Transcript: How to Achieve Company Success through Diversity and Innovation - w/ Randy Hall

Hello, I'm Brittany Campbell-Turner and this is the Constructor Podcast, session number 30. Hello and welcome to or welcome back to Constructor, the best way to build it. This episode features Randy Hall who is president and CEO of Batson Cook General Contracting firm out of Georgia. Randy guides the company's future as he carries the ultimate responsibility for the firm's strategic planning, business development, pre-construction services and construction operations. I really enjoyed speaking with Randy as he leaves with a sense of uplifting his employees by giving them what they want and need, enabling them to achieve company success while pursuing their goals, pushing the company forward with innovation.

He talks about his tenure as AGC president over the Georgia chapter and how diversity and inclusion awareness is a sure way to pushing the industry forward. And with that, let us get into the interview with Randy Hall. Good morning, Randy. Welcome to the Constructor Podcast. How are you this morning?

Good morning. I'm doing well. I hope you are. Oh, yes, I am. Thanks for joining me today.

Well, I do want to let our audience know how I've met you. I was introduced to you by Brent Darnell and it was because he has such an admiration for you on how you're impacting your environment, uplifting those around you. So you just so happened to be the president and a CEO of Bats and Cook as well. But just the way that you touch people and reach people, I had to reach out to you. I couldn't not.

And it took us a little while to get here. But I'm happy that you've had the opportunity to get on the call today. Excellent. I'm a real fan of Brent Darnell. I think he's a rock star for our industry.

I've known Brent for, oh gosh, 30 years. I knew him before he got in the business of leadership training and emotional intelligence for contractors. I knew him back when he was in the construction business. So he's a really, really good guy. Oh, yes, he is.

He's a good guy. And if you guys haven't heard the podcast where I did an interview with Brent, you can find that at constructrr.com slash 06. So check that out there. So Randy, I want to get to know a little bit more about you and your perspective on leadership. You impact so many people.

I'd venture to call it service-based. So what is your perspective on service-based leadership? You know, I don't know that I would necessarily say that I follow a service or servant-based leadership profile. I do believe that people should be empowered with the tools to do their jobs, to do them well and have the autonomy and authority to get things done. I believe people should work to their strengths, including me, by the way, and focus on surrounding themselves with people that are strong in the areas that they are not necessarily strong.

So if you put that in the category of servant-based leadership, I think it's really important that the people that you lead trust you. So genuine care for people is critical to good leadership. So if that falls into the category of servant-based leadership, then maybe I do follow that profile, but those are my thoughts. No, I love that. I like your response because you mentioned the strengths.

You think that people should play to their strengths. Just before we hopped on the call, we talked a little bit about the strengths-based leadership. Is that how it goes? The strengths-based leader book. Yes.

And I think that's hugely important when you know you have a goal to carry out and you have to rally people, right? You have to be able to speak to people based upon their interests and based upon how they feel they can fit. And it sounds like that's what you do, but you also have genuine care, which is another integral layer. So I really like that response. Well, thank you.

I agree with that. Actually, I think it's important to know your strengths. I think it's equally as important to know the strengths of the folks that you surround yourself with. I think it's important to have a good mixture of strengths. Our COO, by the way, is more of an executor in his strengths profile, and mine fall more into the strategic thinking category.

And I think the two of those make for a pretty good combination, as opposed to if we were both strong in execution or strategic thinking. So I think it's good to know not only your own, but those around you, their strengths. So knowing that, I'm curious as to how the leadership that the two of you or any of the executive leadership carries that through the organization. Well, we're still a work in progress, very much like most companies. We created a program a couple of years back at Batson Cook that is labeled the Empowered Performance Handbook, and it's loosely based on the book called The Leadership Pipeline.

