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What the World Needs Now: More Women in Construction Please

It isn’t hard to answer the question – what opportunities exist for women in the construction industry, I just don’t want to do it without acknowledging all the female pathfinders that burst through the barriers of male dominated industries before us. Janet Guthrie zipped across the finish line of the Daytona 500 more than a decade before Danica Patrick was born. Madame Curie was the first female to win the Noble Prize, and the very first person to win it twice – the very first! Rosa Parks sat on a seat in the front of the bus, and built a bridge to change in America. Annie Duke became the first female to enter the World Series Poker Hall of Fame, and what of Sarah Breedlove, Stephanie Kwolek, Ada Lovelace and Michele Obama? Where would our industry be without entrepreneurs, Kevlar, computer programming, and the assurance that we belong at the table, in the field, or wherever the heck we choose to be. Bam, bam, bam, down came the barriers, but still there is work to do. It’s work worth doing, because on the other side of it there is a payday, there is opportunity, there are milestones to achieve, and some of you out there reading this, you, and you, and you too, can, and will, become part of our courageous, intelligent, ambitious, and passionate female force, forcing the numbers to climb from 9% to greater and greater heights. I hope that you will consider this the waving of the green flag, indicating that the race has begun, and having received an invitation, you have your foot on the pedal, prepared to speed your way to success.

Opportunity Knocks

So where is it, this opportunity? It’s in the field, and in the office, as an engineer or electrician, a marketing professional or a mechanic, a project manager or a plumber. Construction is a booming industry, one where the need outstrips the available workforce. This reality represents an unprecedented opening for women, and underrepresented groups to gain entry. Tight labor markets have a history of creating change. Send the men to war, get the women to work in the factories, agriculture, the ship building industry, and even on the baseball diamond. If you are looking for answers to the construction industry labor shortage, women can not only help you solve the problem, they very well could be the answer to it.

Pay Gap

In a refreshing twist of fate, construction on average brings in higher wages than many other professions that are typically the domain of women. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women are paid 81.1 cents for every dollar a full-time working man receives, in the construction industry that gap is nearly closed at 95.7 cents.   Trade professionals that enter a union have the additional benefit of being trained in their profession, their annual dues being the only price of entry. Think, no college loans to pay off, and the opportunity to make a six figure income. Construction Professionals that choose to take the college route, and receive a degree in civil engineering, construction management, or mechanical engineering, can expect to receive an annual wage of $98,000., according to the BLS.

Out with the Old in with the New

Not only do we expect to see construction jobs increase by over 10% in the next 7 years, there is an aging population of professionals that are slated to retire, that make up 41% of our current workforce. They will leave General Superintendent, Foreman, and Operational Leadership positions open and available for the taking.

If the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself is appealing, to make a living that not only provides security and flexibility, but offers you the chance to pave the way for future generations is attractive to you, construction just might carry you across the finish line.

Women in Construction: Sandy Hamby

We sat down with the MOCA Systems President Sandy Hamby and asked her some questions about her experience as not only a woman in the construction space, but a leader.

How has the industry changed for the better, and where do you see areas for improvement?
When I first started back in the 1980s, there weren’t very many women in the business, but at the same time, I personally didn’t perceive a lot of limitations. Originally, there was a good ole boy’s club. Today, it can still be intimidating and challenging, but the industry is more open than in 1985. Women still face limitations, especially if you don’t have an assertive type personality. In general, I think inclusivity in the construction industry is being addressed more candidly today, and we’ve got a ways to go.

What advice would you offer to young women looking to build a career in construction? What resources need to be made more readily available?
The one piece of advice I’ve consistently given is: “Always ask questions”. The industry is complex. There’s no one professional that knows everything relative to construction. So, don’t think you have to know it all, and when you come into an environment in which you may not have automatic respect; don’t pretend that you know everything; ask questions. If you see something relative to electrical power or chiller plants, find the right person and utilize their expertise for what you want to know. What I found in the industry is people like to help people. They like to answer your questions, and it allows you to learn. So that’s my biggest advice. Nobody, not even the people to whom you’re asking questions know everything; it’s just too complex.<

So, in terms of asking questions. Do you feel that the average woman feels that males will be “well, you should know that already”? Do you get that impression, or are people open to anyone inquisitive?
I’ve found people incredibly open to inquisitive minds. I think that sometimes people think they have to know more than they do. When this particular behavior appears, the response in the field can be an immediate shutdown. This approach does not allow progressive learning, and does not build trust in the field. On occasion, there are individuals who may respond with: “you don’t know what you’re doing,” or what a stupid question!”? Unfortunately, those people do exist, but 90% of people aren’t like that. You have to be confident in yourself and know there are no dumb questions. And if someone treats you like that, don’t waste your time with them….move on.

Do you feel that women are being recognized for their achievements in the construction industry?
Most women just want to be recognized because they are good, not because they are a woman. And yet, to inspire young women to get into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Architecture, Construction and Engineering (ACE) programs, it’s good to set aside accolades just for women. It is important to promote women through awards because this helps encourage others to choose this career field. Many of my colleagues, including myself, were mentored by men in the industry. The men have promoted us and submitted our names as exemplary professionals in this industry. As a result, we received awards, got on boards, and were appointed to committees. I was fortunate enough to be adopted and to be a part of and early group of women in construction to break a few ceilings.

