The “Pace” of business is important. Quickness, speed, and endurance are winning combinations in sports. The same holds true in business. Here are some ways to express it, to challenge ourselves, our teams, and set an example:
Adopt a “decide now” attitude. We don’t often need more time, we just need to decide. “Let’s decide now.” “Why are we waiting on this?”
Reply to relevant emails, texts or calls from clients within hours, not days.
Do “it” now. Get it done. Follow through. Finish.
Set hard deadlines, not goals or suggestions. (We are going to get “XXX” done this week.) Make it visible and be accountable.
Prioritize quickness with revenue-based activities; proposals, sales, executing work, delivering product, following up with clients, fixing problems, removing barriers.
Cut down written and spoken communication to its essentials; direct, clear, candid.
However long we think something might take, seek to cut the time in half (at least.)
Speak it and model it repeatedly: “Come on, let’s go, let’s move, let’s push the communication. Let’s get in front of things. Initiate, move, decide, deliver, focus.”
Some things take time for answers to emerge and need to “percolate.” That’s fine. Keep setting intermediate milestones to analyze, assess signals, etc.
Call time out when needing more clarity or redirection, just like in sports. “Huddle up” for 2, 5, 10 minutes, reset, decide, go.
None of us hit 100% on these, but that’s ok. Keep making the effort. We are better when we do so.
One of the biggest impediments to our personal and professional growth is comfort and slowness. Resist complacency. Growth requires friction, discomfort, struggle.
Life comes at us quickly. The world is dynamic. Train. Stay agile. Be proactive. Set the pace.
What I’ve Been Up To – The Big Pivot
No one has heard from me through this blog in over one year. No posts; no updates. It’s not coincidental. It’s a simple case of energy management, focus, other priorities. Much of it has to do with the “big pivot” at our company Wheaton & Sprague Engineering, Inc., http://www.wheatonsprague.com. I know the term “pivot” is overused, but it’s an appropriate description for what we did starting in July 2023. We made a 180 degree turn on our business. This has been the focus since. I’ve learned a lot in life, and one of them is that I’d rather work to “build the thing” (or rebuild) and then talk about it, rather than talk along the way but not really be able to deliver. This is the “talk about it stage.”
Our business from 1994 to 2023 was primarily a specialty engineering company providing delegated design and engineering to the curtain wall and cladding world. We called this our Building Envelope Engineering Division (BEE). Much of this work was for tall buildings with standard or custom aluminum, metal, and glass cladding in major urban centers. It also included other similar work, and we worked with small, medium and large enterprise subcontractors and fabricators in various regions. We still do, but in different form. I’ll come back to that.
We also maintained a consulting group that was primarily comprised of one person for a few years, and then it grew to 2, 3, 4 and then back down, but it was more of a secondary focus for us. We call this our Building Envelope Consulting Division (BEC.) This work covers broad categories of various building types, forms and surfaces, in the major categories of design, construction, forensic investigation and litigation-claim support.
Along the way at times we tried different things like a Building Structures division that provided primary building structural engineering, and a Building Forensics division which merged all of the above and also a quick response team that could handle emergency failure issues. In 2008 the building structures group couldn’t compete on price with other firms doing only that work, and we shut it down. In the forensic work, we couldn’t really focus enough on that business in the required “horizontal niche” and we shut it down.
What had been the consistent, common thread throughout our history from 1994 forward was building envelope engineering work. This work was delivered primarily by providing structural engineering calculations, shop drawings, fabrications drawings, and thermal analysis (later.) We called this “full service engineering work.” Building Envelope Consulting came along in 2008 through a hire we made. This work got traction over time and remained viable but was a smaller percentage of our revenue.
The full service engineering work over the years provided work on large scale projects, big volume of backlog, often with thousands of person-hours involved. This is what we were know for primarily and where we invested most of our energy. Part of it was intention and part of it was just pure, repeat, sustainable work; energy feeding off of itself, like a hurricane gaining energy as it travels across warm ocean waters.
Over time, we increasingly started fighting various market dynamics. One dynamic was an increase in the number of companies providing similar services, mostly in drafting, but some also in engineering. Another was increased price pressure in the drafting services, which became more of a perceived and actual commodity. In addition, some clients self-perform their drafting work. They only go outside their business if they can’t handle the volume or if they can’t provide the competency on certain categories of work. What happens in this instance is we actually end up competing against our clients. They can typically provide the work at a lower cost recovery rate.
