The most significant “hiccup” on any job comes when people are unclear about Direction! People need, and even want to know three things: Where are we? Where are we headed? And how are we getting there? When they aren’t clear, they move with more caution and less fluidity with each other. When they are clear, the sky is the limit!

 

Ken Dunham, helps teams get clear and aligned to the direction. He has developed a highly refined approach, Successful Project Planning (SPP), to examine all expectations and possible roadblocks to a project – before construction gets underway.

 

The positive results of Successful Project Planning range from improved team communication and relationships to a clear understanding of how we define success and what we must focus on in order to be successful. By starting the conversation through an open format, all stakeholders on the project are encouraged to be involved at a higher level of clear and direct communication with each other.

 

Facilitated by Ken Dunham, current owner of KRD Consulting and past Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational Development for a large, Dallas-based General Contractor, the team-building sessions have numerous objectives:

• Clarity in team goals for a shared vision,

• Clearly defined and understood roles,

• Established ground rules,

• Shared agreement on expectations,

• Shared understanding of how we make decisions.

 

Team Communication

According to Leon Davis, a Client Director, SPP helps put everybody on the same page about the construction process. “By getting a feel for the people you’re dealing with on the team, SPP makes sure everybody is aligned with a common goal,” he explains.“SPP is a nice, even safe zone where everything can betalked about. As long as things are going perfectly, everybody’s happy and moving along. But when you face an obstacle or disagreement, the rapport you’ve established with SPP helps diffuse difficult situations.”

 

Davis’ client, Southern Methodist University, was new to SPP when he introduced the concept to Trisha Mehis, Senior Project Manager and Director of Resource Management Services for SMU’s Office of Planning, Design & Construction. “SPP was well worth the time investment. The process helped build a great consensus between everybody and put us all on the same team,” Mehis says.

 

After using SPP for SMU’s new 45,000-square-foot Annette Caldwell Simmons Education Building, this GC has been selected for several other projects.“I attribute this to the first SPP meeting we did have,” Mehis states. The university has even considered making SPP a requirement in working with other contractors.

 

Relationship Building

Jimmy Winkler, Project Director, has found that SPP helps to bring together different factions within a team. The process has been especially helpful in his work with the Dallas Independent School District, which essentially has two client leaders, DISD and the program manager, Parsons. “There are a lot of different layers of supervision and management that need to be blended together,” Winkler explains.

 

Brian Smith, Construction Manager for Parsons, says that his experience with SPP was important to understanding all the team members. “The immediate impact of relationship building enabled the entire construction team to reach beyond the normal time, cost, schedule and safety initiatives,” Smith states.

 

Without the SPP kick-off meeting and subsequent reviews, projects would start more slowly, Winklersays.“SPP is a jump start to building the common relationships needed between the owner and the design team. Trust starts building sooner.”

 

Lillibridge Healthcare Services Vice President Stephen Owen says that without SPP, there would have been less efficiency and more time spent in becoming a “high- functioning” team. “SPP reinforces our relationships at the project level with participants that may be new to us.”

 

Pamela A. Spadaro, CCIM, senior vice president, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, for the Plaza at Preston Center project explains, “SPP allowed partners on the project to come together to voice their concerns, identify risks and communicate their expectations.”

 

Defining Success

Various steam members often have a different definition about a project’s success, according to one Project Director. “The architect may have a different definition than the contractor, and an owner may differ with the lender,” he says. “SPP gives everyone an opportunity to define what they consider success to be.”

 

For Brian Smith on the DISD project, SPP enhanced defining success for future projects.

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For Methodist Hospital for Surgery, a $40 million facility in Addison, Steele worked with Architect Don Powell of Boka Powell, who found SPP a positive way to overcome obstacles that can arise between team members. “There was no finger-pointing and no excuses,” Powell states.

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The client and other team members appreciate SPP because it gives them the chance to be heard and understood, Steele says. “They come away from the meeting feeling good that every team member is concerned with each other and it’s not all about us versus them.”

According to Steele, he’s learned from every SPP session he’s participated in because he gains a different perspective of the people on the team. “And it’s usually for the better,” he concludes.

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For Brian Smith on the DISD project, SPP enhanced defining success for future projects. “Learning from past
experiences,” he says, “a lesson learned approach was implemented, helping to improve total overall performance
which continued from project to project.”

Focusing on Priorities
Once a contract is executed, all parties are off to the races, focused mostly on the finish line, says Will Pender, Project Manager. “In business and in life the real substance, the things that matter, are the important items in between the start and the finish line,” he states. “SPP allows us to focus in and identify the important items before the project is fully commenced. With SPP, we remember these items we all agreed upon, before any decision is made by the team.” SPP has been especially helpful in focusing priorities in the complex Plaza at Preston Center project. One of the most important is that the client learns for certain that the entire team genuinely cares about the project. “With SPP, I know that my client is a fair person who cares about this project and its success,” Pender says. “Conversely, she knows that my entire team also genuinely cares about this project as much as she does. Without SPP, I do not think that these emotions or expectations would have been clearly explained or conveyed.”

Pamela Spadaro with U.S. Trust agrees, saying, “SPP helped prioritize issues and allowed for creative solutions for the Plaza at Preston Center.” These included finding ways to be more responsive to tenants and neighbors. “The ability to work at night with the sound wall was a great idea, the curing of the concrete and many other ideas have come from SPP.” Most helpful to Spadaro in her role were SPP discussions focused on budget priorities. “SPP led us to identify cost savings,” she states. Joseph Francis, a Senior Project Manager, agrees that SPP facilitates the team’s determining of priorities. “SPP helps make sure you’re actually achieving the goals of customer service that you set out for,” he says. Francis, who has participated in SPP sessions with his client Lillibridge, finds that the two major benefits to Successful Project Planning are easing the tension and reaffirming expectations. “By getting to know the team as people, tension is eased and a customer service touch is added,” he explains. “By reaffirming everyone’s expectations, strategic changes can be made early on to make sure expectations are met.”

 

On the DISD project, SPP prioritized risk factors by bringing them more into focus. “The approach helped identify certain risk factors that were shared among the group,” Brian Smith explains, “And we discussed how to help reduce or mitigate risks among the entire team.”

 

Conclusion
SPP has shown to be worthwhile in helping teams, especially on large, complex projects, in strengthening relationships, clarifying objectives and focusing on priorities. What would happen to such a project without SPP? Pam Spadaro responds, “The expectations of the owners and the risks with tenants and the project would not have been known. I also don’t think the parties involved would have come together as a team as much as they did. SPP facilitated communications and expectations.”

 

The Successful Project Planning approach allows for a smoother, more collaborative team environment in which to begin a project. Stakeholders learn about the project in a trustful, authentic way. “Our job is to ask the questions and ensure the stakeholders know the answers,” says Ken Dunham. “Through Successful Project Planning, teams will more easily meet time and budget requirements and improve their processes and systems, while building relationships with people they can trust."​