What opportunities for growth do you see for women in the industry?
I see a lot of growth opportunities. I like to pivot a little bit here because my perspectives are a little bit different. I was raised in the fighter pilot, “The Right Stuff” kind of environment. I bring that up because not only does this group of people have a very high tolerance for risk but the women were individuals who thrived in that environment as well. So, why does that matter? Growing up, I was never told I could not be President of the United States of America; it never entered my mind that I couldn’t be an astronaut. It never entered my mind that there were limitations because I was a woman. In the culture that I was raised in, I was treated fairly and equitably. I could walk up to fighter pilots, and they would teach me about an airplane. The women in my world were intelligent. So being a woman in the construction industry did not seem like a big deal. It wasn’t until I grew into the industry that I realized that my worldview was very different from the majority of my counterparts. It never entered my mind that I couldn’t be a leader in the industry for a company or an organization like CMAA. I saw individuals like Christine Keville, from Keville Enterprises, and Rebecca Jones from Safework CM become the chair of CMAA and I said to myself, of course she’s the Chair.

Slowly and surely, more and more women have started from the construction trailer or as detail architects and became leaders in their own design and construction companies. Women have created an excellent path forward within the industry.

So, it sounds like the advice you might give those who want to get into the industry is “don’t ever think there isn’t a path”?
That’s right. Don’t ever let that that type of thinking enter your perspective on things. There is an absolute path to success. Are you going to find people that want to hold you back? Yes, you will. Are you going to run into problems? Yes, you will. But the bottom line is it’s not because you don’t belong there. Don’t ever let anybody stop you because you absolutely belong!

What is the most important thing you have learned over the last year?
I’ve learned two big lessons:

1) Relationships are the key to success, no matter what you’re doing. Build trusting and long-term relationships with the people you work with, your family, your professional associations are all extremely important. You grow because you care about people. If you keep that fact front of mind, the rest takes care of itself. Revenue, goals, KPIs, and all of the elements that track progress are important, but if you don’t take care of your relationships, nothing else matters. Recently, building and maintaining relationships in a remote environment has been very difficult. Taking the time to reach out consistently and staying close to other people helps maintain balance.

2) A labor shortage in our field offers opportunities. What’s important are things like the ACE and STEM programs. I am involved in both, and MOCA Systems, Inc. regularly sponsors scholarships for young women and professionals in construction, engineering, and design. We financially and professionally support young people to get them where they want to go.

Was construction your first choice and howwhy did you make the migration, and what are some of the key differences?
I was a design architect first. I would spend hours on the computer designing, and I began to think, this isn’t what I thought being an architect would be like. On my first design project I made multiple mistakes. I was lucky enough to have a contractor on this job that was interested in teaching me about my mistakes. I went out to the construction site and met with the contractor regularly and realized, wow, this is kind of fun. I like this side of the industry. The contractor showed me how everything was being constructed and what I did wrong on the drawings versus how it was actually built, and I absorbed those lessons. The key critical moment was when I was on a project for the San Antonio Convention Center. They brought in Big Bertha, which is the largest crane in Texas. We had a tower crane sitting in the middle of the convention center, and it needed to be disassembled as we were completing construction. I thought to myself, “I’m going to watch this.” They put out the outriggers and started setting the crane up for the lift. Of course, the crane itself weighs a lot. Well, it started to sink. I watched the construction professionals problem-solve in the middle of downtown San Antonio as this crane is starting to cause a collapse in the street structure. The next thing I know, a helicopter comes in with large steel sheets, one after another, and this construction team starts to distribute the crane’s load as quickly as possible. They were afraid to move the crane because they didn’t know why it was collapsing in the first place. Well, the quick problem-solving accomplished in the middle of a crisis was impressive and a fabulous example of what it meant to be a construction professional. After that moment, I thought, these guys are smart, they’re creative, they know how to resolve things, and this is what I want to do for my career!

What are the top three things you would want others to know about your experience or what it is like to be a woman in Construction?
That it’s really fun and a fabulous industry to go into. Always trust your gut. Finally, no matter how many years you have in the business, you never know everything there is to know. There’s always something to learn.

What President Anne Pfleger predicts for NAWIC, the construction industry, and construction women in 2021

It’s a new year for the National Association of Women in Construction. Looking ahead, many members within NAWIC are feeling optimistic about what 2021 will be like for the construction industry as the entire world seeks a glimpse of a post-COVID future.

NAWIC’s President, Anne Pfleger, took some time to reflect on 2020’s challenges and joins in that positive sentiment, noting that every obstacle in 2020 has provided a new opportunity for growth in 2021. With a renewed outlook on the association’s mission and the hopes of being able to reach even more construction women this year, Anne is predicting a bright 2021 for NAWIC.

