Construction Curiosities #109
A CM’s Super Powers | Superintendents sitting around the office
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter!
Happy College Football Week 1 !!
This weekly Newsletter explores the Curiosities of the Construction Industry. It's meant to help Drag the Construction Industry into the 21st Century by making you think, smile, and become motivated to drive innovation in your realm of the industry.
The Newsletter will focus on 4 primary areas of Innovation:
Technology & Tools
Growth Marketing
Upskilling/ Mentorship
Being People First in all of the Above
We won’t hit on each of these topics every week but that’s what is in rotation!
Summary
This week we will look at:
One Musing: A CM’s Super Powers
One Video: The History of Labor Day
One Social Post: We are NOT slow to adopt Technology
One Meme: Superintendents sitting around the office
One Musing:
This article was originally published in Construction Curiosities #46. It’s one of the Greatest Hits! Enjoy!
A Construction manager’s most valuable superpower is the ability to see around corners.
I don’t mean literally like AI is doing with lasers. I’m talking about having the experience and knowledge to be able to see what’s coming to create chaos around the next “corner” and therefore being able to create a contingency plan and implement it fast.
Years ago, I left a niche civil-type subcontractor and went to work as a PM for a Mechanical and Plumbing subcontractor. I knew how to be a PM but didn’t know the trade. I would sit down each Monday morning with the director and chat. He would always ask what I was worried about on my project. Even though the project was going smoothly, my consistent response was I didn’t know, what I didn’t know and something was going to jump up and bite me.
It never did, thank goodness, but I realized there was a HUGE blind spot around that corner that I couldn’t see.
3 Types of Corners
Industry corners - This is what is happening in the industry. Supply chain, lead times, pricing increases, labor shortages, etc.
How to Develop the Superpower: Intentionally work to stay up to speed on the industry news and trends. Read market conditions reports. Talk to suppliers and Professional Groups such as AGC.
If you understand early that your Generator and Switchgear are going to take 72 weeks for delivery, you can create a contingency plan. Maybe that means the Owner purchases the equipment way early during the design phase and it becomes an Owner Furnished- Contractor Installed item, just to get a spot in the factory line.
Company corners - This is what is happening within your company. Maybe it is a bottleneck within the process of the company, or maybe it is politics. Maybe it is just predicting what your boss will need next.
How to Develop the Superpower: Pay close and intentional attention to the inner workings of your company. Notice where other projects slipped up within the processes.
If you see the contracts or purchasing manager creates a bottleneck in the startup of every project which ripples into slow submittals and delayed equipment orders, be proactive. Maybe see if you can step in and assist in the process or “walk” the contract through to ensure there are no hang ups.
If you see the company is struggling with something, become an expert in the area of increasing importance. (See last week’s musing for the 6 Ways to Take Control of Your Career Development)
Project corners - This is the in-the-field type of things. It’s the “every subcontractor does this wrong every time” or the “Owner usually is slow to act here.”
How to Develop the Superpower: This one takes a lot of experience and intuition. These are typically your lessons learned. If you don’t have a lot of experience. Be intentional in getting advice from someone who does. Maybe a mentor, maybe the old crusty superintendent, maybe the trade professionals.
If you know that they “always miss laying out and installing access doors for fire dampers.” Get ahead of that and start talking to the appropriate folks early. If there is a certain field coordination issue you see all the time, get ahead of it. These are great things to discuss in Pre-Install meetings.
With some time, experience, and intentionality you’ll be seeing around corners in no time.
I’d love to hear some feedback on this one. What other corners are there in the industry? What are some things you do to develop this Superpower?
Want to be featured in a future Construction Curiosities Newsletter???
We have received a couple of great guest article submissions and will be posting them soon!
I’m still being the backlog. So do you want to be featured in a future Construction Curiosities Newsletter??
Welp, here’s your chance
There are only a few rules:
1. The Article has to be about something in the Construction Industry (duh)
2. The Article needs to be long enough to cover the topic but not a novel!
3. I get to insert Memes & Gifs within the article 😁
Submit your articles here: Construction Curiosities Guest Article Submission
One Video:
Why do we Celebrate Labor Day?
Do you know the violent history of how Labor Day became a National Holiday to unofficially mark the end of Summer?
One Social Post
One Meme
^ click image to play video on Instagram
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See y’all next week! ✌
