Transcript: Millennials, Transformational Change, & Entertainment - LCI Congress GC Take Aways

Hello, I'm Brittany Campbell-Turner and this is the Constructor Podcast, episode 18. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Constructor. This podcast is dedicated to helping property owners have certainty in their decisions about the construction projects. On this podcast, we discuss how property owners can foster trusting relationships within their project teams, understand how to lower risk, be under budget, and on schedule in your construction projects and exceed your end user's desires. Hello everyone, thanks for joining me today and listening to Constructor, the best way to build it.

Please subscribe at Constructor.com, that's ConstructRR.com. Subscriptions and reviews keep me going. Last year, I went to the Lane Construction Congress in October 2016 and I was able to interview some of the attendees asking for their feedback while I was there. Here is a preview of some of the feedback that I got from the Congress. There was a lot of takeaways because they did a really good job with the education part of it, plus we simulated the exercise.

The biggest thing I've got back are good information, but it's very quick and high level. You don't have time to get into the details on some of them. My big takeaway from this conference is that people are our biggest resource and that we need to build our people first. If you guys haven't heard my burnout story, podcast it. You can find it at Constructor.com slash EP14.

That's ConstructRR.com slash EP14. I talk about how Brent Darnell, a star presenter and trainer on emotional intelligence, predicted my burnout at the last Congress when I had the burnout a week later. You can hear more about that in EP14, but to give you a big picture view of the conference, the first two days of the Congress were dedicated to training. There were half day, full day, and even two day trainings. I went to two trainings, one of which included Brent's, of course, and the Cata coaching training.

I got huge value from both of these. The next two days consisted of keynote speeches, breakout sessions, and the opportunity to float around the exhibit hall. Lastly, the theme of the Congress was building people, transforming culture. You'll see that the interviews come from different perspectives, from people that lived in different locations, had different positions, have been on the lean journey for different periods of time. For this podcast, I grouped primarily general contractor perspectives, except for one industrial engineer, and you'll hear her later.

We were on the floor where people are passing through from session to session, and you'll hear people talking in the background, so sorry about that audio in advance. The first three guys I spoke with were literally the first three guys I spoke with that you're going to hear on this interview. I was actually more focused on my audio equipment working, which was faulty at the time, so my apologies. I didn't get the chance to document their names and who they worked for, but I do know they worked for general contractors.

For context, let's call my first interviewee, Peter, and here's Peter. That's really the biggest thing I've got back. They're good information, but it's very quick and high level. You don't have time to get into the details on some of them. How did you like the training sessions?

Were they long enough? Were you attending them? Yeah, I did the one yesterday, which was the full day class, and yeah, very interactive. It was, for as long as it was, usually in those they get into a lot of lecture, and after lunch, everyone's like, people are leaving early, so it was good. It was entertaining, and I thought the one, the intro to Lean, was very good actually.

Peter enjoyed being entertained, but thought it was important also to get acquainted with the foundations of Lean through attending the intro to Lean, and the next we'll call them Mark and Joe for context. There was a lot of takeaways, because they did a really good job with the education. Plus, we simulated the exercise, so I think the biggest takeaway is really seeing the importance of the tool, and just understanding how it's going to really kind of transform the industry, really to get more reliability in the industry.

I think the agenda, so they provided a snapshot of an agenda, a typical agenda for a weekly superintendent meeting. We were doing ours a bit different, and I see how the way his agenda was set up, or the way the agenda was being discussed with us, could be more beneficial than the way I was facilitating it. So I found a kind of a gap, I guess you would say, in how to improve my agenda for the weekly work plan meetings that I have with my folks.

I think one other good takeaway too was also they explained that you don't really want to piecemeal the system, but there's still a number of ways, no way is really wrong. There's still kind of flexibility in how you can run the program or run the last planer system. So I think that was good just to know that you're on track still. How long are you in your Lean journey? For me personally, since 2010, I worked for another company prior to the one that I worked for.