Everyone within NAWIC is very familiar with you, but for any construction women or industry professionals who are not, can you provide some detail on your background? What motivated you to run for President of the association, and what has your time as President been like so far?
NAWIC has been an important part of my professional and personal life. Professionally, NAWIC has given me tools to not only benefit my career, but to be a better employee even with 25 years of experience in the construction/transportation industries. Currently, my daily role at Charles Construction Services, a medium-sized general contractor, is within the estimating, safety, IT, and HR departments.

In 2014, I had the opportunity to be elected as the North Central Region Director by my NAWIC peers to be their voice and support on the National Board. Serving in that capacity, I quickly discovered that the impact that was made in the Region could be continued as I moved forward on the national board as an Officer. Being elected National President reaffirmed that my voice and support for construction women in the industry was heard and will continue to be heard.

The pandemic has been the biggest challenge this year as NAWIC President. Normal is no longer normal. Each state had different rules and regulations—which did not make it easy for any NAWIC member. The NAWIC board supported the idea of meeting more frequently to continue to give our NAWIC members the tools and support to enhance their success.

The pandemic has also opened more doors for me as a leader. Being able to virtually attend chapter meetings that I may not have been able to visit physically. One of my goals this year is to attend every chapter virtually. It has been amazing connecting more with NAWIC members, industry partners/associations and companies to hear how NAWIC and our members continue to make an impact in the construction industry.

2020 was quite the year – how did you see the association and construction women in the chapters come together to overcome all of the disruptions brought on by COVID-19?
Many chapters, and those involved on the National level, have banded together to stay connected virtually to continue to strengthen and amplify the success of construction women. NAWIC members are not only fortunate to have the resource and support of other NAWIC members, we are receiving more resources and support from other companies and associations who want to be a part of construction women making an impact and influencing the direction of the construction industry.

What were the biggest issues that COVID-19 caused for the construction industry in your opinion?
The construction industry is fortunate that we are considered essential. While the country has been on lockdown, construction has been mostly continuing. The impact we are seeing right now is that companies are having to cut excess overhead to pay for the cost of implementing safety measures. My concern is that we have not really seen the impact of the economy on our industry. It could be a couple of years before we see the complete picture. What we have to do now is take measures and create contingency plans to ensure that we can continue to thrive and make a difference when the full impact affects the construction industry.

A lot of people will be happy to see 2020 end and 2021 begin – what are your expectations for NAWIC in the new year? Are there any big projects that are in the works?
In 2021, I expect that working from home will be the new normal and more technology will be integrated into our daily routines. Connecting virtually will provide considerably more opportunities both professionally and personally for many, including construction women.

NAWIC, specifically, is refocusing on our marketing and branding initiative. NAWIC will no longer be regarded as the “best-kept secret” for women in the construction industry. Our marketing and branding initiative to get the word out about NAWIC is making an impact not only with our members but within the entire construction industry.

We’ve currently welcomed 2 new chapters and are organizing several more. Refocusing our marketing and branding has made a huge impact on how NAWIC is seen, more construction women are wanting to be a part of our association that provides opportunities to grow professionally and personally.

NAWIC continuously focuses on our strategic plan. The National Board, past and current, have worked tirelessly to make necessary changes and updates to keep NAWIC relevant and impactful in today’s world and for future generations of construction women.

Now, more than ever, NAWIC members from all levels are taking part in obtaining our goals and strategies because they see how much the National Board values their insight and ideas. Some of the ways they are seeing this is through our open-door policy. This policy allows any member to submit a written proposal for the Board to consider. Our National Board is communicating more and being more transparent by holding monthly Board meetings that members can attend in audit capacity. All of our Board summary of actions are given monthly and are more detailed, and periodic townhalls are held for members to have more communication with the National Board.

There are several NAWIC annual events that are near and dear to all members – WIC week being one of them and the Annual Conference being another. Do you foresee these events being mostly virtual again this year? Are there any details you can tell members about events in 2021?
NAWIC annual events are being looked at day by day with the different state regulations that are in place. Women in Construction week (March 7-13, 2021) celebrations are being planned virtually and in person depending on each local area’s situation.

Our region-specific Fall Conferences were virtual with one being a hybrid event where some attendees were virtual and some were there in-person. We are hoping that the Spring Forums can be conducted in person.

NAWIC Annual Conference is slated to be held in person in Charlotte, NC in August 2021. Currently we are finalizing a virtual component to have the opening and closing keynotes, general sessions, and annual business meeting live streamed and recorded. If the Annual Conference is able to happen in-person, this virtual component will provide an opportunity for some NAWIC members to attend at least part of Annual Conference if they aren’t able to attend in person.

What do you hope NAWIC members take from the lessons learned in 2020?
My hope is that everyone realizes that the pandemic affects people differently and to be cognizant of what others are going through. Also, even though we have virtual meeting fatigue, connecting virtually provides the opportunity to expand your network nationally.

How do you see NAWIC changing in 2021?
NAWIC is on the cusp of being identified as THE resource for female leadership with members being recognized for their expertise and commitment to the construction industry. The direction we are taking to be a more inclusive, transparent, professional, and relevant association will take us where we want to go in 2021 and beyond.

