(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)

Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1168 and this podcast, I'm going to talk to you about some concepts, some notes that I've been holding on to in reference to CPM. Stay with us. Do better, live a remarkable life and expect more. 

Let's go. Welcome everyone. I hope you're doing well and I hope you're not too tired of me ranting and raving about CPM. 

I did a podcast the other day that told some truths about this and I was with a scheduling professional who was explaining from the inside of that system why CPM was so detrimental. And then he asked if the podcast could not be posted in case he ever had to like get another job or could get in trouble. So that shows you exactly how the system is set up already. 

But I did want to make sure that the concepts that I shared with him that we have talked about were shared amongst everybody. So here we go. So I went into chat GPT. 

Oh, by the way, I'm at SuperPM bootcamp. We're doing great. We had a discussion about this. 

Oh my gosh, this freaking bootcamp is so amazing. Having the time of my life over here. Okay, so I really want to communicate why CPM is such a... such like a destructive system. 

Let me give you a couple of analogies. I typed into chat GPT and asked chat GPT to give me the best analogy possible for what CPM was like compared to tact. Here we go. 

You meticulously prepare like let's say... So imagine you're planning a cross country road trip and your goal is to reach a specific destination efficiently. You meticulously prepare by studying a detailed map, checking current road conditions and using a GPS system. You track your progress with accurate distance markers and adjust your route based on real time traffic updates. 

This approach helps you stay on course, avoid delays and reach your destination on time. This is like tact. Now imagine instead of using a map or GPS, you're focused on measuring the number of coffee cups you drink during the trip. 

You meticulously count each cup and obsess over how many you've consumed, believing this will somehow help you reach your destination. Meanwhile, you're ignoring road signs, traffic updates and the actual distance to your destination. That's CPM. 

Here's another one. Think of a gardener who wants to grow a healthy vegetable garden. The gardener carefully monitors soil quality, water levels, sunlight, exposure and pest activity.

They use these metrics to make informed decisions about when to water the plants, which fertilizers to use and how to protect the crops from pests. By focusing on these relevant factors, the gardener ensures the plants grow strong and produce a bountiful harvest. Now imagine instead of focusing on soil quality and plant health, the gardener decides to measure the number of times they water the garden each day, but ignores the actual needs of the plants. 

They become fixated on the count rather than the effect, watering for the sake of watering without considering whether the plants actually need it. This approach leads to over watering or under watering, which harms the plants and ultimately results in a poor harvest. In this analogy, obsessing over the number of times you water the garden is like tracking irrelevant metrics in CPM. 

It's a distraction from the critical factors that actually influence plant health and yield. By focusing on what truly matters, such as soil quality and plant needs, you achieve a successful outcome. This is the analogy of using tact.

Here's another one. Imagine you're preparing for a big dinner party. You carefully check recipes, measure ingredients with precision, and time each dish so everything is hot and ready when your guests arrive.

You keep an eye on the oven and the stove and make sure everything is cooked to perfection. This thoughtful approach ensures your meal is delicious and your guests aren't pressed. This is like tact.

Now picture this. Instead of focusing on the recipes or cooking times, you decide that the key to a successful dinner party is how many times you can say the word delicious while cooking. You stand in the kitchen repeatedly exclaiming delicious every few minutes, regardless of whether the food is actually cooking properly.

You're so fixated on your new delicious metric that you forget to check if the roast is burning or if the pasta is overcooked. This is like CPM. I could keep going on, but you understand what I'm talking about here.

A critical path, which when I say it doesn't exist is, and what I mean by that is a critical path is already late. And because it's already late, it will already be extended. And because it's already extended, it will change the overall project.

And the project is likely to change their overall plan or reroute in some way or another. And therefore, you will likely have another critical path. And therefore, the first one from its inception did not exist. 

It's a projection, and there can be over 50 or 100 different critical paths. It doesn't help you. And by actually focusing on a critical path, you actually extend the overall total project duration because you're sub optimizing the system.

You know, when I show people the examples of a certain amount of square foot of building and that certain amount of square foot of building being done in a certain amount of time. And I say, hey, this is how long it takes if it's broken up into two zones. And then I say, this is how long it takes if it's broken up into six zones.

The overall phase is shortened. And when the overall phase is shortened, none of the trade partners lose their time, but the project goes faster. Not only does CPM not zone things properly, it batches things to where things are taking too long for no reason, but then it asks you to duplicate that batched mistake and add more resources.