You'll see Joe saw the importance of simulation, specifically of the tools for Lean, and he noted he saw this had the potential to change the industry. Eric was impressed by the different approach to creating an agenda via weekly work plan and realized there's a lot you can start doing but to take one step at a time. This next interview is with Eric Rogers, a professional engineer doing project management at Skinder Construction. He also happens to be an old classmate of mine from my alma mater, Illinois Institute of Technology.

A couple things I learned, one thing I learned was that no matter the size of the project you can implement Lean, whether it's a very small project, eight week schedule, or it's obviously a very large project, year duration. I learned about different pull planning sessions, you can have micro pull planning sessions. Let's say you get a job, you get notice to proceed on a Thursday, and they want you to start on a Monday. How are you going to start on time? How do you have time to do a pull planning session?

Well one thing we talked about, it was actually presented by my company, Skinder Construction, was having micro plan sessions where you maybe only meet with the demo contractor or the excavator on site on that Monday morning. You meet with the foreman, maybe the PM, and you just have a micro pull plan session just for their task, just for their task for that first week. And you might have that plan session for 15 minutes and then they hit the ground running. And it just helps you prepare, you know, where normally you would feel so unprepared, maybe you would delay the start date, or maybe you start but you're not efficient because you really weren't prepared, you just hit the ground running and didn't know where you were going.

So I learned about these micro pull planning sessions, that was one thing that's sticking in my mind right now. So you learned that as a presentation that Skinder Construction let out on? Yes. Do you remember what the name of the presentation was? It was called TI Building, Building TI, Investing in Time, Not Wasting Time.

Okay. Yes. Do you feel like you can personally take the information and apply that tomorrow, starting when you get back to work? I can definitely start it tomorrow. I don't have a very small project to apply it to right now.

But you know, with a lot of the jobs that we do dealing with federal funding, public financing, the owners never know when they're going to close on their deal. They never know when they're going to close on their financing. So the start date is always very dynamic, you never really know. So usually when the start date is delayed, you know, your subs might lose interest. They might pull their foreman and put them on other jobs, you never really know.

So I could definitely apply this micro pull planning session if need be. Anything else you'd like to share? Any other things that you've learned today that you want to share with the constructor audience? I would just say that IPD... Integrated Project Delivery.

...is very important and I wish more owners would get on board. Because if we can implement, you know, if we can get our trade partners on board early and get them involved in the planning process. You know, a lot of guys talked about eliminating shop drawings. No one likes submittals. No one likes going through, you know, 100 RFIs before the job even gets started.

So I think that integrating all the trade partners and the GCs up front before we even start construction drawings... This podcast exists to help property owners build trusting relationships with their project teams. Eric is asking property owners to get more involved and I concur. My next interview is with Laura Wake-Ramos, a project engineer with Mortenson Construction. She is there and has only been at her company for a few months yet, but she has some awesome things to say.

Listen in. So I'm a project engineer with Mortenson Construction. I've been with the company for one year. This is my first LCI congress and I'm really fortunate and happy that I was able to go this year, that it happens to be in Chicago. I'm new to the organization as well, so this was like a great intro to learn what Lean is all about and my company's role in Lean and implementing the processes.

My big takeaway from this conference is that people are our biggest resource and that we need to build our people first in order to create change. So I took my biggest takeaways from that is I like to implement these ideas on my own project team. I've been working on my project at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood and I continue to be involved in the company but also the organization industry to be the leader for change. Awesome. So what are some, do you have any specific things that you feel like you can implement right away?

Any specific like tactical process? Yeah, well in my role I like to implement technology and what we use in the field specifically. I want to look at my thinking to analyze what we are doing now, how we can improve it. But one idea too that I caught on from the conference was we should focus on outcomes, not necessarily processes solely. So we need to think of where we want to be and then the team or individual can figure out the best way to get there because that's where how innovation happens and change happens is identified the goal and then the team can carry what that process is.