What is the best part about being involved with NAWIC? And what would you say to any construction women deciding whether or not to join?
The diversity and connection with members and the industry is the best part of being involved with NAWIC. I don’t know any other association that brings together women from all different careers such as trades, managers, assistants, attorneys, architects, suppliers, insurance brokers, engineers, estimators – just to name a few – to make an impact on their lives, others’ lives, and the whole construction industry.

For construction women who are considering joining NAWIC I would say, “You can do and be anything you want! If you have a dream or idea that feels a little risky; interpret the risk as an indicator that you’re on to something important, not necessarily something dangerous. Also don’t be afraid to fail because failure is another step to success. NAWIC and its members are the vehicle to obtain your dream by providing the resources, tools, and support in a safe environment to get you where you want to be.”

Now more than ever we must come continue to CONNECT and communicate COLLABORATIVELY, to have the conversations to CONSTRUCT the best course of action for NAWIC, its members, and our industry.

The National Association of Women in Construction has over 115 chapters across the United States. With membership open to all construction women, NAWIC is able to connect members with amazing resources to help them gain confidence in their abilities and develop more leadership skills. Any construction women interested in applying for members can either use the online form or downloadable application to fill out and mail in, both available on the NAWIC website. There are also several membership options available for flexible pricing and membership terms. To learn more about the unity of construction women through membership with NAWIC, contact us through our social media pages, our website, or use our “find a NAWIC chapter near you” tool.

This post originally appeared on NAWIC’s website on 1/7/21. Read it here

Revisiting The Five Big Ideas Transforming the Design and Construction Industry: Tightly Couple Learning with Action (Part 3)

(Hal Macomber, EVP, Touchplan with Terri Erickson, Principal, Kata Consulting
The productivity of the design and construction industry has been slowly decreasing for over 40 years while productivity in other industries has soared. This is in spite of the countless innovations to materials, tooling, and equipment. Consequently, construction in many sectors, particularly infrastructure and housing, is unaffordable. Nearly 30 years ago, many of us thought adopting Lean would bend the curve to a steady incline. We misunderstood our situation.

In 1990 with the publishing of The Machine that Changed the World, the word lean was first used to characterize Toyota’s approach to designing and building their cars. It merely meant there was no fat in their system. Unfortunately, it was a misunderstanding of the real nature of Toyota’s approach. The misunderstanding continued when The Toyota Way was published in 2003. Jeffrey Liker claimed, “the heart of the Toyota Production System is eliminating waste,” although he did go on to write about growing leaders and growing exceptional people.

We now know that Toyota’s key principle is to grow people’s capabilities through engagement with the work. Toyota’s system is designed and evolved for the purpose of everybody-everyday-always learning. That learning is responsible for Toyota’s unparalleled success as compared to virtually every other automotive manufacturer. This learning is what has been missing from Lean design and construction efforts.

My 2010 Guidance on Putting “Tightly Couple Learning with Action” to Work

Toyota’s goal is single-piece flow at the signal of the customer. But why is it so important to do just one at a time? The answer is we want to learn from each action we take. Toyota sees it as the opportunity to test and re-test their hypothesis of how to do work effectively. The approach is generally known as the Deming Cycle: Plan – Do – Study – Act. Here are six ways you can begin adopting the principle “tightly couple learning with action” on your projects:

  1. Meet at the end of each day for just 5 minutes with the last planners (or frontline workers) on your project to give them the opportunity to report on the work they finished for the day as they had promised to do. Identify at that time any reasons for not finishing promised work. Re-plan as necessary.
  2. Do detailed planning for short horizons (6 weeks or less). Review the outcome, then do more detailed planning.
  3. Conduct a plus-delta review at the end of each planning meeting. Ask all attendees, (plus) “What produced value for you?” and (delta), “What could we change to produce more value for you?” Start the next meeting by referring back to the last review. Select one item from that list for focus during the meeting.
  4. Conduct a Good 5-Why™ for something that needs to be reworked, repaired or replaced. Getting to the root causes of why something occurred will lead to actions you can take to avoid recurrence of the variance or problem. (See No-Fault Problem Solving)
  5. Have a conversation with the whole team on something that needs improvement. Take action based on an 80% complete solution. Try it out. Review the results. Then create an 80% solution for the balance of the issue.
  6. Attack the delays on your project. Explore with your team what keeps them from more closely coupling one person’s work with another person’s work. Do an experiment. Learn. Re-do the experiment.

Put these to work on your project immediately. Start by discussing this with your team. You might want to create a contest with them to see who can generate the most ways for coupling learning with action.

Our New Guidance: Change Your System to Put Learning at the Center

Nearly 30 years ago, the learning organization was seen as the way the best organizations would function. Jeff Liker mentioned it in the first edition of The Toyota Way. In the second edition, he put learning at the center of what distinguishes Toyota from others. Learning – building capability at individual, group, and company levels – principally happens in action. It’s as true for learning to play the guitar as it is for doing the calcs to size a beam or for leading organizational change. Yet, too often we understand learning as what happens when taking a course, attending a webinar, or watching a Ted talk. These activities take us away from the everyday work where we are in action. Toyota doesn’t make this mistake. They use everyday work as the primary setting for building capability.

