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.