Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 7, 2016
Think for a moment about the most successful 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, schedule 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 managing the technical, and we assume project success will follow. This mindset is the biggest reason that we don’t deliver more truly great projects in our industry. Those technical pieces are not the whole picture, and when we think they are, we miss the truly import contributing factors to achieving great projects. The people and, more importantly, the dynamics between the people on each project are what most affects whether a project will achieve great success or not. In the AEC industry, we think we are making the people a priority. Most procurement processes take into consideration the individuals on the project teams and evaluate them as part of a selection process. Many owners and owner representatives make selections based on analyzing and comparing the individuals proposed on each project team. In addition, many AEC companies consider the qualifications/ skills of proposed employees when they develop their internal 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 better define, communicate and nurture our project culture. We all accept the important 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 cultures, and they only hire people who align with that culture. 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 further and apply it to each and every project. Culture within an individual company does not necessarily translate to a well-defined or well-communicated culture within projects. Our industry is unique because the lifeblood of each company (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 defining 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 communicated to all project team members. Then the next step is defining and communicating how those technical details will be addressed on a project when challenges are encountered (which always happen, in some manner, on every project). Will it be a responsibility of one team member to determine 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 behavior that doesn’t align must be addressed immediately. Culture 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, communicated and nurtured project culture. Otherwise, we are just leaving culture development to chance, which by extension means we are leaving dynamics 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, contractors, consultants, owners or developers) have responsibility in making defined project cultures a priority in our industry.