CONSTRUCT in Baltimore: Come See the City I Love!

I grew up in a small town in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. It was a great place to live and there are many things that I miss it about it. During and after college, I lived in Mississippi and after about five years in Jackson, MS, my wife and I decided to relocate to Maryland. My wife had a great job opportunity here and I was ready for a career and scenery change. After 15 years of living in Baltimore, I can say I am in love with this city. I love everything about it: the people, the history, the culture, the food. Its many neighborhoods offer a great diversity of shopping and festivals and its rich history is fantastic to experience and learn about. 
 

In about one month, my adopted city will host one of the great events in the construction industry: CONSTRUCT 2014 and the CSI National Convention. I've attended this convention each year since 2006 and have a great time each year experiencing the education, product show and people that make this event and CSI as an organization great. Most professional organizations have some sort of national conference and I've attended several. All of them are great events featuring education, idea sharing and lots of fun. Most are held in great cities across our country and give attendees the opportunity to see some things that they might not normally be able to see or experience in their usual lives and careers. But because of the diversity of membership, events and experiences, I think CONSTRUCT is the best convention available.

CONSTRUCT and the CSI National Convention has taken me to cities that I've visited before (Chicago and Nashville) and cities that I might not get to visit (Indianapolis and Phoenix). It has taken me to cities close to home (Philadelphia) and now my home chapter gets to host the convention again for the second time in seven years. I was our chapter president in the summer of 2007 the last time CSI visited our great city and found that I didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to do and see everyone that I wanted to see. In the years since, I've gotten to know many, many more people, been a national committee chair and am now a presenter at CONSTRUCT for not one but two seminars!

Seeing my friends and colleagues at the various events of the week or just around the convention center are always great experiences at CONSTRUCT. The educational sessions are very exciting and thought-provoking. Walking the show floor learning about new products and collecting chotchkies for my kids is a lot of fun. This year, I'm honored to be sitting on the bloggers panel with Cherise Schacter, Lori Greene, Dave Stutzman and Sheldon Wolfe being moderated by Eric Lussier. The humbling experience of passing out well-earned and well-deserved awards as my duties as Awards Committee Chair will be a highlight of the week as well.

While all of these make CONSTRUCT the premier event of the AEC industry, this year the thing that I am most looking forward to is showing people from across the country and across the world our beautiful city. Within easy walking distance of the convention center are many things to do and see after the convention closes each day. The National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Maryland Science Center are nearby for those who enjoy a little science while they're in town. The Edgar Allan Poe House is a few blocks away on North Amity Street as is his grave in Westminster Cemetery near the University of Maryland Baltimore. Sports fans should check out the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum on Emory Street and the Sports Legends Museum directly adjacent to the convention center.

There are also many things to do and see along Pratt Street and the Inner Harbor waterfront. On Thursdays at 100 Light Street, there is a lunch time farmers market. The Inner Harbor's Harborplace offers shopping and restaurants in two separate buildings. There are harbor taxis and other boating opportunities along the water with great views of the Tall Ships that will be docked in port as part of the Star Spangled Celebration: the culmination of three years of celebrations highlighting Baltimore's and Maryland's involvement in our nation's history and the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, our National Anthem.  Don't miss the food trucks that park at various spots around downtown offering great food at lunch time.

A short walk from the Inner Harbor brings you to the Harbor East and Fells Point neighborhoods. Harbor East is a new development along the water that features high end restaurants and shopping. A favorite of mine is Chazz: A Bronx Original, which is a pizzeria owned by actor Chazz Palminteri. A few steps further brings you to Fells Point, an original seaport neighborhood of Baltimore featuring quaint bars like The Horse You Came In On Saloon and Max's Taphouse and shopping in several nautical themed shops. For those interested, the #RunCSI course takes us through Harbor East to Fells Point and back to the convention center on Friday morning.

