Transitions – What I’m Doing Now

Posted on by johnlwheaton1

Life is full of transitions. The book of Ecclesiastes acknowledges, “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens.” There’s a time to build up and a time to tear down. A time to sow, a time to reap. As much as we often resist, necessary endings are required for new beginnings. So, here is an update on my professional transition, the ending and new  beginning.

The Ending:

After 32 years we needed to end the season of the business known as Wheaton & Sprague Engineering, Inc, aka Wheaton Sprague Building Envelope. It was a good run. We had the privilege of working with many talented people, both staff and clients. We completed many terrific projects of all shapes, sizes, locations and complexities. Thanks to my partner Richard Sprague for his faithfulness and integrity through the years. Thanks also to Debra Parker, the glue behind the scenes and the best ever.

The New Beginning:

On June 29, 2026, I started my position as Director – Facade Engineering & Senior Consultant with BPL Enclosure, a company with a deeply talented group of professionals. I get to operate from the same office location, with a similar emphasis and focus, representing Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Area, plus regional and national clients as always. I am really pleased to provide continuity for clients, existing and new, collaborating with our BPL team. The culture and work is energizing.

I’m still “Creating Structure” in the Building Facade, Building Enclosure, Curtain Wall space, but under a new banner at BPL where we “Simplify the Complex”. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work at BPL with strong executive leadership and a high performance team

Stay tuned for more updates and posts.

Resisting Complexity

Posted on by johnlwheaton1

As a company gets more mature and grows in size, adding people to support the purpose and mission of the business, it also needs to define internal processes and “SOP’s” (standard operating procedures) to reasonably manage with clarity the volume of work; to deliver to clients the work that supports the “why” of the business at more scale .

However, these SOP’s can also become an encumbrance because often times we end up working more and more to serve the internal functions of the business rather than the clients. This is a subtle, gradual, descent, and easy to miss.

To resist, to remain effective, takes consistent resistance by someone, or by a group of “someone’s” to keep asking this question, in perpetuity, “How can we simplify, resist the complex, streamline, and keep “the main thing the main thing” like we did when the business began, which is to focus on simplifying client’s lives and delivering creative solutions to them?”

Do you want to know one way to measure if you’re being too “internally focused?” First, look at your calendar. How many internal meetings are required each week versus how much time to produce the work and connect in a collaborative manner with the client? This is certainly applicable to those with client relationship management (CRM) responsibilities in any measure. But everyone, every role, impacts the client, whether a CRM, accounts payable representative, receptionist, engineer, proposal writer, scheduler, principal, project manager, designer, or other.

It’s all about the client, the customer. It’s all about the delivering the service or product as scoped, and in a manner that makes their experience reasonably positive, and one of relative ease.

We can lose sight of this if we don’t create and maintain awareness and constructive tension in the system.

It’s the responsibility of all of us to remind ourselves and our colleagues to “keep it simple.” And it starts at the top, with the leader of the business.

Build the systems, deliver to the SOP’s, but only if they are supporting the purpose driven mission of the business to the benefit of the client. Cut out everything else.