Construction Project Managers: Ten Tip Tuneup

Every Construction Project Manager can use a quick tune-up on technique. Here is a short list of ten things you can—and should—look at--right now!

TEN GREAT BIG THINGS, or…

The PM’s Preemptive Strike

By: “Coach Gary” Micheloni

1 ATTITUDE OF CONFIDENCE & COMPETENCE. Teach this in your organization. Our attitude is: “We’ve been doing this for years; we have the best people, the best equipment and use the best materials. We know what we are doing. You are lucky to have us. All of our people are thoroughly experienced.” When you teach this, and your field people buy-in to it, it will allow them to almost (mentally) “swagger” when they walk onto the jobsite! Do not allow your least-experienced people to speak to people outside of your company--inspectors, superintendents, owners. They will not represent you well, and outsiders might gather an incorrect opinion as to the quality of your overall organization.

2 KNOW YOUR JOB SCOPE. Don’t assume that you have to include an item simply because your client thinks that you should! Ask your project estimator to prepare a job summary of everything known by them to be included. Compare these items to the project specifications (sometimes estimators over-allow on the bid by assuming that something may be included). Confirm what is actually included—according to the specs. Do not offer to do something for free, simply because your estimator thought it might be included. If it’s in the project documents—then you do it!

3 SINGLE-ISSUE ITEMS. Each letter, RFI, memo, e-mail, etc., written for the project should address one item only. Do not combine multiple issues into the same document. There should be no exceptions to this rule, because it doesn’t help your cause. You might save a bit of time when you write the initial RFI or letter, but you’ll ultimately spend more time—later—sorting out things.

4 “ASAP” IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD. Stop using the term “ASAP”. When you need an item, you need it by a particular day. State what that date is. If you really need to know something tomorrow, you can’t ask for it “as soon as possible”, because your client might think that next week is as soon as it is possible! ASAP is for other companies, other clients, other suppliers and subs.

5 THE MAGIC OF RFIs. Use RFIs whenever possible, instead of letters. Good RFIs always assign a priority, discuss time and money consequences, and leave the ball in the client’s court by asking “How are we to proceed?”, or something very similar to that. Ask the question; indicate that money and schedule consequences may be an issue, and conclude with, “How are we to proceed?” Set up your RFIs so that they are in your computer, and are easy to generate, each with its own RFI number. A smart PM will also track the number of days it takes for an RFI to be answered.

6 CONTROL AT THE PRE-CON. Establish at the pre-construction meeting exactly how RFIs and change orders get handled—don’t be afraid to put the “c” word out there! What, EXACTLY, has to happen BEFORE you can proceed? Who, EXACTLY, has to sign? When, EXACTLY, is it paid? You can either ask now, when it’s not an issue—or beg later, for your money. Which is smarter?

7 QUANTITY AND QUALITY. Realize that you can’t have too many good RFIs, letters, memos, change order requests, and so on—especially if you ever get to court! Know this: if you ever proceed to a claim or to court, you will wish that you had lots of RFIs! Give yourself every advantage.

8 JOB BOOK. Create a job book. A good job book is a 3-ring binder with at least these sections: a. scope of work, quantities, budget, cost codes; b. contract docs; c. letters to your firm; d. letters from your firm; e. inspection & survey requests; f. RFIs and log; g. change orders and log (and requests, proposal requests, quotes); h. submittal log; i. billings; j. specs/soils report/permits; k. schedule. The job book is always up-to-date and can be carried by the PM into the field, because the office has this info, as well.

9 NUMBERING. All correspondence from your firm (letters, RFIs, quotes, change order requests) get numbered, each with its own sequence. This only sounds difficult—once you set it up this way, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

10 TIME & MATERIALS WORK. Realize that, when you perform some work on a T&M basis, rather than on contract, the very BEST you can hope to achieve, is to simply “break even”. That’s the best! And some of the work, which you have reason to believe will be signed for, will NOT be signed for. And some of the work which is signed for, will ultimately not be paid for! This seems to be some kind of a cosmic law, and everyone is affected by it. Don’t be afraid to do T&M work, just remember how absolutely critical it is that every ticket be signed. You can not be too anal about this! Teach this to your foremen.

RESOURCES:

Coach Gary’s Corner: Preserve your profits and your job! Get free reports you need for your own business. Go to www.FullContactTeam.com, and click on the link near the top of the website page. The reports are free; not knowing the info is very expensive! Want to learn a bit faster: Join the “Team”. The best athletes and their teams use coaches—and continue to use them--even after they become great. How about you? Got a coach to take you to the next level? You need a process. How about one that’s pretty darn simple, but extremely effective? Masonry readers get this report for free.

Check out the other updates and info that will help your projects. Also, you can get Coach Gary’s book “Get Paid for a Change!”, and his new CD, “How to Become the Leader Your Team Needs!” Go there now.

Gary Micheloni is a working project manager, speaker, author, consultant…