These are just a few of my favorites, so if you're heading to Baltimore for CONSTRUCT or for any other reason, here are some links to check out:

csibaltimore.org - the Baltimore Chapter's web site, so look us up and if we have a meeting or event, be sure to register and stop by!

Baltimore.org - the official travel site for Baltimore

godowntownbaltimore.com - the Downtown Partnership web site has all kinds of information about living, dining and entertainment downtown

starspangled200.com - the official web site for the Star Spangled Spectacular celebrating 200 years since the writing of National Anthem.

aqua.org - The National Aquarium at Baltimore is right downtown, a mere three blocks from the convention center and less from many of the hotels.

marylanzoo.org - The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is north of downtown in Druid Hill Park and is one of the better zoos in America with new renovated exhibits and lots of animals to see.

mdhs.org - the Maryland Historical Society has some great history on their web site and their archives are on Monument Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.

baberuthmuseum.org - web site for both The Babe Ruth Birthplace and the Sports Legends Museums

For those of you on Twitter, make sure to include these follows on your news stream:

@BaltoCSI

@starspangled200

@BaltimoreMD

@DTBaltEvents

@MDScienceCenter

@NatlAquarium

@LiveBaltimore

@BabeRuthMuseum

@MDSportsMuseum

I hope to see you all at CONSTRUCT2014 and the CSI National Convention in beautiful Baltimore, MD in September. If you have any questions about things to do or see in downtown, please stop by our host chapter booth and just ask. We'll have members ready to help!

 

Building a Highly Collaborative Team

I've been learning about "lean construction" since around 2006. I sat in a presentation at the CSI convention given by Greg Howell, co-founder of the Lean Construction Institute. I was intrigued by the idea of building a collaborative team of design and construction professionals working together to create a building of higher value and higher quality, rather than one that is built faster and at the lowest cost. I quickly recognized that it would be some time before I could work in such an environment. At the time, the lean construction trend seemed to be isolated to the West Coast of the United States and I practice architecture on the East Coast. Moreover, most of the work I do is with public universities and the procurement laws of many states in our region preclude the creation of such a team during the design phases. Procurement laws, and the risk tolerance of most of our clients, trend toward traditional design-bid-build or some form of construction manager at risk delivery methods.

 

Fast forward six years and I found myself involved in a project that is trying to create a team with some of the tenants of lean construction. Our firm is part of a team working on a very large biomedical research building that is utilizing the design-assist delivery method for some of the major trades. For those who may be unfamiliar with design-assist, the idea is that trade contractors are brought to the project early in design to the assist the designers in various aspects of the design, including material and equipment selections and coordination among trades. The assistance continues through  the documentation phases and construction phase so they run more smoothly to deliver a building of higher quality and at lower costs. The theory behind the design-assist method is very sound and seeks to build a collaborative team that works together to provide the client with the best possible project given the funds available.

 

Theory and practice can differ widely. We are about 24 months into a nearly five year project and the practice of design-assist has not lived up to its promise at the onset of the project. I’ve been chronicling some of the project on the Baltimore CSI Chapter’s blog, Felt Tips. As I prepared several postings about various aspects of the project, I realized that a longer and more interaction presentation could be made which might be beneficial to all in our industry. I was focusing the blog postings on the “collaboration sessions” that the construction manager organizes quarterly but that was only a small part of the work that the team was undertaking. I began to realize that things were being said “in the room” during those sessions that weren’t being translated to outside of the room in our day to day interactions on the project.

 

I submitted an abstract to CONSTRUCT for a presentation titled “Building a Highly Collaborative Team.” My abstract was selected and I will be presenting this presentation as Session T14 on Tuesday September 9, 2014 at 1:30 PM. The title is taken directly from the title of the collaboration sessions on this project. When I initially submitted the abstract, I intentionally picked that name because I thought that is what our team was doing: building ourselves into a highly collaborative team. As time has gone on, the title is becoming tongue in cheek because we are not, in fact, a highly collaborative team because of the behaviors some of our members are undertaking. I hope you find the abstract and this blog enticing enough to cause you to attend my session!

