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Ted’s Blog: Discussing critical industry issuesThe Garrison Report #2007-11
Relationships and High-Performance Construction Projects
Listen to the audio version of this report here
Yes, relationships are essential to high-performance construction projects. However, I'm not talking about building relationships based on connections and friendship. High performance is not related to contractors' taking clients out to play golf or to see a football game. In fact, Arizona State Professor Dean Kashiwagi argues that that type of relationship can actually be counterproductive. Instead, the relationship that improves performance is a professional relationship that is built around trust created by effective communication, collaboration and mutual respect.
Harvard Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote an interesting article that appeared in the June 2003 issue of the Harvard Business Review titled Leadership and the Psychology of Turnarounds. She identified several characteristics of a company in need of a turnaround, including secrecy, denial, blame, avoidance, turf protection, passivity and helplessness. While this article was about individual companies, these same traits are evident throughout the construction industry. Therefore, a logical conclusion would be that the construction industry needs a turnaround.
What's more important are Kanter's recommendations. She said that what's needed to turn around a company is better communication, increased collaboration and respect. Sadly these three behaviors are often missing in the construction industry, especially in the design-bid-build arena with its silo format. In contrast, the integrated approach to construction that focuses on customer satisfaction works diligently to improve these three critical behaviors. Let's examine each of them.
Without respect, there is little trust, and this makes it virtually impossible to establish a meaningful professional relationship. For example, would you go to a doctor you didn't respect? Probably not! In business when parties are required to interact with those they don't respect, they tend have their attorneys create very restrictive contracts in an effort to control the other party. Unfortunately, this doesn't work. In contrast, attorney Robynne Parkinson, of Groff Murphy, says that contracts need to establish the boundaries but leave enough flexibility in the center to allow the various participants to do their jobs. In essence, if clients want to shift the risks on the project to the contractor, the client needs to provide some room for them to manage those risks. Clients must focus on the result, not the process.
Integrated construction focuses on great client service. However, for contractors or designers to effectively serve their clients, they must communicate with them in an open and trusting environment. If the contractor and designer have been selected based on performance criteria instead based on low price, the client should trust and respect the professional's judgment and listen to the professional's advice. The professional needs to communicate with the client, including listening to the client's desires and requirements. Only when professionals truly understand their clients' issues can they effectively address those issues. Without effective communication, this would be virtually impossible.
But the clients should refrain from directing or managing the professionals. The professionals are the experts; let them do their jobs. Clients should select the best-qualified or at least the best-valued professional and listen to that pro's advice. If you needed heart surgery, would you attempt to tell the doctor how to perform the operation? In reality, in the design-bid-build environment, the client does try to tell the contractor how to do his job. This is at the very essence of 100 percent construction documents. This doesn't work because if there are any errors in the documents, the client owns them.
Another way to look at this situation is through the filter of leadership. Effective leaders define the problem, find a qualified person to solve the problem, provide the resources then get out of the person's way. This is what the buyer of construction services should do. The client should define the requirements, select the best-valued contractor and designer, provide the resources;meaning provide a sufficient budget and access to necessary information,then relax and allow the professionals to do their jobs.
Collaboration is the final ingredient. It's been estimated that in the design-bid-build format, there is as much as 30 to 40 percent waste in the process. This is the result of the linear relation of tasks and impact of a silo mentality of responsibility. Instead, Professor Barbara Jackson of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo states that everyone needs to be 100 percent responsible. Jackson doesn't mean that each participant is responsible for everyone else's work product, but what she does mean is that everyone is responsible for the end result, or the achievement of the goal. In other words, if the project fails, everyone fails. Therefore, only when the entire team works together simultaneously can the team achieve maximum performance. By team members sharing their ideas and expertise at the appropriate time, many mistakes can be eliminated and much duplicated effort avoided. This saves both time and money. In contrast, the linear/silo approach has the various team members working in relative isolation, which results in mistakes and duplication of effort.
If you have an attorney who wants to create highly restrictive contract to protect you, consider the following: It has been said that an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client. So what would you consider a construction client who wants to be his own contractor? It's not quite the same thing, but I think you get the point. Clients should define their requirements, hire the best professionals, provide the necessary resources and relax. The result will be a better construction project.
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