Studying Project Teams

I hope you are all following my work on teaming and collaboration being published on the Baltimore Chapter's blog Felt Tips. Its a series of articles on a collaboration or "partnering" exercise that I am involved in on a large biomedical research project at a university in my area. It is also be used to form presentation T14 Building a Highly Collaborative Team to be presented at CONSTRUCT and the CSI National Convention in Baltimore in September.

Our collaboration team has met four times now, including today, and I've posted three blog posts on the effort. As of today, I am two meetings behind in my writing plus I'm working on a post related to our design development cost estimating and value engineering efforts. Though behind, I hope to catch up in the coming weeks.

In today's session, the project exec for the CM mentioned a research study taking place at a nearby university that peaked my interest. I'd rather not mention the university as I am trying to find out more information about the study and perhaps find their blog or other on-line items about the research. I'll report on that if I find anything. 

In general, this research team is studying construction project teams and the influence of collaboration and holding members accountable through a series of surveys that are scored and reviewed quarterly. The results of the survey are then discussed by the team and used to alter behaviors to make the team more effective. According to the CM, there are several projects using this method and when compared against recent projects also performed for this same university, there are fewer RFI's, fewer change orders and fewer disputes.

A survey was created by the research team to assess the construction team members's respect for each other, their level of trust of each other, their sense of teamwork and when issues were raised, how the team communicated and work together in a timely manner. The construction team includes representatives of the university project management team, the CM at Risk and sub-contractors and the A/E team. The surveys are given using an on-line survey engine, like Survey Monkey. A designated group of day-to-day participants, like the project managers from each member firm, take the surveys quarterly and are asked to assess the performance on the Owner's team, the CM's team, the A/E team and the sub-contractors team in the categories listed above. A 1 to 5 scale is used with 1 being lowest. The goal is to target areas where team behaviors are lacking and take corrective steps to make the team function better.

The surveys are reviewed by an executive team made up of the VP in charge of the physical plant, the project executive of the CM firm and the principal in charge from the architect of record. All of these individuals are involved in the project but not a day to day basis. After reviewing the survey results, they would then ask the tough questions that need to be asked and work with the other team members to enact the necessary measures to improve the results.

My first thought was, "if I have a problem with an individual member of the A/E team, how can a survey asking me to rate the entire A/E team be of value in enacting change?" The CM cited an example of his own team. There was a superintendent on the team he described as the "Git 'er done" type who didn't have time to listen to or deal with anyone. He was dragging the entire team down with his brusque and rigid behavior. When the quarterly survey results came out, the CM firm was graded much lower than previous, so the executive team started asking questions. It came out that this superintendent was an issue and he was removed from the project.

That's probably an extreme case, but I can see other, less dramatic but equally effective results coming out of this exercise. The purpose of the exercise is to expose the "blind spots" or biases that we all have and hopefully allow each of us to work through them or set them aside for the betterment of the team. If all team members are held accountable by their fellow team members, the effectiveness of the team should be increased.

The collaboration team I'm involved in started the ground work for a similar survey today. I'll report on that effort on Felt Tips in the coming weeks. 

Recognizing Your Volunteers

Based on previous blogs I've written, most should realize how important I think recognition is to all organizations, professional and otherwise. My involvement in CSI awards started at my first chapter awards banquet in June 2001. That night, I received a Certificate of Appreciation for helping with the chapter's work with Rebuilding Together, Baltimore. Rebuilding Together is a program where groups and organizations work on the homes of disabled or elderly people on one Saturday in April. All I did was volunteer a Saturday doing minor home repairs, but I was certainly honored and surprised to receive recognition that night and it made an impression on me.

But, the idea of recognizing volunteers for their hard work began to take place in my mind when I was very young. Back in the 1970's, my parents were active in our town's chapter of The Junior Chamber of Commerce, otherwise known as the JayCees. My father has always been a wood worker and good with his hands. In the years that he was chapter president, I remember him cutting out wooden plaques and my mother using decoupage techniques to affix certificates to them. While I was too young to attend the awards banquets, I'm sure the other volunteers greatly appreciated a handmade gift that represented the work they had performed for the JayCees.

Carrying on up through junior high and high school, I was in the generation that started the idea of the "participation ribbon." I can remember getting various ribbons, patches and other items for participating in sporting, music and other activities. Through my scouting activities, I always enjoyed receiving the patches for various camporees, summer camps and other events. These sorts of "participation" recognitions were important to me growing up. They made me feel special and important, even if everyone else was getting the same thing. Many scouters from that generation and earlier have vast collections of patches to signify the activities and outings they participated in. These mementos remind them of all the fun they had and they things they learned.

I've been involved in awards with CSI for 10 years. I started helping with the chapter awards when my friend Liz was chapter president in FY2004. I was the chapter Awards Committee Chair for a couple of years before becoming chapter president in FY2007. As president, I fully participated in our chapter's awards program for my two terms as president. Following my term as president, I became an unofficial advisor and mentor to the chapter Awards Committee. Following that work, I joined the Institute Awards Committee in FY2010 and took over as chair in FY2013. I love the awards program that we administer and I wish more chapters and leaders participated in it.

Recently, my mother was cleaning out her attic and found some awards that my grandfather had earned in the 1960's. He owned a residential and light commercial HVAC and electrical contracting business. Sometime around 1965, Harbin Heating and Air Conditioning became a Fedders dealer and for 1965-1966, my grandfather earned "Most Progressive Dealer" in the state of Arkansas. Considering he was a new dealer, I suspect this was akin to Rookie of Year for all Fedders dealers in the state. He went on to be Top Dealer in Arkansas the following two years. As you can see in the photos here, these were pretty nice plaques in recognition of these accomplishments.

Recognition has been going on for a long time and has been an integral part of most of our lives. From participation ribbons to patches to plaques, physical recognition is the most widespread and most obvious way participants and volunteers are recognized. But there are many other ways to recognize volunteers. In the Leaders Training Center last year at CONSTRUCT in Nashville, Matt Fochs with CSI and I held a discussion on creating and building a recognition program for our chapters and regions. That presentation can be found here and a recording of a webinar I presented in February of this year can be found here.

