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!

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.