Executive summary. A project’s success is largely due to the relationship between the parties: owner, construction manager, engineer, and contractor. Here’s a great list which “guarantees” project success if you can accomplish high marks.

What’s up with the article title? It’s not easy to create these titles and get you to read these articles, you know. I’m comparing each of your projects to a marriage – or because it’s only a year or two or three, maybe to a wildly successful Match.com™ relationship that didn’t quite make it all the way to the alter. They say that the most important thing in a marriage is compromise – I agree with my facilitator friend Neal Flesner at Velo Group that for construction projects it’s collaboration.

Is this partnering? Whatever. Don’t stop reading, yes, this is the soft topic of partnering. But, although you can do the whole half day to 3-day kumbaya hug event, you can accomplish this by simple behavioral change.

Hit me with the list. I’ve attended several partnering events, many with Neal at Velo Group. His firm puts out a great self-evaluation sheet which asks you to grade yourself in the areas listed below (it’s provided later in this article). I’ve listed them in my order of importance, and added comments where I thought they provided value:

• Communication
  • Ease up on the emails and texts and make some face-to-face appearances.
• Decision Velocity
  • As owners, there is not a true understanding of time being money and the existence of a finite budget. You (owners) think you know, you really don’t. This is the contractor’s whole world when the job is hard bid. Now, if the contract is time and materials, sure, owner’s can take as long as they want. The bottom line is, good or bad, owner’s should make decisions as quickly as possible. And contractors, you have to react quickly too if you want momentum to continue with an owner.

• Challenging Conversations
  • This can be difficult for owners as they’re not used to having to fight and scrap for survival. But, if the goal is to get the project done as quickly and equitably as possible, owners and contractors should have tough conversations timely and as often as needed.
• Risk Management
• Accountability
  • Decision makers should be out in the open and identified. “Who said ‘no’ to the change order?”, “Who rejected the submittal?”, or “Who wants more information?”. The construction business is not like working at a food bank or at an animal shelter where kindness and generosity reign supreme – it’s a tough business with a lot of money and can be volatile. Be accountable.
• Goal Setting Strategy
• Mentoring & Knowledge Sharing
• Innovation
• Continuous Improvement
• Relationships, Culture and Fun

My story. We have had, and will continue to have, on my current projects a partnering program. I like them because they get the parties off site and if you have participation they can really bring issues to the forefront. I really like the list that Neal allowed me to include here. Every project can benefit from a deeper dive into these items.

One thing I didn’t talk about above in detail was goal setting. Most engineers like numbers, so coming up with some good metrics can make positive impacts – consider some of these:

• Percentage of submittals approved (versus not approved) – set a goal of 85% approved first time around.
• Write RFIs such that they simply ask for confirmation (avoid open ended RFIs). It’s a very good thing for contractors to make suggestions and come to each RFI with a solution.
• Milestones outside of contractual milestones – your project may have milestones for interim completion (that may even have liquidated damages assigned), but think of other team milestones. Examples include completion dates for large excavations, big pours, or even documentation submittals.
• BHAGs – this is a Neal favorite, but you can call it what you want. But, good to have Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals!

Work safe!