Archive for the ‘Project Management’ Category
| Newer Entries »Communicating through Documents & Deliverables
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
By Phillip Infelise, Vice Chairman
In our past blog editions, we have covered a range of approaches and services that Project Managers provide. Now, I think it is time to look at how we (should) communicate with our clients and our project team. Often it is not what we say, but how we say it. And written communication, deliverables, and documentation are needed to cover what we are not saying out loud.
Since we have come to accept that very few people ever read lengthy, detailed documentation—we need to adapt to that, and our documents need to catch the eye and focus on only the most important details. And they must be visually appealing to do that.
-E-mails should be written with all the protocol of a formal letter, not a sound bite. And the subject line should indicate whether action is needed or simply information is being provided.
-Action Items replace the former laborious Meeting Minutes so team members can focus on only that which is critically important.
-Project Memoranda seem to be a lost art and defers to e-mails, but there are circumstances when a situation or approach should be clarified in this more formal document.
-Deliverables should be boringly consistent – every document should be identical to any prior version.
-Color can be very effective if used appropriately. Applying red, yellow, green light symbols to Action Items can really grab the attention of the reader to their follow-up needs.
-Complimenting the client by using their logo on documents is a nice touch (make sure your company logo is not bigger or more prominently placed than theirs).
-File Identifiers are important on each document so folks will know where to find it in the electronic archives, often many years later.
-Communicate to the client with commonly used words, not industry-speak.
-Talk less, say more and communicate facts; don’t tell stories just to fill air time.
-Be an Advisor, not a Reporter, as clients needs to know what is coming around the next bend, not hearing what already happened in the last few weeks.
-Phone Conversations is still an important form of communication particularly when sensitive or personal information is forthcoming in a written document and needs prior context.
Many times, a solid document/deliverable can communicate in a graphic way what would have taken thousands of word to describe. Knowing when to talk and when to document is an acquired skill.
Finally, as a member of our national marketing team, I look at every document we produce as Project Managers to be an opportunity to extend our brand with a consistent identity that is recognizable and replicable. That is to say, I want each client and project team member to look at a document we produce and immediately know – “that’s a CresaPartners piece.”
In the next blog edition, let’s have a little fun and look at some acronyms and industry speak that baffle our clients. Maybe we will even make a few 2011 resolutions.
Tags: corporate real estate, PM
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Alternative Workplace Strategies at Work, Part II
Friday, December 17th, 2010
By Robin Weckesser
In Part I of this series, I began talking about a growing trend that I have termed Optimizing Workplace Plans (OWP). I discussed the three main forces behind this new phenomenon: economy, technology, and culture. Now, I’d like to focus on the main characteristics of the OWP and how they can work for your company.
New Systems at Work
Tied to these drivers, many companies have implemented new space plans with common characteristics. These include:
-Smaller workstations. While the overall footprint per employee is reducing, so is the size of workstations. Cubicles that have traditionally been 8’ x 8’ are now often 6’ x 8’. Though smaller, they are designed to be more efficient to encourage interaction and communication, while providing appropriate space for “heads down” work. They are also relatively inexpensive to install, since the economy has driven down the price of furniture.
-The new cube. The traditional cubical, with walls on all sides to provide standing privacy and isolation, is evolving. Now, as the footprint is shrinking, the walls of the personal bunker are coming down and giving way to space that supports team collaboration and interaction. Still, seated privacy allows for heads down work and a place for personal items.
-Reconfiguration. To fill empty seats and the associated feeling of being disconnected, Project Managers are consolidating and “restacking” staff in many locations. This brings employees closer together, and it also may allow companies to sublease the vacated areas, if lease terms permit.
-Virtual offices. As stated earlier, the number of remote work settings is proliferating, thanks to broadband wireless for laptops, smartphones, iPads, and virtual webinar meetings. Today’s “office” may be a den, coffee shop, cafeteria, train, mall, motel, etc.
