Unlearning and Rebuilding
– changing the construction industry from the inside out
When Lars Blaaberg and Peer Kisbye read the book Unboss they had a lightbulb moment of their own. They set out to change the way that the construction industry was organized, and the way people with different competences in that industry were working together.
They started thinking about how they were operating within their company. How can we work together in networks instead of silos? What kinds of structures do we need in terms of salaries, titles, how do we meet? Are we being talked to or having a dialogue as colleagues? Could it even be fun?
Five years ago those reflection become building blocks for their company Value to Construction or V2C. V2C is a client adviser within the Danish construction industry, with offices across Denmark and fast growing. They hold hands with the clients all the way through the building process, and make sure their projects are realistic.
Time to unlearn
When clients work with V2C, they find they have to unlearn some of the mechanisms of the hierarchical construction industry. Cutting out middle managers and embracing concepts like the four day work week, V2C are leading their field into new and unexpected places. As a Danish company operating in a Danish organizational cultural setting, things are fairly egalitarian and favor flat organizational structures, whereas in the construction industry, historically things are hierarchical and rigorously delegated.
“Value to Construction is one of our values. What we do needs to add value to the project, to the construction. If we don’t see ourselves adding value to the project then there isn’t anything for us to do.”
Bo Pedersen is in charge of culture and the finances within V2C. This is a double HR/Finance role which would have competing targets in a lot of organizations but he believes the money portion needs to be an integral part of the cultural portion of the business. In terms of building the company culture, Bo sees his job as being the one to hold up a mirror and ask why things are done the way they are, and if they should change. He is facilitating a conversation for everyone in the company in terms of how the culture of the company develops.
“It’s the employees that are here that have to do that development. Because they are out in the field, they are out in the project, they have close contacts with the clients, they see what competitors do, they have long experience within the industry. They are the ones who have the knowledge to create the new way of doing things.”
Unboss Organizing
“It means that we are all equal. I don’t have any staff and we don’t have any middle managers. We are managed by knowledge — managed by who has the best arguments in terms of how we should do things.”
In traditional organizations, when we run into a problem that we can’t solve we go to our manager. Now it’s not our problem anymore: we’ve handed it over for a manager to solve. At V2C colleagues have to find the solution, whatever that might mean. It could be a discussion over a coffee, it could be solved by someone else’s perspective…anything!
Same solution when staffing a project. At V2C they look at what the project entails, and then look around to locate the people who have the right competences to be part of the solution. It’s a dialogue. That group of people will then organize themselves in terms of which responsibilities and roles they take on in the project. In one project a colleague could be a lead and in another project that same person will have less responsibility and be assisting.
In this way leadership rotates, instead of always being divided between a small leadership team. The recipe for: No middle managers! Everyone’s titles are ‘Adviser’.
This also frees people up for increased professional growth. Both younger colleagues and people with many years experience are eager for a perspective beyond their deep specialized expertise. It brings challenge, freshness, as well as unexpected rewards.
Being a Sounding Board
So how do decisions get made? At V2C there are 8 colleagues who are ‘sparringspartnere’ — meaning sparring partners, who function as sounding boards for around 3–5 other colleagues each. This isn’t a mentor/mentee relationship, as both partners are equal, and conversations are centered around the individuals concerns. The ‘sparringspartnere’ either stepped up and expressed a wish to serve this function, or were encouraged by their colleagues to take it on.
“All my colleagues have a learning account here in the company they can use to improve themselves, take courses and education, whatever might be relevant for them. And who decides what’s relevant for them? Well themselves and a person who can challenge them — who is their sounding board.”
The dialog is also front and center when the company is looking for new people to join. V2C don’t post jobs. Usually they find their people through colleagues’ networks and recommendations. When there is a potential good fit, a conversation between that person and V2C’s founders Lars and Peer is set up. The aim is to explore if there is the right chemistry. A fairly intuitive process and primarily based on conversation. Is this a person who is ready to unlearn what she/he has been used to of structures and processes in the construction industry?
Inspired to try?
4-day work week and no middle managers … it sounds appealing but where do you start? Bo’s answer is to start with a vision, to imagine what kind of work environment you want to shape. Ask yourself or your team what relationships you wish for people to have with customers and to have internally with each other? What’s the attitude to the work? What’s the workplace tone or communication? The culture.
When you know what kind of interaction you are looking for. The next step is to look at what kind of structure the team needs in order to create that.
“Too often people start with the structure and focus on how tasks are done or what customers will need. Instead focus on the interactions and look at the structure who will support it afterwards.”