The handbook basically breaks down each role in our company and emphasizes the standards for best-in-class behavior and goal setting for performance. Our employees gathered together over the course of a year, and they identified our core competencies, or at least the most important core competencies, that we thought would support our culture. They were time management, customer focus, authentic communication, ethics and integrity, planning and organizing work, and team building. And so those six core competencies are basically defined by a role in this Empowered Performance Handbook. And we've got a lot of room to improve, no doubt, but that is the makings of advancing a good leadership program that will, I guess in theory, create leaders that will move through the pipeline up through the company.

How does that impact your recruitment? Just curious. Well, you know, of course it's a good tool to show, and especially the generation that's coming in now really almost demands seeing a career path, much more so than my generation did. Recruiting and retaining employees, I think everyone listening today would agree, is more difficult now than ever, in part because our industry is really, really busy, and in part because the new generation of workforce requires a commitment from the business to earn their loyalty. There was a time when I came into the business, you were just automatically loyal to your company, and the new generation expects some more commitment on the part of the employer.

And so I think the Empowered Performance Handbook is one tool to show commitment, and I think it supports our recruiting and retaining of employees. Yeah, and I would completely agree with that. This day and age, millennials, there's a different mindset, hands down. So I really like that idea, and putting that together in a structured manner so that people have an expectation, it's truly invaluable. So how do you think that may impact the performance then of, yeah, the people that are working with you?

Well, see, so our program includes more collaborative engagement between the supervisor and employee, and goals are established through the process if it's done properly. And so their goals are created in large part by the employee. So I think it's a good program. I won't say that we've got it mastered. I think we have a lot of room for improvement.

We're tweaking it as we go. For example, we began the first year under the program with yearly evaluation, not unlike most companies, and we have found that our folks want a more continuous feedback program. They don't want to wait until the year's out to have a discussion about performance and growth. They want more continuous feedback. So we're amending that to, I think we're going to call it quarterly huddles so that we have more informal discussions around goals and progression along the leadership pipeline or the career path.

So I spent a lot of time studying our millennials. A third, a little more, a third, 35% of the people that work for our company fit into that millennial age bracket. And I spent a lot of time thinking about the differences. At first glance you would say they are way different. But after spending the last six or eight months looking at this upcoming generation, I'm not sure they're a whole lot different.

Take the technology factor and put it off to the side. I think this generation wants pretty much the same things that all generation wants. They want continuous feedback. They want to know how they're doing. You know, I want that.

They want a healthy balance between work and life. And you know what? I'd like that too. They want to be heard. They want to have a voice.

Well, I think most people like for their leaders to listen. So I'm not ready to say that they're so dramatically different than the generations before them. I told you I introduced the technology factor. And the technology piece, information is at the fingertips of the new generation. And I think that is a difference maker.

And I think we need to adjust our leadership styles based on technology. But beyond that, I think this generation is hardworking and I don't subscribe to the theory that they are at least the ones that work for us or that work in the construction industry. I don't think they're necessarily lazy or have poor work ethics. In fact, just the opposite. I think they want to succeed like every generation before them.

I'm not sure that's the answer. I think I jumped off onto another topic. But that was on my mind. That's a beautiful segue though. Because I was going to ask you about how technology now integrates into some of the goals.

Well, it could be individual goals of your employees. And I'm curious as to a more broader overarching goal as a company. How does technology and or collaboration, I like that you mentioned that shorter feedback loop. How does that integrate into the culture of the company? Well, so my job as a leader of our company is to build a bridge between the generation coming.

I mentioned I think 35% of our folks fit into that millennial category. And in two years from now, we think it will be as much as 50%. So it's very important to build a bridge between the two generations or three generations if you will. So what are we doing on the technology front? I mean we have a director of field technology.

We're doing most of the things that the industry is doing with drones and modeling. And we're using iPads in the field to carry our drawings around. We're studying modularization. That is I think one of the solutions to the workforce. Just the numbers of people that we need to do our business.

