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P R O F I L E
Set the tone: Wayne Swafford President of Lockwood, Andrews & Newman (Houston, TX), a civil engineering firm that delivers exceptional quality and measurable value for the nation’s infrastructure.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
S wafford is a structural engineer with more than 30 years’ experience. He’s managed the operations and finances of several organizations. At LAN, he’s focused on everything from empowering employees and cultivating company leadership to creating more sustainable and resilient infrastructures. “We earn our clients’ trust by listening to their concerns and challenges, providing frank feedback, and then delivering on the promises we make,” Swafford says. A CONVERSATION WITH WAYNE SWAFFORD. The Zweig Letter: You’ve been with LAN for more than four years. To date, what’s the greatest change you’ve overseen or implemented and why? Wayne Swafford: Pushing decision-making deeper into the organization. We’re empowering and encouraging practice leaders and team leaders to take a more active role in decision-making for their teams and the company. We’ve found that empowering employees has resulted in greater levels of service for our clients, better performance on our
projects, and better collaboration and work sharing across the company. TZL: How do you anticipate COVID-19 permanently impacting your firm’s policy on telecommuting? WS: The pandemic compelled us to rethink our workplace model. Before the pandemic, the conventional industry paradigm – and the one I subscribed to – was that requiring employees to work in the office full-time was necessary for maintaining our productivity. I believe that paradigm is shifting because of what we’ve seen over the past year. Once the pandemic hit, our firm quickly transitioned to a telework model to keep employees safe and healthy. Fortunately, with our industry being knowledge-based and technology-enabled, we were able to leverage our technological resources and adapt to new ways of working and collaborating. The past year has shown us that, in many instances, we can work and operate effectively from our home desks.
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTE
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