The point of the recognition program is to consider all forms of recognition possible and move beyond the Certificate of Appreciation given in June of each year, the Region Awards given at region conferences and the national awards conferred at CONSTRUCT each September. Our volunteers should be recognized at many times and in many ways to ensure they feel valued and understand that their efforts are appreciated.

The presentation from Nashville discusses the creation of a recognition model that combines five different types of recognition: Participation, Self-set Goals, Peer Competition, Standards of Excellence and Cooperation. Participation recognition is the ribbons, patches and t-shirts that I mentioned above: anything that identifies a volunteer as having participated in the event. Recognition through self-set goals allows volunteers to set their own goals to measure their own outcomes. Standards of excellence are the usual ways that we recognize our volunteers: measure a volunteer’s service against a published standard of excellence. Peer competitions are any ways that peers compete against each other to determine a winner: specification writing contests are a common example. Recognition by cooperation is a way in which an entire group recognizes themselves as a separate entity that worked together to reach a common goal.

All five recognition methods listed above are essential to have a high quality and robust recognition program. I encourage all chapter leaders to take a look at the webinar and PowerPoint and consider ways to increase the level of recognition in your chapters. Your volunteers deserve to be recognized each month, not just in June or September.

If you want to participate in the Standards of Excellence program known as CSI’s Honors and Awards Program, there is still time to prepare nominations before the deadline, but not much time! All nominations are due to CSI by 5:00P ET on Friday, May 2, 2014. See www.CSINet.org/awards for all the information you need.

Become The Impulsive Blogger

About two weeks ago, there was what could be described as an unprecedented gathering of folks who author and manage construction related blogs. In reality, it was a group of friends who got together via conference call to discuss the how's and why's of their respective blogs and to help each other with their own blog work. The group included:

Cherise Schacter, Portland, OR @cheriseschacter  cheriseschacter.wordpress.com
Charles Hendricks, Harrisonburg, VA @thegainesgroup  harrisonburgarchitect.wordpress.com
Lori Greene @LoriGreeneAHC  idighardware.com
Eric Lussier, Burlington, VT @ericdlussier ericdlussier.wordpress.com
Marvin Kemp, Baltimore, MD @mpkemp accidentaleader.blogspot.com
Randy Nishimura @sworegonarch  sworegonarchitect.blogspot.com
Liz O'Sullivan, Denver, CO @LizOsullivanAIA  lizosullivanaia.wordpress.com
Robin Snyder, Tempe, AZ @speclawyer 

Also invited, but unable to attend were these:

David Stutzman, Tuckahoe, NJ @dstutzman  conspectusinc.com/swblog
Tara Imani, Houston, TX @Parthenon1  indigoarchitect.com
Joy Davis, Albuquerque, NM @CSIConstruction

I listed a bunch of information about each of us above for a couple of reasons. First, this is a very diverse group of people :architects, engineers, specifiers and manufacturers reps. The group represents the best of CSI: all members of the construction team coming together to solve problems and teach each other something. The group is also from all over the country, just like CSI.

Lastly, each member of the group is active in many social media platforms. The genesis of this gathering was Cherise tweeting for assistance from several of us in starting her blog. I put each of our twitter handles out there so you can give us each a look and a follow. Each of us blogs, some more prolific than others, so I listed the URL's for our blogs. Give us a look; I'm sure you'll like what you read!

Across about an hour and a half, our conversation ranged from the more practical side of which blog platform to use and how to integrate Twitter into it to why we blog and how we pick our topics. For me, I use Google's Blogger platform and I started blogging for a selfish reason. My mother was an English teacher and I've always had an appreciation for the written word. In college, I did a 2-credit hour independent project on creative writing. As I've worked my up in our firm, I've taken a larger role in marketing and frequently write pieces for our RFP responses.

I'm not sure when the idea to start a blog came to me, but it was sometime around the time our chapter was suffering from lack of leadership and I realized I should step in and become chapter president. I had about six months to prepare, so The Accidental Leader was born. Even though I published the blog publicly, I think only my wife and a small handful of others knew about it. I used it to work through some thoughts I had on how our chapter should work and what I needed to do to make the chapter better.

I was not a particularly voracious author, but it worked for me. After two years as chapter president, my blogging ebbed until our president at the time was diagnosed with ALS and I picked the blog back up to record my thoughts and our chapter leadership's actions as his health deteriorated. That was an emotionally trying time, but I think our Board of Directors did a great job of keeping our chapter running while also supporting our president and helping him remain active for as long as possible. I hope I captured all of that in the blog, but have not brought myself to re-read those posts since his death in 2010.

Recently, I took up blogging again hoping to improve our chapter's image in the industry. Our chapter used to publish white papers called Felt Tips in our monthly newsletter, so I borrowed that title and The Felt Tips blog was born at felttips.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, I became a committee of one: no on else seemed as interested in blogging as I was. I struggled through it for a year or more until I approached about being a CONSTRUCT-per-Specs blogger, so I resurrected The Accidental Leader and have been a slightly more active blogger since, though I still work on Felt Tips from time to time.

I learned from our gathering of bloggers that many of us have the same issues with starting and completing blogs. I'm evidence of that in that I'm trying to finish this post two weeks after the gathering and a full week after I started it. As they say, life gets in the way. However, the best advice of the afternoon came from Liz and I captured it in the tweet below.

 

 

If you're from the South as I am, you might also say "Git 'er done!"

 

I think that's true of many things, but especially true of blogging, Tweeting or any other social media. Many of my generation are timid to start. We watch our children and grandchildren jump into Twitter, Instagram or Snap Chat with both feet and not worry about what others may think. We should adopt that same reckless abandon for ourselves! Jump in, do it, be yourself and people will find you and love you. We've all worked too long and too hard for the knowledge we have and the knowledge we gain every day. Use it! Share it! Social media is here to help! If you're scared or nervous, that's fine. We were, too. If you need help, hit those of us listed above with a tweet and we'll be happy to help.