And so all of those things that the new generation is very supportive of and very interested in. So I think it's important to engage the newer generation. I was telling someone the other day, I remember one of the first jobs that I was on included deep case on foundations. And I didn't know what a case on was. And I remember there was a book that I could refer to, I believe it was called the Walker Manual.

And you could look up and you could see little diagrams of a case on. But unless you had been on the job that included or had case on, you really didn't know what a case on was. And I was saying this to our millennial meeting the other day. And almost as I was saying it, I saw a couple of them with their phones. And they were looking at a video of an installation of a case on.

And so before I could even say what I was trying to say, the group in front of me had a good picture. And maybe not a thorough understanding, but a fundamental understanding of what a case on was. And therein lies probably the difference in the two generations. The time it takes to get information for this generation compared to the time it took to get information for the generations that came before them are dramatically different. So it's important that we use that because that's a good thing if we use it properly.

So I think it's important that leadership includes some of the younger generation in the conversation. Because you may get to the answer quicker than you would otherwise. Absolutely. I think I've had this conversation so many times. Just given that I fall into the millennial category, I have this conversation quite often.

And I love talking about the differences between generations. What I think is important though, I can talk all day I should say about that. But what I think is important is to grasp that there's knowledge all around us. And it's that collaboration between the generations and utilizing the information that's at hand. Whatever it is, digging into it, learning together, that's really going to push the limit if you will.

I couldn't agree more. I think the millennial generation wants what most of us want. They want to do an excellent job and they want to be respected for their contribution. And I think it's as simple as that. It's only many, many generations of construction company leadership has said that until you're 45 or 50 years old, you really can't contribute.

And I think technology and the generation coming up now paints a different picture. So tell me, what do you think a millennial should do to be prepared for the next 20 years? That's a good question. I have found that on the one hand, the millennial generation is a really independent group. But they are hungry for knowledge.

They are hungry for knowledge. So my advice would be to hang on to that hunger because there are a lot of folks that are in this business that will be working their way out over the next 20 years that have really good, practical, fundamental experience. So find a mentor. In fact, I ask our millennials in our company, how do you feel about mentorship? And actually, I actually close your eyes and tell me if you have a picture of a mentor at our company in your mind.

And when I say the word mentor, they all did. And I said, how would you feel if I assigned you a mentor? If I just said, I think this one fits you. And they said, oh, no, we don't want that. We want the freedom to find our own mentor.

But we really think that's important to have someone that we can lean on and gather more information from and talk through the things that we're going through. So I would say stay hungry for knowledge. Don't lose that hunger. And find a mentor. Spend around for a while and latch on to that person and grab all the knowledge that you can.

I really appreciate that you didn't talk about specific technology. And you talked more about the relational side of things, because that's something that we forget to latch on because we have so much information available to us at our fingertips. So I love that you responded that way. I do not want to neglect that question, though. You mentioned that you think you're doing similar things to what many other companies are doing with utilizing drones.

And I guess, are there any trends in the industry that you think we should be paying attention to in the near future? You know, I can't tell you how technology is going to disrupt our business in the next five to ten years, but I can assure you that our industry will be disrupted. I think the use of drones and modeling are going to allow us to introduce, for many, many years, the construction industry has been the largest employer. And there have been an abundance of people who are interested in doing what we do.

Today there are more people leaving the industry than coming in. So our company is big supporters of the Associated General Contractors and we're working to solve that problem. But part of the solution is going to be technology. I'm convinced of it. I think there will be robotic solutions that will, in some cases, take the place of the workforce that is not there.

Of course, if you follow technology, you see robots laying brick. You see certainly robots laying out buildings and taking the place of the old chain and measure and tape that we used to use. So I think to some degree people will begin to figure out how to do things that we've always done by hand using a more robotic approach. I don't know that there's one, you know, 3D printing of different components of buildings. And some contractors are really researching and developing those technology advancements.

