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MARK ZWEIG, from page 1 and work together with undefined roles and it actually works. Another article on a guy who decided to pay each of his employees at least $70,000 a year. Another on someone who was considering selling their company for as much as $4 million but then real- ized they’d be taking a huge pay cut they couldn’t afford and may have other options to work less but keep it. One on someone who outsourced his operations to the Phil- lipines and pays his workers $4 an hour and he and they feel great about it. I could go on but I strongly recommend getting out our industry and learning about some others! 2)Force your managers to come up with new ideas. Try having all them do their busi- ness plans this year with more than their typical sales, revenue, and labor expense fore- casts. How about asking each unit to come up with three new things to sell and three new ways to market? Then make them present their concise plans in an entertaining format. Give out prizes for the best ideas and presentations. 3)Make your office environment a lot more fun. Maybe you need to have a free lunch for no reason. Let your people teach a class on anything they want to teach it on. Have lots of sugary snacks. Get an office sound system and try out a “DJ for a day”from your employee group. Go on a field trip to an interesting new business or somewhere fun. Mix it up. 4)Be open to new ideas. Never say “never” when someone makes a suggestion. Let it age. Ask questions. Try small experiments to see if it works. Test it on other people. Don’t be quick to say “no.” 5)Mix up the roles. Tinker with your organization structure and roles. Just because “Sally” has always been the bill collector doesn’t mean she has that job for life. Just because “Joe” is in charge of I.T. doesn’t mean he’s right for the job today. Inject some young people and new grads. I hate to tell you but youth and naïveté may actually lead to more creative thinking some times. Hopefully if you do these things you’ll be energized yourself and maybe you’ll be more inclined to come up with some new ideas. Your next challenge will be implementation. Ideas by themselves are worthless without action. But more on that another time! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s founder and CEO. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. BUSINESS NEWS U.S. CONSTRUCTION STARTS FALL BELOW EXPECTATIONS IN Q3 U.S. construction starts came in slightly below expectations during the third quarter, with stronger activity in the civil engineering sector being more than offset by weaker growth in the residential and non-residential segments. Residential starts continued to post a healthy pace of annual growth, and the apparent weakness in the non-residential segment may be overstated because of upward revisions in historical data, according to CMD’s latest quarterly forecast report. The Q4 forecast, which combines CMD’s proprietary data with macroeconomic factors, showed construction starts are expected to grow 6.8 percent in 2015, a little less than CMD’s Q3 prediction of 7.1 percent. “Domestic activity is driving U.S. growth,” said Alex Carrick, CMD chief economist. “After a slow start in 2015, US GDP recovered strongly in Q2, and robust domestic activity is expected to drive growth over the next few years.” According to the report, construction starts are expected to grow by 8.4 percent in 2016, as rising household incomes boost growth in the residential sector and stronger business investment elevates the non-residential sector. Only civil engineering construction is expected to slow from its heady pace in 2015. “A good gain in U.S. construction starts in 2015 will accelerate in 2016 and 2017, before settling down in 2018,” stated Carrick. “Some moderation in engineering strength, which has been a main- stay of site-work lately, will be compensated by a pick-up in non-residential building activity. In resi- dential, pent-up demand for new housing continues to accumulate and will soon need addressing.” For more information about CMD, visit cmdgroup.com. WE WANT YOUR NEWS THE ZWEIG LETTER loves to share its readers news! Please send press releases related to projects, hires, promotions, expansions, branding, and M&A to Managing Editor Andrea Bennett at abennett@zweiggroup.com.

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1200 North College Ave. Fayetteville, AR 72703 Mark Zweig | Publisher mzweig@zweiggroup.com Andrea Bennett | Managing Editor abennett@zweiggroup.com Christina Zweig | Contributing Editor christinaz@zweiggroup.com Sara Parkman | Editor sparkman@zweiggroup.com Megan Halbert | Design Assistant mhalbert@zweiggroup.com Liisa Andreassen | Correspondent lsullivan@zweiggroup.com Richard Massey | Correspondent rmassey@zweiggroup.com Jake Crawford | Intern dcrawford@zweiggroup.com

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THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 30, 2015, ISSUE 1129

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