The Importance of Honoring Your Leaders

At heart, I’m a history buff. Not in the usual way of reading all the books available on the civil war or some other major event, but in the thought of the old cliché, “if we don’t understand history, we are doomed to repeat it.” I also believe that history in organizations can help create a culture that is equally important to those organizations. Some of the simple things that we do day in and day out to recognize our volunteers can set a beautiful culture that CSI needs.

Awards are incredibly important to any volunteer organization. We cannot pay our members and leaders for their work, so giving thanks and recognition is the best way we have of acknowledging their work and honoring their accomplishments. Many of the awards that we give out either locally, regionally or nationally are named after the leaders that made CSI the great organization that it is today. I think we can all learn something about where our organization came from and where it should go by learning about these leaders. One of the best ways to do that is to review the Honors and Awards Guide for the criteria of these awards. In those criteria are information about who these leaders were and why they are important to CSI.

You may think that these national awards are out of your reach. You may think that toiling at the chapter level would not equate to these honors. You would be incorrect in that assessment, but there are many other ways that the work you do every day can translate into a national award. Two specific awards come to mind: The Communications Award and the Outstanding Chapter Commendation.

Traditionally, the Communications Award has gone to the editor or committee in charge of a chapter’s or region’s newsletter, web site or other periodical communications sent to the chapter or region membership. However, for several years, the award criteria has included electronic communications such as “email communications, social media, blogs, websites, contests, webinars and eClasses.” Many new and long time leaders are now using social media, blogs and other electronic communications in exciting ways to get the message out about CSI. Don’t these leaders deserve national recognition?

The other area that leaders can participate in the Institute awards program is the Outstanding Chapter Commendation (OCC). The OCC was created as a reward for the hard work that chapters are doing daily on behalf of their members and CSI. It can also be used as a gauge for what administrative tasks and other activities chapters should be doing to best support their members and the goals of CSI. Several regions have adopted the OCC forms for use in their annual chapter reports.

With over 140 chapters nationally, it might surprise you that less than 40 chapters annually nominate themselves for the OCC. It might further surprise you that the vast majority of these chapters earn the OCC each year. In the past few years, the Awards Committee has worked hard to simplify the process and the forms so that every chapter has the opportunity to fill out the forms and nominate themselves for this great award. I can speak from experience of the power that winning this award can have on a chapter.

Several years ago, our chapter had never nominated ourselves for the OCC. While chapter president, I decided to give it a shot. To my surprise and delight, we won the OCC both years I was president. That was FY2007 and FY2008 and we have won the OCC each year since then, except one. The one year we didn’t win was because of a miscommunication that led to us missing the deadline.

I can say with certainty, that winning the OCC five out of six years has made all the difference in the world in our chapter leadership. We feel more confident in our work and what we’re doing to support CSI in our area. We have also started some new initiatives based on the categories in the OCC criteria. While we don’t always make it, each year we strive for a perfect score to ensure that we not only win the OCC each year but that we are best serving our membership and the construction industry in our area.

That, in a nutshell, is one of the great things about an awards program. Recognition can be a powerful motivation to people seeking to do their very best.

Make sure to download the 2014 Honors and Award Guide (PDF) at www.csinet.org/HAGuide.

The deadline to submit nominations for the FY14 CSI Honors & Awards program is 5:00 PM Eastern, May 2, 2014. Recipients will be recognized at CONSTRUCT & The CSI Annual Convention in 2014. Submit your nomination at www.csinet.org/awards.

What CSI Can Learn From Scouts

What CSI Can Learn From Scouts

 

Whether you were in boy scouts as a boy or have a son in scouting or not, I’m sure you’re at least familiar with the Boy Scout Oath and Law:

 

On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty, to God and country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

 

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

 

These two statements form the core values of the Boy Scouts of America. For those of us who are active in this organization, they are what we teach our boys each day and with each activity. Being kind, caring for your country and your neighbors, keeping yourself strong and free from substances that damage your body or cloud your judgment are a few of the life lessons young men can take away from their time spent in Boy Scouts. However, there is much more to it than that.

 

From the BSA web site, www.scouting.org, is this statement: “For over a century, the BSA has helped build the future leaders of this country by combining educational activities and lifelong values with fun. The Boy Scouts of America believes….that helping youth is a key to building a more conscientious, responsible, and productive society.”

 

Isn’t that what CSI is trying to do for the construction industry: build leaders in construction through education and fun? So, what can CSI learn from the Boy Scouts of America? Here are some thoughts.

 

Be Prepared: This is the scout motto and we teach our boys to prepare themselves for any situation that might come up while on an outing. Just last weekend, the first weekend in December, my son’s troop had planned a campout in the outdoors. The weather Friday night was raining with lows of 35 degrees F and high winds. Saturday was sunny but cold with a high of about 40 degrees F. Sunday offered a chance of snow, mixing with sleet and rain later in the afternoon. The troop discussed the gear necessary and the trip went off without a hitch.

 

Being prepared is applicable to all instances in life, well beyond scouting. I’m involved in a project right now where the architect of record likes to schedule meetings and not give any indication of the purpose or agenda for the meeting beyond a relatively generic description in the Outlook meeting invitation he emails out to attendees. I’m sure the organizer of these meetings has a good idea in his mind of what the meeting will cover, but without communicating that to the team, we are unable to adequately prepare ourselves for the meeting. In our CSI activities, just like in our business activities, we should be prepared and communicate the details of meetings to others so that they can be prepared.

 

Communicate: Every other month, my son’s troop delivers our neighborhood newsletter on Saturday morning. The newsletter is a folded 8-1/2” by 11” page and there are about 1,500 homes in our neighborhood. We need all the scouts we can get to help make the work easier and shorter. In our compact neighborhood, cars are of little help: the boys walk door-to-door and drop the newsletter on each porch. Two months ago, we had three scouts show up on Saturday morning so it took us most of the morning to finish the delivery. This past month, our troop’s Senior Patrol Leader, the top scout leader, worked the phones and contacted each scout in the troop so that on Saturday every scout showed up and we finished in 45 minutes. When the delivery was finished, I spoke with the Senior Patrol Leader and told him how important those phone calls were in the success of the event.