The above six earlier recommendations from Putting the Five Big Ideas to Work mostly focuses on after-action steps you can take to learn. What I missed was what you can do to learn while in action. I’m reminded about two situations. A few years ago my friend and coauthor Calayde Davey of The Pocket Sensei – Mastering Lean Leadership took gigs to play Christmas music. The music was very familiar to her. She might have been bored. Instead, Calayde made playing that music the opportunity to practice very specific violin skills. In the other situation, I challenged a summer engineering intern to get the most from the experience. I said, “When you get an assignment ask ‘what do you want me to learn while I do this?’” This is the central question each of us can ask as we begin to do whatever it is we are doing. The shift to make is to turn the work into purposeful practice. Use tasks to add or refine a skill.

The organization or project team can create the circumstances each assignment is the opportunity to practice what each person or a small group needs for growing skill or capability. It can be as simple as asking, “What is it I will practice while performing the task?” and “How will I know that I got better, or not?” Sometimes we need an observer to distinguish between doing something effectively and not effectively. Other times, self-reflection will suffice. Couple this practice with the widely used G.R.O.W. coaching approach adopted by Google and the workgroup or company will build the capability that the business or project needs.

We have to mention Toyota Kata (TK) as a significant opportunity to develop critical and creative thinking skills for individuals and groups while pursuing workgroup and company goals. It was developed by Mike Rother while studying Toyota. The approach starts with a challenge – something beyond the reach of the team. People perform experiments (for the sake of learning) in the course of doing their work to advance their way toward the challenge. Learning is consolidated as improvements to the process or product. Customers, the company, and the team members all benefit as challenges are achieved and capabilities accumulate. Check out the growing community of people practicing TK at KataCon7.

The key theme throughout our guidance for putting this big idea to work is to change your system and practices to use your everyday work to grow people on projects and throughout the organization.

If you missed last week’s installment please be sure to read Collaborate, Really Collaborate

For more information on Lean Planning & Best Practice please read 4 Tips for a Zero-Punch-List-Project

If you would like to see how Lean construction delivered a hospital renovation well ahead of schedule, read our case study about Touchplan being used by Granger Construction.

If you would like to revisit any of the posts from the Revisiting the Five Big Ideas series you can find all of them below.

 

Touchplan Announces Record Growth, Executive Appointments

Boston, MA, March 2, 2021 — MOCA Systems, Inc., the parent company of the award-winning construction planning platform called Touchplan, is capitalizing on record growth in 2020 by announcing several appointments to Touchplan’s senior executive leadership team. Building on current momentum, the team will focus on global expansion.

For 21 years, MOCA Systems has been at the forefront of some of the world’s most influential, innovative, and challenging design and construction projects. Leading building owners, developers, and contractors globally continue to trust Touchplan to optimize their project costs and delivery on $47 billion worth of construction. More than 32,000 construction professionals on over 2,500 construction and infrastructure projects worldwide use Touchplan to complete work faster and more efficiently.

Despite an unprecedented global slowdown due to COVID-19, Touchplan experienced a 23% annual increase in revenue in 2020. With mandates requiring social distancing on jobsites, elimination of physical meeting spaces, and changes to how projects are scheduled, the need for seamless collaboration “anywhere and anytime” proved critical to project planning and delivery. Touchplan’s approachable and reliable platform serves as a distinct solution to these issues and thereby serves as a competitive advantage in keeping projects moving.

As further indication of this global change in construction workflow, Touchplan saw a 60% increase in total users on the platform and a 210% increase in scheduled and completed construction activities. In 2020 alone, project teams using Touchplan planned and delivered over 20 million hours of total construction job work.

To meet this ongoing market demand, Touchplan expects to expand its sales, marketing, and business development teams with several additional hires over the coming months.

Growth Leadership Appointments

Michael Sullivan is appointed general manager of Touchplan to oversee global business expansion. Michael, a principal at MOCA Systems since 2006, has served in a number of executive capacities within the Touchplan organization for seven years. In addition to his deep construction industry knowledge, Michael assumes the helm with over 30 years of product, manufacturing, and operations leadership expertise. His previous roles include management positions at Honeywell and DuPont.

Jon Purdy is appointed chief financial officer of MOCA Systems, Inc., and oversees the finance operations of MOCA’s businesses with a special focus on implementing strategies to rapidly scale Touchplan’s monthly recurring revenue at competitive margins. Jon has 25 years of finance and operations experience in the technology industry holding a variety of senior leadership roles at Fiserv, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems.

Dan Feldman serves as Touchplan’s chief technology officer leading all of Touchplan’s platform expansion, software design, implementation, and product development strategies. He has held several key executive leadership positions at leading technology firms that include KAYAK, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Synetic, Sybase, and Thomson Financial.