This is where innovation happens, she said. Focus on the outcomes and let the processes and tools that are available apply to the specific scenario, letting the team member have autonomy to make decisions on how best to execute. This is the last interview you'll hear on this episode. It is a bit longer and it is with two people. It's with Ashley, the industrial engineer I mentioned earlier and she has process improvement and lean manufacturing background.

Hospital process improvement as well. The man I interviewed here in this interview, the second person, didn't really want to share his information because he just shifted companies and didn't know what his company policy was. But let's just say that he is Alan for reference. He's in the latter part of his career. He has been about 20 years in the industry.

He has a PhD in I believe he is saying project management. Wow, okay that's great to know. You probably have a wealth of knowledge coming to this conference with. So are you... Different perspective?

Yeah, different perspective. So it would be great to hear what both of you are grasping for. You have the general lean, not necessarily specific to construction background. You've been in construction seems like the whole time. Just to get a general sense, what would you say your big takeaways, your key takeaways are as a result of some of the sessions that you've attended so far?

I feel like the big takeaway was that my firm is pretty well positioned with a lot of the things that we talked about here. I feel like they are already doing a lot of it which is reassuring but also I feel like I was hoping to get something more that I didn't know but I didn't know what I was going to really get. So I think overall I'm satisfied because I did learn about more like the construction aspect of it and how that plays in and how lean is being taught or at least communicated to the construction industry.

So that helps me learn about how I could apply it. I didn't come away with any like, oh yeah, that was really cool, I should do something about that as soon as I get back to the office. But I do think the biggest takeaway I would say is the Toyota Kata workshop I went to because I've heard of Kata and I've seen it done in a hospital setting but not from a service industry perspective which I would consider construction kind of service. So the problems we're solving are more like project now, it's not necessarily operational like long term we've had this problem.

I mean like it could be but I think that was something I could probably take away and maybe apply which I thought that was pretty cool. So I guess I kind of like contradicted what I just said because I did learn something I could take back now that I remember. See aren't you glad I asked this question now? You can actually take something and apply it. Now you have set your intentions so that's good.

I think it's interesting to sit back and see how the industry has changed. And the Kanba on board and that concept was actually like a 1920s idea coming out of the United States. Adopted into Japan in the 40s when Eisenhower went and reestablished Japan and the Toyota Weavers came to adopt some of those and put the first original three S's and then Western with the maturity of it developed the rest of the five S's and some of the other practices. But the fundamentals of lean, the 1985 20 terms from the MIT paper has been in evolution ever since the Industrial Revolution.

So it's over a couple hundred years old in truth but we market it, we package it, we brand name it and we get movement towards something that's new. So the best ideas are actually old ideas with new names on them which I think is fascinating. However what's good to see and I think what's really promoting lean and the way that we're moving is as much a cultural aspect of our nation and the expectation of our younger generations. So the millennial generation is like the largest group to come through the United States has a general perspective of what their life should look like.

The level of engagement that a typical young person wants from a career is higher than it was in the 50s where everyone came and did their job and colored between the lines and the top down forms of control and management and all of our MBA programs and things are designed and supported in that era. Now we're shifting into a new era of self realization and self actualization. The new generations have availability to resources at their fingertips. They don't need to memorize or follow steps because they can look it up in seconds.

And so what they're looking for is the ability to evolve and create and to add value to things that just goes hand in hand with some of these philosophies. In the 1920s Taylor did it with scientific management at Ford Motor Company. They inter replicated through other studies to develop our 19-20s vision of what an industry should look like. It folded over into construction as a quasi manufacturing activity but now we're looking at the lean aspects of it and moving down to the worker and we're engaging and empowering and respecting the things that we're here which is a common theme throughout all of the lean aspects.

That empowers and attracts and has gravity now in part because of all the young minds that are coming into the industry. So it's an environmental and it's a serendipitous thing that's happening that we're right here at the beginning of it. So it's an incredible time. I would never have looked at it from that perspective just given where I am being a millennial. No but it's something really interesting to be aware of that's taking place.

