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Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1310. In this podcast, I'm going to talk about the hating period and why questions keep us safe. Stay with us.

This is the Elevate Construction Podcast, delivering remarkable content for workers, leaders, and companies in construction wanting to take their next step. Get ready to step out of your comfort zone with Jason Schroeder as he encourages you to do better, live a remarkable life, and expect more. Let's go.

Welcome everyone. I hope you're doing well and jamming out there and loving life. I've got a quick thing that I want to talk to you about.

On the Jason Schroeder YouTube channel, and I will remind you one more time, that wasn't an effort to be self-aggrandizing. Our YouTube consultant said that the best YouTube channels are the ones that have somebody's name on them where you can connect with one person. So I just want you to know that.

But anyway, on the YouTube channel, we are starting to do some videos where I'm actually showing you my screen. And I've really enjoyed doing these videos, and I want to know if you like them and if you're feeling like those are pretty good as well. So if anybody has seen any of the new videos, I would love some feedback in that direction.

I'm out of feedback to read, and I'd love to know if I'm on the right track. Okay, let's get right into the topic at hand here real quick. This will be a really short podcast.

First of all, you know my philosophy. Questions keep us safe. The more questions you ask, the more answers you get, the safer you're going to be.

I was talking to, and I already talked to you guys about this, and the guys and gals out there about this podcast topic where when you're first starting an effort, you need to reach out and get help, then you need to iterate and have your work checked frequently. And that is a form of asking questions. And I ask questions all the time, and I'm always leaning on really wise, wonderful people to help me out and hook me up, because that's just how life works, right? So you've already heard me talk about that.

In general, though, you should make it a habit to ask questions until you feel like you could give a speech on a stump, I think is what I would probably say, or on a stage on the damn topic. Like, I'll give you an example. The other day I was out walking with Power Plus Jesus, and he was working with APS to figure out where our power drop or our power tie-in would be for a temporary power.

And I'm like, talk to me about the single phase and three phase. Talk to me about how long these runs can be for a temp power. Talk to me about the process.

I was just asking question after question. First of all, he loved it because he's able to showcase his knowledge. And now I can actually like literally go through and tell you everything about it.

But one of the biggest things is that asking those questions really helps us to find out if there's any missing information, missing planning, missing steps in the process. I wrote down five key things after asking all those questions that we needed to do as a Lean Belt team to properly run the project that would have hurt us if it wasn't otherwise done. Let me give you one other one.

I want to talk to you about the hating period. Not only is it good to ask questions just every day, and by the way, you don't have to have lots of experience as long as you know how to ask questions. That's what I loved about Henssel Phelps.

They're like, we can build anything, airports, hospitals, we can build tunnels, we can build mines, like we can build anything because of our process and we can ask a crap ton of questions about it. So the process, if you don't have the experience, is asking the questions, right? In addition to that approach, there's this hating period. As soon as an idea comes up, it's natural to hate the idea for a little while.

I would actually be a little bit worried if you didn't hate the idea, just right out of the gate. And I'll tell you why. If you can get curious, if you can be like, I don't know, like instead of just being like, yeah, whatever, blah, blah, blah, let's go, and then just skip over a bunch of red flags.

If you can be like, oh, I don't know, right? Don't hate it to the point of saying no, but hate it to the point of being curious and start asking questions. Well, what about this? Well, what if we did another thing? Well, why do we need it? Well, blah, blah, blah. Then you're going to get to a point where most, if it's a good idea, you're going to fall in love with it.

You're going to have more information about it and you're going to do it in the best way. Now, caveat. My wife, an eternal companion, an amazing human being and CEO of our company and my boss, Kate Schroeder, who's absolutely amazing, asks a bunch of questions and I get defensive sometimes.

Uh, why did I say that all the time? I'm like, damn, like, why are you asking me all these questions? I feel, I always tease her and it's not something I should be proud about. But I'm like, is this a congressional audit committee? Like am I Hillary Clinton talking about emails? Like what in the hell is going on here? I feel attacked and she's like, I'm just asking questions. And I always end up being wrong.

And if I got mad, I always end up having to apologize and the whole nine blah, blah, blah. So I'm not saying it's easy to answer questions and I'm sure it's not easy for her to ask them, but asking questions does keep us safe. And if you can at least hate the idea for a couple of minutes until you've asked five questions, um, I think as a habit, uh, you'll be so much better off.

Let me tell you why the, the worst, no, no, no, no. I don't want to say it like that. The least valuable people in my opinion, in any organization is the group of people that are all wishful thinkers, hopeful, positive glasses half full.

It should work out. I will hope that it goes well. People, they're not asking questions.

They're not hating the idea. They're not tearing it apart. They're not going to be your 10th man or your 10th woman.

They're not putting you through an iterative cycle like Pixar planning. They're just rubber stamping stupid stuff that's going to get you in trouble. And so that really annoys me.

So I wish everybody had the habit of at least hating the idea for five minutes and asking five questions, because not only will that help you to make sure you're making the right decision, but in construction where so many things are new, it will make you an expert because asking the questions is what gets you the information and it's a habit that we shouldn't be embarrassed about. I hope you've all enjoyed this podcast. On we go.

Construction podcast.

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