Skip to main content

Take the bull by the horns: Construction's risks need to be understood

Date Posted: July 11 2008

By Mark Breslin

The bull lowers his head and charges. I try to dodge but it's too late. Somewhere people are happy and carefree. Somewhere people are drinking a beer in a recliner. Some are living lives free of risk and stress. But in Pamplona Spain, for the Running of the Bulls, these people are far, far away - as a thousand pounds of angry beef begins pile driving me into the ground.

Construction is a business that is simply based on an assessment of risk. In order for the contractor to be successful, he or she must generally expose themselves to higher levels of risk than one's competitors. It is voluntary. It is strategic. It is addictive. It is a team sport.

I should have listened to Alfredo the bellman. He met us at hotel reception, eyeing the gringos in white and red clothes. "Señor Breslin you come to run with the bulls, No?" 'Yes," I replied. "This is a very bad thing." he said gravely. " I've been here 30 years. Many people die. Many hurt badly. The bull bloodlines have been bred for hundreds of year to kill. I say, do not do this thing."

The risk one is willing to accept depends upon the reward sought. The elements influencing the risk / reward assessment include: environment, resources, skills, rules, consequences, alternatives and the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry Factor, "the question you have to ask yourself is, do you feel lucky? Well do you punk?"

The competition in our industry generally drives the contractor to the absolute edge of risk acceptance, where the greatest rewards (or worst consequences) can be found. It's not a place to go alone. In fact there is a team that goes there every time. The contractor, the union and the rank and file. But in this team threesome, the experience, perceptions and risks are not commonly understood or shared.

The Running of the Bulls occurs in Pamplona Spain each year. A tradition for 400 years. For eight days, at 8 a.m. 2,000 men and 12 bulls run. The bulls weigh 1500-1700 lbs. and have razor sharp horns. They are not happy. They run 15 miles per hour. Heavy barricades keep the bulls and runners in. The macho locals will push you back over the barricades if you lose courage and try to get out. There are 800 first aid personnel on the course. Local papers have box scores with the daily number of injuries and hospitalizations. I am standing with my running partner inside the barricades. It is 7:59.

Risk is always more acceptable if it is shared with a partner. But sharing means one thing to some people and something else to others; even on our team. In our industry, to a great degree, most of the rank and file members do not understand the critical financial and operational risks of the construction enterprise. The contractors don't do a great job at educating them either; not a high priority when they are on the clock.

Perhaps the team (contractor, union and rank and file) would perform more effectively if there was a common understanding of the connections between risk and quality. Risk and schedule. Risk and client satisfaction. Risk and absenteeism. Risk and productivity. Risk and profit.

Millions of union craftspeople work a full career with no more understanding of the risks and challenges of the construction business than their dispatch to the next job. It is time to take the bull by the horns and teach apprentices (and journeymen too) more than skills and a craft, but also their critical position in the risk-reward equation.

The 8 a.m. rocket is fired. Everyone looks nervous. We jog at first, then suddenly the crowd roars and everyone takes off. My partner disappears. In a full sprint everything is a blur. Jumping over fallen runners with their hands over their heads, I look over my shoulder. The bulls are bearing down.

Down the streets and through the stadium tunnel into the bullring comes the stampede- mass confusion. Bulls zig-zag wildly through the runners, scraping the side rail and dozens dive up into the stands. I turn to look but it's too late. A bull lowers his head. A slow motion impact and I am knocked into the air. Now I'm sprawled in the arena dirt. I roll over to see a giant, black, frothing face mashing down on me. I reach up and grab a horn.

To understand and share risk, when possible and realistic, creates synergy and mutual accountability. It creates momentum, focus and pressure to perform. When one or another of any partnership suffers from an imbalance of "risk responsibility" there will be strife, ranging from conflict to indifference. For us to train the apprentices and workers of the future to both understand their role in the risk formula and act upon it; this is the task at hand. Thus this formula for success; striving to combine team objectives and strategies for achievement - or even, as an industry, collectively taking directions that may seem difficult or futile…it is worth sharing the risk to share the reward. But first you have to see and understand the risk to believe in it.

I hold that horn for dear life. Finally, a dozen Spaniard runners drive him off. I lay in the dirt with a circle of faces above. Laughing, they lift me up, my clothes filthy, camera smashed, dazed and bruised. Slowly 25,000 arena spectators rise and roar their approval. I raise my hand above my head, glad to be alive. It is quite a moment. A minute later my "partner" walks up. "Can you believe it? Did you see that!!?" I ask excitedly. He looks at me puzzled, "see what?"

Mark Breslin is a trainer and author specializing in labor-management challenges and solutions. He is the author of the recently published Attitudes and Behaviors: Survival of the Fittest curriculum for apprentice training centers. The curriculum is now being used by union training centers, and has been established as standard course programming by other International Unions and apprenticeship programs. Instructional material including books, CDs, workbooks, instructor guides and support media information is available at www.breslin.biz.

As a consequence of the above, Mark now prefers beer and a recliner.