Dr Gretchen Gagel turns the spotlight on a different kind of construction waste – time lost to weak relationships and a lack of trust on projects and within organisations.
Twenty years ago, I was asked by the president of our management consulting firm to help sort out a construction project that had gone sideways. The client, their project manager, the contractor, their project manager, the architect and I spent 12 hours locked in a room settling what ended up being a US$20 million change order on a US$40 million guaranteed maximum price project. Ouch.
What went wrong? The project should never have been contracted as a design/build project with construction starting before the completion of the design. The client was not sophisticated enough to keep up with the necessary speed of decision making, and the contractor did not effectively communicate the cost and schedule impacts of delayed decisions. When the trades learned of the ‘money problems,’ they stopped sending their ‘A Team.’ Waste, waste, waste, all because of breakdowns in relationships. I was glad I was able to help them get back on track.
Part 4 of my book, Building Women Leaders: A Blueprint for Women Thriving in Construction, explores how we build effective one-on-one relationships to improve efficiency and reduce waste in our industry. These topics apply to both men and women. Here are but a few of the topics discussed.
Being present and asking questions
I recently moderated a panel about my book at the Associated General Contractors of America’s national conference with the presidents of two large principal contractors, one with annual revenue of US$13 billion. One thing I admire about both of these leaders is that when I am with them, they are fully present, no matter how busy they are, and I know they are busy. This sends a signal to me that I am important, and that care causes people to stay with organisations. Refilling positions over and over is a source of waste in our industry. What if we, as leaders, made everyone feel like they matter, that they are the most important person in our lives at that moment of connection? How would that cause people to feel about our organisations and our industry? My good friend and fellow PhD student Zach Mercurio just released a book on the topic, The Power of Mattering. You can hear his tips for leadership action on our recent Greatness Podcast.
Leveraging emotional intelligence
Sometimes, we have a solid relationship with someone and then the pressures we face in our industry, the struggles and challenges we overcome to deliver our projects, cause us to say something in the heat of the moment that damages the relationship. I know because it has happened to me.
Ten years ago, I hired Brent Darnell, who has been working with construction leaders on emotional intelligence for 25 years, as my coach. It has been a game changer for me. Brent has helped me understand why I am ‘triggered’ – that feeling when your amygdala in your brain goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. I also now understand where I start feeling that trigger in my body – in my shoulders. When my shoulders start rising, I know I need to pause. I know I need to take three deep breaths, or even perhaps walk away. It is better to say, “You know what, I’m having a bit of an emotional reaction to what you just said, and I think I need to continue this conversation tomorrow,” than to let your emotions cause you to say something you might later regret. It is not about suppressing your emotions. It is about you being in control of your emotions instead of them being in control of you. We can waste good intent with a few wrong words.
Fostering psychological safety
I am a huge fan of Harvard professor Amy Edmonson, author of The Fearless Organisation and psychological safety expert. When Amy joined me on the Greatness Podcast years ago, she talked about the important steps of building a trusting, safe culture where people can raise their hands and say, “I have an idea,” or “I don’t think this is working.” Investing in trusting relationships creates situations where people are not afraid to bring problems forward, and that reduces waste.
Right before moving to Australia in 2018, I helped an automotive company deliver a US$3 billion program on time and under budget. I first worked with the seven project executives to define and document our project culture, including an atmosphere of trust. This was put to the test early on when the principal contractor on one of the non-US sites discovered that a foundation had been poured in not exactly the right location. Instead of sweeping the problem under the rug, as I have seen people do on construction projects, the mistake was immediately brought to everyone’s attention, and the team went into problem-solving mode. This eliminated wasted time spent on blame and reinforced trust and psychological safety within the program team.
Leadership is about our ability to influence, which is non-existent without strong relationships. I believe that a tremendous amount of wasted time and energy could be eliminated if we focused more attention on providing people with the critical skills they need to build strong relationships, within and across organisations.
Dr Gretchen Gagel, GAICD, is the former chair of Brinkman Construction (US) and a member of the Risk Committee for GHD Engineering, the National Academy of Construction (US), the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (AUS), and the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America National Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Gretchen is passionate about leading change in the construction industry and developing future leaders. You can hear more from Gretchen on her Spotify podcast, “Greatness” and her book, “Building Women Leaders: A Blueprint for Women Thriving in Construction”, is available for pre-order on Amazon. Find out more at gretchengagel.com