"I'm Not Taking on New Projects" — Transcript

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1. 0:00[laughter]
2. 0:01>> David Fielding's my name, Castle
3. 0:02Property Group is my company. I'm from
4. 0:04Australia, Brisbane, Southeast
5. 0:06Queensland. We're predominantly an
6. 0:07industrial
7. 0:09um warehouse speculative developer.
8. 0:11So, um my company itself isn't related
9. 0:14to that. We we facilitate the projects.
10. 0:16So, starting 16 years ago, I would find
11. 0:19one block of land, design the building,
12. 0:22um appoint a architect to design it all
13. 0:25up, get it approved, then appoint a
14. 0:27builder to build it. We would coordinate
15. 0:29the the leasing and the sales. And if we
16. 0:31sold it to an investor, we'd try to
17. 0:33maintain the management. So, the income
18. 0:35stream
19. 0:36is leasing, sales, property management,
20. 0:38project management. So, that changes a
21. 0:41lot of the time at depending on the
22. 0:43projects. Now, the the problem is
23. 0:47because I started it myself, I am still
24. 0:49doing a lot of the work.
25. 0:51And I have the contacts, I have the
26. 0:52knowledge,
27. 0:53the valuers, the banks. You know, we've
28. 0:55got great projects. You talked about
29. 0:57returns before, you know, um profit on
30. 1:00cost were at 20%. Lot of projects,
31. 1:02return on for investors is 40, 50%.
32. 1:05>> That's amazing.
33. 1:06>> Um if we can turn them over quickly. So,
34. 1:08what's happened over the last probably 5
35. 1:10or 7 years is because I'm so snowed
36. 1:12under, and I'll try to bring on staff
37. 1:14and train them up and everything, the
38. 1:16project timelines is pushing out.
39. 1:18>> All right.
40. 1:18>> So, return on investment's dropping,
41. 1:20and I'm not taking on new projects. And
42. 1:22we've got about 200 million worth of
43. 1:25projects in the pipeline for the next 4
44. 1:26or 5 years. So, we've got the projects,
45. 1:28we've got the land, we've got the
46. 1:29approvals coming through. They're all at
47. 1:31different stages,
48. 1:32but it's the whole thing is quite clunky
49. 1:35and slowing down.
50. 1:38>> Mhm.
51. 1:38>> So, you know, I'm kind of here in the
52. 1:40last 2 days, today and yesterday's been
53. 1:41fantastic to understand the processes
54. 1:44and everything, but being the key man or
55. 1:46being so ingrained in the every single
56. 1:49project, every single block of land, the
57. 1:51funding, the banking, the feasibilities,
58. 1:52and everything,
59. 1:53uh you know, I'm still do- I'm I'm at
60. 1:55the office 11:00 at night doing admin
61. 1:56work. Missing out on the projects,
62. 1:58that's the future projects.
63. 2:05>> What's currently taking the majority of
64. 2:06your time that's the lowest value?
65. 2:11>> Staffing
66. 2:12probably staffing work and
67. 2:15being able to delegate to people to do
68. 2:17to undertake the roles that I do.
69. 2:23>> So, being able to delegate is what's not
70. 2:25happening, right?
71. 2:26>> Yep.
72. 2:27>> So, the things that are taking your time
73. 2:29that are preventing you from delegating
74. 2:30is when you said staffing the role. So,
75. 2:32it's like hiring and onboarding like
76. 2:33interviewing and training people is the
77. 2:36thing that is taking your time?
78. 2:37>> Yes, it is, but I have been doing that
79. 2:39in the past, but as usual, as a lot of
80. 2:41people have been saying the last 2 days,
81. 2:43they stay for 2 or 3 years, you spend
82. 2:45all the time bringing them on, bring
83. 2:46onboarding them and everything, and then
84. 2:47suddenly, bang, want to try something
85. 2:49else.
86. 2:50>> I think, um
87. 2:52So, just so I'm clear, are these four
88. 2:54one-off roles or repeated roles?
89. 2:56>> Repeated roles.
90. 2:57>> Okay.
91. 2:58So, I differentiate that because if I
92. 3:00have a one-off role that I'm far more
93. 3:02willing to
94. 3:03Basically, with one-off roles, I buy
95. 3:05more than build.
96. 3:06So, I want to find someone who's been
97. 3:08there, done that, multiple times over.