 

In many scouting activities, we are outdoors hiking, canoeing or participating in other fun activities that can be dangerous without good communication skills. We train our scouts to recognize the situations that can be perilous and how to communicate with each other to navigate those situations successfully. Communication was the key to the success of the newsletter event and in most endeavors in which we participate. Business is the same way. When projects go into litigation, a contributing factor is frequently the lack of intrapersonal communication among the team members. If we don’t communicate, we fail.  Does your chapter communicate enough with your members to ensure the success of the chapter and your activities?

 

Work hard, play hard: Scouting is intended to teach boys life lessons about organizing yourself, preparing yourself and working hard to produce the results you want. It is incredibly hard work to earn the merit badges and other requirements to earn your ranks and ultimately earn the Eagle Scout badge. However, scouting is also about having fun and there are also lots of fun things to do along the way while earning ranks and merit badges. Camping, canoeing, rock climbing, swimming, archery and pioneering are just a few of the great outdoor activities scouts participate in. There are many others from woodworking to astronomy to computer science. There are 130 merit badges that scouts can earn to learn more about the activities that interest them.

 

I think sometimes in CSI we take ourselves too seriously. We too narrowly focus our activities to things we encounter at work each day. Life is more than just work! I define myself as husband, father and architect, in that order. My first responsibility is to my wife and children while my occupation comes further down the list of priorities.

 

In CSI, we should loosen up! Plan some fun activities along with the usual educational programs. Our chapter holds a bowling event each December. Baltimore is the birth place of duck pin bowling: a form of bowling that uses a shorter lane, shorter pins and a ball with no holes that is about the size of a cannon ball. When you’re in town for CONSTRUCT 2014, look me up and I’ll take you duck pin bowling!

 

Think about what kinds of activities your members are interested in. Plan a social event to get to know your members better. Create a night for CSI Jeopardy or tour a local vineyard. Hold a cookout or chili cook off competition. Give your members an opportunity to include their significant others and families in events. Above all, we need to have fun to keep people coming back.

 

Be Flexible and Adapt to New Situations: Most Boy Scout troops, or least the ones I’m familiar with, schedule activities many months in advance. If the weather looks bad building up to the activity, it is typically not changed as too much advance planning has taken place. Pack your rain gear, extra socks, warmer sleeping bag, whatever you need to adapt to the weather. CSI should be look at this idea of flexibility and use it to our advantage. We all bring different ideas and experiences to the table. We should all be able to adapt to the ideas of others to make it a more enriching experience. Freezing your tail off on a December campout may not be your idea of fun, but I guarantee it will help you appreciate having the right gear!

 

As CSI chapter, we cannot be in the business of “it’s my way or the highway.” Most chapters have long-time leaders but the mantra of “we’ve always done it this way” is bad policy and will lead to conflict, poor attendance and diminished participation. Times change and so must we as an organization. We must be flexible to the needs and desires of the next generation of construction professionals.

 

Mentoring: Each Boy Scout troop is organized with the older scouts leading the younger scouts in planning and conducting all of the troop activities. The adult leaders will occasionally help with certain logistics and with transportation, but the activities are intended to be scout-led. In our CSI Chapters, we should seek our emerging professionals and give them the skills, the opportunity and the responsibility to lead the chapter. This empowerment will give the emerging professionals what they need to improve their careers, which I believe is a huge opportunity CSI is missing. The older or long-time leaders in our chapters should step aside and let others try their hand at leading. Our chapters want and need the long-time leaders, but if don’t cultivate the next generation, we will fail.

 

Teamwork: Boy Scout troops are made up of patrols, which is a group of 8 to 10 scouts that work together in the troop setting. Each patrol has a leader who sits on the leadership council of the troop along with the Sr Patrol Leader and Assistant Sr Patrol Leaders. While on a campout or other outing, each patrol is responsible for their own equipment and food as well as setting up their camp, preparing their food, cleaning up after themselves and in general, taking care of each other and the patrol as a whole.

 

The idea of the mutual benefit of scout to unit begins in Cub Scouts. The Cub Scout Law of the Pack contains these lines: “The Cub Scout helps the pack go. The pack helps the Cub Scout grow.” Just like there can be no patrol or pack without scouts, scouts need the pack and patrol to help guide them and help them grow. Similarly, CSI chapters need CSI members and members need chapters. CSI Chapters should function very much like a Boy Scout patrol. Chapters have leaders who set the agenda and organize the team, but then they have other leaders and volunteers to pitch in and help make sure the work is spread out evenly and equitably. Leaders should have strong relationships with their members so that the members’ needs are met by the chapter. If the board of directors sits on a pedestal in their meeting room and ignores the membership, the chapter as a whole will suffer.

 

There is a sense of belonging that comes with the Boy Scout uniform. On your left sleeve, you wear two indications of who you are and where you come from: your troop number and your council patch. There are many CSI members who are designated as “Without Chapter Affiliation” in the CSI database because they did not designate a home chapter when they joined or processed their annual membership renewal. Those members are not getting the full benefit of membership as they are unable to identify themselves with a chapter. Chapters should reach out to these “Without Chapter Affiliation” members in their area and invite them to meetings. Make these members feel welcome, listen to their thoughts and ideas and give them the full benefit of CSI membership. You might cultivate your next generation of leaders!

 

After reading this, I think you recognize my strong passion for both Boy Scouts and CSI. Some of my happiest times as a teenager were spent with my Boy Scout troop. I now have two sons, one Boy Scout and one Cub Scout, who are having a great time learning and growing in the program. CSI has been a similar source of learning and fun for me. My first chapter meeting was almost 13 years ago and I still get a kick out of the networking and education opportunities afforded to me through CSI on the local and national level. However, we need to always be mindful of those who come after us and tailor our activities to encourage their participation. We can always learn from other organizations, so don’t stay in your silo! Get out, experience, think and then come back to your chapter and make it the best you can!

 

If you’re reading this and learning about CSI for the first time, I encourage you to check out some ways to learn more and to get involved:

 

www.csinet.org is the national CSI web site. It has information on national initiatives as well as local events happening at the 140 chapters we have.

 

Most chapters have a web site and those are listed on csinet.org.

