Do you remember the last time you received a piece of personal U.S. mail (not counting bills)? According to a recent study, the average American receives a piece of personalized U.S. Mail every six to seven weeks – and this includes birthday, holiday and other family generated cards. Wow, what a metamorphosis in personal communications in the past 20 years!
This same study also said that one of the most impressionable (good) forms of communications is - you guessed it, a piece of...
A question that regularly arises is how to sustain quality management or to put it another way, what are the reasons for quality management failing? There have been two significant studies on this issue and their findings cited the following obstacles.
Lack of leadership for quality
Lack of planning for quality
Inadequate resources for quality
Inadequate human resources development and management
Lack of customer focus
Ultimately it was found...
As a self-confessed Frank Lloyd Wright dork, you would think I already knew about the Historic Park Inn in Mason City, Iowa—the last remaining Wright-designed hotel on the planet. But it wasn’t until I received my copy of Arts and Crafts Homes magazine that I learned about this national treasure. Originally built in 1910, the Park Inn Hotel was recently restored to all its Prairie School glory. The hotel has 27 guest rooms, one of which...
A good friend of mine who is also a 40-year veteran of the construction industry has taught me a lot about relationships over the past few years. He has been a tireless advocate of relationships his entire life, spending countless hours working, molding, and shaping both his personal and professional contacts.
I have to admit, I admire the amount of time and effort he puts into his relationships, and it’s paid off tremendously.
Often times I’ve walked with him on a jobsite, a...
You probably missed it.
Nearly everyone did.
Sept. 20, 1977, was the day that I breathlessly awaited the conclusion of the shark-jumping episode of "Happy Days." All week long I had fretted about Fonzie’s mid-air cliff hanger. While Fonzie (clad in leather jacket and water skis) successfully made the jump and lived to be cool another day, the series "Happy Days" was not so lucky--it took a turn for the worse and was never the same again.
In the building industry, I am noticing in many markets the...
In your personal and professional life, being easy to talk to is a skill worth developing. But good conversationalists are rare.
As you may have noticed by now, I am a flat-out junkie for lessons. Nearly every article I have written for Professional Builder, including my monthly editorials, offers some sort of list of takeaways, lessons learned, do’s and don’ts, and other pieces of advice. The fact is, I love the process of problem solving, and I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the countless number of creative ideas that you — the builders, developers, and designers of America — have...
A few years ago, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) initiated a lobbying effort to get Congress and the administration more focused on fixing housing. They called it Fix Housing First. At the time, billions were being spent on stimulus, and the industry argued that more needed to be done to jump-start housing.
Eventually, a special homebuyer tax credit was enacted. During the...
Standards provide crucial communication, alignment and compatibility at an international, national, industry and individual organizational level. These standards, accessible to everyone from global powers to developing countries, from international corporations to the Mom and Pop small business, provide guidance and infrastructure, state of the art technical knowledge and management best practices. In a global environment they ease the crossing of borders, cultures and languages...