As time marched on, pricing pressure increased. The world got “flatter” and more folks came into the space. Then came 2020. Perhaps the reader may remember a thing called COVID-19, the world-wide pandemic. Everything changed in 2020 and the “rebound year” of 2021. Of course, there’s been strategic shifts and cultural changes since, that are still evolving. One of the big changes was “work from home,” or as it is now termed “remote work.” The demand for building occupancy dropped. The demand for occupancy in major urban centers dropped even more. People began working in all sorts of environments, much of it from home. Demand for virtual work and remote tools soared and was met. What was typically an employer’s market prior prior to 2021 became and employee’s market. Once this door opened, major shifts and movements took place with many leaving their jobs and moving to other companies. It seemed almost like an early western expansion land-grab with unprecedented changes. I mention employer and employee in the context of “business owner with equity” vs “non-owner receiving pay and benefits.” It’s not derogatory, it’s mean to make a point. What had always been the realm of the entrepreneur – owner (I can work from anywhere I want at any time if I choose) became just the opposite. The owner was now saddled in the often empty office, working to maintain course and manage the unprecedented dynamics, while staff members were working wherever they chose, and naming their terms. But that’s the topic for another blog.
Nevertheless, in spite of the above, our BEE business chugged along still providing full-service work at various scales. The work in the BEC business chugged along as well, slowly growing from 2, to 3, to 4.
But finally, inevitably, the dynamics mentioned above, and many, many more variables caught up to us and to themselves. The tail of the building market in our categories started to be visible in summer of 2022. Large design and drafting backlogs of full service BEE work slowly dwindled from September of that year forward, primarily led by lower demand, and increased price commoditization. Clients, also faced with declining demand and staff to maintain, had more and more options from which to choose how to procure their design and drawing needs. Major glazed towers in urban centers slowed to a crawl, if not a stop, except most of those that had been started and financed prior. Interest rates rose, commercial loans came due, leases started to expire, companies needed less space. After 29 years providing full service drafting, design and engineering work, we had essentially ZERO backlog in our drafting service line by June 30 of 2023, even though estimated work had stayed steady. Projects were “delayed” or “on indefinite hold” (whatever that really means.)
So, as it came to be, we made the decision to close our drafting service line and kept only our most experienced senior designer on staff to handle the small volume, system design, product development, and BEC support work. It was a tough decision; 29 years of a primary volume-based service with 8 – 16 people in drafting/design at any given time, now having to be dissolved. We spent the entire month of June and July communicating with hundreds of clients in this space, but to no avail. By the end of July 2023 it was shut down.
Professional engineering worked remained less disrupted since it is less of a commodity due to the smaller pool of registered professionals and somewhat more secure pricing paradigms. While volume dropped somewhat, professional engineering licensing will always be required (until it’s all replaced by AI and “rubber stampers” but that’s another blog as well.)
So our business in July of 2023 became half of it’s prior size in BEE. Thus, the pivot starting August 1, 2023. The pivot was to re-focus on building our BEC business as our primary focus, opening ourselves up to broad categories of building types, shapes and sizes, clad with every type of material on the planet. We maintained our BEE business in structural engineering, system design, product development, and thermal analysis service lines, still providing professional engineering work, and providing shop drawing work on small, boutique projects when requested or when the comps appeared to be viable. For all of the last year we’ve been focusing on building the processes, protocols, new client bases, market segments, all of the infrastructure necessary to support the BEC business, consulting engineering, as a B2B scalable business. We are still working in our “vertical” niche of building enclosure work, but in what we call “radical expansion within our niche.” We work with owners, architects, developers, owner’s reps, other consultants, construction managers, lawyers, insurance companies, manufacturers, suppliers, and more. We can provide services for almost any building type, new or existing, with almost any cladding type, and from sub-grade waterproofing to the roof. We have the people, and the diagnostic and testing equipment necessary to support the work. We have the compliance and statutory entities to perform in multiple states. We still provide BEE work, but in different form and lower volume for now. Our process and senior-level people will allow us to scale BEE quickly if and when demand increases. We also do much ‘cross functional work’ between divisions.