 

Many chapters also tweet, so if you are on Twitter, check out @CSIConstruction and you’ll see the myriad of Tweeps who routinely tweet about what’s happening in our industry. You will surely be able to find someone in your area. If you’re in the Middle Atlantic Region, you can find me @mpkemp and the Baltimore Chapter @BaltoCSI. The Baltimore Chapter’s web site is www.csibaltimore.org.

 

www.CONSTRUCT.com is the web site for our national convention. It contains blogs and other great information about CONSTRUCT and how and why you should attend.

 

Look up these resources, attend a meeting and get involved! You’ll have fun and learn some things that will help you each day at work!

We Cannot Stop Talking

I’m fresh back from CONSTRUCT 2013 and the CSI National Convention held last week in Nashville. This marks the 9^th time I have attended this convention and the 8^th straight. It is always a great event, full of fun, networking and learning. I’m always exhausted by Friday night, but I never want the events to end! I always miss my family terribly, but I never want to leave!

This year was no exception. Nashville provided a beautiful and fun back drop for all of the events that make up this great convention. The brand-new Music City Center is a beautiful venue that provided the myriad of spaces needed for the show floor and all the meetings and networking opportunities. The various restaurants and bars along Broadway provided great night time entertainment and the Cumberland River Greenway provided the perfect path for the inaugural #RunCSI!

Social Media has become increasingly more visible and accessible at all CSI events, but I think it reached a fever pitch this year at CONSTRUCT. In addition to the constant tweeting and daily blogging by many attendees and the various educational sessions offered to help make social media accessible to all, there were TweetUps and other formal and informal gatherings to discuss Twitter, blogging and other forms of social media that we can use to get the word out about CSI. After CONSTRUCT was over, several CSI staffers have put together Storify stories or recaps of the tweeting that took place during many of the educational sessions so that those who attended can be reminded of the session content and view the thoughts of others and those who did not attend, can review what took place during the session. To access these stories, log on to your Twitter account and search for the sessions number with a hashtag: #H06 for example was one of the sessions presented by Joy Davis, CSI’s Queen of Social Media.

When I sat down to write about a particular session that gave me something to take back to work with me, I was fortunate enough to be able to review the Storify recap of the session and remember what my thoughts were in addition to reading those of others who were in the room with me. You can follow me @BaltoCSI on Twitter. The Storify story includes tweets from @vivianvolz, @ericdlussier, @CSICincyChapter, @specwinch and was assembled by Joy Davis (@CSIConstruction).

The session that I’m writing about was H10 “Architect/Consulting Engineer Coordination: Closing the Gap” and was presented by Cherise Schacter, @cheriseschacter AKA The Kraken. I have more on that nickname later. I am an architect and project manager for a mid-sized architecture firm in Baltimore. I work on mostly higher education projects and in particular research and teaching laboratories. There is an incredibly high level of coordination between architecture and engineering systems required by laboratory projects and while I think I’m pretty good at performing this coordination, I can always learn more, so I chose Cherise’s session to attend.

Cherise has worked for both architecture and engineering firms. She is currently employed by an engineering firm working on their office master guide specifications. In preparing for her presentation, she reviewed nearly 75 projects and in most instances, found a coordination error in less than two minutes. I was shocked and appalled to hear that. How can intelligent and licensed professionals leave such egregious errors that they can be found in two minutes? Cherise knows where to look and so do those contractors that we all know who are unscrupulous and search for change orders in our documents.

When reviewing the project documents, Cherise started by reviewing Division 01 of the project manual and continued through the technical sections of Divisions 21, 22, 23, 25 and into the 30’s, finding areas where the architect wrote something in Division 01 that the engineer then contradicted in the later technical sections. Her point being, it is difficult, boring and time-consuming, but architects need to read the specification sections written and edited by engineers in order to discover the areas where the engineer may contradict or not be completely coordinated with the architect’s Division 01.

However, Cherise also told us of a better way. She has assembled a questionnaire and checklist that can be sent to the entire design team to make sure Division 01 meets the needs of the engineering systems and that the engineers understand what not to put in Part 1 of their technical sections. I was not shocked to learn that few engineering firms hire professional specification writers, but I was shocked to learn that most engineering firms do not have a single source for the production of their specifications. Many engineering firms let the individual engineers or engineering designers write and edit the specifications. This means there could be multiple people editing mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection specifications. With so many hands touching the project manual, no wonder it is so easy to find coordination problems!

The central message of Cherise’s presentation was we all need to keep communicating. Not sending emails, but actually picking up the phone and having a personal conversation. That’s the best way to defeat the coordination errors that lead to change orders and hard feelings on the job site. I know this intrinsically, but it’s always nice to be reminded of it by other construction professionals. I’m currently working on a large project with an incredibly large and complex consultant team. As a team, we frequently fall into the trap of firing off emails rather than using the phone. That has led to miscommunication, inaccurate work and hard feelings and we are still in design development!

That leads me back to “The Kraken.” Cherise and many others are starting a movement on Twitter that they refer to as #CSIKraken. It comes from a joke around the office where when something isn’t quite right, Cherise says, “Don’t make me release The Kraken!” It’s the idea that “The Kraken” is anyone dedicated to working hard, working smart and getting the job done. Isn’t that what CSI is all about? Isn’t that what makes us and our events, like CONSTRUCT, the best in the industry? These events are about like minded professionals coming together to share ideas and have some fun. That’s what keeps me returning year after year.

If the idea of “The Kraken” interests you, check it out on Twitter under #CSIKraken. If the idea of learning how to work hard, work smart and get your jobs done interests you, go to http://www.csinet.org/Main-Menu-Category/Communities-2109-14280/Chapter-Locator to find a chapter near you. Go to a meeting and find The Krakens in the room. You’ll enjoy yourself and probably learn something to take back with you to work.

 

If I hadn't Jioined CSI

On the eve on CONSTRUCT 2013 and the CSI National Convention in Nashville, I decided to reprise a piece I wrote for the Felt Tips blog our chapter hosts from June of last year. I altered it slightly based on things that have happened to me across the last 15 months.

If I hadn't joined CSI...