And then more resources means that you have more of a push and more of a panic, more materials, more work in process, and more unneeded resources that put you into a productivity spiral. It really is quite detrimental. I've been able to explain this over and over, and yet still people think that they need to do CPM, that they're stuck, that they can't do any other way, that for some reason, it's required in the industry.

So they need to do it. That is absolutely false. If it's your butt, do the right thing.

I will read the post that this individual sent me talking about the cult of CPM. The other day, I was posting about CPM on LinkedIn, and somebody accused me of being an attacked cult. That's kind of funny.

Cults are very interesting. I've done this before, but I'll do it again, and I like to do this right in front of you. I'm opening up chat GPT right now, and I'll say, what are the characteristics of a cult? Okay, and there we go. 

And so it's going, it's jamming. Okay, so charismatic leadership, isolation, us versus them mentality, demand for absolute loyalty, mind control or manipulation, fear and guilt tactics, secretive or hidden practices, exploitation, rigid belief systems, love bombing and recruitment. These are common things with a cult. 

This happens all the time. In no way, ever, shape or form, has tact ever been in a cult. Now, could it be one day? Sure, in the wrong hands.

But right now, the cult is CPM. Let me give you an explanation of the different things that are currently making CPM a cult. Number one, the illusion of control. 

CPM acolytes preach about float and critical paths with gray with glazed eyes, completely disconnected from the chaos of the actual job site. It's like they're living in a parallel universe where everything goes according to plan to the sacred spreadsheet transfer cultists engaged in the holy ritual of moving data from Excel to scheduling software chanting garbage in garbage out without ever questioning why they're doing it. Three, the shield of unaccountability. 

Project managers hide behind CPM schedules like cultists behind sacred texts. Don't blame me, blame the almighty Gantt chart. Four, the planner's burden. 

In this cult, planners are expected to be all knowing oracles, estimating hours for tasks they've never even heard of. Talk about blind faith. Five, the manipulation mandate. 

I've been cornered by cult leaders demanding I adjust progress reports. Apparently, the first rule of CPM club is you don't talk about real progress. Six, the prophecy without vision. 

We're often forced to create schedules without designs or engineering. It's like being asked to predict the future using a magic eight ball. Seven, the vow of silence. 

Clients and project managers take a vow of silence when it comes to addressing scheduling issues. It's not denial if you don't acknowledge it, right? Eight, the unquestioned dogma. Thousands of activities and links go unreviewed like sacred texts that nobody actually reads but everyone swears by.

Nine, the site heretics. On-site teams are viewed as heretics, always deviating from the holy schedule. They clearly haven't drunk enough of the CPM Kool-Aid.

Ten, the forbidden knowledge. Some clients guard their overall construction schedule like it's the cult's secret recipe. Are they hiding the project management equivalent of Colonel Sanders 11 herbs and spices? Eleven, the initiation trials. 

New converts are denied basic planning tools. Tools forced to prove their worth by recreating schedules from scratch. It's like a hazing ritual but with more Gantt charts.

Twelve, the lone prophet. Being a site planner without a team is like being the lone cultist handing out flyers on a street corner. Nobody takes you seriously but boy are you committed.

Thirteen, the false prophets. Daily reports are treated like divine revelations despite being about as reliable as a weather forecast for the next year. So I like this. 

I like the truth behind this. I like realizing that this is a cult. I like the fact that people can see why behaviors are the way they are.

Why a scheduler or a scheduling director would say they hate tact. The reason is they don't want to do their jobs. They don't know how to do it better. 

They don't want to be held accountable and they don't want to lose their one tool that they can use to say it's somebody else's fault. See, that's the thing. We're all assuming that somebody wants to do it the right way. 

That is a false assumption. When we're talking about CPM and why people would use it, the people that are encouraging its use or saying how wonderful it is, they don't care about doing the right thing for people. They don't care about finishing the job on time. 

They care about being able to blame other people. That's it. You see it in politics. 

You see it in religion. You see it everywhere. The ability to blame someone else is this coveted gift. 

And when you have a CPM schedule, if you're the owner, you can blame the contractor. If you're the owner's rep, you can blame anybody. And if you're the general contractor, you can blame the trade. 

And if you're a scheduling manager, a scheduler, a claims consultant or a director, you can blame anybody but yourself. And you can come to work, do something that's quite unintelligent, not have to put your brain to a task and never actually have to improve and go home and make the same amount of money as you did before because everybody falsely thinks that they need you. And this is the truth about CPM. 

I hope you've enjoyed this podcast. On we go. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to share with your construction colleagues and help us spread the word by rating, subscribing and leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform.

We really appreciate it. We'll catch you next time on the Elevate Construction Podcast.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)