The Weekly Dig: Disciplined Innovation and the Workforce
The Weekly Dig is an easy-to-digest peek into trending industry topics, thought-leadership, and product updates from Pype.
July 30, 2019
A few weeks ago, we picked the brain of Dominic Daughtrey, Sundt’s Continuous Improvement Manager, to see how Sundt successfully evaluates and implements enterprise-level software. During that conversation, he touched on the concept of Disciplined Innovation, which he explained as “we’re going to experiment aggressively on the front line, we’re going to be extremely diligent and rigorous, and we’re going to measure not only the metrics, but also the qualitative impact on our employee owners.” As the interview progressed, we dug deeper into this idea and how it guides Sundt and Dominic’s own practices, and we’ll be sharing his insights over this four-part series of the Weekly Dig.
As mentioned earlier in our Discipline Innovation series, a firm shouldn’t work only towards the C-Suite’s goals, but also allow all employees the chance to achieve their goals. To Dominic Daughtrey, this lies within employee empowerment and is at the heart of Sundt’s Continuous Improvement strategy. “We don’t want employee owners at Sundt to be dependent on Continuous Improvement, or IT, or HR, or anyone. We want to give them the very best tools and training so that they are empowered to solve their problems and ultimately succeed.” This mantra also helps Sundt run lean, as our employee owners have the knowledge and information necessary to extract the full value from their current software deck.
Additionally, access to a well-built software deck has also attracted new hires in an industry plagued by labor shortages. “In every employee owner survey we do, I always ask if the respondent believes that providing innovative solutions, including new hardware and software technologies, will attract the best and brightest talent to Sundt; and every time it is an overwhelming ‘Yes.’” Sundt has seen that having access to software, training, information on the software, and an avenue for feedback (such as Dominic and his team) all contribute positively to a potential employee owner’s decision to accept an offer from a construction firm.
Dominic’s advice?
“Empower employees to make changes that affect the results they’re responsible for. If you give them the responsibility and accountability, then you have to provide the autonomy and the authority with it.”
Other posts in this Disciplined Innovation series:
Part 1: Innovation and Speed
Part 2: Innovation and Disruption
Part 4: Innovation and Partnerships