I might not recognize there are three ways to do something: the right way, the wrong way and the CSI Way.

 

Every day at work, I would not know that each person brings something different to the table and that's okay.

 

And I would not know how to use what each person brings to the table to solve problems. 

 

I wouldn't have these 6 cool initials behind my name.

 

I wouldn't have seen Vegas, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago and Phoenix. Its been years since I've seen Nashville, but I get to see it again next week!

 

I wouldn't have seen Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Richmond, Raleigh or Bear Creek.

 

I wouldn't have seen Centerpoint, the Hilton or Healthcare for the Homeless before those buildings opened.

 

I might not have helped fix up an elderly person's home and looked into their eyes while they shook my hand and then hugged me, but couldn't say "thank you" because of the tears in their eyes and lump in their throat.

 

And I wouldn't have needed the "thank you" at all.

 

I would not have that pewter shield to wear on my lapel.

 

And the hard earned gavel chained to it.

 

I would not have met my best friends Scott, Liz, Steve, Sarah and Cassie.

 

And I would not have met Lynn, Jonnie, Billy and Anne Marie.

I would not have had the honor to write an endorsement for Jonnie's fellowship and felt the joy I'll feel next week when I see her elevated to fellowship.

I would not have worked side by side with Nina, Leslie, Mike, Mitch and Sal.

I probably would not have mentored as many fine leaders as I have.

And I would not have wept when we lost two great leaders, Bill and Rob.

I would not have walked up to a booth last year in Phoenix and gotten the answer to my question, immediately, on the spot, and known it was the right answer.

And that wouldn't have happened in Chicago the year before, Philadelphia the year before that, or Indianapolis the year before that or Vegas the year before that.

I might not have the fat list of contacts that I have which I can also use to get the answers I need, when I need them.

I would not know more than any architect should about intumescent paint, polished concrete, fire prevention, insurance, the perils and excitement of bid day or any of the other roughly 120 presentations I've seen at monthly membership meetings across the last 13 years.

And I wouldn't know the thrill of planning one of those programs, promoting it, seeing a big crowd at the event and hearing the applause when the program was a success.

I wouldn't know what it means to be elected to office to serve a chapter of 200 members.

I wouldn't have stood in front of a room filled with 2,000 people and welcomed you to Baltimore.

Or felt the joy upon hearing that you all are coming back to Baltimore next September!

I would not have had the opportunity to impart the knowledge I've gained to others in my profession on cold winters nights for the past 9 winters.

And then learn that many of them passed the CDT exam!

I wouldn't know what it was like to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and tell them what I think and have them even ask me the hardest questions I ever had to answer, but have them tell me later that they liked what I said and enjoyed my presentation.

And I might not know what it's like to be a trusted resource to the younger architects in our office.

I have been a proud member of the Baltimore Chapter of The Construction Specifications Institute since August 2000 and I could not be happier with the investment I've made: no amount of money, time or effort can make up for what CSI has given me.

I went to my first meeting sometime in the winter of 2001 at the invitation of a local product rep who had stopped by the office. She introduced me to several folks about my age during the happy hour and on my own I met some of the smartest people I've ever met, including a past Institute President! The program was good, the Q and A was great and I've missed only a small handful of meetings in the 12 years since then.

Since that first meeting, I earned my CDT, worked with Rebuilding Together, Baltimore and taught in our chapter's CDT prep Winter Seminars. As a chapter leader, I've served as Technical Committee Chair, Awards Committee Chair, Programs Committee Chair, Webmaster, Secretary, 2nd Vice-president and Chapter President. I've served as a Region Committee Chair, on an Institute Task Team and on an Institute Committee. I was asked to serve the past two years as Chair of an Institute Committee; an honor that I still don't feel I deserve.

In the past 13 years, I've learned more about construction technology and building science than some architects learn in a life time. I've met and worked with some of the nicest, funniest, most hard working and smartest people in the world. I've become an advocate for doing things the right way in our office and become a resource to the next generation of architects. My bosses have noticed, and have moved me up the ladder into a position of leadership in our firm.

I've learned about and embraced social media, which has opened up a who new set of doors and experiences. That has led me to meet and correspond with Joy, Eric, John and Liz, among many, many others. I'm more tech savvy than I used to be and work hard to understand what social media means, and not just to my teenage children, but to the professional world. All of this thanks to a decision I made long ago to join CSI.

If you like what you read above, join CSI and learn and grow in your career. If you have any questions, please ask me! I can be reached at mkemp@designcollective.com

 

Follow our Chapter on Twitter! @BaltoCSI

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It's Your Network: Build It, Nurture It, Use It

One of the most important aspects of your professional life is your professional network. Creation of a large and varied professional network is essential to the successful performance of your current job, finding another job if needed and generally being a high quality contributor to the construction industry. I'm not talking about having 500 connections on LinkedIn, 1,000 "friends" on Facebook or 2,000 followers on Twitter. Social media is a great tool and I use it myself, but I'm talking about a network of people that you know and who know you, know how you conduct your business and are willing to share their network with you as well as recommending you to others.

Being active in professional organizations, such as CSI, is a great way to expand your professional network. Attending meetings, events and happy hours is a great way to get to know other professionals and with CSI's diverse membership, you can get to know people from all facets of the construction industry. While these people may not know the ins and outs of your professional endeavors, the way you present yourself in these situations and how you conduct your volunteer activities can inform people on how you conduct your other business ventures.

Another great way to expand your professional network is by attending national or regional conventions. CSI's regions represent groupings of chapters by geography which helps you get to know professionals who live near you and share similar contacts and projects. Most regions hold annual conferences which feature board meetings, awards banquets, networking and educational opportunities. These conferences are usually held in cities where there is a chapter or a nearby point of interest. Many of these occur over long weekends and feature family and spouse programs.

But, to maximize your travel dollars and expand your network beyond your local and regional communities, you should attend large, national conventions, such as CONSTRUCT and the CSI National Convention. CONSTRUCT is held each year in September and rotates between sites in the eastern, middle and western United States. This year's show is in Nashville from September 24 through 27. Registration is now open, so visit www.constructshow.com for more Information. 