 

While preparing for the presentation, I thought about the team and its members and began to realize that the behaviors we are undertaking are not always intentionally done so and if I can point them out to a larger audience, we could greatly benefit as an industry. To start, let's talk more about the project. I’ve given some clues above about it but I do not want to give too much information because our collaboration sessions have been confidential and I do not want to mention the client, project or team members by name. The project is a large, biomedical research facility at a public university. It is in excess of 400,000 GSF in size and has a construction budget in excess of $200M. There are currently three schools within the university involved in the design along with other stakeholders as you would expect: university project management groups, various review architects and engineers as well as operations and maintenance personnel. The A/E team is made up of three architecture firms, a laboratory planning firm, five engineering firms, and seven more specialty consulting firms. The construction manager now has a team of seven people working full time along with four design-assist contractors and is now procuring many other parts of the work, bringing in about a dozen other trade contractors, with more coming on in the coming months. Management of this team is a massive undertaking.

 

Idealistically, each of these parties brings something different to the table. The owners want the largest building possible with no additional financial outlay and a facilty that requires zero maintenance. The designers want to build the most beautiful building possible to assist with their own marketing efforts. The builders want to build the building as quickly as possible with no quality requirements and an unlimited checkbook for any changes they want to make. Obviously, I’m joking a bit about each of these statements, but with so many differing parties, building a collaborative team is of critical importance. Through the team building process of the last 18 months, I’ve learned two things that I will expand upon here.

 

Top Down Collaboration Does Not Work. With a team this large and diverse, these collaboration sessions could only accommodate the “project manager” level position in each firm. Even then, there were typically 20 to 25 people in each session. Each project manager then has three to five, if not more, people working with them to produce the work of their firm. From the owner's side, there were typically four to five individuals at the project manager and director level in attendance. In the initial session, one project executive said that this collaboration model must rely on “top down collaboration” meaning each person who attends the sessions is responsible for ensuring that those working with them understand the principles set forth so that the collaboration works. What I’ve found is very different. In some instances, those managers in attendance are not interested in being collaborative, so the top down model doesn’t work as there is no trickle down. But in other cases, the culture of the firm does not allow for true collaboration, so the workers outside of the sessions are unable to truly collaborate. In either situation, the “top down” theory falls apart.

 

When Faced with Adversity, Teams Either Come Together or Fall Apart. This is sort of an obvious notion, but is actually very complicated. I can illustrate this in one example: the possibly unforeseen condition. I use the word “possibly” because there can be disagreement among the team members as to whether or not the condition is truly unforeseen. When a situation arises and the team chooses to come together, several things can occur. A meeting can be held with all relevant players where the situation is reviewed and brainstorming occurs for potential solutions. No one points fingers or worries about getting paid for their efforts. First and foremost, the situation must be resolved so the project can move forward. At the end of brainstorming, a direction is decided through the consensus and the players act accordingly. This coming together can occur whether or not there is agreement on the condition being foreseen or unforeseen.

 

The above scenario happened and I left the meeting happy with the outcomes. The team agreed on the outcome which was shouldered by two firms and the work quickly began as discussed. However, shortly after that meeting, as the schedule delays and costs became more apparent, players came together not collectively but by ones and twos and the team began to fall apart. Site visits were held with only certain players present to review the conditions. Two of the contractors active on site began to worry about schedule and cost and so the CM began to work outside of the framework of the project team to mitigate those concerns. The owner was contacted independent of the design team and then the design team was expected to react based on innuendo and rumor, not hard facts. Time slipped away based on lack of communication and clarity.

