Written by Sue Dyer, Founder, IPI

I recently received a question from a new project manager who is running four projects. He shared that trying to help a project succeed seems so unpredictable. He asked me to share what I have seen work to help assure projects are successful. Below I share what I have seen, based on working with over 4,000 projects.

Like this project manager, many others in the industry are baffled by what makes one project team unmistakably high performing, and another team, with similar caliber members, fall short of success. This has been a question I’ve studied for over 35 years. I am always searching to understand how we can assure our projects succeed.

From my experience, the good news is that it does not cost one more cent to be highly successful over being unsuccessful – in fact, it may cost less. Let me explain.

Excellence requires TRUST. Without trust, excellence is simply not possible. And this applies to owners, contractors, subcontractors, and designers. You bring your culture to EVERY project you do.

My team and I have facilitated partnering on over 4,000 construction projects. Here is how we’ve seen a high trust, excellence-based culture play out versus a fearful, mediocrity-based culture. Of course, the leader(s) sets and spreads the culture, but this is what happens when you have a high trust culture on your projects.

Coordination

The team is on the same page. They use the design to document a clear understanding of what is going to be installed each step of the way. Shop drawings match what is to be installed and are corrected if things change. Everyone knows what they are going to do, has the tools and ability to perform the work (i.e., access, laydown, materials, enough people, etc.). They do not arrive on site only to be surprised that someone ordered the wrong tile, the girder is too short, or the shop drawings don’t match the plans. The team has clearly worked together as ONE team to coordinate their efforts before they start working. They are not constantly disrupted by surprises that could or should have been known.

Quality Control

The team checks and double-checks to make sure things are right with mockups, testing, measuring, and checking to ensure equipment and materials are ready (and enough). They don’t spend time arguing against having mockups (I see this fairly often), only to be surprised when the material doesn’t work, is wrong, or there isn’t enough. For example, they do a water test of the windows before they are installed, or a test strip to make sure the mix, equipment, application, and weather produce a good result.

The quality level for your project should be determined within your design – when the budget and materials are decided. But the quality of workmanship is determined by the team. I’ve seen highly skilled craftspeople unable to do a quality job because quality control was seen as a “wasted” effort.

Problem Solving

One of the things I love about construction folks is that we are problem solvers. We just love solving problems. We may not love the stress that comes along with it sometimes, but teams that have big problems they solve together often remember these as their best projects.

It is important to get everyone on the project to look for things that could become a problem and encourage these to be brought up as soon as they are seen. Being proactive and capturing potential issues before they impact the project is like magic. It keeps the team moving forward with confidence and enables predictable production, predictable quality, and predictable schedule and budget.

If I had a dime for each extra dollar it cost a project when a project leader told me we would just wait until the end to solve the project problems – I would be a millionaire. To be high performing means you work to identify, resolve, plan, and install before you are forced to stop or change direction.

Strategy

The highest performing teams have a strategy for building the project (scope). At least someone on the job can wrap their mind around the entire project and visualize how it is going to be built within the timeframe and budget. If you don’t have someone like this, then get them! You can’t just “hope” that you will get there. Being truthful about what can or cannot be achieved is also important. Then you can create a strategy that works.

I have seen many projects that are like a rudderless ship on a voyage. They don’t have a clear and agreed-upon plan for how they are going to reach their destination. I hear owners and CMs often say that the contractor is just trying to create change orders – sure, some may do so – but more often I see there isn’t anyone within the team who knows how to put all the pieces together to optimize the success of the project. Instead, they just do the work in front of them, often surprised by things that pop up and don’t work.

Learning Environment

A high performing team learns from the problems they encounter, so they can improve. If there are repetitive operations, they work to make each one better and better (much like you would in a manufacturing process). These high performing teams look to continuously improve – they openly share their problems and solutions so the entire team understands and can learn to improve. They don’t react to each new issue as if it is brand new and has never been seen before. Teams that don’t learn are doomed to stress because they will just keep making the same mistakes over and over.

High performing teams embrace learning – learning from each other, from the project’s problems, from training, and from innovation. They learn they can create new ways to do things. They love to learn how to create better teams, be better leaders, and do things that have never been done before – to become extraordinary.

TRUST is Key

None of these high performing team behaviors are possible without trust. In fact, your team will only be as good as the level of trust you develop. Think about it: if the team doesn’t trust each other enough to be open and honest, then you aren’t going to have honest communication. Without that, it is impossible to get cooperation or collaboration so that you can have good coordination and problem solving. Without alignment of everyone toward your common purpose, you are drifting along, hoping to succeed.

Excellence does not cost more. It is created by the continuous improvement atmosphere that you have within your project team – not one of protection and fear, but one of collaboration and commitment. High performing teams are more fun, do extraordinary things, and manage the inherent risks we have on our projects!

This is why I feel so strongly that each person working on a project needs to know how to be a trusted leader who can build a high trust atmosphere that fosters communication, cooperation, collaboration, co-creation, coordination, and success. Without this, you are just hoping that the stars will align for you. I highly recommend the International Partnering Institute’s Project Leader Certification to give you the foundation of being able to create a high trust, high performing team.

I feel equally strongly that each business working as part of your construction project team needs to bring with them their own high trust culture. How are you going to be able to be part of a high trust project if your business operates in an atmosphere of fear, protectionism, and a zero-sum game?

If you are new to our industry, or seasoned over many decades, I hope these lessons learned can help you see the path to excellence for your projects. In case you are interested, I’ve included the Project Team Excellence Evaluation below for you to use to assess your project team’s level of excellence.