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Over and Over Again

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
-Albert Einstein

What are you currently doing in your organization that is getting no results? Or worse than that, getting negative results?

Think about it.

Maybe you have too many meetings scheduled. Maybe you don’t have a meeting agenda in place. Maybe you don’t have the right person running the meeting.

I often quip that the A/E/C industry stands for Archaic, Expensive and Complicated.

Maybe you agree. Maybe you don’t.

But creativity is the path to innovation, and innovation is the path to value creation. Our job as consultants, advisors, contractors and engineers is to solve problems. That’s how we create value for the clients we work for. It is important to are always asking is there a better way to do this? Is there anything we can change or do differently? If this were easy, what would it look like?

In the Army, one of the most effective disciplines of Army culture is the After Action Review (AAR).

After a Training event? AAR!

After a mission? AAR!

After a training class, range or even a PT test? AAR!

But the insanity comes when you don’t change or implement the lessons learned. That’s what I am thinking about as we wrap up the quarter and look to year-end planning. Take a look at your to-do list and your weekly calendar. What are the things you should stop doing or put more intention behind doing? If you are wasting your time with it, you are probably wasting your team’s time with it, too. Keep in mind that we cannot better ourselves and our organizations if we keep doing the same ineffective things over and over again!

BJ Kraemer
President, MCFA