With all of the technology available these days, we tend to look for ready-made fixes for everything.

For the better part of my life, I have unconsciously been looking for wood. Everywhere I go, I’m always looking, checking out trees for burls or trying to spot that potential chunk of tree lying by the side of the road.

We plan out our jobs, workflow, schedules … everything we can think of. And then we try to factor in the unexpected with contingency clauses and other exclusions.

There is a lot of concern these days regarding the amount of waste we are producing.

We all know about spring cleaning, the once-a-year, take-everything-out cleaning binge that is usually accompanied by a dozen other tasks that have been put off for one reason or another.

Legalese is everywhere. We are commonly asked to sign documents, terms of service agreements, for example, or insurance policies that are book length and incomprehensible.

We all have protocols. Whether it’s a construction method or payment schedule, for example, these protocols are communicated to our customers in the hope that we will have a smooth, trouble free relationship through the course of a project.