In this podcast we cover:
- What weaponized incompetence is.
- How you can spot it.
- What to do about it.
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Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:
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· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw
Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1167. In this podcast, I'm going to talk to you about a really important concept to me, a weaponized incompetence and a couple of other topics if I get time. So stay with us. This is the Elevate Construction Podcast delivering remarkable content for workers, leaders, and companies and 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. I'm going to, in this one, go ahead and read some feedback from our listeners. Hi, Jason. I know you well. I've read all your books, excluding Elevating Construction Surveyors, although I probably should read it too, including the original tech planning and integrated control and the new revised part one book. You indeed are elevating our industry. Keep up the great work, my friend. I have no doubt I will be in attendance at one of your trainings one day. Wow, that's awesome. I really, I really love that. So just an update on the trainings. And next year, I think we're going to do only, and by the way, this isn't from demand. This is just for our schedule and where we need to be. We will have two super PM boot camps, and we will have two tech production system courses next year, and then two last planner system courses and the, the tech and the last planner are both virtual. And I believe that that will be it from a training standpoint next year. So when you see the events coming up, don't procrastinate, get signed up for those because we'd rather be doing larger groups less frequently, especially because we're doing so much running such a large organization and also running a construction company. Real quick, one thing that I'm going to put on, oh, I need to put it on LinkedIn on Tuesday. Let me go ahead and write that down. But here's, here's the thing. I want to get the tech production system course into universities. So what we're going to do, and I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the butt for seeing this out loud, but what we're going to do is create as fast as we possibly can, a 13 to 15 module course for universities. And what we're going to do is, I think, even if, well, whether it's free or whether it's just a little bit of money, we're going to get that to where anybody can teach the last planner, or sorry, the tech production system and the university. Okay, I would prefer it to be free. I have to see if that's even possible. It might not be. So don't get mad at me. But I'd like for it to be free to say, Hey, universities, go ahead and teach this and obviously make it illegal for companies to do that without permission obviously. But go, go, unless I get permission to do so. But anyway, enable the universities to use our books, use the curriculum, have the prerecorded videos. So in order for me to make this, I need a group of about 12 people who can take the tech production system course for free, but we'll do it in like one hour segments or 90 minute segments. And will help me review the syllabus, the content, and provide feedback. So we can create the university course. And that's their payment for going through it. So if you're interested, please contact me at chase and s at elevate construction ist.com. And we'll see if we can get you in. Okay, so let's go ahead and do this. This is kind of fun. So this is not political. This is not religious. Here's what I'm going to do right here. So we don't have to get traumatic about it. I'm typing in the chat GPT, you can do the same thing. What is a weaponized incompetence? Now, in case you're wondering why I don't have that ready before I started the podcast is because sometimes when I'm doing different, when I'm searching in chat GTP, the answers are always different. I wanted the most current one. Okay, weaponizing competence refers to the acts of intentionally underperforming tasks. Typical typically household or work related responsibilities in order to avoid doing them in the future. The person using weaponizing competence may pretend they are incapable of completing a task correctly or to a certain standard so that someone else feels compelled to take over. This behavior is often often manipulative as the individual leverages their perceived incompetence to shift the burden of work onto others. It can occur in personal relationships, workplaces, or other collaborative settings, often leading to frustration, inequality, and burnout for those who end up carrying the extra load. I think I haven't covered this on a podcast before, but I know if I did, I didn't go deep into the definition. I love, love, love that definition. This behavior is often manipulative as the individual leverages their perceived incompetence to shift the burden of work onto others. And you know what hit me there today? And by the way, I love superintendents, so I'm not here to badmouthe them. But like, I would have been just thinking about like, why is it so annoying to me when a superintendents says, I don't know how to use a computer or I don't know how to do a pull plan or I don't know how to schedule or I don't know how to use Excel or I don't know how to use Excel. Or I don't know how to have a hard conversation or I don't know how to keep a job site clean or or or this is weaponized incompetence. It is a manipulative strategy so that people don't have to do their jobs. Because and I just just one more time I'm really trying not to be unempathetic and toxic. I real quick, I just want you to know I'm up to three negative comments on the podcast. So one that said that I share my political and personal beliefs too much. What was the other another one was that somebody didn't like my sarcastic style and then Kate was looking. I didn't know why she was on Reddit the other day, but she looked on Reddit and she was like, oh, I wonder what it what comes up with Jason's name. She looked in there and found a bunch of positive stuff. But one person said, I can't stand the host, but there's lots of interesting guests. So hey, there you go. And thank you guests for saving me for that. But anyway, I don't want to be unempathetic. But let me do a little bit of a rant here. It like the concept that anyone under 50 can't use a computer is insane to me. I can operate a Windows computer. I can operate an Apple computer and I can operate all of the programs on there. And I can even operate my kids Xbox. I can operate my phone, my iPad, anything else. If you don't know how to use a computer, it is weaponized incompetence, because you don't want to do the work. If you don't know how to schedule CPM tacked last planner scrum, that is weaponized incompetence. You just don't want to do it. If you don't know how to keep a job site clean, I could just keep going on. These the computer one is like the most critical to me. People say all the time to me, "Oh, supers can't read a book." No, superintendents can read books just as much as PMs can. It's just that they're used to getting their way with weaponized incompetence. In fact, we tolerate this all over the place. I told you I would possibly do some other topics in here. So one of the ones that I was thinking of is like CPM, people use CPM when they don't want to do their job. If you just want to list a bunch of activities on a schedule that are never going to be used, that trades are never going to implement, that you never actually have to be accountable for, that you can blame on everybody else. The reason people love CPM so much is that they don't have to do their job. The reason people love weaponized incompetence so much is that they don't have to do their job. They don't have to learn like the rest of us did how to use computers. "Oh, I don't know that in control. Now I don't have to do it. Oh, I don't know how to do lift rungs. Now I don't have to go do it. Oh, I don't know how to use the project management software. Now I don't have to go do it." So I hope this perspective helps you to understand what's really going on so that we stop tolerating this bad behavior. One of the reasons that as an aggregate, all of us superintendents are so bad as a whole is that people keep tolerating bad behavior. Just because some of these people with experience are older, doesn't give them the excuse to not use computers. Don't tolerate weaponizing competence anymore. We need to hold superintendents to a higher standard because that standard needs to elevate the industry and people can do it. I hope you've enjoyed this podcast. On we go. Please join us next time in elevating the entire construction experience for workers, leaders, and companies coast to coast. 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. [Music]