With all of the above came a new location, reducing from 12,300 square feet of office space to 3,920 square feet, still with room to spare for staff in office and staff remote. Yes, we too have a hybrid workforce. We can work from any location via remote workers connected to our home base. We can add satellite offices when it makes sense. I don’t see demand for newly built tall urban glazed aluminum facade work coming back any time soon. I see many other building types and categories still being designed and constructed but they have different looks, types, layouts, and are financed in different ways than prior. I see re-glazing projects, energy retrofits, re-purposed buildings with updated cladding systems. I see brick, metal studs, rain screen systems, foundation walls, roofing and elevated horizontal decks and surfaces. I see buildings in need of repair. I see nothing but opportunity ahead in working to solve bigger problems for owners, who have investments in buildings and properties. Buildings that are important assets to their owners and important places of protection to those working or being housed within the walls. But this is just the beginning. There’s so much more, and we place no limits on what the future may look like in the type of work we do.
The phrase “if you build it, they will come,” has been reverberating in my mind as I’ve been writing this and stewarding the process. That may be true in the Field of Dreams, but it’s not completely true in business. We can build it, and people won’t come if they don’t know about it. We need to tell people about it. We need create visibility and awareness. Creating, or supporting this, is what marketing is all about. In addition, we need to do business development, building relationships with people that make decisions, have needs to fulfill and problems to solve. We need to tell the story, to write about it, to let the world know that we’ve built it, and are continuing to build it. Then they will come. Once they do, excellence, care, solving their problems, will keep them coming, staying, working together.
So, welcome to the new Wheaton & Sprague Engineering, AKA Wheaton Sprague Building Envelope and affiliates. Welcome to our new, 30 year old business. We are all about buildings, building enclosures, buildings in all categories. The best is yet to come
With God all things are possible.
Resisting Complexity
As a company gets more mature and grows in size, adding people to support the purpose and mission of the business, it also needs to define internal processes and “SOP’s” (standard operating procedures) to reasonably manage with clarity the volume of work; to deliver to clients the work that supports the “why” of the business at more scale .
However, these SOP’s can also become an encumbrance because often times we end up working more and more to serve the internal functions of the business rather than the clients. This is a subtle, gradual, descent, and easy to miss.
To resist, to remain effective, takes consistent resistance by someone, or by a group of “someone’s” to keep asking this question, in perpetuity, “How can we simplify, resist the complex, streamline, and keep “the main thing the main thing” like we did when the business began, which is to focus on simplifying client’s lives and delivering creative solutions to them?”
Do you want to know one way to measure if you’re being too “internally focused?” First, look at your calendar. How many internal meetings are required each week versus how much time to produce the work and connect in a collaborative manner with the client? This is certainly applicable to those with client relationship management (CRM) responsibilities in any measure. But everyone, every role, impacts the client, whether a CRM, accounts payable representative, receptionist, engineer, proposal writer, scheduler, principal, project manager, designer, or other.
It’s all about the client, the customer. It’s all about the delivering the service or product as scoped, and in a manner that makes their experience reasonably positive, and one of relative ease.
We can lose sight of this if we don’t create and maintain awareness and constructive tension in the system.
It’s the responsibility of all of us to remind ourselves and our colleagues to “keep it simple.” And it starts at the top, with the leader of the business.
Build the systems, deliver to the SOP’s, but only if they are supporting the purpose driven mission of the business to the benefit of the client. Cut out everything else.
Developing Identity vs Being Commodity
If we own or are working in a business, we are delivering a service or product. The client or customer expects to receive what it is they’ve purchased according to the specifications, scope, and price. This is a fact that is true, whether conscious in the mind of the buyer and seller or not. This is the baseline. Let’s dive deeper now.
All companies in a category are expected to deliver to the category. Let’s even say that we expect all the scope of work to be delivered to the exact same standard, that we could pick any one of the enterprises in the category, and expect the same exact results. What then would be the differentiator in selection? Price (cost) of course. If all things are 100% equal, then select and work with the lowest cost provider for the specified service or product.