I don't know if the industry itself is aware of it. I don't think it's a strategic or planned as a scientist it's an environment. So I watch how many people are in what kind of classes, what topics are chosen to be discussed, how they're presented with an understanding of where they come from, how they're kind of formed. Just the reflection of what we see here is a sign of the times. This is what attracts the audience.

This is where the interest is. And if you look around at all of the people here we have a 30 to 40 year old generation that was on a transitional stage. There's very few of us still working. There's huge numbers of people coming in from your generation, the millennial generation into the industry. The models of the VPs and the older group, the golden generation is out.

The baby boomer generation is at the VP and the presidential level at the highest levels of our industries. And the translation of how we're moving down to this level where we're talking to a bunch of young people and getting a new movement off the ground is just incredible. And if you look at this over the last five or six years Ballard did a great job in 96 when he initiated this. From my perspective, he has another PhD that wasn't there when he started. But it is interesting to see it all come together.

That's awesome. Did you guys have anything else that you wanted to add, any highlights about the conference at this point? I think to your point about the boomers versus the millennials and what millennials are naturally attracted to in terms of trying to figure out how to add value, that kind of just reminded me of one of the other things I was looking for was how are people solving problems that I can apply. And one of the problems I was looking for is a lot of what I do is very early in the design process.

I do a lot of user engagement and current state baseline analysis and things like that. And then I just kind of hand off the information to the architects and hope that they remember it or use it. And one of the questions that someone in my office had asked me, one of the managers was how do we know that I added value? Not like me personally, but how do we know that all this information we're collecting is actually helping and not just making the clients feel better and feel engaged?

There's a little bit of discussion about it, but I'm still looking for that answer of how I can do that internally, make sure people are using information. That's the critical flaw with what we're doing right now. The metrics of measurement that we use in the industry are modeled off of a work in place. From a perspective of a capital project or an owner's perspective of the value of work that's put in place, I think against the cost. So the worth of the effort is judged by work in place, but cost.

And there's so many that's such a broad tool and there's no method to decompose it into points for us to learn from. So whether your aspect had value and where that value was recognized, we have no real way to say. Nothing on an industry level standard. A lot of research in the last 10 years has come through to try to develop a productivity standard for the construction industry, but we're using the framework of manufacturing, where they have consistent output and easily measurable quantities. We're in a very dynamic environment and we're not assembly lines.

Lean does a nice job of pointing out or laying the groundwork that what we need to measure is different. Our understanding of productivity needs to be based on something different than just straight output. That's not going to change anytime soon. I do see the change in the focus when I hear anything about conditions of satisfaction. So the client lists out all of their conditions.

If it is... Employment satisfaction. It could simply be budget, it could simply be schedule, it could be are we meeting a sustainability measure, whatever it is, reducing carbon, whatever it is. And consistently checking in with that owner from the stage that you get involved throughout the entire process to ensure that that is being met. I think that's something that we need to put a little bit more value on throughout the entire process.

And that's the thing that's a little bit tricky. You get what you measure. Exactly. And when we set up parameters like on the green program, if you look at how OSHA evolved and you look at how the green program evolved, heavily, a lot of federal emphasis. So it was not a bottom-up or grass roots or recognition that you're doing safe behavior that OSHA developed in the 70s.

It was a control structure and a penalty structure. Same thing with healthcare too. And I think that's why healthcare is asking for... Shifting gears. Yeah.

And that's the other thing I didn't hear. I did not hear a lot about corporate clients. A lot of it was healthcare, which is fine, because that's where they're asking for it. But I wonder after healthcare, where does it go? I think some people have talked about academic, academia because it's so expensive and that maybe the government will start cracking down on that too.

It's not so much a government crackdown. It's just a way to roll things out. A safety program is important. Safety is important. We were, as an industry, we were killing people.

So some level of federal involvement is good. And it was launched in the best method that was known at the time. Same goes for the LEED. LEED, yeah. With the GA.

