When the owner doesn’t carry in-house crews, the responsibility for directing the work in the field lands on the vendor project manager. That person has more direct control over executing the deliverable than anyone on the owner’s side. Get that…
When a contractor’s field crew arrives on site without a clear briefing on what they’re doing, the project absorbs every minute they spend figuring it out, and the cost goes beyond lost hours. The fix is a short briefing before…
The Scope Package Looked Complete. The Building Didn’t Match. Scope documents can look complete on paper and still not reflect what’s actually in the building, especially in buildings that have been modified over the years. Verifying the scope of work…
A pre-construction meeting agenda can cover safety, schedule, scope, and still leave the project exposed. The gaps that tend to create mid-project problems aren’t in the topics that were discussed. They’re in the coordination that wasn’t locked down — who…
Schedule slippage warning signs don’t wait for a deadline to break. The mechanism is float — the buffer built into a schedule to absorb small variances. When float gets consumed task by task without anyone connecting the pattern, it’s gone…
Projects don’t usually fall behind all at once. The slide often starts during planning, when the work is outlined but the order it needs to move in isn’t clear. Most project managers have a list. Not enough have a sequence.…
Most design reviews confirm a system will work. Almost none include a design review maintainability check — and that gap is expensive. When a maintainability problem is caught during design, it costs a drawing change. Caught during operations, the same…
One-on-one meetings are simultaneously the most important and overlooked aspects of team management. Rarely are they used as intended. When done, they are short, problem-centric, and generally very ineffective. And it’s sad because when handled correctly, one-on-one meetings are the…
Becoming a manager for the first time in your life is a really big deal. You have to detach yourself from the value of your individual performance and tune into something bigger. Your value system, the way you navigate challenges,…
Team performance management might seem like a fantastical idea consisting of lists, expectations, and lofty goals, but it’s so much more. In its purest form, it’s about showing your team they can exceed the limits they’ve set for themselves and…