So, you know, as Batson Cook, we have not ever been on the real bleeding edge of technology. We've kind of hung in there and watched technology and then bought in as we felt like it would have been proven and would enhance our ability to do our jobs. I do think modularization, because the models that we build virtually allow us to work with higher policies, I believe that we will begin to build more components of buildings in controlled environments and then bring them to job sites and put them together.

So I think that is an area that at least our company is beginning to pay more attention to, especially on the healthcare side. I was on a job site just yesterday down in Jacksonville, Florida, and I saw racks of mechanical equipment that filled the corridor ceilings that had been assembled in controlled environments, brought to the job site, and hoisted up and put in place. There was labor savings and safety savings, tolerances were used and maximized. So I can't tell you what specific technology is going to take over our industry, but I think modeling and being able to see and build things virtually before we get to the job site is definitely a big part of our job.

And I think that's a great way to be able to be able to be here and stay. Yeah. I'm trying to remember what number of podcasts this was, but I had an interview with Bill DeBebac. Oh, here it is. And we talked a lot about virtual reality.

There are two topics that I still have yet to dig into and might find someone to do interviews with on these topics, but iterative design and generative design, which I'm not sure, are you familiar with those at all? I'm not. No? Well, as I said, I have to dig into them more, but what I understand of iterative design is when you want a randomized design of, say, a curtain wall and you do not want it to be uniform in any way, you can ask the design software to generate a random scheme and you can generate multiples of them, present them to the client, and you would have to then obviously produce that in a controlled environment and then put it together like Lego.

So the use of modular would be really helpful for something like that. But the fact that you can design something without designing something is truly interesting and I think kind of pushing the limit. You can also see those things up front in a virtual space if needs be. Generative design is also pushing the limit a little bit forward because it's almost like asking a computer to literally design something for you. You put some parameters, like this is the, I don't know, the square footage of the property, you tell them how many, say it's a medical office building, you say I want these many exam rooms, I want a reception area, and it literally starts building based upon the criteria that you populate in a question and answer form.

That is so interesting. One of my strengths is learning. I love to learn and I would look forward to that podcast. Alright, I'll tell you which number it is. It's number 25.

Alright. Seven cutting edge tech tools that are disrupting design. Excellent. So that's great. I like the approach.

It's not super high risk, but you guys take it on as you see necessary and you're appreciative of the things that are disrupting the industry from a technology standpoint. I do want to transition over to your position over at the Association of General Contractors. You are wrapping up your tenure there as president? I am for the state of Georgia, the Georgia chapter. Well, tell us a little bit about your experience over the past year.

Well, it has been a very interesting ride. I can tell you that I have gained an appreciation for the people that are in our industry in a way that I would not have been able to gain otherwise. I'm so proud of the industry that we work in. We truly work in an industry where people get things done and in a world today where people talk about getting things done more than they actually do things. Our industry actually produces something every day and that makes me very proud.

And so I feel proud to be a part of an organization that supports the industry. In Georgia, we have worked on really two initiatives this year. And you're right, my tenure as president is concluding here in one month actually. In fact, today we have our last board meeting and I'll update the group on where we've come over the course of this year. One initiative was workforce development.

We mentioned earlier that there are more people leaving our industry than are coming into our industry. And we as an industry have not done a good job of telling the story about the gratifying career that exists in construction. And many of our high schools have dropped the old shop class where we used to get introduced to construction in some form. So we challenged our membership in Georgia to reengage with high schools and tell the story about an exciting career in construction. Our company has adopted three high schools and that entails helping the teachers.

Obviously those are schools that have construction programs and we're helping those teachers to teach their class, to build their materials. I would challenge everyone to listen to this podcast that is in the construction business. I would tell you that you put more materials in a dumpster and throw them away than a school could use in the course of a year. And they are strapped for materials to teach with. So grab a dumpster and put it on your job site and tell your trade contractors to put their excess materials that they're going to throw away and then assign someone to cull through that and take it to a local school because they'll appreciate it and it's a way to tell a good story of construction.

