My longtime friend, Gary Stratman, an engineer for W. E. O’Neil Construction, and I got together in Chicago on Saturday for a beer at a bar near Soldier Field.  Rich Erickson, the President of W. E. O’Neil, was there, too, and joined our conversation, and at a certain point, Rich and I found ourselves explaining to Gary the value of improvisation in solving technical problems.  Rich came up with this excellent example of how improvisation solved a construction problem:

Several years ago, O’Neil had a job demolishing and re-constructing the interior of a large building outside Chicago.  While doing the demolition work, they discovered that ground under the building was contaminated.  Before they could re-build, they’d have to de-contaminate the soil.  This would result in a delay of 3 months, pushing the work into the winter, and a budget overage of $150,000.  The client balked.  The $150K was not in its budget for the demolish/re-build.  O’Neil and the client were at odds, facing what seemed guaranteed to become a no-win scenario, until Rich posed this question:  “If the soil hadn’t been contaminated and the job were to be completed on the original estimated date, what would your winter heating bill for the building have been for the three months we’re going to be delayed?”

The answer to the question?  $150,000.   When the environment in which the problem took place was expanded to include not just the foundation but the entire building, and was not fixed in time but spanning a three-month period in the life of the building, the money was suddenly available.  The client with no qualms, paid the overage out of its building maintenance budget.

Myopia is the enemy.   To shed new light on a problem, expand the environment in which you’re looking at it.  Remember that the problem isn’t the broken wing, the problem is that the bird cannot fly.