 

As I post this blog, the situation above has not reached its conclusion. To date, there is at least a three week delay in the project. I became aware of the situation about one month ago. Activity on resolving the situation did not reach a fever pitch until a meeting was held 16 days later. Yes, 16 days later on a situation that was holding up the progress of a $220M project! There are a number of reasons for this delay, many of which I’ll cover in more detail in my presentation, Session T14 on Tuesday September 9, 2014 at 1:30 PM. There are also many more real world situations that have come out of this project and others I've worked on. I hope to see you all at my session and at CONSTRUCT 2014 in beautiful downtown Baltimore! There are many, many learning opportunities on topics that are intimately relevant to your work every day. Come see us!

 





Its Not What You Know, but Who You Know

Driving to work in the mornings, I listen to CBS Radio's TBD in the Morning, a sports talk show hosted by Tiki Barber, Brandon Tierney and Dana Jacobsen. While they typically stick to hard sports news and analysis, the conversation sometimes splits off into popular culture items that interest them: usually music and movies. They also occasionally use Tiki's status as a retired NFL running back and the wealth that generated as a launching pad for various topics. One such conversation took place today.

While discussing Justin Timberlake's acceptance speech as Top Artist from the Billboard Music Awards the previous night, the trio quickly began discussing the less popular members of N'Sync and other boy bands from the 1980's. A web site was consulted that estimates various celebrity's net worth which led to a discussion of what happens when you have enough money to not work any more, regardless of age. I presume Tiki is in this situation and simply chooses to work in radio to fill the days and any emotional needs that he has related to his work ethic and sense of self worth.

Tiki is a 1997 graduate of the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce where he concentrated in management information systems and earned ACC Honor Roll recognition. He likes to point out on air that he was also valedictorian of his high school graduating class. This is no dumb jock and today he confirmed my presumption about his financial net worth. But, Tiki took it a step further but saying life is not as much about what you know or what you do, but about who you know. He believes that much of his post-playing career success is related to some of the people he met while playing in New York for the Giants. I got the sense listening today, that he feels he may not have had the same opportunities after football had he been playing in a smaller market. 

I sometimes feel the same way. For the past 15 years, I've practiced architecture in Baltimore, MD, a reasonably large city but one that has close proximity to Washington, DC and Philadelphia. Through my business activities, I've become acquainted with many professionals in Baltimore and in both Washington and Philadelphia. Just by doing my job day and day out, I'm amassed a reasonable network of professionals who know me, know my skills and could help me in my career.

The recent recession of 2007 through 2009 caused me to take a harder look at my professional network. I've been an active member of CSI since 2000. I attended my first national convention in Dallas in 2001 and I have attended every convention since Las Vegas in 2006. I can probably count the number of Baltimore Chapter meetings that I've missed in the last 14 years on the fingers of less than two hands. My involvement in CSI has caused my "reasonable" professional network to balloon into a great network of construction professionals from Burlington, VT to Dallas, TX to Portland, OR and many spots in between. When I looked at my professional network, I realized that it had little to do with the size market and I work in and everything to do with my involvement in CSI. From that moment on, I never feared being out of work because I know too many people to remain out of work for more than a few weeks. 

Regardless of the size of your professional network, you can always work on growing and strengthening it. CSI is a great venue to do just that. Compared to many professional organizations, CSI's dues are reasonable and our local, regional and national events provide excellent value in education and networking opportunities. We have over 140 chapters so no matter where you live and work, there should be one or more chapters nearby. From now until May 31, 2014, CSI is running a membership special: join CSI and pay only $192 for national dues -- a 20% savings. To take advantage of this offer:

Log onto www.csinet.org/join

Select "Join Now", and then click "Sign Up as a New Member"

Enter Promotion Code CSIsocial14 when prompted

Click the "Add Discount" button

Make sure to also join a local chapter, where you can attend local education sessions and networking opportunities. While chapter dues are not included in this promotional offer, chapters provide an incredible value to already low national dues. 

Get active and increase your knowledge and strengthen your network by Joining CSI today!