98. 3:09I'm willing to pay the premium to the
99. 3:10recruiter, they already have the
100. 3:11network, and I'll bring top-level talent
101. 3:14in.
102. 3:15On repeated roles, I consider that to be
103. 3:17our
104. 3:19our core differentiator. It's the core
105. 3:21economic arbitrage we have in a
106. 3:22service-based business, right? Is that
107. 3:23we buy talent for less, we add our own
108. 3:26special sauce, which allows us to charge
109. 3:27more for it. That arbitrage is what
110. 3:29we're able to make, right? And so, all
111. 3:32repeated roles need to have
112. 3:33fundamentally like your in-house
113. 3:35university
114. 3:36that probably doesn't exist right now.
115. 3:38And so, I think what needs to happen is
116. 3:40that
117. 3:42training effectiveness needs to go up
118. 3:43and cost to train needs to go down.
119. 3:46And so, the way that we think about that
120. 3:48is that
121. 3:50it almost costs the same to train one as
122. 3:51it does to train five.
123. 3:53>> Mhm.
124. 3:54>> And so, if you were bringing on these
125. 3:56roles right now,
126. 4:01how do you train?
127. 4:04>> Well, [snorts] listening last 2 days,
128. 4:06usually I try to bring on experienced
129. 4:07people, but they also bring their own
130. 4:09baggage in a way. So, I've changed that
131. 4:12to try to get a bit of experience, but
132. 4:13then on board them
133. 4:14>> Mhm.
134. 4:14>> correctly. And I've only got a small
135. 4:16team, so it's not too difficult, but if
136. 4:19one leaves, the problem is I've got to
137. 4:20fill in the role again.
138. 4:22>> So, but the roles that are
139. 4:25that you the work that you're doing
140. 4:27right now that you shouldn't be doing,
141. 4:28is there somebody on your team who
142. 4:29should be doing it, or is there somebody
143. 4:30who doesn't exist who should be doing
144. 4:31it?
145. 4:31>> Someone doesn't exist.
146. 4:32>> Okay, got it. That role, are there going
147. 4:35to be more hires like that in the future
148. 4:36that are going to be repeated?
149. 4:39>> Not if there was a key person that could
150. 4:40fill that one role.
151. 4:41>> Okay, got it. So,
152. 4:45from [snorts] a training perspective,
153. 4:47once you train one person on doing it,
154. 4:49the training the second person, if for
155. 4:51some reason that person doesn't work
156. 4:52out, should be significantly less. But I
157. 4:54think what you describe is obviously a
158. 4:56problem that every business owner has to
159. 4:57deal with.
160. 4:58Um,
161. 4:59but I think a lot of it comes down to
162. 5:01knowing how to train well.
163. 5:03And so,
164. 5:05I see the biggest deficiency that
165. 5:06happens. So, if you think about a
166. 5:07training process, it's like you want to
167. 5:08have observable behaviors, which is what
168. 5:10we want someone to do, right? Most
169. 5:12training stuff uses vague language, and
170. 5:15so as a result, they get vague outcomes,
171. 5:16and no one knows what's happening. Once
172. 5:18we have the observable language, we have
173. 5:19to then transition to modeling, which
174. 5:22means that we have to show them in front
175. 5:24of them what what good looks like. This
176. 5:27is what good looks like, let me show
177. 5:28you. After that, we have to elicit trial
178. 5:30attempts. Now, this sounds obvious, but
179. 5:32what happens most times is you keep
180. 5:33explaining it over and over again. I
181. 5:35already explained it to you 10 times.
182. 5:36It's like, yeah, but you never let them
183. 5:37[ __ ] try.
184. 5:38So, they have to try. Explain less, get
185. 5:40them to try more. Once they try, then we
186. 5:43observe what they actually do. Now, the
187. 5:45key part here is like, "Well, yeah, no
188. 5:46[ __ ] Watch them."
189. 5:48Um
190. 5:49but if you think about the day-to-day of
191. 5:51what happens in a business, they're
192. 5:52going to say, "Well, it's in progress.
193. 5:53I'm working on it." They talk about
194. 5:55their intentions. "I'm really working
195. 5:56hard." But, the reality is that like,
196. 5:57"Just show me what you got." And most of
197. 5:59the time it's nothing, right?
198. 6:01>> Yep.