Finally, Charles Simmons is appointed Touchplan’s chief revenue officer, where he is expected to drive global sales, marketing, and partner development growth strategies. He joins the firm with 35 years of global executive sales leadership experience in enterprise software revenue growth. Most recently, Charlie served as senior partner at Force Management, a sales effectiveness management consulting firm. He has also held global senior revenue leadership positions at Harte Hanks, Experian and Dun and Bradstreet.

“I’m excited to be aligned with Jon, Dan, and Charlie on the Touchplan executive leadership team,” commented Michael Sullivan. “Their appointments, combined with our momentum over the course of the past year, will allow us to continue to partner with more owners, developers, general contractors and specialty trade contractors globally to improve construction planning processes and ultimately make people’s lives better, more balanced and less stressful.”

Revisiting The Five Big Ideas Transforming the Design and Construction Industry: Collaborate, Really Collaborate (Part 2)

(Hal Macomber, EVP, Touchplan with Carla Ciepliski, P.Eng. Owner & Consultant, Ternion Results Inc) – Collaboration has played a large role in the progress the industry made with Lean design and construction projects. It started in 1994 when the academic community began a collaboration that they called the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) to explore revolutionizing this industry. It continues with 27 years of double-blind peer-reviewed conference papers numbering in the thousands, often with multiple authors each. The Lean Construction Institute followed their example in creating opportunities at the local and national levels for people to learn, advance, and share their experiences with competitors and other stakeholders in the construction supply chain. In 2004, as the five big ideas took shape, “Really Collaborating” became the first organizing behavior.

This is the previous guidance for “Really Collaborate” from Putting the Five Big Ideas to Work:

Here are 5 questions to get you started to make collaboration your habit:

  1. Who could help me with this?
  2. What do I have to offer others?
  3. What new ways can we meet on a regular basis?
  4. How can we stay in tune with each others’ changing project work?
  5. What can you do to be more responsive to each other?

Bring this up to your team at your next meeting. Use the five questions to generate actions you will take as a group. Revisit how you are doing each time you meet.

After 10 more years of experience, we learned that it was much more than individual behavior. Collaboration is also about the design of interactions and the system within which people interact.

Collaboration as Action and Mood

Ultimately, ownership lies with each of us as individuals to choose our behaviors in every situation and considering each human interaction we participate in. These are some key observable behaviors that support collaboration:

  • Demonstrating appreciation for the point of view of others
  • Maintaining openness to be changed by what others say
  • Focusing on the common team-oriented goal and being personally committed to achieving it
  • Engaging effectively in productive conversations that balance advocacy and inquiry
  • Show a personal balance in both supporting the task we are trying to complete together AND managing the relationship between ourselves and others
  • Demonstrating trust-building behaviors in the small moments (thinking Brene Brown)

We also know that the pre-existing relationship between individuals is a dominant factor in the degree of success in collaboration. The additional effort individuals must apply in collaboration is directly related to the familiarity that individuals have with each other prior to the collaboration activity.

Processes and Structures Are Essential for Building Collaboration Competence

The greater the complexity and the greater the number of people involved … the greater or more robust the processes and structure will need to be in order to ensure collaboration effectiveness. While singing kumbaya and holding hands may work for creating a positive environment, it won’t help executing the task we need to complete in a productive or effective manner. After all, collaborating can also be defined as ‘Co-Laboring’, or accomplishing a task together.  So, a key component to making “Really Collaborate” work is to leverage the appropriate team-based processes and techniques to create a structure to effectively navigate the collaboration activities. We know of no better micro-processes than Liberating Structures. These are innovative and small methods of improving our interactions with each other.  We use them in our work to bring out the best in each other. You should too.

Use other supporting tools or processes depending on the activity your team is working on. For example, if your team is tasked with generating ideas to address a problem or challenge, you would benefit from some structured ideation techniques such as brainstorming, and brain walking. These techniques are intended to expose individual participant’s mental models visually, to allow for an improved understanding of the participant’s individual thoughts while creating a mechanism to build/expand/grow ideas collectively.

If your team is tasked with making a decision, you will benefit from a structured decision-making system such as Choosing By Advantages Decisionmaking. These sound methods produce alignment to the important factors associated with the decision and transparency for the basis of the decision. Regardless of what task your team is faced with doing, consider what additional structure is needed to help collaborative activity.

Develop the Habit for Collaborating with Others

Collaboration as a skill is always available when we have habituated the action. In other words, we are more successful when it’s an automatic action for us. Daniel Kahneman calls this system 1 thinking or fast thinking. It comes from practicing it purposefully with feedback on how we’re doing in the midst of action. The gold standard for developing that level of acting is deliberate practice. Anders Ericsson coined this term, and seriously studied and experimented with people to push their capabilities beyond what everyone thought was possible. (See The Making of an Expert and Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.) The rule of 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert’ came from his work. The good news is that you can become highly skilled with a small fraction of those hours just by using your everyday work as the setting for deliberately practicing collaboration.

If you missed last week’s installment please be sure to read Revisiting the Five Big Ideas. For more information on Lean Planning & Best Practice please read 4 Ways to Improve Projects Using Digital Tools. If you would like to learn about collaboration in action feel free to read our most recent case study Building A Partnership for Today and Beyond.

