Most organizations slow down as they grow because decisions climb the hierarchy while the best information sits with the people doing the work. Leaders become bottlenecks, teams wait for answers, and “alignment” turns into endless status updates. Marquet’s reminder flips the flow: the closer you are to the facts, the closer you should be to the decision.

Moving authority to information doesn’t mean chaos or abdication. It means leaders set direction and guardrails—purpose, priorities, risk limits, and what “good” looks like—and then empower experts to act within that frame. Instead of asking for permission, people state intent: what they plan to do, why it fits the mission, and what trade-offs they’re choosing.

To put it into practice, start with one recurring decision you currently make and redefine it as a Team decision with clear criteria. Ask for an “I intend to…” message that includes assumptions, impact, and a rollback plan. Review outcomes weekly, not to punish, but to sharpen judgment and update the guardrails. The result is faster execution and a Team that learns to lead.

Delegate one weekly decision to the closest expert, with clear guardrails and written intent.

Granite has landed a $495 million tactical infrastructure award, a signal that federal buyers are leaning on large, experienced builders for complex assignments. For the company, the work adds meaningful scale and visibility, and it reinforces a strategy of pursuing projects where schedule discipline, safety culture, and logistics expertise matter as much as concrete and earthwork.

Tactical infrastructure is not just traditional civil construction. It blends heavy grading, access routes, drainage, and structures with operational features such as lighting, power, cameras, and communications. That mix raises the bar on planning, permitting, and coordination, because crews must integrate multiple trades and suppliers while maintaining strict controls on quality and security requirements.

For communities near the jobsite, the ripple effects can include new temporary jobs, demand for local materials, and improved supporting roads and utilities. For Granite, success will be measured by how well it manages risk, maintains high productivity, and delivers predictable milestones. Big awards do not only pay for work; they test leadership, field execution, and partnership with the client.

Large federal awards reward contractors who can pair heavy civil execution with mission-driven systems integration.

A new wave of dam safety work is moving from studies to construction, with spillway modification projects becoming headline awards for heavy-civil builders. The driver is straightforward: older flood-control dams were designed around hydrology and operational assumptions that no longer match today’s risk tolerance. Owners want greater discharge capacity, improved reliability of gates and hoists, and clearer emergency performance under extreme inflows.

Spillway construction is not routine concrete. Crews are building inside active reservoirs where flood protection cannot pause, so staging, cofferdams, and diversion plans become the real scope of work. Work often involves structural demolition, deep foundations, mass concrete, mechanical gate systems, electrical upgrades, and modern controls integrated with legacy infrastructure. Environmental windows, sediment handling, and downstream safety constraints can compress schedules, while long-lead fabricated gates and embedded steel can dictate the critical path.

Contractors that win and keep margin treat operations and hydrology like design inputs. Align the schedule with reservoir rules and the storm season, lock in specialty suppliers early, and validate temporary works with redundancy. Price the job around access and dewatering realities, not ideal production rates, and document every operational constraint that changes sequencing. The teams that can maintain flood readiness while building will be first in line for the next dam package.

Treat dam operations as the critical path before you mobilize.

California’s climate disclosure rollout is becoming a real operational issue for large homebuilders and building product suppliers. As 2026 reporting deadlines approach, companies that do business in the state are scrambling to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks in a way that can withstand public scrutiny. Even if a builder’s biggest markets are elsewhere, California-linked reporting can set the standard for the whole enterprise.

The pressure lands first in procurement. Emissions accounting forces builders to ask for data on concrete, steel, asphalt, insulation, windows, HVAC equipment, and transportation. Many suppliers are not ready to provide consistent numbers so that bids may slow, specs may narrow, and purchasing may shift toward vendors with verifiable environmental product data. That can raise short-term soft costs while reshaping preferred supplier lists over the long term.

Builders who move early will avoid chaos. Assign an internal owner, map the projects and entities and scope, and include a supplier data request in every bid package. Keep a simple emissions baseline first, then improve quality over time. The goal is not perfection on day one; it is a repeatable system that reduces reporting risk and supports smarter purchasing.

Build your emissions baseline now; require suppliers to include data in bids.

Lightning can strike even when the storm looks far away. The biggest risk is waiting for rain before reacting. A strike can hit equipment, structures, or nearby ground and travel through metal, water, and soil. One decision to “finish the last task” can put the whole crew at risk.

Plan your shelter before the shift gets busy. The safest places are a substantial building or a hardtop vehicle with the windows up. Avoid open areas, isolated trees, ridgelines, scaffolds, ladders, and anything tall or metal. Stop work on cranes, lifts, and long-handled tools when thunder is heard, and move along a clear route to shelter without bunching up near gates or fences.

Stay sheltered until the threat has passed. Use the rule of waiting 30 minutes after the last thunder before returning to work. If someone is struck, call emergency help immediately and start CPR if needed, because lightning victims do not carry an electric charge. Today, agree on who monitors the weather and who calls the stop, so there is no hesitation.

When thunder roars, go indoors and stay until it's all clear.

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