-Hotelling. While there’s still a need for a home office base and group meetings, the idea of one person per cube is yielding to shared space. With hotelling, employees sign up for office slots, planning their schedules to best utilize time in the office and off-site. Related to this are new mobile furniture solutions such as file cabinets that allow workers to transport their belongings from place to place while they are on-site.
-Open spaces, common areas. Along with cubicle downsizing, tenants are also revitalizing their worksites through spaces that support formal and informal communication, interaction, and knowledge sharing. Build-outs typically promote comfortable, collaborative work areas; soft seating; and open environments with workstations that allow staff to view the entire area. Ultimately, the aim is to facilitate communication and create a more enjoyable place to work.
Tied to the above, more companies are engaging in sustainable practices, which promote healthier worksites and don’t necessarily add additional expenses. Studies show that going green is another way to improve morale and give companies a competitive edge.
Other benefits of OWP include staff recruitment and retention along with better social networking. But bottomline savings are cited by most companies as the number-one reason to implement new workplace solutions. For those companies that might question an initial investment in OWP, it’s hard to argue with increased overall productivity and faster time to market for products.
Boiled down, the workplace is now often viewed as a communication tool that supports a process; that process is product development.
Will It Work for You?
Of course, all new programs come with trade-offs and growing pains, including the reluctance of some senior managers who may have entitlement issues with titles and corner offices. They may also have concerns about managing remote staff who don’t have 9 to 5 accountability. To be sure, it’s a new paradigm, and new management skills may be required. Staff at all levels will need to adjust and strive toward new levels of trust. This should become easier as new workplace strategies become more mainstream and companies accept the need to focus on the common good.
How, then, should companies get started? There are various scenarios involving in-house versus outsourced responsibilities and the roles of upfront Strategic Planning and Project Management implementation. While you will want to conduct your due diligence and review different options, we have found that an advantage of using outside, objective consultants (preferably in a real estate advisory firm that provides fully integrated corporate services) is that it is easier to arrive at consensus.
In the final analysis, the success of this process depends on how well companies align their workplace strategies with their business plans—and how well plans are executed. In any event, it may be time to look ahead as the office of the future takes shape today. Time to embrace this new paradigm I’m calling Optimizing Workplace Plans. So, consider what’s missing in your workplace…and plan to optimize it moving forward.
Tags: corporate real estate, workplace strategies
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Alternative Workplace Strategies at Work, Part I
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
By Robin Weckesser
The idea of alternative workplace strategies is not new. But while companies have for some time tried to improve their workflow and reduce expenses, the process and implementation have changed dramatically. Today, thanks to advanced technology, a cultural shift, and economic conditions that prompt downsizing, more tenants are addressing the physical requirements of their organizations—and in many cases, they are seeking new workplace solutions.
In the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, which tend to be at the forefront of technology and lifestyle trends, more tenants are now planning for the workplace of tomorrow. In San Francisco, younger generations of web and social/digital-media companies are demanding creative space alternatives. Throughout the area, start-ups as well as established companies are benchmarking against companies that have saved significantly while also improving their productivity and morale. Whether companies are renovating existing space or relocating, they need put these concepts to work—and they are often turning to experienced Project Managers for help.
While the conditions still favor tenants in the majority of markets, tenants have an opportunity to exercise their leverage in negotiations with landlords. This includes pushing landlords to contribute to workplace solutions, especially through tenant improvement allowances.
Indeed, we are witnessing a new wave of organizations that are striving to do more with less. Which leads me to suggest a new term to describe this growing trend: Optimizing Workplace Plans (OWP).
Drivers at Work
Let’s take a closer look at the forces behind the workplace optimization phenomenon:
-Economy. Slow job growth, including high underemployment (full-time workers) continues to stall the recovery. Downsizing continues in many sectors, and this has led to reduced footprints in a majority of offices. In this environment, where budgetary constraint is still the mantra, there is typically a lack of “buzz” due to so much vacant space. And while it is challenging for companies to economize and innovate at the same time, we have seen companies accomplish both. To illustrate the economic impact of OWP, consider that the old model of 300 SF/person is now generally 240 SF/person or less. This space reduction alone translates into savings of at least 20%.