But this is never the case. Products or services from different companies are not all delivered to the same standard. Why is this so? There are many reasons. But let’s focus on differentiation here; let’s focus on core purpose, core focus, core values. Defining the differentiators, the “why,” “what,” and “how,” define the difference, and create the unique value proposition of any enterprise. In fact, all companies have these defining attributes, they just don’t always know what they really are, or how to define them.
“Our Why”: Core Purpose.
This is our reason, our essence, why we do what we do. Unless we want to be more of a commodity, we need a core purpose; a “why;” a reason for the enterprise’s existence. This has nothing to do with WHAT we do, but why we do it. For instance in my company, we “Enable Facades that Inspire.” We “do” things to support that, but those “things” are not our “why.” We love to work on, and to help develop, improve, remediate, fix, oversee facades, building skins, building exteriors, in an inspired manner and to create inspiring outcomes. That’s why we show up every day.
“Our What:” Core Focus.
What is it that we deliver or do as a core focus to support our core purpose? This is the “what” to support the “why.” In my company for instance, we provide design, engineering, science and consulting to support the core purpose to enable facades that inspire. When you work with us you may “get engineering” for example among other things as part of the service, but you don’t buy “engineering” from us. You buy our core purpose (knowingly or not.) You work with us to support your vision on an inspiring facade or exterior building skin. To support that, one service we provide is “engineering” expressed in various forms. What we all do in enterprises is different than why we do it.
“Our How:” Core Values.
How do we do what we do to deliver why we do it? These are the core values; the “how.” What’s our personality, and what values do we live out, manifest, and provide as a group, an enterprise, an organization? Core values (the how) are our guard rails, our sign posts. For instance, at our company we have five core values, developed as a team. They are as follows: communication, integrity, collaboration, client conscious, and capable. Everything we “do” is filtered through this grid, this reality. These are not aspirational, they are reality. These core values define us. For instance, if you don’t want to communicate, and it’s not a value for you, then you wouldn’t want to work for us. The core values are in every job offer, discussed during recruiting, and measured during annual reviews. You don’t have to be perfect in living out the core values, but you have to care, to buy into them, be committed to improvement, and to be accountable to them. Goods and services are delivered with, through and by the core values.
The Story:
So the “why,” the “what,” and the “how” allow us to build our story, a common story, that anyone in the company can express. It gives us a common context to work within, a common reality, a shared experience. This is a powerful lever in advancing with focus and velocity. The story may be manifested or experienced in different forms and expressions. But in the big picture, if talking to someone in the elevator, at the coffee bar, or on break at the conference, asking us, “So what do you do,” we could say something like this, “Well, we enable facades that inspire through services like engineering, design, science, and consulting. You can count on us to be communicative, and express integrity around commitments and solutions. Plus, we really focus on collaboration, building a shared experience, with a client conscious focus throughout (beginning with the end in in mind). With all that we are as capable as they come.” This is one version of our “story.” This is what you get when you get “us.”
Closing Thoughts and Remarks
So are all enterprises the same? When we purchase a service or product to a spec, a definition, a scope, can we expect the exact same experience from all? Obviously not.
With whom would we rather work? The no purpose, low cost provider, or the clearly purposed, value driven niche company?
Without a “why” everything looks the same. Without a “what” there’s no clarity on what service or product is expected to be delivered and received. Without a “how” it’s all just colorless and without consistent experience; there’s no value added.
Without the core purpose, focus and values, we are just a commodity, a nameless, faceless organization that can only rely on being less expensive. This is a tough reality to live within; impossible really.
Does cost matter? Of course. But that is a topic for another blog post.
Get excited. Start defining today. There’s a process by which you can do so. Put it in writing. Shout it from the roof tops. Make a difference.
Meetings – Tips for Productive Outcomes
**On the topic of MEETINGS**
People say, “meetings are a waste of time, or “meetings are unproductive.”
Yet, I don’t think this is true, in the right context.
Everything is about context.
Poorly planned, unscripted, no-agenda, purposeless meetings for the sake of meeting are a waste of time.
Scheduled, planned, intentional, agenda-driven, purpose driven meetings with expected outcomes are valuable.
I don’t think it’s productive to make “carte-blanche” statements about anything that categorizes it as “all or nothing.”