So we're helping teach classes and we're offering building materials and we're offering field trips. And we're just in competitions. We have several of our members that have created competitions between schools and the trades of carpentry and masonry and electrical work. And so I'm really proud of what our membership have done to tell the story and to get young people engaged in our business. So that's one initiative.

The second initiative, at least that I put on the table, was to open a real meaningful dialogue about diversity and inclusion in our construction industry. And that means opening the door to include more people of color and gender as opposed to the way we have all been. Traditionally our industry has been made up of white men and that's just a fact. And so that's not good. And so I think we needed to talk about that and in Georgia we created the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, a committee if you will.

And we spent a lot of times talking about gender and color and people of different nationalities and the contributions that they can make to our industry. And we know there's really three cases that can be made for diversity and inclusion in the construction industry. One is a human or societal case. I mean everybody should be treated with respect and dignity and given equal opportunity. And I think our country has made a lot of advancements over time in that arena.

There's an industry case to be made. We need more people in our industry. People with diverse ideas. Brett Darnell has said and I agree that diversity in people leads to diversity in thought which normally leads to a better solution than you would have had otherwise. And so there's an industry case to be made.

We need more people. And then there's a business case to be made. People do business with people that they know and they like and they trust and in many cases people do business with people that look and act like they do. And today our industry, it used to be, when I first entered the industry most of the work was procured through a bid process. And if you were the low bidder you got the job and then you just duked it out to the end.

Today it's more of a qualification based presentation approach to getting work. And we have found, and I think we're no different than anybody else in the country, the people that we are presenting ourselves to, they're made up of people of all kinds of races and colors and genders. I mean there are women leading big business who need buildings. And there are Indians and Asians and African Americans. And so the business case is that if you believe that people do business with people who kind of look like them and act like them, and you walk in the room and you don't look anything like the people you're trying to convince to hire you, then the business case says that you need to look more like the people you're trying to do business with.

So there's every reason in the world to advance the discussion of diversity and inclusion in our industry. And so I think we've done that in Georgia, at least this year, but we've got a lot of room for improvement not only in Georgia, but across our entire industry. So those are the two initiatives that we've worked on this year, and I'm proud of AGC Georgia for the work that they've done on these fronts. I think you've taken a bold step to start that discussion. I like that you laid out the three cases.

And just merely because I fit into, I guess if you want to call it three buckets, right? I'm a daughter of immigrants. I fall into the minority category. I'm also a woman. And then I just happen to be a millennial.

And understanding these business cases, well just the business case, the industry, we just need more people in the industry, and societal. I think that allows for us to have really three good points of discussion. I'd be curious as to what you guys have been able to do thus far to build awareness and to have these discussions thus far within AGC. So our committee, which was a very diverse committee, spent the first part of the year just talking about the differences in culture and why there are differences and why people don't see people as people.

They see people in silos or categories, and we spent a lot of time just trying to understand. And this past Friday we held a diversity and inclusion summit, if you will. Brett Darnell, by the way, was our moderator and did a fabulous job walking us through some of those lessons that we had surfaced. And then we ended with a two hour panel discussion. The AGC of Georgia videotaped it, and so they're now editing that video and going to carve it up and try to distribute it in an effort to raise that awareness.

It's a topic that, especially in today's political climate, this may not be the... In some cases some people would say, well, this is an awkward time to be raising this as a discussion point, but I think it's very important. I think it will help our industry, and so we're going to continue the conversation, hopefully, long after my time as president of AGC Georgia, because I think it's important and I think our industry believes it's important. I'd be really interested in getting my hands on that panel discussion, the video.

So please let the listeners know where that... if you know now where that might be available for them to access. I tell you, if... I don't know where they're going to house it. I know that there will be a link on the AGC Georgia website, so if you just Google AGC Georgia.