-Technology. While the face of the traditional office started to change years ago, what has truly accelerated this transformation are the technological advancements that allow employees to work virtually, anywhere, at any time. Today, as bandwidth on wireless devices continues to increase, employees typically have at their fingertips all the information they need to be successful out of the office. At the same time, companies can more easily reduce their square footage—and enhance their bottom line. In the future, as video becomes more prevalent, virtual presence will deliver additional opportunities.
-Culture. This is not your grandparents’—or parents’—workplace. In many organizations, several generations are on the same payroll: Traditionalists (born before 1945), Boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1965-1977), and Millennials (born 1978-1999). The challenge at work is to address the different styles, values, and expectations—and to find common denominators. To be sure, Generation X and Millennials are much more comfortable with the digital world, multi-tasking, and electronic communication that frequently preclude the need for face-to-face interaction. And as use of social media explodes, these generations will continue to drive evolving solutions.
In Part II, I will discuss some of the characteristics of the new space plans that many companies are implementing as a result of these drivers. Then, I will talk about how OWP can work for your company.
Tags: corporate real estate, workplace strategies
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Revving the Relocation Engine: RPM
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
Now that we are clear on PM and CM differentiation, let’s throw in another acronym: RPM. In the world of Project Management, that stands for Relocation Planning and Management. On the long and winding project path, during the relocation phase, the rubber truly meets the road for our clients, so we need to pay particular attention to the curves, steep grades, and potholes that come with this process.
Managing change is tough. Project Managers could even be called TMs (Transition Managers) or CMs (Change Managers), but that would be confusing, wouldn’t it? Most brokerage firms concentrate on the design or sticks and bricks phases and leave clients to their own devices during relocation. We have a very different – and perhaps enlightened – viewpoint that nothing is more important to more people than the success or failure of the actual relocation. It is embodied in our “Relocation Dictum.”
“During 99% of the project, only 1% of the client universe is directly impacted. During the final 1% of the project, during the Relocation, 100% of the employees, clients, vendors are affected. The goal therefore has to be a 100% seamless transition.”
Consequently, we need to focus as much on the Relocation Phase as we do on the Project Planning, Design, and Construction Phases. To not do so is to abandon the client at a critical time; perhaps when they need us most. However, solid RPM consulting starts way back at the beginning of the project, and RPM consciousness should never lag throughout, as there will be transition trauma from start to finish. Some key points to focus on for successful RPM:
- Elevate RPM to a strategic position in the overall project planning.
- Establish good department contacts and business-flow understanding during early program interviews – what you learn will have big impact later.
- Develop a transition strategy that minimizes downtime.
- Over-communicate to staff and the project team throughout the relocation process.
- Pick a strong Move Captain from each department as they will be your chief lieutenants.
- There is no detail too insignificant to attend to.
- Develop a platform where all vendors are speaking to one another and understanding the overall sequence of events.
- Tote moves are in; boxes are out.
- Staff the move 24/7 so there is continuous coverage – hope that it is so smooth that it is boring.
- Be willing to hold hands and be a shoulder to lean on. Change is traumatic and this is where our people skills are really needed.
Three months post occupancy, few of the client staff will recall who did their lease or may not even know who the Project Manager was during design and construction. But they will surely know who helped them with their relocation.
In my next entry, I want to look at how we use precise documentation and deliverable formats to enhance our communication with clients and project teams.
What was your last office move like?
Tags: corporate real estate, PM, relocation, relocation planning and management
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Is it CM or PM?
