Email: Scourge of Humanity or Business Essential?

My company's email has been down since sometime Tuesday evening. I'm typing this Thursday morning, so its been 30 hours or more without business email. Apparently, we don't keep our inboxes cleaned out, we filled up three servers and one of them finally crashed and completely shut down our system. Our IT folks are trying to migrate some of the email over to new servers, but anything that was sent to me since Tuesday night is lost. This morning, there's a workaround using our spam filter, which is helpful, but not ideal.

The first few hours of yesterday were nice. I set out a schedule for my morning and was able to follow it without interruption. By lunch time though, I began to worry about what I'm missing. Among other things, I have a 430,000 GSF, $220M project under construction. The team is large and the emails fly, so I was sure I was missing things. By 2:00P, consultants and clients were calling saying my email was bouncing back to them. By 5:30P, the situation seemed ludicrous. By this morning, it is untenable, even with the work around. I'm uncertain that I'm seeing everything plus I have to manually type in email addresses to send through the spam filter, so mistakes are frequent.

We rely too much on email. Sure, its an easy way to make declarative statements and send those statements out to many people on the project team. It generally leaves a trail that can be filed and searched. However, there are too many variables, too many different systems, too many ways for it to fail. It is simply not a reliable way to communicate. If you need to have a discussion that is truly a two-way street, that cannot be adequately accomplished through email.

Now, the ludicrous and untenable situation is reaching a hilarious point. I actually received this email today:

Marvin,

I keep getting error messages about this email. Did you receive it before?

Thanks,  

Yes, this came from a 20-something member of the large project team. I'm off-site this morning but I just checked my voicemail and there was no voicemail from this person; they emailed rather than picking up the phone and calling. This is where the "scourge of humanity" comes in: if you're getting email bounced back, why would you send an email asking if I received the bounced back email? Why wouldn't you pick up the phone and call me?

I gave a presentation last summer at CONSTRUCT 2014 and the CSI National Convention on collaboration. The one line that resonated most with those in the room was "Communicate More, Email Less." More people came up to me and mentioned that line and how much they wish everyone felt the same way. Yesterday and I today I have had great phone conversations and face to face discussions, all without email. Perhaps we should all go without email for a few days and remember what it used to be like.

Another Accidental Leadership Opportunity

These opportunities seem to be coming more and more often lately! With the passing of our dear friend Mark, our parish had a hole in their Confirmation preparation program that needed to be filled. My wife has been a catechist in the program for several years and my daughter a peer mentor since her own Confirmation in 2011. This year, our middle son is going through confirmation preparation. 

When Mark passed, I realized that not only could we not let my own son down, we couldn't let the other 35 kids from our parish down. When I say "we" I mean the parents of the confirmandi. Our parish is blessed to have a great Youth Minister, but Confirmation preparation did not strictly fall under her job description as Mark was the leader of the process, the organizer and to an extent the soul of it. Our Youth Minister helped out greatly, but it was Mark's gig and now we had a hole. 

 

Historically, the mid-point in the Confirmation process is a an overnight retreat at the Archidiocese's retreat house near our home. This retreat was scheduled at the beginning of the year and would occur less than one month after Mark's death. Our parish had no option but to have the retreat go on as planned. While attending the reception following the funeral, I let the Youth Minister know that I was available to help in whatever way she needed. My wife and son would there, so why not? Well, here I am, at the Msgr O'Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, MD, blogging about my experience at the retreat while the confirmandi complete a silent reflection activity.

I never wanted this blog to be strickly about my CSI activities, but I also do not intend it to be about my faith or religious experiences. However, as the title boldly states, I am and continue to be an accidental leader, whether in business, in CSI or in my own faith journey and the journies of my children and parish community. I simply could not stand by and either let our Youth Minister and my wife take on this monumental task with limited help or let the retreat die altogether. I didn't fully appreciate what I was getting into but I did go in with open eyes. 

I was given limited tasks and was primarily responsible, with another father, to keep an eye on the young men after bed. The dormitory at our retreat house has two stories, so the young women are upstairs and the young men downstairs. By bed time, most were exhausted and went right to bed. There were only two that caused any issue and those issues were minor. I also played photographer as that was one of the things Mark handled. In about 24 hours, I took nearly 300 digital images and probably should have taken more!

 

 

I had a great time interacting with the confirmandi but also with the peer mentors and the other parents who pitched in to help out. All told, we had 39 confirmandi, 9 peer mentors and 9 adults on the retreat. I am a new Catholic. I went through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) in 2003-2004 and was baptized and Confirmed at the Easter Vigil on April 10, 2004. I make no secret of this and was surprised when one of the male peer mentors began asking about that experience and others along my faith journey. By Sunday evening, I realized that this young man very much sees me as a mentor. That's one of the great things that came out of the weekend.