AGC stands for Associated General Contractors, and we are the Georgia chapter, and that's very easily found through Google. I suppose it will be another 30 days or so before they have that edited and posted, but if you'll look on the website there, I'm quite certain you'll be able to find the link to the diversity and inclusion panel discussion. Very good. I was very... I was proud to be a part of it.

Were you on the panel at all, or how... I was on the panel. I asked them, why am I on the panel? And they said, because you can't be diverse if you don't include everybody. So I was the one representing the old white guys, I guess.

We had an Indian project manager, female, and we had an African American pre-construction services manager, female African American. We had two business leaders that were African American. And Brent took us to some places that I really was hoping that he would take us to. So a lot of stuff came out that I think needed to come out, and I was very proud of it. What would you say was the most uncomfortable subject?

Oh, that's an interesting question. We have some in the room that believe that they've passed that mark where they don't have any bias. They just see people as people. And so some in the room pointed out that everybody has biases. Everybody has biases.

You're a product of your parents' teaching and the environment that you grew up in. Which is not always the truth in the way it should be, by the way. And so to say that you don't have any biases, there were a couple of times where people pointed out that you're just not living in the real world. And those are tough conversations to watch play out. But you need to play them out, and I thought that did a masterful job of navigating through those discussions.

Yeah, I can see him doing well with that. Just given that his emotional intelligence awareness allows that conversation to be respectful but open. Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I'm so happy that in Georgia that is taking place.

That's inspiring, actually. And I think it can happen anywhere where we just go ahead and start talking about it. Start pushing the initiative to just build awareness and talk more about it. And take those actions to collaborate, right? It's just that simple.

Collaborate. Understand that each person has a voice. They have a different skill set. They have value within them. And that's something that I hope that I'm getting across with my podcasts in general.

That there really is no difference from person to person. It really is the personality type. It is, yes, your background and how you grew up and your perspective. Yeah, your perspective is going to be different. We learn the same things in school.

It's just that simple. And the more people you get involved who are eager to contribute and push projects forward, and have the focus on the project, I don't know. I'm developing my perspective on it, if you will. And that's what I've come to thus far. If you focus on the project and know that everybody who has that desire and intention to contribute that's involved will make the best of it.

Creating that environment of positivity and genuine care all simultaneously. That will allow this industry to really push forward. And that happens at all levels of all companies. Whether it's the owner, whether it's the owner's rep, the designer, and the general contractor. Any of the tradesmen.

It happens at all levels. I don't know what your thoughts are on my commentary. I agree. I agree. I think you're providing a voice for folks to get that out.

And you're doing a great job of that. And I think in your own way you're providing a huge service to our industry. And I'm really appreciative that you let me speak on behalf of the industry and on behalf of our company, Bats & Cook. I appreciate your contribution. And I'm sure that our listeners do too.

I do want to ask you, do you have any parting words for us? Any advice for the listeners? It would be the same advice that I gave a while ago to the millennials. Stay hungry. Keep searching for the best solution.

And those solutions are not necessarily the way they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. So keep looking for the better solution. It's a great industry that we work in. I get ratification in ways that I know people, friends of mine that work in other industries, just don't have the ability to get it. So stay hungry.

I love it. So, Randy, please tell the audience if there's a way to learn more about you. What means they should research you or get in touch with you? Well, I'm active on social media, more for the perspective of learning than maybe contributing. I have a LinkedIn profile, Durandihall, Bats & Cook Construction.

I have a Twitter page or a Twitter account as we talked about earlier. But I share things that are futuristic things, things that interest me with respect to technology. I'd love to connect up through LinkedIn as well, or Twitter as well. Of course we have a website, Bats & Cook does, Bats & Cook Construction. If you Google www.batson-cook.com is our website.

Awesome. Well, thank you, Randy. I really enjoyed this time talking with you. Very good. Good to meet you as well, Brittany.

If you liked this podcast, don't forget to subscribe at Constructor.com to get email updates from me about upcoming action guides from previous podcasts. You can also subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. And with that, bye for now. I'll talk with you guys next week.