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
In this edition, I want to clear up the distinction between Construction Management and Project Management. All too often we are referred to as Construction Managers (CMs) even though we call ourselves Project Managers (PMs). I want to be sure that everyone understands what we are, what we aren’t, what we do, and what we don’t do.
As I see it, PMs are not CMs as they do not directly manage construction. Applied today on most corporate projects, CM is simply a derivative form of General Contracting (GC), and often it’s difficult for the layperson to differentiate between them. Traditionally, CMs oversaw a series of subcontractors who were directly contracted with the owner, usually for a specific fee override on direct costs, with our without risk. Today, however, it is more typical that CMs:
-Act in place of GC but generally perform in the same capacity providing pre-construction, providing on-site supervision, overseeing sub-contractors, et al.
-May operate at risk or for a fixed fee at no risk - this is where the roles get cloudy.
-Oversee a GC who acts as a consultant to the owner, often incentivized by derived cost-savings.
-Hold contracts of subcontractors, directly liable and accountable for their performance.
-Pay subcontractors and withhold payments until work is satisfactorily complete.
We are PMs, not CMs. As PMs, overseeing the entire project process—ensuring that construction activities are accomplished in a timely and budget-compliant manner—is only one of our myriad responsibilities. As PMs, our responsibility regarding direct construction is only as follows:
-Direct the process to select GC or CMs through a process detailed in a previous blog entry.
-Oversee GC to assure that quality, cost, and schedule are in compliance.
-Work closely with GC or CMs during the value engineering process.
-Hold no contracts of subcontractors in any circumstance.
-Little or no direct contact with subcontractors other than at OAC (Owner, Architect, Contractor) or GC/sub meetings where specific sub issues may be reviewed and resolved.
-Periodic site and final punch walks with site superintendent to view means, methods, quality, and finish.
-Weekly interaction at project meetings, OAC, working through changes orders, etc.
In sum, PMs do not act as CMs, but oversee their activities to achieve a perfect outcome relating to quality, cost, and schedule. As PMs, our scope entails all aspects of the project from early conception to post-occupancy. Overseeing construction is just one facet of the process, albeit a very important one, considering that more than 50% of the overall costs are embedded therein. Our total Process Management approach suggests that we should be called Process Managers; but articulating that differentiation may call up even more questions.
In my next entry, I will dive into Relocation Planning and Management (RPM) – why it is so critical to our overall Project (Process) Management approach.
Do you agree with my differentiation?
Tags: construction management, corporate real estate, PM, process management
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Hidden Challenges, Lurking Solutions
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
Glad that you wanted to check in on our fourth edition.
I promised that today we would address some of the most daunting challenges our Project Managers face on a day-to-day basis. How we overcome these challenges proves our mettle as Project Managers in an often chaotic project world.
Budget Creep. This challenge is directed by the client. I treat the client’s money as my own once entrusted with a project budget—and I am extremely value-oriented. After 30+ years doing this, I am convinced that Change Orders don’t bloat budgets; most of the time clients do it themselves. Imagine when we are put in the position of saying “no, we should not spend that money” to the client whose money it is. I do it all the time, and I think they appreciate it in the end
Car-Shopping Syndrome. Don’t fall in love with it if you can’t afford it. Clients, like all of us, will tend to fall in love with a strategy, design solution, or furniture look before understanding the overall cost impact of it. Our challenge is to not let them do that. Always talk overall cost before they become attached to a solution.
Architects lack of Cost Awareness. Obviously not all, but some (more than a few) architects pay little attention to the value or cost of a particular solution. My simple edict to architects on my teams – when you present a solution, it must be accompanied by an estimated cost (see above).
Brother-in-Law Syndrome. Being forced to use vendors that are unqualified to do the job is a recurring theme. If we hear about it in advance, we may pass on the assignment simply because we know the problems it can cause with the other professionals around the table who are selected based on their qualifications, not on their (family) contacts.