199. 6:01>> And so, um once they do actually observe
200. 6:04Sorry, once they do try and you can
201. 6:05observe what happens, then we have to we
202. 6:08go immediate correction on what they
203. 6:10should have done better.
204. 6:11We give praise
205. 6:14if they did it right.
206. 6:16And then we repeat
207. 6:19until
208. 6:21stick.
209. 6:22So, this is basically how to shape
210. 6:24behavior
211. 6:25of an individual.
212. 6:27This seems absurdly obvious.
213. 6:30When I audit training systems,
214. 6:33almost no one has it.
215. 6:36And so, if we have a key role, each,
216. 6:40call it, skill, which is a chain of
217. 6:43actions that are taken together,
218. 6:44repeatable outcome. That's how to find
219. 6:45skill. Um is going to have chain of
220. 6:49actions. And so, each chain of actions
221. 6:51has to follow the seven steps. And if we
222. 6:53clearly define that, which is like, "Hey
223. 6:54Jessica,
224. 6:55there's six workflows, like I was saying
225. 6:57earlier, that I need you to be involved
226. 6:59in that you're not. If I try to give you
227. 7:00all six, you're probably going to fail
228. 7:01at all six. But, I'm going to give you
229. 7:03this first one, and if I clearly say,
230. 7:05'When people come in and they email me
231. 7:08or whatever, they go into three
232. 7:09buckets.'
233. 7:10Let me show you. I'll do it in front of
234. 7:12you. Great. Tomorrow, I want you to
235. 7:14try." "All right.
236. 7:16Let's do it right now." Not me
237. 7:17explaining the system over again. As
238. 7:19soon as she does it wrong, immediately,
239. 7:21not after she's done and then trying to
240. 7:23retroactively do it, we correct them in
241. 7:24the moment and say, "Great. Try it
242. 7:26again."
243. 7:27And for us, whenever we train anything,
244. 7:30we correct in the moment.
245. 7:31>> Yep.
246. 7:32>> And we set that expectation up front.
247. 7:34And once someone tries and does it
248. 7:37correctly, whatever whatever thing we
249. 7:39want them to do, we call it locking it
250. 7:40in, which is that we have them repeat
251. 7:42the action three times in a row before
252. 7:44we move on to the next action. And so
253. 7:46it's like, "Awesome job. Again. Awesome
254. 7:48job. Again. Awesome job. Again. You got
255. 7:51it? Move on." And so we have a very
256. 7:53strong culture of training here, and
257. 7:55that is what allows us in on the
258. 7:56leadership level to not have to sink
259. 7:58back in. And all of these things are
260. 8:00documented. Now to be clear, I'm not
261. 8:01saying that we're perfect, we're far
262. 8:03from it, but especially on the roles
263. 8:05that you know that are always going to
264. 8:07exist in the business, they're that as
265. 8:08the business scales you'll have more of
266. 8:10them. Those I see as the training
267. 8:11universities that have to exist.
268. 8:14And so
269. 8:16if we see this as the constraint of the
270. 8:18business, then I would just ask myself,
271. 8:20"What am I doing with my time that is
272. 8:21not building out these training systems
273. 8:22that is I'm seeing as more valuable?"
274. 8:24Because it may be this is kind of like
275. 8:26the the nurse in the operating room as
276. 8:28she walks past a sprained ankle to deal
277. 8:30with the gunshot wound. It's like this
278. 8:31is the theory of constraints. Like of
279. 8:33course there's going to be more than one
280. 8:34problem, but if this really is the
281. 8:35limiter of the business, then this is
282. 8:36what I would go pro on.
283. 8:38>> Yeah. Okay.
284. 8:40>> Does that help?
285. 8:40>> It does.
286. 8:41>> Okay.
287. 8:42>> Processes for me.
288. 8:43>> I tried to break it down into observable
289. 8:45actions. I can't give you every single
290. 8:47SOP, that would be ridiculous. It would
291. 8:48be like this long. But these are the top
292. 8:50five SOPs that we have used to scale,
293. 8:51[music] that Leila actually put together
294. 8:53for us cuz she's really been the one who
295. 8:55operates the business. And so yeah,
296. 8:56[music] I don't know what's inside of
297. 8:57it, but um it's good. So you should
298. 8:59check it out cuz Leila made it and she
299. 9:01makes good stuff. [music] It's free.