One of the not so great things relates to my position as Chair of our parish Mission and Planning Council. I was elected to the Council in May 2013. I served through the 2013-2014 year and watched a Council that lacked direction and leadership. In June 2014, I was nominated to Chair the Council and won a contested election in July. Our parish staff is interested in a strategic planning effort that they have named "Invite - Transform - Act." While the name is good, they are short on direction and action and are looking to our Council for both. In January 2015, I'm empty. For the first time in my leadership life, I cannot see the end goal or the path in front of me to help our Council reach the goal.

I said as much last night at our meeting. I told the Council that I'm empty and I need their help. I didn't get much last night, but that's okay. I've been a leader long enough to realize that inspiration comes at strange times and in strange places. I suspect sometime before our February meeting, I'll get some thoughtful emails or during our February meeting, a course will come out. It might even come from me. 

 

How Are You Doing?

In my blog Quietly Leading, I mentioned a couple of things that I was planning to do during 2015 to be a better leader but more importantly a better husband, father and person. From that blog, I noted that I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but:

"I'm going to try to be a better leader and mentor in 2015. I'm going to try to listen more and be distracted less. I'm going to try to leave my phone in my pocket when in meetings and engaged in conversations. I'm going to try to be more present with my team at work, my committee with CSI, the Mission and Planning Council at church, my sons' boy scout troop and cub scout pack and most importantly with our family. I think if I can all do these things, I'll be a better leader, better mentor and much better husband and father."

The truth is I'm struggling. I think I'm addicted to my iPhone. I started off ok and was able to leave the phone alone and concentrate on the people in front of me. But as days go on, I find myself going back to using it as a crutch to fill the down time. I find myself thinking about the unread email when I should be focusing on other tasks or while in meetings. I heard a spot on NPR's "All Tech Considered" about that crutch notion. Some experts believe that adults are no longer able to be bored because of their smartphones. By not being bored, these experts contend, we are being less creative. NPR's station WNYC and their "New Tech City" segment are doing a "study" using an app called "Moment" that tracks how many times a day you check your phone and will report the results to you. You can look it up on the WNYC NTC web site. I'm thinking about downloading the app and joining in the study. If I do so, I'll probably blog about it here. 

The couple of things I struggle with the most are related to the instant access to the Internet and my Type A personality. I've grown accustomed to being able to Google whenever and wherever I want or need an answer. Just today, my wife and I were out in the country and passed a children's home. Neither of us were familiar with it, so she Googled it on her iPhone to see what group of children it serves. Same for conversations about movies or songs. IMDb and other apps are easy ways to answer questions like "what else has the kid from 'Love Actually' been in?" The answer is he's the voice of Ferb from the "Phineas and Ferb" cartoon on Disney Channel. 

As for my Type A personality, I am focused on many different projects at work. Not just design projects with clients but also the hiring process, studio management and education marketing. Those emails I mentioned earlier come in at all hours because guess what? Most other leaders of our firm are busy, Type A's like me and we think of things and shoot off emails at all hours from out smartphones. Beyond work, I'm also active in my son's boy scout troop and my other son's cub scout pack. Throw in my CSI activities and the Mission and Planning Board at church and I'm constantly receiving email from all sides. It is incredibly difficult to put the phone or iPad away. 

How are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions or attempts to do things better in 2015? I know it can be tough by mid-January, I'm proof of that. I took two weeks off over Christmas and New Year's and hit the ground running on January 5th! But now, by January 17th, I've had a couple of meetings that I wish I could take back. I've had a couple of conversations where I was less than attentive. I took Friday off and realized I neglected to tell my fellow studio leaders I would miss our Friday meeting.

But, I'll hit the ground again on Monday, January 19th ready to go. I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to be more attentive and a better leader in 2015. I think that's why New Year's Resolutions often fail: it is hard to change your ways. If you expect an overnight change, like quitting smoking cold turkey, you will most likely fail. Like the glacier in the below photo, change is slow.

Whatever your resolutions are, keep working on them. By February, you should be a little better. By March, April, May, you should be a little better. Big changes can take a lot of time to implement. Stick with it; make it happen.

Quietly Leading

Today is one of those gross, winter days in Maryland where it is 35 degrees F and raining. The chill cuts all the way through you, especially when you're attending the funeral of a good friend. My friend Mark passed away suddenly on Monday from an aneurysm. He was 60 years old and leaves behind a loving wife, wonderful daughter, son-in-law, mother, brothers and nieces and nephews. I'll miss him immensely, as will many, many others.

