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CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 8, 2008

The Joy of Job Meetings
Filed under: Jobsite Management — Tags: — nedpelger

This week I ran three job meetings for three separate jobs. My current projects under construction:

  1. 320 apartment units in 11 buildings (some 3 story and some 4 story)
  2. 76,000 sf, 3 story church addition which includes 7 performance venues and a floor of offices
  3. 50,000 sf factory and office building

I mostly work as a Project Manager these days, trying to get the projects designed and built efficiently, quickly and well. Over the years, I’ve found a job meeting every two weeks help us focus on the overall job problems and direction.

The Superintendents and Foremen of the various trades meet much more often (daily if you include impromptu meetings), but those meetings tend to focus on the coordination of the moment. The bi-weekly job meeting forces us to consider the overall cost, schedule and performance issues on the project. Any decent Project Manager always keeps track on the status of the Cost, the Schedule and the Performance (includes quality, safety, Owner expectations, etc), so changes don’t come as a surprise at the project completion.

I remember getting beat up a few times as a young Project Manager for allowing Owners to be surprised at project completion. It turns out, no matter how much an Owner says he or she cares about the schedule, the cost matters too. So a good Project Manager keeps the Owner informed and bi-weekly job meetings help force this process to actually happen.

So how do you run a good job meeting? Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Have a clear agenda that you follow, don’t let the meeting take a life of it’s own.
  2. Take meeting minutes (distributed to all stake holders) that cover the items discussed and the action agreed upon, by whom and with a date for completion.
  3. Follow up on the action items at each meeting.
  4. Don’t allow multiple conversations at one time.
  5. Try to have meetings standing up, when practical. They take much less time.
  6. Have some fun. Humor works as a social lubricant. We accomplish more with people we trust and like.

So what do you think of the job meetings on your project? Are they effective?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 6, 2008

The Secret of Success
Filed under: People Skills — Tags: — nedpelger

When I teach Construction Supervisors and wannabe Construction Supervisors, I ask them if they know the secret of success. The most common answer is, “Hard work”. I think you’ll probably agree, though, many people work quite hard and wouldn’t describe their lives as successful. Early in my career, I was taught an answer that is surprisingly simple and yet powerful.

The Secret of Success:

Successful People Do the Things Unsuccessful People Don’t Want to Do and Won’t Do.

Study any successful person and you’ll see this statement proved. You’ve got to do the hard work to be successful. I probably should define what I’m calling success. Successful people achieve their goals and live with joy. So I don’t consider wealth or power a necessary sign of success, though they often are.

The secret of success has helped me tremendously through my life. So many times I look at a task before me and just don’t feel like doing it. It would be easier, more fun, etc to just not do it. Maybe that could be the slogan for couch potatoes, “Just don’t do it!”

But then I (sometimes) think about this principle of success and I do what I don’t feel like doing. In most cases I’m glad, after I get started, that I made that choice. I’m almost always glad after the task is done. So, having this truth clear to me helps me decide how to live, what to actually do, every day.

So how will this secret change your life? Suppose you’re supervising construction on a parking garage and you know your boss has real concerns that the project will come in over budget. Perhaps you love pushing the schedule and getting the construction details right, but really struggle to care about tracking the costs. You know you should work harder on knowing where the costs are and trying to control them better, but it’s not your natural inclination.

In this case, the successful person chooses to put some extra time every day into working on cost issues. Slowly, over time, you get better at managing the costs. Your boss tells you how much he appreciates your improvements and rewards you lavishly. OK, this last part may be fantasy, but the rest seems reasonable.

Consider family relationships as another example. You come home tired from work and just want to rest. Your kids, whether you know it or not, want to spend time with you. They want you to have fun with them and respect them as individuals. I think all kids want these things, no matter what their age.

So do the hard thing. Put forth some effort. Do fun things with your kids (see yesterday’s post). Or plan special time with your spouse or a friend. Remember the secret of success:

Successful People Do the Things Unsuccessful People Don’t Want to Do and Won’t Do.

Be a Successful Person.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 5, 2008

Be a Hero: Build Fun Stuff with Kids
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

Those of us in construction generally share the interest (and talent) for building stuff. I found a great website to help point kids in that direction as well. Whether you have children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, neighbor kids or whatever, consider helping them with a fun project that shows them how to make things. August is the perfect time of year to get them doing something fun and instructive.

For example, an old bike tube, bike pump, coat hanger and soda bottle can make a Soda Bottle Rocket that really works. Print out the instructions in the pdf format and give it a try with a kid.

I believe the losers in our busy culture tend to be the kids. They have less free time to just play and less time with interested adults who will do fun things.  I challenge you to check out this HowToons.com website and share it with some kids you know. Have them look through it and come up with the project they’d love to build. Help them gather the materials and give them some encouragement…and maybe a bit of technical aid here and there.

Our society needs more kids interested in construction, engineering and science, in how the real world works. This type of play motivates the mind to look in those directions. It helps kids become curious. So help the kids around you to have some cool experiences building things. They’ll create memories they will never forget and gain some understanding and respect for what you do.

I’m going to buy the Howtoons book and try some of the projects with my nephews. I’ll let you know how it goes. Give me some feedback on any projects you’ve done or are doing with kids.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 4, 2008

A Great Energy Idea, But Not Quite a Stock Tip
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: , — nedpelger

Remember how some American Indians burned buffalo poop as a main source of fuel? How would you like to do that with your own sewage wastes, plus millions of other peoples? Ener Tech Environmental developed the Slurry Carb process that recycles the high moisture biosolids from a sewage treatment plant to create a burnable fuel.  The photo below illustrates the system, but a slide show at Slurry Carb process does a great job of describing the process.