I think perhaps most of us don’t know how to achieve positive outcomes to meetings without a script, plan, outline, experience. Plus, meetings take many formats depending on who is leading.
I recommend some of the following as a starting point:
1. Establish a consistent meeting format for your entire organization. Same format, context, pattern for each, at every level.
2. Use a meeting system like, or similar to the EOS Worldwide System (if you aren’t an EOS company already using their IDS style.)
3. Identify the issues to be discussed, discuss them, and solve them.
4. A meeting without “solves” is not a productive meeting.
5. If the issues are not solved in the meeting, set “to-do’s.” To-do’s require a specific deadline and owner of the to-do. Write it down, keep it transparent, follow up. The person assigned is accountable to complete it. When the to-do is done, the issue is solved.
6. Make sure the facilitator keeps the meeting on track.
7. Don’t interrupt others, ever.
8. Start and end on time. That is the first priority. Be on time, prepared, ready to engage.
Leveraging the time with a team can be differentiator.
If you want to continue to avoid meetings or not utilize them well, then you may fall behind. Those who do meetings well and get things done as aligned team, have the advantage, as they multiply progress.
This list isn’t 100% comprehensive, but has some key recommendations.
If you’re doing meetings work to increase their value.
Team
Replace:
“Report To”
With:
“Work with”
Replace:
“Organizational Chart”
With
“Accountability chart”
Sure, someone’s responsible to and for something or someone
But “work with” and “accountable for” make everyone truly a member of the “team” rather than “have’s and have not’s”
A staff team gets more effective traction.
Pulling in the same direction.
What I’ve been Up To
My business partner and I have been very busy for the last 9 to 12 months on quite a few fronts at www.wheatonsprague.com and affiliates, so here’s an update on some of what’s going on.
EOS
We’ve implemented a new operating system known as The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS.) It’s built on a Visionary – Integrator (V/I) relationship with a Leadership team. The “visionary” (Me-“CEO” for us) is the “big idea” person, big relationships, innovation, brand, growth. The “rainmaker.” The Integrator (President and COO for us, Richard Sprague) manages the business, P & L, oversees the leadership team. The “gatekeeper.” It’s built on LMA (lead, manage, account), clarity, Level 10 Leadership meetings, and evaluating placing people in positions under the acronym “GWC” (get it, want it, capacity for it.) There’s no hiding in EOS. It’s all visible, connected, and results driven. People report scorecard values that are developed by the leadership team to asess the health of the business, the department, the project, etc. Meetings are substantive and get traction. I’ve cut my internal business meeting time by 3x to about 6 hours per week.
What has it led to?
We defined as a leadership team our Core Purpose, Core Niche, Core Focus, Core Values. It was hard work, but very gratifying and unifying. The core values, collaboration, integrity, client-conscious, communication, capable, are not aspirational. They are real. They are “who we are” as people and as an organization. This clarifies hiring, staff retention, annual reviews, client types, and more. Our Core Purpose (our “why”) is to Enable Facades that Inspire. Our core niche is engineering, design, science, and consulting for building facades. We also defined our ideal client demographic and psychographic. All of this was done as a leadership team with an implementer. It’s not a “panacea.” The work has to be done. The topics dealt with have to be relevant to the need. But EOS provides a format for a path to sustainable, self managed, growing business not dependent on ownership alone or a charismatic leader playing “hero ball.” We’ve tried different forms or operating systems and EOS is our choice long term. Nothing else has made as much sense as EOS.
What about Creating Structure?
So, I have this registered service mark and brand named “Creating Structure” which is no longer part of our core purpose statement. We still own the brand name. My Podcast still bears the name, and will stay as such. Creating Structure dates back to the start of the company, when our primary purpose was viewed more as structural engineers and designers doing facades, building structures, forensics in a broader manner. But it was time for a change. The new core purpose “Enabling Facades that Inspire” will take us a long way on our journey. At heart, this is who we are- curtain wall, facade, enclosure, architectural component engineers, designers, consultants, scientists. BUT with owning the brand name Creating Structure it gives me and us options as we consider other forms and divisions of the business (stay tuned!)
