Agility vs. Fragility: A Builder's Guide to Navigating Chaos

Extreme weather, supply-chain disruptions and staffing changes are just a few of the countless challenges business owners will face. But because no one can predict the future, creating an agile business strategy will help prepare you for whatever issues may arise.

The BizTools Video Series collection on disaster preparedness wraps up this month with its third installment, “Agility: The Builder’s Antidote to Chaos” (free subscription for NAHB members). The latest video features Matthew Collins, managing member of the Mainspring Group, teaching viewers how to become resilient, adapt swiftly and even flourish in times of rapid change and uncertainty.

If a company is only set up to operate within consistent market conditions, any number of disruptions can weaken — and potentially break — its structural and operational integrity. In contrast, an agile company can more easily maneuver these disruptions with prepared responses baked into its operations.

Three key dimensions of an agile business mindset include:

• Stability: A foundation that allows your business to shoulder unknowns without giving your team whiplash by suddenly moving the goalposts.
• Strategy: The business is able to “reroute” at key decision points when market conditions change.
• Choice: A decision-making process that takes experience, gut feelings and data into account — but leans heavily on data.

In this video, Collins explains how you can make your company “dynamically capable” — for example, making general mindset changes such as courageous decision-making or implementing specific, actionable strategies to make your business more flexible. This might include building the expectation of material substitutions into your design gallery and embedding time within your company’s schedule to accommodate delays without disruption.

Don’t forget to register for the companion Shop Talk on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m. ET. Collins will field questions, elaborate on concepts and discuss best practices for running a more agile business.

Subscribe to the BizTools Video Series so you don’t miss any of the upcoming videos.