No Client SPOD. Having no single point of decision-making on the client side of the table often puts schedules and budgets at risk. At the end of the day, decision by committee often can’t work when fast tracked projects need immediate decisions to meet aggressive schedules. Managing the politics on internal decision-making is a key challenge to overcome.
Managing Change. As Project Managers, what we really manage is change; not just the project that facilitates that change. Too often, poor decisions are made simply because it suggests change from the standard operating procedure. Project Managers feel much more engaged when their experience can be brought to bear to push positive change in a reluctant world.
These are but some of the myriad of challenges that our Project Managers face, each likely having their own priority list. How we bring our experience to bear on these challenges is where we earn our keep and our client’s confidence.
Which challenge do you or your Project Managers find most daunting?
Next visit. It’s about time, let’s clear up the confusion between Construction Management and Project Management – who does what, which is which, what it isn’t. Ciao.
Tags: project management challenges
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Draft Choices
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
Back again, are you? Good to have you.
Last month we profiled the New Day Project Manager. A very eclectic mix of skills don’t you think? To act as a high performance Project Manager (PM), you need a very high performance project team. I thought it would be good to show you how we go about picking our first round draft choices in concert with our client’s internal team. As you might imagine, our PMs are inundated with vendors/providers of all varieties wanting to carve out an “inside track” to some of our clients and their projects. If we announce a major new project, we become every vendor’s new best friends. We get constant offers of “referral payments” from vendors of all types. In our industry, it is the hidden referral fees that we worry about. We need to be constantly vigilant to protect our objectivity, reputation, and integrity by keeping our vendor relationships totally transparent.
Our rigorous Vendor Protocol outlines a “Do the Right Thing” approach to vendor relationships that sets out strict controls on the way we select our project teams. One violation is grounds for termination—that’s how seriously we take it since everyone is looking over our shoulder, as they should be! The basic components of that protocol and our approach to making the right draft choices and creating the perfect high performance project team include:
-Client First. The client’s procurement policies or desires control how we move forward.
-Respect. For any existing client relationships; but be willing to point out the not all past relationships will be perfectly appropriate to this specific project scope.
-Leverage. Our experience on similar projects to suggest a recommendation list of the best qualified providers.
-Process. Follow a step-by-step process throughout the RFP, short-list, interview, and selection phases that allow each vendor to put their best foot forward.
-Value over Price. Constantly remind the team members that we honor value over bottom line price every time. Unless the client says otherwise, of course.
-Give Back. For their efforts, we owe the team members a thorough debrief, win or lose, so that they can improve their game for the next time.
-Special Circumstances. Such as timing or budget constraints may dictate—on the rarest occasions—the need for the PM to bring forward an integrated project team of their own choosing to suggest to the client in order to be successful.
-Proof. If we have successfully executed a project team selection, the proof will be in the results. Does the winner want to work with us again on the next project and, equally important to us, do the vendors that lost want to participate in our next RFP process.
The right team ensures success and makes the high performance Project Manager look like a genius.
Next time, I will try to be provocative in pointing our biggest challenges as Project Managers.
What topics would you like to see covered relating to Project Management?
Tags: project manager, project team
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The New Day Project Manager
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
Welcome back.
Last month we defined our Project Management paradigm. Project Management in the New Day context is much more than overseeing design and construction efforts. Embracing that, I thought this month we could talk about what it takes to be a New Day Project Manager. It requires an interesting mix of skills that is often hard to define. However, try we must, and with that in mind the high performance Project Manager (PM) must possess all of the following:
- Clear Vision. (and a clear head) To see both the big picture strategy and the most minute details; often hundreds of them simultaneously. A need to know what happened in the rear view, and at the same time, look far over the horizon.
- Consummate Communications Skills. Both verbal and written. The PM needs to be able to describe technical things in layperson’s terms for the client, jump into the techno-speak when the techies talk; reduce a complex issue into a simple memorandum; and craft the perfect PowerPoint presentation to win Board approval.