Welcome New Staff
We’ve been rebuilding our engineering department and I couldn’t be more pleased than to have Mark Enos, PE (December 2021) and Nestor Perez, PE (February 2022) back at Wheaton Sprague. Both men are insightful, pragmatic, solution oriented engineers, that align with our core values, purpose, and niche. They are a great complement to Jeff Cook, PE as our core group of PE’s. Our foundation is strong, and with our other engineers, present, and future, we can build a deeply rooted group that can deliver solutions to clients.
Our Operators
Michael Kohler is our Director of Building Envelope Engineering Operations. Mike leads, manages, and accounts for our delegated design, drawing, BIM, engineering, system design, thermal analysis, area of the business delivering work products to glazing subcontractors, exterior wall subcontractors and architectural metal fabricators.
Paul Griese, is our Director or Building Envelope Consulting Operations. Paul leads, manages and accounts for all consulting activities which includes a variety of design, analysis, investigation, QA, QC, field and shop observations, testing and forensic support and more.
John Wheaton, yours truly, is the Director of Marketing. This position has always been a primary focus for me and will always be linked to the visionary and external role for me whether I do the marketing work directly or through a person, team or outside resource. I also still do a lot of engineering work, support, PE review and stamp, advisement, coaching, and participation in the engineering work. I get to also now communicate with everyone in the business more as “good cop” since I have no direct reports outside of the marketing function. When “in the business” I get to help, support, coach, lead, and interact with our people. The staff in our operating divisions work for the directors. Yes, as an owner of a small privately held business I can make any call I choose if I see a problem, but it is only done with and through my partner and the leadership team.
Richard Sprague, my business partner at WSE and affilates, is President and COO. Richard “runs the business.” All the operators in all the business report to Richard. He is a fine steward, a clear thinker, and a focused gate-keeper. He makes the decisions in the business on what gets done and what does not. Richard leads the EOS L10 meetings for the leadership team. In my work “in the business” I work for him
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more of my focus and perspectives in market dynamics, trends, the Creating Structure Podcast, thoughts on results vs performance mindset, what I’m listening to, the power of LinkedIn and more
Imagine- Achievement vs Effort
A VISION for those in Professional Services:
The standard form of pricing professional services work among architecture and engineering firms still mostly involves some form of “gross up” cost estimating based on predicted labor investment at a defined labor rate. Even when setting fees on a “top down” basis or “cost of construction,” there’s still a “bottom up” exercise in regards to budgeting labor. Almost all firms “monetize” their time in some way by also filling out time sheets. The hours are loaded into the accounting system by project, by phase, by labor code.
Re-imagining
Let’s just imagine for a moment instead, a professional services business based only on results and value. There’s no time-sheet in the traditional sense. The business is not selling their time for a labor rate, but is focused solely on outcomes.
What is the issue? The time-sheet, recording time by increment, by labor code, by job number, on an hourly basis, is focused through the lens of effort– a justification model, “People like us focus on monetizing our time, documenting that effort, billing for it, while we hope to get the right results on the project.”
The opposite is a business focused through the lens of results- an achievement model, “People like us produce results like these for fees like this.”
Imagine:
- Everyone is paid a salary – no hourly workers at any level.
- There’s no discussion about “billable time,” only expected outcomes within time frames.
- The focus is entirely on an achievement and income model:
- “People like us produce results driven by value, scheduled completion dates, project milestones and deliverables that are billed at pre-determined values.”
- The expected work week is to “complete the targeted work”- no exceptions. Work status is either “done or not done,” or “on-track or off-track.”
- Jobs are billed based on percentage basis according to the fee and progress against the deliverable, not the time accrued.
- There’s no accounting for time, but only revenue, only outcomes. We determine the percentage complete based on the results achieved vs the results planned. We set the fee based on the value to the market, region, project type, client.
What about Time and Materials ( T & M hourly) work, you ask? Perhaps there needs to be an exception for certain activities, but then why not charge more for T & M work than for fixed fee work. (We can’t achieve the margin a fixed fee can allow when we bill T & M.)
Alternatively, we simply stop working entirely on the effort-based model of billing for time. No T & M, ever. We work for clients that value the fixed fee model. For those clients that aren’t willing to pay a fixed fee we take the position of, “People like us produce the type of value where we believe a fixed fee is the only reasonable approach.”