Seems a strange way to start a blog on leadership, but there is a point. My family and I attended his wake and memorial prayer service at our home parish last night and his funeral today at his home parish. Mark's wife is the Pastoral Life Director at our church and for much of the last decade he worked extensively with the young people of our parish preparing them for confirmation. Speaker after speaker last night and today, even our own Archbishop, spoke of Mark's quite and peaceful nature and his creativity and unwavering service to the Catholic Church but more importantly to the youth of our church. That is most evident by the large number of teary eyed youth that were in attendance at the prayer service and funeral.

But beyond his obvious service to youth and the numerous local and national awards Mark won while doing that service, another notion was mentioned by many: Mark was always present and engaged. If you were with him, he was with you, no distractions, no random thoughts; he was engaged in your conversation. Mark looked you in the eye, listened to your words, watched your non-verbal language and heard both. I remember a conversation we were having three or four years ago and I guess I mentioned my daughter and some boy she was involved with at the time. My daughter was probably 14 at the time and his daughter was 24 or 25. Mark spoke of some of the boys that his daughter had brought home and how he embraced them until the relationship ended. Her current boyfriend at that time, now her husband, Mark recognized was different and he spoke of the joy he had of watching their love blossom. He didn't say it overtly, but I now realize he was helping me prepare for what I'm seeing now that my daughter is in college and is having more serious relationships. Mark wanted me to know, without saying it bluntly, that I was raising an intelligent and caring young woman who would make the right decisions in her relationships.

I never thought of Mark in terms of mentoring to me. My wife has helped with the confirmation classes for five or six years and I think she would agree that he mentored her. Reflecting on times when I spoke with Mark, I think he was mentoring me while also leading me to make good decisions about my family and my faith. I'm sure many, many others had the same experiences with Mark that I had. Maybe that's the most important leader of all: the quiet, unimposing leader.

I don't normally do "New Year's Resolutions." I typically try to take some time off at the holidays and reflect on what went well last year and how I can make next year better. But in listening and reflecting on what I've heard said about Mark, I'm going to try to be a better leader and mentor in 2015. I'm going to try to listen more and be distracted less. I'm going to try to leave my phone in my pocket when in meetings and engaged in conversations. I'm going to try to be more present with my team at work, my committee with CSI, the Mission and Planning Council at church, my sons' boy scout troop and cub scout pack and most importantly with our family. I think if I can all do these things, I'll be a better leader, better mentor and much better husband and father.

Arcibasilica di San Giovanni in Laterano

This year, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking my sister and I to Italy. We did a guided tour called "Highlights of Italy" which focused on Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan with a few stops in between. It was a beautiful trip, especially for me as an architect but also as a practicing Roman Catholic. The churches we saw, particularly in Rome, were breathtaking.

Yesterday at mass though, I reached a new appreciation for our trip. Yesterday was Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome which is the Arcibasilica di San Giovanni in Laterano or the Basilica of Saint John in Lateran. Before this trip, I would not have known this church or maybe even thought twice about what this feast day means. This church is the Basilica of Rome meaning this is the seat where the Pope, who is also the Bishop of Rome, would preside. Clearly, the Pope lives in the Vatican and conducts his business there, but this is the ceremonial seat of the Archdiocese of Rome.

It was very near our hotel, merely a short subway ride away, which is how we found it. We had an extra day in Rome before our guided tour started so we scheduled a trip to the Roman catacombs, the Appian Way and the Roman aquaducts. As we travelled out of Rome, our guide pointed out this church. Following the tour, we took the subway back to see it and am I glad we did! It is a beautiful church full of lots of symbolism.

 

This is the original Roman wall and gate near the Lateran Basilica

 

 

The front of the Lateran Basilica

 

 

The apartments to the side of the main façade would have been for the Pope's apartments when not in residence in the Vatican

 

 

I'm not sure what this side monument is, but I liked it

 

View of the atrium

 

 

The copper doors into the church with my mom as scale figure

 

 

One of the side aisles

 

 

Detail of the flooring

 

View down the nave - note the alcoves with apostles

 

 

 

The alcove for St. Phillip

 

 

 

Alcove for St. Thomas

 

 

 

Pipe organ at the end of the nave

 

 

Half dome at the end of one of the side aisles

 

 

End of a side aisle

 

 

One of the chapels

 

 

The Main Altar

 

 

Da Vinci's Last Supper in Gold over the Altar

 

 

Some Cherubs

 

 

Beautiful Plaster Detail

 

 

Ceiling over the Nave

CONSTRUCT: The Must-Attend Event for Construction Professionals

CONSTRUCT 2014 and the CSI National Convention ended last Friday and I'm exhausted but incredibly happy with the week I spent at the convention center in Baltimore. When a large convention you regularly attend is in your town, it’s a bit of a different experience. You've got your usual carpool activities with your children and you feel like certain business meetings should be attended, but then you are at the convention and want to do all the things CONSTRUCT has to offer. I loved hosting all of my friends and colleagues in my adopted city, but I will be glad to go to St. Louis next year and be able to better focus on CONSTRUCT!

