“I’d rather be consistent than be right.”
Those were the first words that Peter Strickland – P.Eng. and Vice-President, Engineering here at Catch Engineering – spoke during a chat on the importance of stability, coherence, and organization to the Catch business.
Those seven words are essential to Strickland’s leadership approach at Catch and are likewise key to Catch’s ongoing growth and success, keeping everyone aligned and rowing to the same tune – even as the fishing boat gets bigger and the projects more diverse and complex.
The Catch Difference in Consistency
What Rowing Forward Together Means to Catch
When Strickland speaks to the driving philosophy of consistency, that doesn’t come at the expense of accuracy or attention to detail. On the contrary, being on-point and correct is critical in every industry and sector – engineering more so than most!
“Of course, you want to be right,” Strickland began, “But it’s often just as important to demonstrate stability as opposed to always tweaking and revising things to get two more significant digits out of them. There are often multiple versions of right.”
“Having a coherent, uniform approach to the work shows that you have systems in place,” Strickland continued. “It shows that your people are aligned. It shows that you grasp the history of a project and understand the client’s needs – that we’re considering what’s been done before. There’s efficiency in being consistent, as opposed to just trying to come up with something new for the sake of it. It ensures we’re all building up from the same foundation – a commonplace that we all understand.”
Consistency has the potential to be a powerful driving cultural force within an organization – but it seems to fly in the face of progress. After all, with such a laser focus on keeping things consistent, how does that allow room for change and growth?
Easy – it all comes down to simply growing together.
How Stability Leads to Improvement
Catch is no stranger to growth – especially in recent years. Since its inception in 2006, Catch Engineering has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, requiring copious amounts of change and adaptation to continue that same upward trend toward success.
“Sometimes, change is necessary – and that’s where it becomes important to grow, but to still be consistent in your values,” Strickland elaborated on the subject. “You don’t want to be consistent to the point of stagnancy. You still need to be able to grow. Consistency in improvement is a deeply held value here at Catch. We try to always have a continuous improvement program here, with lessons learned that are then applied to our existing procedures to improve them. We adapt as we grow – that’s core to our consistency.”
How Catch Creates Company Wide Congruence
It’s clear that consistency is key to Catch’s success, but how do you ensure that hallmark coherence is carried through across an entire company – particularly one that’s seen as much recent growth and new blood as Catch has lately? It all comes down to business practice.
“The keystone to consistency is having something written down,” Strickland detailed. “If it’s not written down, it’s not a guideline. If it’s in someone’s head, it’s not transferable knowledge. But, on the other hand, if things are written down, you can refer back to them. You can discuss them. They can be used to align people to a common path or process.
“Catch has also realized in the wake of the pandemic that having contact with people, being in the office – there’s an importance in that,” Strickland reflected. “We recognize that remote work can be functional sometimes, but we believe there’s a value to having people around in the office – for the same alignment and for the sake of discussions, creativity, and knowledge sharing.”
All that harmonious teamwork doesn’t just happen on its own, though. It takes effort – an effort that ultimately pays off in the form of client satisfaction.
How Cohesion Benefits Clients
If there’s one thing that clients appreciate, it’s consistency. Clients come to Catch for its expertise and engineering understanding, after all – and it’s through that steadfastly reliable approach to the work that Catch demonstrates the value it brings to every project it’s a part of.
“At the end of the day, it’s about quality,” Strickland summarized. “From a client standpoint, if you start doing something different, they might question why you’re doing it differently. Human minds appreciate order and organization – so if an inconsistency pops up, the client will suddenly start to question the quality of the entire package. They’ll wonder if we’re doing too much engineering, whether we know what we’re talking about, and whether we understand their needs accurately. Alignment is important, and that’s what we try to do. Keeping things organized serves the client just as much as it serves us.”
The Final Word on Consistency
When it comes down to it, consistency has the potential to make or break a constantly growing business like Catch Engineering. The leadership team at Catch recognizes this crucial detail. As a result, it has aligned its business practices wholistically behind the philosophies of coherence, cohesion, and compatibility – ensuring long-term success is always front of mind.
“Consistency doesn’t mean not changing,” Strickland concluded thoughtfully. “It means changing together. We change as we grow – but we do it while all running in the same direction.”
Thank you goes out to Peter Strickland for taking the time to explore the importance of consistency with us today. Experience the Catch Difference in consistency for yourself – contact us to learn more and partner with us on your next engineering project or endeavour today.