Imagine this business, where everything is results, outcome, achievement driven rather than time-effort driven. Imagine piloting a project or a group that tests this approach.
Imagine quoting projects from the top down only, “We think a project like this should cost this much”. Our thinking is centered on the mindset of, ”Our business costs this much to run per year so we need to sell X-times that cost in executable backlog to be completed within this time frame”
Imagine.
Project Management
Project management is many things. The term project management is a broad category. It can be defined and manifested in different ways. There are key aspects and processes to the role of project management that need to be executed in order to achieve success. Project management in one company differs from that of another, yet there should be some common ground, some similarities, across all of project management in the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) industry.
All companies bigger than the ability or availability of an individual owner, or group of owners, to manage at the project level, are dependent on project management to determine the success of their projects, their profits, quality, and ultimately, the success of failure of their client relationships. That’s right; everything intersects at the project manager level and in the project operational domain. The success of project management determines the future growth, size, scalability, and health of the organization.
Project managers are the gatekeepers of each company’s clients, values, projects, profits and quality. This should produce a sober reality on making clear their roles and responsibilities. This is easy to say, and difficult to do.
Project management involves both quantitative and qualitative skills and attributes. This includes what we define as “hard” skills and “soft” skills. The things we are trained for in school, the operational tools we learn to support project management tasks like scheduling, budgeting, accounting systems, CRM platforms, and more, ultimately do not determine its success. Tools help support and define the work. But the success of project management, any good fruit, is produced from a proper mindset, people skills, knowledge of the work, a solution orientation, discipline and accountability, along with the tools to support the work.
Here’s a high-level view of some key aspects to project management. This is not an exhaustive list, but a few basic areas of impact.
- Communication:
- This is the primary differentiator. Focus on communication. If there’s one thing to do, do this thing. Clear, concise, timely, polite, professional, appropriate communication. The means is contextual to the need or client preference; email, phone, letters, instant messaging, texting, DM’s, WebEx, Skype, Face to face, and other. All forms; and it must be timely; concurrent; “real time”. Tools and platforms used in our companies should support communication in the best manner possible.
- Scope and Contract management:
- We’ve got to remember the project scope and make sure to benchmark to it. Knowing when to shift and when to draw the line on scope creep is a key to maintaining profitability while building a strong client relationship. Trust is the key. Build trust.
- Document management:
- Keeping track of documents, timing, logging documents, updating our teams, etc.; this includes things like ASI’s, CSK’s, bulletins, addendums, BIM updates, owner changes, and on and on.
- Earned Value Tracking (EVT):
- EVT is about measuring the real progress of our work as it relates to the budget. The goal of EVT is to estimate as accurately as possible, the percent complete on the project (the spent amount) vs. the budget we must work with.
- Schedule management, milestones, submittals:
- If we don’t establish a schedule, we won’t succeed. The schedule typically drives everything. Creating benchmarks and milestones along the way, allows us to stay on track. Schedules rarely appear to be realistic by the time the project gets released, but we must start somewhere. I’ve yet to see a single schedule maintained exactly, except perhaps the “turnkey” moment when the owner will be handed the keys to open and occupy the building. We must constrain the work. In fact, time constraining is a design variable (more on that in another blog.) Also, look up “Parkinson’s Law.” This is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Have a defined “ship it” date and stick to it.
- Meetings
- Project meetings, design-review meetings, huddles, post-project review meetings, kick-off meetings; all serve to create collaboration. We must share in each other’s reality (ours and our client’s) to drive awareness, stay aligned, and maintain milestones. We’ve got to be aware of business and people dynamics and manage them (B2B and H2H items.) Meetings should have a clear start and stop time. There should be an agenda, proposed outcome and solution orientation. Stick to the end time rigidly. I was not good at starting and stopping on time for many years. It sent a bad message. Stick to the end time, have a person designated as the timekeeper, stop 5 minutes before the end of the meeting time, and clarify all actions or “to-do’s”, who will handle it, by when, and then adjourn. We are following the EOS format for meetings more and more and I highly recommend it. I find virtual meetings via MS Teams, with the ability to screen share work products and collaborate on screen, to be highly effective for many meetings. I prefer face to face meetings in some contexts, but that’s another blog post on when is virtual vs. face-to-face better.
