Bridging the creativity gap

Having spent too many years helping managers become creative in their ability to discover solutions, I sometimes cite the Santa Monica freeway situation. It was never more relevant than today in Malta.

In 1994 the Santa Monica freeway was devastated by the Northridge California earthquake. This meant that a major road system could have well been shut down for at least a year and would have had a very significant economic impact on the state.

A specialist contractor (C.C. Myers) thought he could have the freeway fully repaired and operational within six months and was prepared to stake his considerable reputation on it.

Very simply, his contract with the State of California was for completion within 140 days for a price of $14.7 million. He had an incentive of $200,000 for every day that the work was completed early and a similar amount in penalties for every day that it was completed late.

The work was completed in 66 days... a matter of some 74 days ahead of schedule. Obviously the contractor worked around the clock and every worker practically ran on the job. The really creative input of the contactor's management was their insistence that the state's quality inspectors were also onsite around the clock. This ensured that every aspect of the work was inspected as it was performed.

Now that project was handled both creatively and courageously by all sides and it is absolute proof that incentives and challenges work!

I accept that the "engineering" is different from our current bridge issue but there are lessons we could learn.