A lot of regulations and point things. And if it wasn't regulated or categorized or tax breaks or some other things, would it really exist? Does it really add value to a client? If he has an environmental conscience, then perhaps. If he's not, then stockholders don't know.

The ones who invest in the projects, it's hard to sell. Well, we need a greener planet, so you're not going to get the same stock return. The metrics that drive our economy are a little bit problematic for the way that we look at this. It doesn't mean there isn't movement or room for improvement. When we're tracking in the LEED, some of the LEED philosophies here, we're looking at the workload, we're looking at the processes, we're asking for commitments on people to do work.

If you look at elements of the last planner system, we're communicating more. We're tracking whether we're able to complete our promises or not. That doesn't have anything to do with work in place or money necessarily. So when we're looking at those things, we're developing a sense of ownership. I think you'll hear throughout the common theme.

And we track it, but we don't tie it back to profit or our ability to execute work. That's where our disconnect is. As long as we're using metrics of cost for work in place as the project delivery framework for measurement, we're always going to have problems because we're always going to want to tend to go to what's the cheapest, how can we do more for less. It's the John Henry guy with a hammer, hammering away to build that tunnel faster than the machine. So just my little feedback from you guys, and I appreciate it so much.

I ask the same question as you, what industry is going to grasp this next? I'm always thinking about who the client is for our clients. How do you ensure that their vision is being met through the entire process of executing a project, starting from design to completion? I think those are the types of owners that are going to pick up and agree to executing a project in this way. And it's up to us to educate and bring awareness to them.

That's a good point. Very good point. And on the quality aspect, the Army Corps quality programs and certifications and control systems are kind of watched in the same way that OSHA was. And there's a lot of standards of practice and qualifications and certifications and checks and boxes and everything to do for quality. It's counterproductive to the lean initiatives because it's taking all the accountability and control away from the people who are creating the value and putting it in the form of a process.

So those things are still around to a large degree. So companies that are willing to deviate from that, healthcare has the capital to make these investments. They have the profits to make if they make good choices. And they have the freedom to execute. A lot of other industries are not so lucky.

All the federal agencies are going to have problems with this. Yeah, because they have to back up why they're investing in whatever it is. And the hospital industry is interesting because they still have regulation. So their end product still has to be to a federal level of quality to meet the commissioning processes. But the projects that are showing so far that if we don't have to regulate that as heavily and that we work with people and empower them to do a good job, that most people are happier doing a good job than they're happy doing a bad job.

I think as our numbers are decreasing and our workload is just backing up through the roof, it will as an industry, CII, LCI, all of the different AGC, all the different companies, all the different powers are going to start looking at the work environment for our current state of where our mindsets are of our young people. How can we get them to come work a construction job? The thing that attracted our parents or grandparents, that quality of work or inspiration, I work hard and I sweat it hard and I built this building or I built that road.

It's completely different. That pride is not there. Part of it is because we've driven it out because a worker is only worth as much work as he can put in place per dollar. So your worth doesn't have anything to do with your brain, doesn't have anything to do with the choices, doesn't have anything to do with the quality. It's how much you can put in place for the dollar you cost.

When we take a person and turn them into a machine like that, is it any wonder that we lose interest? Is it any wonder that our morale goes down? So construction is not a machine. Construction is a series of relationships, a series of agreements, promises, commitments. We don't have any mechanics or...

This millennial discussion is interesting to me. Has the constructor worker been viewed as a machine? Is this time a turning point for the industry, really? I think it is. And that's why I think this interview with these general contractors are even worth sharing.

You'll notice a common theme. Create change and transformation were common mentions amongst these interviewees. I'm with you guys. But how do we know we are ultimately providing value? We are delivering this value to our clients by signing on to lean methodologies.

Is this translating to people in the built environment, the end user, the customer of our customer? We will hear some perspectives from designers, the trainers, and the owners throughout the rest of this month. It's all about gaining perspective, guys.