A comparative analysis of the game of football and the business of construction
A three-part blog series contributed by Gregg Schoppman, principal at FMI Corporation
Seconds remain as the clock ticks away at an anxious and dizzying pace. A steady rain pounds the field, muddying any sense of progress and fatiguing already weary players. The last play will define the game.
This dramatic scene dots the landscape of professional and collegiate football fields every autumn. Sports fans across the United States have christened football as America’s sport. Defined by some people as “choreographed brutality,” football captivates passionate audiences with its physicality and competitive spirit, resulting in some people defining football as a religious experience. Not open for debate is the sport’s description as one of the greatest business enterprises. Ticket sales, licensing and merchandise are a small fraction of football’s revenue generators. Billions of dollars fill the coffers of a few, providing fans with three to four hours of entertainment for each game. As we move through the playoffs, two great teams will see the true payoff.
Yet, perceptions are not always reality. In real-time, the average football games last just 11 to 13 minutes! Actual football game play accounts for only a small portion of the time the teams occupy the field. Another perception in football is that the game begins with the initial kickoff when it really begins long before the coin toss. Rewind to earlier in the week, coaches and players draft plays, screen game film (some screen the other team’s game film), and run drills in preparation for the pending battle. By the start of the game, coaches and players alike have invested hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hours in planning for a mere 12 minutes of football. Football has morphed from a simple game of short duration to a multibillion-dollar business enterprise in which the teams that plan and prepare the best are most likely to win the coveted prizes.
So why do construction firms not follow this same principle? In a construction project with a scheduled duration of one year, the amount of preparation required to parallel the football example above would translate into approximately 45 million days of planning. While this number is obviously unrealistic, successful outcomes require planning. Planning in football is not radically different from the planning that should take place on construction projects (see Exhibit 1 below). The real difference lies in results. Proactive planning and communication are the fundamental building blocks of construction projects, just as great blocking and tackling are the difference between winning and losing in football.
The game of football and the business of construction
Days Before the Game
Playing the game is always more fun than talking about the game. However, games are won and lost in the preparation — before the helmet is strapped on or shoulder pads adjusted. Pre-job planning is about briefing the team and calculating the better course to victory. For many firms, project managers, superintendents and foremen are not privy to the specifics of how a job is won. The handoff tends to resemble an informal “by the way,” rather than the formal discussion necessary to prepare the team before they hit the field. Even before the project kicks off, the clock is ticking. Yet, productivity is forsaken for activity and having bodies in motion on the field. “Hey Joe, be on the (INSERT JOB NAME HERE) on Monday. I put a set of plans in your mailbox,” barks the estimator. Coaches in professional football never walk onto the field on Sunday and tell the quarterback, “Okay, here’s your playbook. Now go out there and win, baby!” As absurd as this sounds, contractors do this daily!
Preparation begins with pre-job planning. Estimators receive word of the project being awarded. Transitioning from estimating to operations should culminate in a pre-job planning meeting. It is easy to make this first meeting a “dump of information.” It is a transition after all. Oftentimes, a large portion of this meeting is a dictation by the estimators of how the project was bid rather than a collaboration of how the project should be constructed.
Allowing the players an opportunity to become familiar with the details of the project before the meeting increases the effectiveness of the pre-job planning process; consider this time an opportunity for the project team to do their homework and scout the field.
Check back on Wednesday for Part 2: Pre-Job Planning Steps.
Gregg Schoppman is a senior consultant with FMI’s Tampa office. He may be reached at 813-636-1259 or via e-mail at gschoppman@fminet.com.
Advice or suggestions provided by Mr. Schoppman are statements of general applicability that may or may not apply to individual businesses, whose circumstances and operations may vary. The opinions of Mr. Schoppman do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Vermeer Corporation, its dealers or its affiliates.