Do the Right Thing

I spent the better part of a recent Friday and the following Monday morning dealing with a problem that was not my doing. I have a client that has some particular contractual requirements. I can't name the requirements as it would give too much information away and is not germane to my points anyway. In December 2013, I was contacted by this client to prepare a fee for a renovation project similar to three other renovation projects we performed successfully with this client. For this new project, I was told to use the same consultant team we used on the previous three projects. Given these particular contractual requirements, we would not be able to entirely use the same team without a formal waiver from these requirements. Our client told me the waiver would be applied for and granted. It is now May 2014, I have submitted four different fee proposals based on changing scope from the end user and was told on that recent Friday that my original team has to be restructured to meet these particular requirements as there is now no time for the waiver process.

In the course of working with our client and their procurement officer, I found out that there is another way around these contractual requirements that could have been put in place in December 2013 which would have prevented me having to restructure our team. All that was required was the client's PM working more closely with the procurement officer and much of this could have been avoided. The process of altering the contractual requirements on the front end is remarkably simple: describe the project, list the design disciplines required, describe the client's desire for the same successful team and the procurement office can ease or eliminate some of the special contractual requirements. The "waiver" process has to be performed solely by the architect and is much more rigorous, time consuming and costly. In most cases, I have been told, the architect is not successful in gaining the waiver. The president of our firm, after looking at the waiver process, said it is doubtful our firm would ever willingly engage in that waiver process.

It appears to me that the PM and his immediate supervisor sought what they thought was an easier way to circumvent their organization's procedures and reach the same ends. For them, it might have been easier, but for me and our team, it was infinitely more difficult and the desired end was not met. The principal-in-charge from our firm, myself and members of at least six other firms have exerted countless hours in a pursuit that seems fruitless due to the imposition of these contractual requirements. I would conservatively say my firm alone has exerted nearly $5,000 worth of fee hours in the preparation of just this final round of fee proposals with the restructured team. I would estimate a similar effort or more for each of the previous four iterations of fee proposals.

I cannot fully fault the PM as he is new to the client's organization but his supervisor is a long-time employee who knows the procedures but willfully decided to not follow them. That decision alone has cost my firm and our consultant team thousands of dollars in effort spent correcting their mistakes. On the one hand, its all in a day's work and is the cost of doing business, but it does give me pause when such a simple procedure wasn't followed on their side and it cost my team money. This particular client is a government agency, so the concept of making money is somewhat foreign to them, but that is why we are in business. We love designing and helping build beautiful buildings, but we are not a non-profit. Continuously reworking proposals based on client whimsy directly affects our bottom line in negative ways.

In any business or endeavor, we should all do the right thing. Many rules, regulations and procedures are put in place for very good reasons. I'm not saying we should always blindly follow existing procedures without questioning them, but part of being a professional is knowing when to follow the procedures and when to question them and work to change them. For this client and project, some of these contractual requirements are mandated by State law while other requirements are goals or guidelines that the client has some leeway in reducing or eliminating. The procurement procedures were put in place to help the organization reach their legal requirements and their goals and guidelines. When the procedures are followed, the process can move very smoothly and fairly for all parties involved. In this case, when the procedures are circumvented, it caused all parties needless stress and caused our team to spend needless hours and financial resources to correct a situation that we did not cause.

I am a big proponent of mentoring. In this situation, the resolution wouldn't be strictly considered mentoring as the issue was more about education of a new employee rather than mentoring of an emerging professional. However, with a little mentoring on the part of the supervisor, the PM may have acted better. By doing the wrong thing, I believe the PM's supervisor has set the PM on the course of constantly doing things outside of the organization's procedures. The supervisor has potentially created a PM that provides disservice to the A/E teams they are seeking to hire and could potentially cause the organization to accept higher overall A/E fees to make up for the PM's actions. By simply doing the right thing, a new employee could learn the right way to handle his business and the A/E teams would be treated fairly and project initiation would go more smoothly.

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.