Now that you've registered, how do you maximize your ability to expand your network? There are a few simple ideas to think about and act on. First, when you are on-site, be on-site. Actually attend the convention and the educational sessions. These conventions tend to be held in great cities, and Nashville is no exception, but try to spend as much time as possible at the convention. Most people hang around between sessions and on the show floor, so if you're there, too, you stand a better chance of meeting people. Use the evenings or some time before the convention starts or after it ends to explore the city.

The next rule is to use meals times to meet people. I wrote a blog post here that describes a luncheon I attended at the end of a large project. Conventions are no different. Everyone has to eat, so make sure you eat either on the show floor or in the area near the convention. Many conventions, CONSTRUCT included, have some sort of food offerings for lunch time. Many convention centers have small grab-and-go coffee shops where you can get light breakfast fare. Instead of ordering room service, head to the convention center early and have a muffin and cup of coffee there. Look for someone you don't know and ask to sit with them. Introduce yourself; chances are you have something in common.

Similar to meal times, take advantage of snack breaks between educational sessions to chat with other attendees. Too often, we make a break for the lobby to check our voicemail and email. Sometimes that is essential, but it also eliminates networking opportunities. Let business associates know you are away with limited email/voicemail access. Many conferences offer snacks and drinks between sessions. Take advantage not only of the sugar high from the snacks but also the opportunity to meet and discuss the educational sessions with your colleagues. Voicemail and email can be checked later that evening or first thing the next morning.

Another benefit of attending conferences for licensed professionals is the ability to earn continuing education credits. If you're there to earn continuing education credits, make the most of the time to also expand your professional network. Sit with different people during educational sessions and then greet your neighbors before or after the sessions. Before hand, you can ask what other sessions they attended that they liked or what booths they visited on the show floor that were the best. After the session, you can continue the conversation to hear what they thought about the session and offer your own thoughts on it. This might lead to a drink later or possibly lunch or dinner.

Most national convention have some level of a product show so make sure to spend time at booths at the product show. The Show is a huge component of the CONSTRUCT experience. I hear some long time attendees complain that they don't want to go to the Show floor because they've "seen it all." I doubt that is true. I typically walk the floor with a friend who asks "what's new?" at each booth. This is a great way to get to know the new product offerings and let the vendors do what they do best: talk about their products. Make sure you introduce yourself to the vendors. Everyone is wearing a name tag, but shake hands, offer a name or nickname and really get to know the vendors. Many of them are great resources not just for their products but for their competitors and other industry leaders.

Use the time on the Show floor to try to meet other people. Many of us will avoid a booth when someone else is there talking with the vendor. Go ahead and step up to the booth and listen in on the on-going conversation, if it’s about the products. That may lead to questions that you have and a more rich conversation with the vendor and the other visitor. It might also lead to getting to know other professionals and maybe a dinner invitation. This happened to me at a sustainable laboratory design conference last year. I stepped into a booth and got into a conversation with another architect and the vendor. I walked out of the booth with an invitation to a dinner party that night hosted by the vendor. I met about a dozen people at that party and made some really great contacts.

The most important thing to remember is that creating a network takes time. Don't expect miracles at the first convention. My boss sent me to the CSI Convention several years ago with the direction to bring back the resume of a spec writer. I made several inquiries and generally heard "if you find someone, give them my card, too!" About seven years later, I haven't found the magic spec writer, but I am in a better position to find one if needed. I've also met a number of fantastic independent spec writers so when our firm's spec writer gets swamped, I can recommend independent writers to hire on a per project basis.

However, it took me seven years of actively attending CONSTRUCT year after year to build my network to this point. I've had similar experiences at the sustainable lab conference I attend regularly. I now know most of the vendors who exhibit at the lab conference and use those contacts to meet other people, learn about new projects and generally expand my network further. I recently returned from a conference that I attended for the first time. I used the suggestions that I’m giving here and came away with a number of good contacts that might not lead to work for my firm immediately, but you never know where folks might land in their next job. One gentleman I ate breakfast with started his career in the Marine Corps, landed at a large university on the west coast and is now in Ohio. One day, he might land closer to the east coast and be in a position to hire my firm. I’ll keep in touch with him and others because you never know when change may come, but I know my network is ready for the challenge.

 

 

Education Opportunities at CONSTRUCT

I've been attending the CSI National Convention since the 2001 convention in Dallas. That was a convenient trip as my parents live in Dallas, so I took the whole family and gave my parents some time with their grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed the convention, but my work circumstances and the expense of attendance caused me to miss a few of the Chicago years. I was able to return to the convention in Las Vegas in 2006 to help promote the 2007 convention that we hosted in Baltimore. As my work circumstances changed and my leadership in CSI grew, I haven't missed a convention since 2006. I’ve attended every year since the partnership with Hanley Wood began in 2008 and CONSTRUCT was born. One thing that keeps me coming back is the educational opportunities offered.

When I first started attending the convention, I was relatively new to CSI and young in my career, so I chose primarily technical seminars: weatherproofing, air barriers, specification writing sessions, etc. I found the information to be top notch and incredibly helpful in my career as the presenters were experts in construction. My own ability to do my job better and more efficiently grew. However, as I moved up through leadership in my chapter and began to look at leadership opportunities at the region and Institute levels, my interests changed as did what I needed to gain from the educational seminars at CONSTRUCT. At about the same time, I was promoted at work and needed to expand my knowledge of leadership. I began to choose sessions taught by folks outside of CSI. Professionals brought in to teach attendees about discrete parts of practice, leadership and business.  I also began to attend sessions taught by CSI leaders such as Sheldon Wolfe, Grady Whitaker, Casey Robb and others. I found these sessions to be immensely entertaining and thought provoking.

However, at CONSTRUCT2011 in Chicago, I attended a session that changed the way I look at digital media and its effect on all facets of our life. Joy Davis and Charles Hendricks presented a session titled “Expanding your Reach with Social Media.” Up until September 2011, I had experimented with blogging, unsuccessfully, and had a twitter account specifically to follow the beat writer for the sports reporter who covers my alma mater. I had a LinkedIn account with basic professional information and used Facebook primarily to keep up with old friends and allow my parents to see current photos of what my kids are involved in. I had never considered the need for a cohesive strategy to make sure my message, skills and personality were not only on the web but available in a manner that I choose.

