Systems Thinking

This is where I get to pull my thoughts together from across the month.

It’s also contributing to my celebration of 50 years in the construction industry – the first half in a proper job and then as a coach.

This month I have been thinking about some of the big words we use in construction – using them as if everyone knows what we mean causes dysfunction and therein lies an opportunity for improvement. Making things better.

This is about the words we use frequently in construction – like collaboration, accountability and leadership – while assuming everyone knows what we mean. Its about digging into those words together and agreeing what we mean by them and what we will see when we see them played out. Its about substance.

This is the long form article. An edited version of this was published in Construction Management online magazine.

Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. Read this, do the work and become lucky.

At some stage you’ve got to get personal if you want to work together effectively, the earlier the better.

Here, I’m getting personal – my 50 years of “being” in construction. Self doubt, insecurity and wondering if I am good enough, if I belong. And going the extra mile to compensate. Often overcompensating.

It’s got me here and here is good, though did it have to be so hard?

This is my next in a series of reflections on 50 years in the construction industry – this time how sport and work have sustained me. Yes, I think that’s the word – sustained.

My LinkedIn posts have become themed, on a monthly cadence. And at the end of the month I draw the posts together, assisted by AI, into a long form article.

It’s kind of helping me to appreciate: my experience, some of what I have learned, this great industry that I work in, and indeed myself.

It’s useful to me and I hope, to you as well.

25 years coaching leadership teams in the construction industry, building on 25 years in operational roles.

“O” Level art, chain boy, Taylor Woodrow, Degree, MICE, Gold Coast World Championships, Birse, FCIOB, The Lord Pilkington Prize, Gold Medal, “Transformation” (ha!),, Wates, Improving Construction, DSA Building Performance Ltd, Costain IBP + +, P21, Balfours, BIrse again, Morgan Sindall, HS2, BAM and many more. PCC, MCC (The International Coaching Federation), Top of the Concept2 Honorboard, Author, content creator.

And I swear I’m just getting started …

I’m reflecting on 50 years in construction. I’ve managed to get the first 25 years down in a few thousand words. Of course there is much more to tell though I am happy with this – it gives a flavour of my foundations. I don’t expect you to read it, it’s for me really. But if you do read it I hope it sparks something for you.

Let me sign post this for you cos it’s not a short read. If you are in a top team or leading one and it’s not quite working as you would like then this might be for you. Or you may have landed a peach of a project and want to nail it, reading this could be useful

It’s about my work as a leadership team coach – my process, what I see and some of what I have learnt doing this over the last 25 years.

So if you think this might be for you find a quiet corner and read it slowly. Oh and you are not obliged to agree with anything I say.

Throughout April I have been posting about my bread and butter work as a leadership team coach.

I have been working in, leading and working with teams for 50 years.

For the first 25 I didn’t know what I was doing, no one taught me. I scraped through, it wasn’t pretty.

For the last 25 years I have been learning how to establish and sustain effective leadership teams and have been applying it in my work.

If you can get half as effective as Barcelona FC your results will be remarkable – here’s some things to consider …

In my LinkedIn posts I share my thinking, my process and my work as a professional coach. Oh and also sometimes, something about my exertions on my bike and rowing machine.

At the end of each month, assisted by AI, I roll up my posts into a long form article, somehow trying to make sense of it all.

Serious professional editing brings the AI draft back to me, Dave the human being.

Here’s my March …

A CEO decides on a career change though its not going as expected.

His phone has stopped ringing. Frustration is creeping in.

For the first time in his life the pressure is off and he doesn’t like it.

Though hope and inspiration are always just one conversation away.