CREJ

Page 20 —

COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL

— December 7-December 20, 2016

Construction, Design & Engineering

hink for a moment

about the most suc-

cessful project of

your career. What made it so

successful? Now think for a

moment about those projects

that have been bad, or even

just mediocre rather than great.

What is the biggest reason for

the difference?

Some of you may have

immediately thought about a

specific technical, cost, sched-

ule or scope challenge as the

cause. This mindset and belief

is common in the architecture,

engineering and construction

industry. We are trained to look

at the technical, optimize the

tools and techniques for man-

aging the technical, and we

assume project success will fol-

low. This mindset is the biggest

reason that we don’t deliver

more truly great projects in our

industry. Those technical piec-

es are not the whole picture,

and when we think they are,

we miss the truly import con-

tributing factors to achieving

great projects.

The people and, more impor-

tantly, the dynamics between

the people on each project are

what most affects whether a

project will achieve great suc-

cess or not.

In the AEC industry, we think

we are making the people a pri-

ority. Most procurement pro-

cesses take into consideration

the individuals on the proj-

ect teams and evaluate them

as part of a

selection pro-

cess. Many

owners and

owner rep-

resentatives

make selec-

tions based

on analyzing

and

com-

paring the

individuals

proposed on

each

proj-

ect team. In

addition, manyAEC companies

consider the qualifications/

skills of proposed employees

when they develop their inter-

nal project team. Yet this entire

effort is typically framed in

looking for “the best,” “the

most qualified” or “the most

experienced” individuals to

participate on each team, often

with no consideration given as

to how those individuals will

interact or what the dynamic

between them may be.

The dynamics between the

people on projects is the single-

greatest contributor to whether

a project will be a great success

versus achieving mediocrity or

failing. In order for dynamics

to be positive, we need to bet-

ter define, communicate and

nurture our

project culture.

We all accept the impor-

tant role that culture plays

in business. It has been well

researched and documented.

Pick a business book, class or

even just use Google to search

“company culture” and you’ll

see ample acknowledgement

that culture is paramount to

company success. The best

companies have well-defined

and oft-communicated cul-

tures, and they only hire peo-

ple who align with that cul-

ture. They make investments

that cultivate that culture and

they remove personnel from

the company who are not

aligned with the culture. The

AEC industry is no exception.

All the best companies in our

industry make culture a top

priority within their firms. We

need to take that mindset fur-

ther and apply it to each and

every project.

Culture within an individual

company does not necessar-

ily translate to a well-defined

or well-communicated cul-

ture within projects. Our

industry is unique because

the lifeblood of each compa-

ny (whether designer, builder

or other consultant) is based

entirely on projects. Projects

always include many different

participating companies (that

are all likely to have different

cultures). How can we expect

a project to succeed without

defining a specific culture for

the project, communicating

that culture to all companies

participating in the project,

requiring that all personnel on

the project be aligned with the

culture and then nurturing the

culture throughout the project?

The starting point for defin-

ing project culture can be those

technical pieces with which

we are all comfortable – the

goals, criteria and constraints

for budget, schedule and risk

all contribute to culture. They

need to be defined and com-

municated to all project team

members. Then the next step

is defining and communicat-

ing how those technical details

will be addressed on a project

when challenges are encoun-

tered (which always happen,

in some manner, on every proj-

ect). Will it be a responsibility

of one team member to deter-

mine a solution? Will it be a

collaborative effort? Will the

team meet in person or will it

be all email communication?

The way each of these details is

expected to be approached by

the project team are important

details that define the culture.

They need to be considered,

defined and communicated to

everyone on the project team.

Finally, the culture needs to be

nurtured. Behavior that aligns

with the culture will need to

be recognized. Any behav-

ior that doesn’t align must be

addressed immediately. Cul-

ture isn’t passive; it is actively

created each and every day.

Therefore, each person on the

project team needs to actively

contribute to keep the culture

alive and healthy throughout

the project duration.

As leaders and participants

in project teams, we should

demand that every project have

an explicitly defined, commu-

nicated and nurtured project

culture. Otherwise, we are just

leaving culture development

to chance, which by extension

means we are leaving dynam-

ics between the people on the

project to chance, and that

means we are leaving key parts

of project success to chance.

We can do better. We all

(whether designers, contrac-

tors, consultants, owners or

developers) have responsibil-

ity in making defined project

cultures a priority in our indus-

try.

Taking projects from good to great: Project culture

Bryan Carruthers

Founder, budget4cast.

com, Denver

The dynamics

between the

people on projects

is the single-

greatest contributor

to whether a

project will be

a great success

versus achieving

mediocrity or

failing.