If you would like to revisit any of the posts from the Revisiting the Five Big Ideas series you can find all of them below.

Touchplan’s Master Schedule Alignment feature is a great collaboration tool. Learn more from our webinar.

Revisiting the Five Big Ideas Transforming the Design and Construction Industry – A Blog Series

It was 2004. Sutter Health was faced with upgrading or replacing billions of healthcare facilities to comply with California’s seismic requirements. They were concerned that they wouldn’t have access to the architects, engineers, and constructors they needed because most other healthcare organizations were in the same boat. They set out to distinguish themselves by adopting Lean Construction (LC). They hired Greg Howell and me to introduce LC to their building community.

We designed an event for more than 100 people to introduce the principles and practices of LC. But, we knew that wasn’t enough. LC was about 12 years old at that time. Very few builders were practicing it. Fewer design firms had the experience. We also knew that the commonsense about the general practices in design and construction ran contrary to what it takes to succeed with LC. So we made a bold move. I authored a manifesto calling for the adoption of Five Big Ideas among the community of Sutter’s design and construction partners.

Those ideas are

  • Collaborate, really collaborate
  • Optimize the project as a whole
  • Tightly couple learning with action
  • Conduct the project as a network of commitments
  • Increase the relatedness of the project participants

Sutter and their partners signed the manifesto. We began experimenting based on those ideas and the Lean Construction principles and practices. While it was not all rosy, projects got better and better. By 2010, the Five Big Ideas became the basis for a new kind of contract based on the relationships of the parties designing and building the project. That contract was first known as an Integrated Form of Agreement. It’s now universally known as Lean Integrated Project Delivery (LIPD).

It’s been 11 years since I wrote the paper Putting the Five Big Ideas to Work to provide guidance on how to succeed with those ideas. 100’s of LIPD projects have been completed. So much has been learned. And, one big idea has been replaced! Over the next few weeks, friends, colleagues, and I will update our guidance via a series of weekly blog posts on bringing the five big ideas to life on your projects. Please engage with us as we share what we’ve learned.

For additional information on Lean best practices, check out Data-Driven Decisions Drive Better Project Management on our blog page. You can also see an example of Lean planning in action by reading our case study highlighting our work with Bond Construction at Lahey Hospital.

If you would like to revisit any of the posts from the Revisiting the Five Big Ideas series you can find all of them below.

 

Introducing Touchplan Insights: Data and analytics transparency that empower the entire team

Want daily operations at your fingertips? Touchplan Insights houses the totality of your project portfolio in one place. Our web-based tools sophisticated features surpass all other tech integrations found within construction enterprises – both in terms of scope and mastery.

There are quite a number of software services today that would perform business tasks you need, providing they have all the necessary information to do so. However,  Touchplan Insights brings this close to perfection, with analytical software development that is needed to gain actionable insights that serve as the backbone of future plans. Our software is designed to help people in the construction industry perform specialized tasks with pace and ease.

Touchplan Insights not only improves the operations of your project, but the integration also gives you astounding insights into financial management. Be it a commercial or industrial contractor, corporate owner and government agency, real estate developer and manager, residential builder, or specialty and service construction contractor; Touchplan Insights transparency makes it a valuable tool for all.

Insights Feature is Unique on Its Own!

Touchplan Insights was created to provide a unique-to-you dashboard, giving you control of all your project statistics in one place. These statistics are proven to help with three key features;

  • Risk Identification – Our sophisticated but simple web-based tool is proven to keep you from harm’s way, as it allows you to stay alert and spot bottlenecks from a mile away. It is effective for projects of all sizes: accelerating the process and driving efficiency through informed and collaborative decision making. Your team now knows where to focus its attention and even generate data that can influence future planning.
  • Transparency Across Projects – Touchplan Insights allows a dashboard view that highlights your entire project to the letter without leaving anything out. This feature creates an environment for enhanced project collaboration, productivity and efficiency for the construction enterprise. It banks on real-time data and industry criterion such that each project is separately analyzed and its performances monitored in a single consolidated perspective.
  • Exceptional KPI – Key performance indicators are of great importance to any business at large. However, visibility and transparency are what make all the difference. Touchplan Insights key performance indicator model is up front and center. You can analyze its easy to navigate charts, spreadsheets and trend reports to make accurate and ultimately profitable decisions about your project or business. A comparative analysis is a seamless process through this tool; No more being kept in the dark. Now, you can easily assess the key performance indicators that affect your team successes on every project.

With Touchplan Insights, you can now re-frame decision making.

Beyond Command and Control: Evolving from Traditional Project Planning to a Growth Mindset

The construction industry has only seen a 1 percent increase in overall productivity in the last 20 years [McKinsey]. While many fixes have been suggested, the solution for this fundamental problem needs to begin at the system level—by moving beyond command and control and into a growth mindset.

“Command and control is an ineffective management style,” notes Hal Macomber, executive vice president for Touchplan®. “The practices lead to the results the industry is notoriously known for: projects that are late and over budget.”

