Are We Shooting Ourselves in the Foot?

No fear of fast but of that "straight ahead and no control" aspect of speed. Racer develop speed by developing their techniques. As their methodology becomes ingrained habit they are naturally able to do it faster. It's a training philosophy, like low and slow is. Does that mean you fear high and fast? The key is how one perceives their pace. I look at a job and think how can I do this the safest most efficient way. While I may not be speeding through the tree the job gets done in the least time. Is that fast? For the client it is. What of the crew? Can they keep up with the pace your setting in the tree? That can be a big factor, kinda like speeding to catch the next red light.

Being in shape, keeping the heart rate up is good. However, this is a team sport and requires everyone working in sync.
 
I never said no control. There's fast and then there is chaos. I'm just trying to find a little agreement that to be a success in this industry you have to have a work ethic that is based on your fastest pace. Obviously you pick the safest plan but once that is picked you try to execute that plan as fast as you can
 
Jem4417 said:
I never said no control. There's fast and then there is chaos. I'm just trying to find a little agreement that to be a success in this industry you have to have a work ethic that is based on your fastest pace. Obviously you pick the safest plan but once that is picked you try to execute that plan as fast as you can
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See, that "pick the safest plan" part is the crux of this to me, because I doubt that many folks on the Buzz lack git'er done, intestinal fortitude, or the professional's drive for continuous improvement (in other words @Jem4417, I agree with you). I my experience, there is frequently not a plausible safe work plan at the time of the bid. Whether the salesperson has production experience or not, without that work plan, any bid is a shot in the dark. That's fine if it's always high. When it's not, there is pressure on the foreman to bring the job in anyway. When it gets to be a consistent practice, you get the situation @Fairfield is talking about. It also happens when travel time, the morning meeting, material handling, the crane sub, etc... is not priced into the bid.

I'm not saying that this is all on the sales department, or that you can't sprint for awhile, not at all. It's really important that there is constant TWO WAY communication between production and sales.

There's an old military saw that goes "If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will be given more than your fair share of objectives to take." I think a lot of the young bulls fall into that trap (there was a thread just recently where a guy was getting used like this and asking advice on making a change). That's fine if all you want to do is tree work, but if you're looking for longevity and/or work/life balance, going as fast as you can all the time is, by definition, not possible. If the salespeople bid jobs at your "hey guys, I shit the bed on this one, can you bail me out?" speed, no one is going to be happy. I'll probably end up in sales, and I do some of my own, but I'd like to be in the tree for a long time; sales is hard, high pressure, high stakes work, and it makes or breaks the firm.

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I totally agree with all of that I was just trying to get at that if your trying to be at the top of the industry you must be ready to physically commit everyday to performing at your peak
 
Yes, performing at you peak is critical. To me that means peak mental condition as well as physical. I want my guys to think first and act on that. Look at the job, assess the approach. The speed at which they'll perform is just the one they always work at
 
We work as hard and as fast as is possible to safely.

As for sales and production communicating, Sales should not make up their time estimates based on their past experience and performance but on the existing crew and it's performance. In that way the numbers will be much more accurate. I used to track time on the job, travel time, prep time throughout the day which kept the sales rep able to better estimate. Through training and forecasting we were able to set goals for productivity improvements. Speed came but without the emphasis on it.
 
Jem4417 said:
so when is the appropriate time to work as hard and fast as you can?
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Whenever you can while maintaining the highest level of safety and control! Think about the first climb ever, how fast were you? By challenging yourself to improve you will be going faster, but in good controlled increments. Otherwise you will never know your true potential. As mentioned, you will have easier days and harder days and everyone should know when they have to work a faster pace and do it. It's what a good team does. But, not at the risk of cutting corners around safe work practices. Work harder AND smarter.
 
I think some are confusing the parts of the job where you can go faster to improve the outcome overall. Don't waste time setting up, get the tree Pruned as per usual (or removed) don't waste time getting down to help, put your stuff away and dig into the cleanup. Rake as fast as you can, move debris fast, blow off fast, find out where the next job is, maybe send a couple of guys ahead to start pruning while a couple finish and get paid....that's how you move through work without risking ourselves. That's where the best do it. And that's where the less than best fail at it.
 
Mark Chisholm said:
I think some are confusing the parts of the job where you can go faster to improve the outcome overall. Don't waste time setting up, get the tree Pruned as per usual (or removed) don't waste time getting down to help, put your stuff away and dig into the cleanup. Rake as fast as you can, move debris fast, blow off fast, find out where the next job is, maybe send a couple of guys ahead to start pruning while a couple finish and get paid....that's how you move through work without risking ourselves. That's where the best do it. And that's where the less than best fail at it.
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Minimizing driving time ...
Minimizing setup time at the shop in the morning ...
Filling out an end of day truck / crew report with box capacity, fuel levels, mix / oil levels, maybe saws that need to be sharpened...

One idea on which i've tried to sell my boss, is to keep the next day's work orders at the yard so we can actually look at them and prepare for them. If I know I have big removals the next day, I'll sharpen the saws I need, bring along a GRCS, or even bring some Gatorades for my crew the next day!

Until now, we've been arriving at the yard in the morning and screwing around for 30 minutes on the phone figuring out who's going where, with what crew, taking which truck, which chipper, which gear ... it gets old fast.

The most frustrating part is being told to rush on a job, being told "You're taking too long" when we spent 45 minutes at the yard in the morning doing nothing, and subsequently spent 2 hours driving around to each corner of the city that same day.

/Rant
 
Yea forget that. We have our work orders in the same spot everyday. It's nice to know if it's removals or pruning so I know whether to bring my 150 or 201. Or if I should wear my red wings for the hooks. Or arb pros for pruning
 
CanadianStan said:
One idea on which i've tried to sell my boss, is to keep the next day's work orders at the yard so we can actually look at them and prepare for them. I
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This may be a matter of the boss having confidence in his crew enough to let go of some control. The first company I worked for started out this way, then as he felt more comfortable in my abilities he was able to let go more and more of the operations stuff and leave it to me. The work orders were there for me to review and prepare then get on the job. If there was a particularly big job or tree he'd give me a heads up. Mind you one of the climbers we hired would get freaked out if he knew about that the day before. Couldn't sleep and was wired in the morning.
 
treehumper said:
This may be a matter of the boss having confidence in his crew enough to let go of some control. The first company I worked for started out this way, then as he felt more comfortable in my abilities he was able to let go more and more of the operations stuff and leave it to me. The work orders were there for me to review and prepare then get on the job. If there was a particularly big job or tree he'd give me a heads up. Mind you one of the climbers we hired would get freaked out if he knew about that the day before. Couldn't sleep and was wired in the morning.
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Which I understand. However, we have two crews go out every day, and he comes around to check up on us now and then. We complete the jobs without him, what else would stop him from leaving them at the yard? At the end of the day, for us, it's a lack of desire to be organized.
 
There's nothing better then getting hyped about a big job for the next day. Our industry refers to an industrial athlete as someone who takes care of their body like a sports athlete but leaves out the mental game of being an athlete. If your not coming into a big day at work thinking your gonna win then your gonna lose.
 
Jem4417 said:
There's nothing better then getting hyped about a big job for the next day. Our industry refers to an industrial athlete as someone who takes care of their body like a sports athlete but leaves out the mental game of being an athlete. If your not coming into a big day at work thinking your gonna win then your gonna lose.
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And, if you don't have some nerves about it then you're not invested.

Reed Wortley
CTSP #01739
ISA CA #SO-6953A
 
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