William Lyon team training: walk the talk in your workmates' shoes for a day.
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“It helped you relate to everyone,” Brown says. “In options, you wonder why the superintendent didn't notice this option was installed wrong. You find out they don't have as much time in the home as they used to.”
She didn't realize how many different tasks have to be tracked at the corporate sales and marketing level, and was “really surprised” how much of a construction superintendent's time is spent on paperwork, inspections and permits. In the customer service office, she found out just how tough it is to handle repairs.
“It's easy for us to say, ‘Why don't you just go fix it?' ” she says. “We learned their struggles with subcontractors. They really have to keep on top of them.”
Then it was her turn to show her colleagues how she spent her time and how other steps in the process affect her job.
“Options wanted to make sales [representatives] aware of how much work is involved and how detail-oriented Options is—all the disclosures, all the little things you need to mention, how countertops have different edges and tile can be laid different ways. … Sometimes, the salesperson will sell customers things that we can't do. When people do their framing walk and think they'd like another electrical outlet, don't tell them to call us—it's too late. Let's get on the same page.”
The end result, Brown says, was a team that supports each other better because they understand how the processes work together.
“A lot of time in the building industry, we do things separately,” she says. “Sales meets every week, but they rarely connect with all the different levels. You kind of forget it's a whole picture, which is a finished home.”
Even after working for the company for 14 years, Bridal Creek community sales manager Omer Stites says he learned a tremendous amount during the training. “It gave us a lot of depth,” he says. “We've all got a good working relationship, but this gave me a lot more information than I had before. The only way you can know the magnitude of someone else's job is to do what we did.” For instance, he says he had “no idea” of what construction superintendents deal with on a daily basis before he went through the training.
“They have to keep a daily journal of things that happen on the site, and some government agencies can come in and ask for that at any time,” Stites says. “It was amazing to realize how much time is spent with those groups.”
Now, he says, he's looking forward to returning the favor. “I can't wait to get them into our department,” he says. “It's totally different than theirs, that's a fact.”