- Listening Skills. Need to listen intently to needs, constraints, and expectations and translate those to a project strategy, a design approach, and a project result.
- Numbers. Uncanny ability to archive costs in the databanks of our brain, memorizing particularly important ones. We need to have the cost of everything that goes into a facility at the tip of our tongues.
- Sticks and Bricks. While we play more as an advisor/consultant than as a construction manager and downplay the importance of pure construction background, knowing the details of the process and the inner workings of the design and construction interrelationship goes a long way to establishing the credibility needed to manage the process.
- Penny-Pinchability. To protect every client dollar as if it was the PM’s own money, to be spent to enhance project value at every turn.
- Diplomatic skills. Like a UN representative – often negotiating territory between feuding departments and navigating Board and CFO approval.
- Manage both Up and Down. The PM is required to manage a myriad of complex details from the quarterback position to members of the team, but also required to “manage” the expectations of the C-Suite.
- Finesse. When managing a project team, a velvet hammer approach is preferred over the sledgehammer; the approach is required to achieve an “advocacy,” not “adversarial” relationship.
- People skills to empathize across the organization from the C-Suite to the mail room staff and support both extremes through tough decisions and unforeseen surprises.
- Broad Shoulders. For everyone to lean on and get advice and counsel; and to cry on when the trauma of the transition gets to be too much.
- Passion. Given the demands and the trials and tribulations, a PM truly has to love the challenge of this job and relish the results of a happy client in great space that has enhanced the client organization.
Tune in next time. Perhaps we can discuss how to put together the perfect high performance project team.
Cheers.
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Project Management for a New Day
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
By Phillip Infelise
Project Management. The term implies different things to different people. I want to offer a perspective of what it means in the context of the New Day Project Manager. In a perfect world, we would call it Process Management, since that is what we are really managing…an overall process…but that only confuses folks with vernacular, so we stick with Project Management. We whisper then that the New Day Project Manager manages the entire process that surrounds the more simplistic “project.” What is it that we actually manage is broken down into three buckets: Process. People. Projects.
Process is an expanded set of activities in our world – dream it, find it, design it, build it, occupy it. Most traditional PMs focus solely on the design and construction phase. If we have engaged the right partners on our project teams, that’s the easy part. Surrounding the sticks and bricks are the true hazards and pitfalls. The New Day PM is involved in the Strategic Planning and real estate on one end and Relocation Planning & Management on the other, effectively bookending the traditional PM mindset. We manage both physical and intellectual process, distinct activities as well as overall planning and communications.
People. The majority of the New Day PM’s effort is spent in managing the myriad of people on a project, including the internal team (client management, staff) and the external team (architects/engineers; contractors; cable, phone, security, and furniture vendors; specialty vendors like sound-masking, audio/visual, signage, graphics, and right down to the art consultant). In a large project, we can easily be talking 50 people or more. One classic, large law firm project included a total of 34 companies represented at an all vendor meeting. We practice a lesson taught early in pre-school – learn to play well in the sandbox; teach others to do the same.
More than anything, the New Day PM is tasked with managing the very client that hires him/her to manage everyone else. We are not shy about saying this, but managing the client expectations, their internal organization, and their spending to achieve their stated output is where we spend our time and efforts since that’s where we can add significant hidden value. We are “people people” that manage process.
Project. The projects we manage are diverse. We oversee the “dream it, find it, design it, build it, occupy it” effort to build a user’s space, be it in a standard office, a build-to-suit headquarters, a technical space in a flex-tech environment, a laboratory, or a special use building like a recreation center, sports facility, studio, church, school, what have you. Whatever the project, the process remains the same.
New Day PMs, thus, require a much broader set of skills than the old world PM. Beyond the sticks and bricks expertise, the new day requires strategic, financial, diplomacy, and communications skills only learned after years on the job. Building it is easy; managing the process and the people to get it built is the real challenge.
Tags: PM, process management
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