The answer is found in integration. By coordinating the often independent practices of master planning with look-ahead planning, the act of daily work planning becomes the gateway to facilitate the engagement with trade contractors at all levels of planning. Consequently, all parties are able to swiftly adjust to the changing circumstances of work in the field, and gains in productivity are realized as teams bring out the best in each other while exercising autonomy.

“It’s trusting the people on the ground with their skill and knowledge to get the work done correctly and report it,” states Macomber.

The Shift: Facilitating a Digital Collaborative Plan

Encouraging the connectivity of these practices veers the mindset away from command and control to a collaborative approach. It begins with the superintendent shifting from “boss” to facilitator and coach. Issues are identified and resolved swiftly, which increases the chances that project workflows can be completed on time. There are a few challenges that must be addressed first before seeing the gains.

Trust is one of the biggest hurdles with any process change. The general contractor must trust that all parties will work for the betterment of the project. Given time, the transparency that comes with a collaborative approach shows everyone how dependent they actually are on each other—and that feeds the positive growth mindset. Additionally when shifting to a digital platform, there needs to be trust that the trades using the technology won’t make errors that permanently compromise the data.

“In a cloud-based software, like ours, if a mistake is made, there are enhanced functionalities that can revert to a prior condition and archivable records that are maintained for two years,” explains Macomber.

The human factor is the other challenge. By shifting behavior away from static master schedule planning to dynamic look-ahead planning with replanning, the planning process becomes intuitive and easy to access. Additional enhancements are gained when shifting to a digital version. Foremen and project managers engage in look-ahead planning sessions to collaboratively schedule the flow of work and specify handoffs between trades within each phase, ensuring trades can arrive at the jobsite able to work right away.

When a company evolves from a command and control mindset to a growth mindset, it can:

  • Improve Communications—Not only does communication within your organization improve, but trade-to-trade conversation dramatically improves. Trades are empowered to talk to each other and ask, “Are you sure you’re going to get that done by Thursday? I’m coming in after you, and don’t want to show up and then have to find something else to do.” A digital tool like Touchplan allows everyone to see the plan, assess where things may be getting held up and make adjustments right from their smartphones or desktops.
  • Increase Productivity—When independent practices are fully connected, trades now arrive to jobsites able to get to work right away. With traditional planning, this is often not the case. A trade shows up to find the team in front is still in the way. Touchplan gives teams the ability to make last-minute planning decisions and adjustments to the workflow. This real-time visibility gives managers the ability to identify issues early and head off any problems.
  • Attract New Talent—With 80 percent of construction companies reporting they have difficulty finding the workers they need, savvy construction firms turn toward tech as a recruiting tool. “The upcoming generations have grown up with technology and expect it in their chosen industry,” notes Macomber.

“The marriage of Touchplan’s intuitive interface with the opportunity to learn and use a collaborative, informative planning system is quite attractive to the next generation in construction.”

Beyond Digital: Going Mobile

From better recordkeeping to real-time collaboration, there are several benefits of moving toward a synergetic planning approach and using technology specifically designed to support it. Touchplan recently introduced TouchplanGO—an app that can be accessed right from your smartphone and grants people the ability to:

  • Get personalized “to-do” lists of all of your tasks
  • Update your progress with a swipe of the finger
  • Quickly see where you may be getting held up

“The launch of TouchplanGO further aids shifting the mindset away from control to growth,” explains Macomber. “We are continuously investing in ways to better support teams connecting, learning and improving efficiencies because we have seen that when the emphasis is on bringing out the best in each other instead of trying to control each other, the greatest gains in productivity and overall business success are found.”

Ready to gain a new level of productivity? Move beyond command and control’s traditional planning to a collaboration approach today.

GET STARTED

Touchplan welcomes new Chief Technology Officer, Dan Feldman

Touchplan is thrilled to announce its latest hire and new Chief Technology Officer, Dan Feldman. Dan is a significant component to further Touchplan’s charge to support construction through the expansion of powerful technology. With more than four decades of experience, Dan has cemented himself as a key member of dozens of organizations that include Kayak, Hewlett Packard Labs, and Bose to name a few. An alumnus of Harvard University with a degree in Social Sciences, Dan’s background has curated his multifaceted abilities to drive software design, implementation, and management, product development, and launch. Other specialties include team and product development, focused at the startup level, as well as his meticulous attention to scalability and high performance – all qualities that Feldman will undoubtedly utilize to empower the team at Touchplan for continued acceleration to support its customers.

“I am thrilled to join Touchplan. Touchplan has built a terrific product and their success to date is impressive. The team is committed to continuing to create value for the AEC community. I look forward to contributing to the company’s mission and to the impact we can have together,” said Dan Feldman.

“Being able to call on Dan’s experience, character, and enthusiasm to propel Touchplan along with our talented product team is truly exciting,” said Touchplan President Michael Carr. “Our main focus has always been our customers, and now we are able to roll out features and product lines even more efficiently, but with the same attention to detail our customers know and love.”

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