THE OPERATING CODE | 001
KNOW BEFORE YOU COMMIT
A commitment is easy to make.
Delivering it is where you find out whether you understood what you agreed to.
Before I commit to a project, schedule, crew, customer, or deadline, I want to know what I'm committing to.
Not every detail.
But enough to know whether the commitment is realistic.
What are we doing?
When does it need to be done?
What will it take to do it?
Do we have the right people?
Do we have the material and equipment?
What has to happen before we can start?
Who is running the project?
Who do we report to?
What can stop us?
What don't we know yet?
These questions should be answered before the promise is made.
AVAILABLE DOESN'T MEAN CAPABLE
One of the easiest mistakes in planning work is looking at a schedule and seeing an open crew.
That tells you they're available.
It doesn't tell you they're the right crew.
Technical difficulty matters.
Experience matters.
The foreman matters.
Some work can be handed to almost any competent crew. Other work requires somebody who has seen it before, understands the risks, and can recognize when something isn't right.
If I have three foremen available next Monday, I don't necessarily have three foremen available for that job.
I may have one.
That's a different resource problem.
Manpower isn't just headcount. Capability is part of capacity.
UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE AGREEING TO
A date on a schedule doesn't tell the whole story.
Neither does a scope of work.
Before committing, look at what has to come together to make the work possible.
Scope. Schedule. People. Material. Equipment. Access. Engineering. Customer requirements. Other trades. Inspections. Outages. Documentation.
One missing piece can change the entire plan.
And don't assume the information in front of you is complete just because somebody put it in a shared folder.
Drawings get revised.
Material lists miss things.
Site conditions don't always match the drawings.
Customer requirements change.
Another trade can be in your way.
The newest drawing you find may still be preliminary.
Make sure you're working from the latest approved information, not simply the newest document somebody happens to have.
Verify what matters before you build a commitment around it.
KNOW THE CHAIN OF COMMAND
Before the work starts, know who owns what and who answers to whom.
Who is running the project?
Who is the project manager?
Who is the superintendent?
Who represents the customer?
Who has authority to make a decision?
Who answers the technical questions?
Who owns safety?
Where does escalation go?
You shouldn't have to figure out the chain of command after something goes wrong.
People need to know where questions go, where decisions come from, and when something needs to move up.
This doesn't mean everybody skips levels and calls whoever they think can give them the fastest answer.
It means the chain is understood before it is needed.
Know who owns the decision before you need the decision.
FIND THE STOPS
Every project has a lot of things that need to happen.
They aren't all equally important.
Before I commit, I want to find anything that can stop the work from starting, stop it from moving, or stop it from finishing.
Maybe it's engineering.
Maybe it's material.
Maybe it's access.
Maybe it's another contractor.
Maybe it's a maintenance window.
Maybe it's an inspection.
Maybe it's one particular person with the experience or qualification required to perform the work.
Maybe it's something that has to happen before anybody is even allowed to start.
Those are the prerequisites.
Does the project require a Qualified Person?
Does safety need to review it?
Does engineering need to approve something?
Does the customer have to approve the plan?
Is special training required?
Do we need permits or special access?
Does material need to be physically verified?
Does an outage or maintenance window need approval?
Do we need a crane, specialty equipment, subcontractor, or another resource that isn't normally part of the crew?
Find those things early.
You can have fifty items marked complete and still be unable to start because the one thing that matters isn't ready.
Don't confuse activity with readiness.
Don't wait until the work stops to find out what could stop it.
DON'T COMMIT SOMEONE ELSE'S RESOURCES FOR THEM
A project rarely depends on one person.
It may require a particular foreman, specialized crew, subcontractor, crane, engineer, vendor, customer representative, maintenance window, or piece of equipment.
If your commitment depends on somebody else being available, find out.
Don't build a schedule around:
"They should be able to do it."
Ask. Confirm. Then commit.
The same applies to the people working for you.
Just because somebody's calendar looks open doesn't mean you understand everything already on their plate.
Know what you're committing - and know whose resources you're committing with it.
LEAVE ROOM FOR WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW
Experience teaches you something uncomfortable.
You will not know everything before you start.
That's normal.
The mistake is pretending uncertainty doesn't exist.
If something hasn't been verified, treat it as something that still needs an answer.
If the site hasn't been walked, say that.
If engineering hasn't responded, say that.
If material hasn't been physically verified, say that.
If you're depending on an assumption, know that you're depending on an assumption.
There is a big difference between:
"We don't know yet."
and
"We didn't know because nobody checked."
One is uncertainty.
The other is preventable.
REMOVE THE FRICTION. DON'T REMOVE THE THINKING.
Good planning should make execution easier.
It shouldn't make people incapable of operating without being handed every answer.
Give people what they need to move.
Don't make somebody spend thirty minutes looking for information that should take thirty seconds to find.
But don't solve every problem for them either.
People still need to read the drawings.
Understand the scope.
Recognize when something isn't right.
Ask questions.
Make decisions.
Develop judgment.
If every answer has to come from the person above them, you've created dependency.
Make the simple things easy. Don't make the important thinking unnecessary.
The people working under you should become more capable because they worked for you - not more dependent on you.
WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW, DON'T GUESS
Sometimes the right answer is:
I need to check before I commit to that.
There will always be pressure to give an answer.
Can you have a crew there Monday?
Can you finish by Friday?
Can you take another project?
Can we make that outage?
Can you do it for this price?
Maybe.
But maybe isn't yes.
A bad commitment made quickly is still a bad commitment.
Take the time required to understand what the answer actually is.
Then give the answer you can stand behind.
THE PRINCIPLE
Know before you commit.
Understand the work.
Understand the people.
Understand the prerequisites.
Understand the chain of command.
Find the stops.
Understand what you don't know.
Then make the commitment.
Because once you give your word, the question changes.
It isn't whether you can do it anymore.
Now you're responsible for figuring out how you will.