The premise of Joy’s and Charles’s session was an introduction to some of the various types of social media and the reasons to use them, when to use them and the importance of your image and the information  you put out there for others to see. From the session I learned that I needed a strategy to make the social media work for me, if I’m going to use them at all.

After the convention, I thought a lot about what was presented by Joy and Charles and the discussions held with the folks in attendance. I realized that at that particular point in my career, I was not so much interested in social media for myself but for the advancement of CSI and our Baltimore Chapter. My goals for our chapter social media were to increase leader participation in the media, increase our chapter’s visibility nationwide and return to a time when our chapter published regular technical papers called “Felt Tips.”

It was apparent to me that Twitter was probably not the best media to use for this endeavor, so I started a chapter blog called “Felt Tips” www.felttips.blogspot.com. Initially, I generated all the content and was not able to regularly post to the blog. But through working with other leaders and discussing my goals for our chapter I was able to increase content and the leaders involved in generating that content. Across the last two years, three chapter members have provided me with content and one article in particular, “Life Performance of Truncated Dome Warning Devices on Curb Ramps,” generated healthy discussion in the comments section regarding the actual requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the practices of many jurisdictions. While not an overwhelming success, I feel like our chapter’s image nationally has increased and I continue to work with leaders to create more content.

The great thing about CSI is our diversity of membership. Because our members come from across the construction industry, you can always find someone who has experience with and can answer your question. Based on the session from CONSTRUCT2011, I’ve learned that blogs are a great way to get your ideas out there and reading blogs is a great way to be exposed to the ideas and thoughts of other professionals across the country.
 

The CONSTRUCT Show and CSI National Convention are great events to meet those folks face-to-face and share ideas directly. No matter where your interests in construction lay, the educational programs at CONSTRUCT can provide you the same thought provoking information that I encountered with Joy and Charles in Chicago in 2011. Visit www.constructshow.com for more information about CONSTRUCT. Make plans today to attend CONSTRUCT in Nashville, TN from September 24-27, 2013.

 

More Accidental Leadership

Since my last post on this blog, I've encountered more accidental leadership. For the past four fiscal years, I've served as Chapter Secretary and have been re-elected for the next fiscal year. I've served as webmaster and chair of the Electronic Communications Committee for the past eight years. These are intentional, not accidental. However, during this past fiscal year, I've taken on the Programs Committee and agreed to co-chair a committee for our chapter to host the 2014 National Convention and the 2016 Region Conference. I'm also completing my first year as chair of the Institute Awards Committee and have been selected to chair that committee again the next year.
 

At our firm, I've been co-leader of a studio team for the past year. Myself and another senior associate at the firm manage a team of 10 architects, their work load, and various other aspects of the firm. We coordinate schedules and work load with the leaders of the three other architectural teams, our interiors team and our urban planning/landscape architecture team. For the past year and a half, I've also been preparing bi-monthly studio utilization reports for the partners. What does all of this mean? I spend significant amounts of time managing people. I tell my children this is not what I studied in college!

 

This advancement into leadership has lead me to a couple of thoughts and some change in behavior. I no longer read fiction. I wasn't a particularly tenacious reader to begin with, but I used to have one or two novels on hand to read. Now, I'm reading more non-fiction: business and management books mostly but I'm trying to get through Freakonomics right now and I've enjoyed several of Malcolm Gladwell's books, especially Outliers. I find the business books and these non-fiction books cause me to think about situations differently and look at conditions and conflicts differently. For example, one of the lessons of Freakonomics is that data does not always tell the most accurate story. There are emotions, culture and ethics that play into nearly all situations. The utilization reports, for example, are only as good as the data inputted into the individual time sheets and collectively do not tell the whole story of an individual or a team's experiences during a select time period.

 

The other thought that I have had that has led to a change in behavior is how people conduct their business. For much of my career, I've tried to work with consultants who tend to treat their clients and the projects similarly to how I treat them. Sometimes that is difficult, but when you find a team that can gel and reach good results, I like to keep them together for multiple projects. I'm learning people within a firm can be the same way but not always. For several years now, I have worked closely with the same partner in our firm. He is about 7 or 8 years older than I but we come from similar backgrounds and have similar work histories. I've made a few mistakes across those years and I've watched how he handles those situations and how he addresses them to me. He and I clearly conduct our business in similar ways, so we get along well with few conflicts.

 

There are others in our firm who are just as qualified as I, but he looks to me first because, I presume, he's more comfortable with my skills and how I conduct business. It is clear that not everyone conducts their business the same way he does or the same way I do. The more I work closely with other team members and ultimately manage them, I've come to some conclusions on that point. At first, it was difficult to delegate work to others and then watch them do it differently from how I would do it. As long as the end result is the same, who cares right? Wrong. I have struggled, mightily at times, with this simple delegation of work. Email doesn't help. It is quick and easy, but it rarely contains the whole story or can completely contain my agenda for the day or for a particular issue on a project. I wonder, though, how many chapter leaders fall into this trap?

 

There have been recent discussions on the CSI Leaders Group on LinkedIn about the end of term blues, the problems with changing culture in chapters and other items that relate to interpersonal communications. It seems to me that leadership is in large part related to communication and expectation. My mother likes to say, "You get what you inspect, not what you expect." That's always implied to me a larger level of involvement that some chapter leaders can provide. While chapter president, I attended all of the Programs Committee meetings because of the critical importance programs play in the member experience at our chapter. However, I neglected the hard work of the House Committee which also affects the member experience.

 

Leadership, no matter at what level or in what organization, is a struggle. I would bet few of us in the A/E/C industry studied management in college. Fewer still are the natural leader types that you see occasionally. Leadership takes discipline, consistency, adaptability and open communication. It takes listening, thought and a willingness to be told you are wrong. If you are moving into a level of higher leadership in your job, I strongly recommend that you join CSI and become a leader in your home chapter. It is an outstanding place to hone your leadership skills, receive mentoring from others and have a great time doing it.