There were so many great things about this week and so many exciting moments from CONSTRUCT.

•               Tuesday's 90-minute education sessions were fantastic! The 30 minutes between sessions allowed for follow up and networking opportunities.

•               The Welcome Reception was held outside in beautiful weather.

•               Each new Fellow was welcomed by three of the endorsers reading from their own endorsement letters; a very touching tribute!

•               The Fellows Reception at the Top of World in the World Trade Center had breathtaking views of downtown and the harbor and very tasty champagne!

 

•               Pablos Holman offered us a glimpse into the mind of the hacker and how that affects all of us - not just as construction professionals. Give him a look @pablos on Twitter.

 

•               Our bloggers panel offered a "Just Do It" pep talk on how to get started expressing yourself through that medium and offered opinions from 5 different bloggers plus our moderator, a talented blogger himself.

•               The Exhibit Hall was a great spot for discussing new products, greeting old friends            and learning in several different venues on the show floor.

•               The Baltimore Chapter's Tall Ships Dinner Cruise offered a beautiful cruise through Baltimore's Harbor on a glorious evening of networking and fun.

 

•               Tweet Ups occurred in the manufacturer's booths and in the CSI booth while those adept in the use of social media tried to show others the magic and benefits of using it to better our businesses and our industry.

 

•               The CSI Annual Meeting and Members Forum gave us the opportunity to come together, discuss the future of our organization, hear from our leaders and honor those who won awards this year.

Hanley Wood and our CSI leaders and staff proved once again that they are a formidable pairing that puts on a fantastic convention. Over the past eight years, I have attended CONSTRUCT each year but I have also attended several other national conventions and conferences. I can say without question or hesitation that every construction professional should attend CONSTRUCT. The other conventions that I attended fell short of CONSTRUCT in some critical area. Maybe they had great education, but their show floor was thin. Maybe they were a niche organization good for professionals engaged in that work, but not everyone in construction. Maybe they offered heady, academic learning but little in the way of nuts and bolts offerings that help you every day in your job.

CONSTRUCT offers it all. The education every year was great, but this year's education sessions were definitely a notch up from recent years. If you wanted technical seminars on air barriers, glazing systems or engineering systems, you were covered. If you wanted to learn more about how to specify certain systems or write a better Division 01, you were covered. If you wanted to do your job better or grow into a leader in your chapter or firm, you were covered. In one week, there was great education, presented by industry leaders that will help you do your job better. I sat in the final session of the week and learned how to better organize my project information to make our projects more efficient in managing information and distributing it to the project team. I used that knowledge first thing Monday morning when I returned to my office. I cannot say that after attending other conventions, only after attending CONSTRUCT.

The CONSTRUCT Exhibit Hall had every facet of building material and software development covered, along with trade organizations that support our industry. I needed some information on windows and spoke with several different manufacturers on their offerings. If you needed information on coatings or waterproofing or finish materials, you were covered. If you wanted to see the latest ways to organize and edit your firm's master guide specifications, you were covered. Combine that with the best exhibit hall food I've had recently and the myriad opportunities to compare notes on practice with other like-minded professionals and CONSTRUCT's show floor had it all. And, you could find ice cream and beer by visiting the right booths!

Combine all of that with the evening activities - fellowship induction, host chapter dinner cruise and CSI Night Out - CONSTRUCT has the best balance of learning, networking and fun. New this year, the CSI Night Out was the exclamation point on a great week. The food was good, the band was great and the venue offered several different areas where you could dance or listen to music, socialize in comfortable seating or watch the Ravens-Steelers football game. CSI staff outdid themselves in planning that event!

This year was my ninth consecutive CSI National Convention and tenth overall. I have attended every year that the CONSTRUCT Show has existed and this was the best yet. I know I am biased, but I honestly believe that every construction professional should attend CONSTRUCT. I've attended other conventions and conferences and you cannot find the same the education, networking and exhibit hall anywhere else for the impressively low price of CONSTRUCT. You will learn things you can use at work next week. You will meet people who can help you do your job better. You can get answers to your questions about products from the people who know them best.

Make plans now to attend CONSTRUCT 2015 in St Louis, MO on September 30 through October 3, 2015. Visit CONSTRUCTShow.com and sign up for alerts.

 

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!