Masonry Magazine December 2005 Page. 38
Full Contact Project Management
Project Leadership and the PM -
Mixed Messages are Mixed Up!
Gary Micheloni
No one would argue that good project managers and construction companies value leadership. Likewise, in the business world, government and elsewhere, the value of good leadership is constantly praised. Well, if that's the case, why does just about everyone do such a lousy job at leading? Let me tell you what's bugging the "coach" today, and how you can prosper from realizing it also.
I was in a well-known home improvement store ordering materials for a remodeling project. Two clerks at the counter where I was standing were talking, and the conversation went something like this: "Those guys need some help over in plumbing. The one guy is new and the other doesn't know anything."
Here's my point: mixed messages are counterproductive. Let's look a bit deeper at this example and see how it relates to your project.
I'll bet you that the parent corporation of that home improvement store spends millions of dollars each year on training their people to portray a professional image to every potential customer entering the store. Agree? And yet, here were two clerks bad-mouthing two other employees- right in front of me just as I am about to rely upon their expertise to place a special order for me. Heck of a mixed message: "You can trust me, but everyone else here doesn't know what they're doing!" Am I right?
So, if you had not heard the first two clerks trash the other two, would your opinion of the company be better or worse? And, does division in one area help or hurt the bigger picture?
Let's apply this to our construction projects. How often have you heard something like this said, on your own projects, and in earshot of the owner, the owner's rep or the inspector, by someone working on the job:
"It's good enough. What do you expect? He's just an apprentice."
"After the sun gets on it for a few months, you'll hardly notice it."
"Geez, Charlie, who taught you to lay out a line like that?"
"Yeah, Fred isn't much of a foreman."
"Man, that's a raggedy-looking piece of equipment."
Smarter Dispute
Resolution
Dan Fauchier
Just because your building is set in stone doesn't mean your conflict resolution system should be as well. Most construction contracts and subcontracts contain some mechanism for claims or dispute resolution. Of course, these provisions are written by attorneys, so the conflict resolution system typically involves using attorneys theirs and yours pitted against each other. Guess who wins? The attomeys.
The way I see it, construction people tend to disagree more frequently than most. That is because there is so much risk - known and unknown in every construction project. Our contracts and sub- contracts are instruments for assigning risk between the parties. The risks become a "hot potato" that no one wants, so we keep tossing it to someone else.
When we disagree about who owns the risk, we invoke the contract's conflict resolution system, which usually means that, even if mediation is one of the steps, the end of the road is a lawsuit decided by a judge, jury or arbitrator who knows little about construction. By the time you reach this point, you have also accumulated attorneys' fees, lost downtime that you could have put toward a more productive project, and delayed payment making losers of both sides.
Don't be bound by these "set-in-stone" systems. If possible, keep your disagreements in the change order section of the contract. The change order spec is usually very robust, allowing for both direct and indirect costs to be included. Use it In construction, when two parties disagree about additional costs or delays, it is usually because we don't trust the other guy's interpretations of the events or contract, or we don't trust the other guy's data of facts, numbers and calculations.
The solution? Pay for what you need. When negotiation fails, before you both hire attorneys, suggest that both sides work together to find out the truth by hiring one independent attorney and/or forensic consultant to review the facts, contract and circumstances and to make an independent, non-binding recommendation on entitlement (the "what") and quantum ("how much"). Give them only a few weeks to do their analysis. Split the cost. Once both sides see the unbiased facts of the dispute, you have an unbiased, unemotional basis for reaching an informed decision all within the change order system! It's a little like going to marriage counseling instead of divorce court. And it works.
Contact Coach Fauchier at dan projectrealign.com. Leam more about methods that will keep you out of court and get you paid faster by going to www.projectrealign.com.