I worked building several waste water treatment plants years ago and understand the difficulties of dealing with the solids. Both dewatering them and getting rid of them is a challenge. As the world goes green, I understand it’s becoming an increasing challenge to get rid of waste water solids. Every year, more counties in California outlaw the spreading of solid wastes on farm fields.

When I read in Engineering News Record this week that a $160M  plant  is being  built  in CA to use sewage solids from LA as fuel to power local cement production kilns, I thought it was one of the best energy ideas I’ve heard. I also thought, “I wonder if there’s a way to buy stock in that company?”.

Ener Tech Environmental is privately held, so no great stock tips today. But another thought occurred to me, as we get more Construction Supervisors coming to ConstructionKnowlege.net and visiting this blog, we should share ideas about projects we’re building for companies that seem well run and have great ideas. Everyone likes to be in on the ground floor of a great new business and I bet that Construction Supervisors have some useful insights to share.I’ve found in construction you really get a sense of the company for whom you build a project.

So how about it, are you currently working on a project for a company that you really think would be a great investment?

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 2, 2008

A Difficult Week
Filed under: Productivity — Tags: — nedpelger

I’m completing one of the crappiest weeks I’ve had in a while. I keep things in perspective, of course. My son didn’t die smashing his car into a tree on Pierson Rd. and my wife isn’t dying from cancer. Still, it’s been a tough week.

We had tenants moving into a new apartment building starting August 1st and on July 30th the State Elevator Inspector failed the elevator for going up to the top floor before coming down to the first floor in fireman mode. After much discussion, it turns out that the State requires this feature, even though they know it doesn’t make sense and are in the process of changing it. So the elevator company wants to charge $200/hour to have an operator run the lift to help tenants move in over the week-end. As you can imagine, no one’s thrilled about paying those costs. One of my last calls on Friday was a bit of good news, though. The State agreed to allow the elevator inspection to be valid and for the residents to use the lift.

My entire week, though, consisted of design changes, meetings to understand disputes, meetings to see changed site work conditions, and scheming to  get a  Highway  Occupancy  Permit  before the  Municipal Officials start using me for target practice. I had a plan for what I wanted to get done this week and none of it happened. Like the Chinese proverb, I was managing too many affairs, like holding pumpkins under water. One pops up while I try to hold the others down.

I’m normally a good time manager. I value time. I organize myself well to get the most out of time. I say no easily and try to understand and focus on the truly important things. But this past week, none of that seemed to matter.

What I can learn from the week, though, is how my response to the crap made me even less productive. I let myself get stressed. I started to live in the future, worrying how bad I’ll look when something isn’t done that I planned to have done. I know better. Worry stupidly wastes my time. I need to recommit to live in the present, to not be anxious about the future.

Next week I plan to get up a little earlier, work a bit more and exercise a bit more, focus on my present task (having chosen it as the most important thing for me to be doing at that moment) and not worry about the future. I’ll survive…until I don’t. It’s not much more complicated than that.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

August 1, 2008

A Super Profile: Phil Geyer, Lancaster, PA USA
Filed under: Construction Superintendents — Tags: — nedpelger

Phil Geyer doesn’t demand respect from Sub-Contractors, but he sure gets it. People on his projects go to extremes so they don’t disappoint him. Phil has completed many substantial projects ahead of schedule and under budget mainly because of the respect he receives…often tempered with a bit of fear.

This former Marine strives to live the code of honor, courage and commitment of the Corps. Serving in a Force Recon unit in Viet Nam, Phil learned about teamwork. He still tries to build strong teams whenever he can. While working with me at Consolidated Construction in the mid 1990s, Phil appreciated our highly functioning team and the level of respect with which we treated each other. He said, “I learned not to blow up and choke people.”

Phil was building a factory for a German company a few years ago. He prides himself on high quality workmanship on his projects, but nothing was good enough for this German customer. Remarks like, “If Germans were building this it would be done better” and “A German would never do it like that” brought back the version of Phil that hasn’t mellowed with age.

After one Owner comment too many, Phil said, “Let me tell you something, if Germans were building this it would fall to the ground! Look what happened in WWII.”  As you can see, Phil can still get fired up.

Phil started in construction as a concrete worker and rose to foremen with Stief Concrete. After hurting his back, he decided to move beyond the world of concrete. Beahm Construction hired Phil as a Superintendent and gave him a 10 screen AMC movie theater to build. The sloped floors and tricky concrete details went well on the project, but Phil had lots of OJT for the finishes and mechanical and electrical work. Phil says, “I had a good PM who helped me make it look like I knew what I was doing.”

Beahm Construction later gave him the Nittany Lion Inn at Penn State University to build. It was a large, difficult project and the Owner was thrilled by the completed product. Phil really enjoys finishing projects in which the Owner’s expectations are exceeded.

These days, Phil’s biggest annoyance comes from dealing with Subs and their safety issues on projects. He seems to have to explain to them daily both the cost and the ramifications of someone getting hurt. It’s turned into babysitting in recent years.

Phil says his style of construction supervision is to treat people with respect, but it’s like playing baseball, they get 3 strikes and then they’re out. His advice for Construction Supervisors? “Keep on top of things, don’t just talk about it one day, but follow up day after day.”

For relaxation, Phil likes to spend time playing with his grandchildren and walking in the woods around his home.

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