- Process
- In our company we created a project management process that’s taken about 6 months to define from the ground-up. My partner and I stayed out of this deliberately because both of us had defined and led a PM process effort in prior years, but without it ever being “owned” and accepted by everyone in our organization. We now have a “swim lane” process chart from which responsibilities have been defined and key scorecard metrics have been developed. The team of project managers, with insight from other “subject matter experts” within the company, developed the process with an outside facilitator who works with us. This is being implemented, can be a point of reference from which to manage change, and to improve upon. Define process and build consistency. Create specific scorecard metrics and drive clarity. Perhaps I’ll write another blog on process and how best to develop to achieve buy-in and accountability.
As we approach the end of the year, I am asking myself how we can improve project management in 2022 and beyond. It’s an ongoing process in perpetuity. How about you?
Note: A prior version of this blog was published in November of 2019 in the publication “US Glass Metal and Glazing” when I was blogging for them. The blog has been updated and modified here with more content and experiences in this new post.
Back at it
This is a continuation of my last blog, “What’s On My Mind.” It’s so hard sometimes to organize thoughts, so I just start to write. As I write, I go back and edit, then keep writing, then edit, and so on. Actually it’s always hard to organize thoughts for me because I have so much content going on in my head, in my brain, so many thoughts, observations, and “stuff.” I’ve got ADD brain which primarily manifests itself for me in two ways. One way is the ability to hyper-focus for extended periods of time, at depth, on a specific item, or work product, to completion. The other way is to start a bunch of things and not finish them. This is the most classic. I’ve learned over the years how to recognize it, discipline myself, and when to roll with it or not. I also have learned that they call it “the entrepreneurial brain” since the majority of entrepreneurs have the condition. (At least that what I am reading and hearing now.) I’ll talk more about this in the future as to how I manage it with exercise, nutrition, hydration, mindset practices, prayer, and more.
The way to make the idea of “start a lot of things but not finish them” actually be a positive thing is to have a staff of people that can run with them, manage them, do them, etc. My mind thinks in overlapping concentric or non-concentric circles. Everything is a layer or a domain that overlaps and connects to other items. Linear is not my thing, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s okay. There’s times when thinking linearly is necessary, but I have to force myself to think in that manner or have others hold me accountable to do so. I am finding that the best way to make this work in our company, and to not drive people crazy, is to have an integrator person, or persons, to filter things through; to cull the ideas; because EVERY idea sometimes feels right, but it’s not. And if it is, it might not yet be organized or clear enough to implement. How does it align with strategy? Can we afford it? Can we execute to that with our people? Are we ready? These are appropriate, and sometime frustrating, questions, but they are the right questions to ask. (I get bored easily.)
So today my partner and I, and our team of leaders and managers, meet for the first time for starting the implementation of “E.O.S.” the “Entrepreneurial Operating System.” This was introduced to me by my personal coach, Dr. Chuck Misja, earlier this year. Through reading the book “Rocket Fuel” and taking some tests, then further vetting the ideas, my partner and I made the decision to jump into it. Today and tomorrow are E.O.S. focus days. Vision- Traction organizing. Clearer strategy definition. Group work. I’m excited about it. Our people are excited about it. It will be hard, but it will be good. David Howard, the “biz-tech sherpa” and a trusted business consultant working with us, is leading us through the exercise and facilitating.
So, I was going to talk about our 3-D printer. That’s right. I had every intent, as I started to talk about organizing my thoughts, that the topic for today would be innovation, our 3-D printer, the “why” behind it, and some bullet points I believe you should think about as you consider tools, innovation, value-add, and market awareness. But now there’s no time for more posting. That will have to be another blog. I did manage to cover my mention of EOS from the last blog, I just didn’t expect to do it in this way. Such is the ADD brain. Like I said, I am learning to just write. The writing takes me where I need to go. It must be the right topic for today. Perhaps this will identify with one or more readers, and that will make it all even more worthwhile. If not, it was worthwhile to me. That’s one reason why I write. It’s cathartic. It’s worthwhile to me. It helps manage my over-active brain.
Be well. See ya next time
JOHN L WHEATON BLOG 