed in.
In Chapter Three, we’re going to look at the B.S. eliminator process that I created from the Hierarchy of Control which we use in the Construction Industry to manage safety.
Last thing before you go.
If you’re still unsure whether you’re a Troublemaker or not this quote from the book Rocket Fuel has the answer.
If it resonates with you, you’re a Troublemaker, if it doesn’t you’re definitely not.
“You have that entrepreneurial curiosity that causes your colleagues to see you differently within a large organisation.
They aren’t sure exactly what to do with you.
Truth is, you probably scare them a bit because they don’t understand how your mind works.
You seek more freedom.
They are wired to be cogs in a machine.
You are wired to take a vision — and go make it happen.
This is a very special gift. Gino Wickman | Rocket Fuel | Chapter Six