Chapter 10 - Controls vs Experience

the calm path to success

Early in my career, I really struggled with all the various checklists, guidelines, etc. that dictated how I performed my tasks. I believed I was ready for the world and should not need these to perform my work. This was obviously my ego speaking of course. You may be new to the industry and experiencing the same thing. Read Chapter 13 - Ego versus Confidence and you will learn how dangerous this use of Ego to overcome incompetence can be. One of the reasons I pushed back so hard on these “Controls” was that no one ever really explained to me why they were in place. Over the course of my career, little by little I began to piece together the puzzle of how they came to be and why they are so important. And believe me, they are important as you will soon discover in your career, but we will try to close down the gap of understanding them. If you are a free spirited entrepreneurial type (like me), you will find these Controls even more frustrating, so if you if you fit in that category, this chapter will be even more helpful. So sit back, relax and learn about Controls vs Experience.

To understand some of the foundations of the construction business, you need to understand a little about where the industries roots came from. This is a back in the day discussion so do not gloss over and zone out. Also understand this is my opinion. As my old mentor used to say, “I have opinions just not every one is correct”. I believe to understand where we came from is important though to understand where we are going. AI is going to change the industry so this should help establish a foundation for you to frame and develop this new tool. So now back to the story.

Originally the base of recruiting and developing contractors came from either family passing down the knowledge (Tribal/Guild Knowledge) or from formal educational knowledge (Institutionalized Knowledge). First off, don’t be offended by Tribal/Guild Knowledge and claim it is an appropriation of some sort. First, I don’t care and second it is not. It is a compliment on how knowledge was passed along before the days of formalized education. The information was passed on from mentors, elders, etc. through apprentice/journeyman processes and our industry did it for a long time. I believe this guild knowledge process was driven by the early Guilds from way back when but that is a guess. The development of formal education in construction management simple was not in existence until the 1960’s. While I am pleased we are developing the construction management programs at the collegiate level, it is still new relative to the timeline we have been building things and teaching stuff. So remember it is evolving.

Now as construction projects became larger and more complex, the companies grew and became bigger, the industry started to hire from the secondary educational system as a these also began to evolve to support the same growth. This probably started during the industrial revolution and powerhouse engineering schools like Lehigh, etc. started to provide these people along with the various technical schools (Brooklyn Polytechnical, Roger Williams, Virginia Tech, etc.) Most of these recruits fell into three categories: Engineers (Hated the desk life), Architects (Not artistic enough), Everyone Else ( People who’s families probably owned Construction Companies and viewed it was a requirement to go to secondary education). This group entered into the construction industry and they morphed with the Tribal/Guild Learners. Combined this group developed company structures for larger construction companies or projects based on a blend of Tribal/Guild and Industrial Knowledge. This group did look to one engineering group specifically in developing these models though. This was the Industrial Engineer. Most of the Controls that are so culturally ingrained in our business come from these Industrial Engineers for this was the only model that was available to follow at the time.

This is actually fascinating in some regards and also created some weakness that the industry is still trying to figure out. The fascinating thing to me was the fact that the early builders of these large construction companies, in an attempt to create repeatable outcomes, look to the manufacturing model for use in construction. Think Henry Ford Model T construction processes or building buildings using industrial factory line systems. These early control pioneers believed that they could replicate the process and procedures typical to an assembly line to build buildings. It’s a bit of an over-simplification, but in my opinion that is how many of these companies started building their controls. If you disagree let me know but based on everything I’ve read, experienced and have been told, this is how it developed. This blending of Tribal/Guild Knowledge and Institutional Knowledge (Industrial Engineering) created the foundation of all the processes we have in the industry. The repeatability aspect of industrial processes created the basis for the Controls you see in the construction industry and allowed the capturing of the the Tribal/Guild knowledge so it wouldn’t be lost. These Controls were also influenced by the engineers involved but all this did was further compound the controls process. As a civil engineer, I can attest that we are by nature process driven so it makes sense that these Engineer that transitioned to construction only reinforced this structure. Throw in some OCD architects that were frustrated non-artists living in an art rewarding playground and you have the early days of modern construction companies.

Now I may be full of it, but having looked at enough information and having grown up in one of these construction companies, I believe it. This is also my opinion as it’s formulated from working with some of the best in the business and this is their Tribal/Guild knowledge passed on now in a formal institutionalized manner. What I am simply trying to say is that in the early days of the growth of large construction companies, they were looking for ways to create predictable outcomes while building the various types in their industry. There were no systems to model from so they picked the closest thing and that was the industrial model of industrial factory output. You cannot deny that the US had not perfected manufacturing from the industrial revolution to the 1960’s and these elements that were taught in universities. So this was naturally leveraged to become the early basis for our industry. Fast forward, now there are plenty of higher education programs that teach these Controls but remember this is relatively new in the grand scheme of things. Also recognize that they are formally teaching the Controls and not really creating anything new per say though they try through the various research programs, etc.

Now you understand the “Why?” for the Controls. Every one of them was created from the outcome of a failure or from someone spending a lot of time developing them to prevent a failure. We use project controls for everything on the project. As a new person in the industry, spend a few minutes thinking about the basic elements that we apply these Project Controls too. What did you come up?

I do not think there is a wrong answer here unless you said something stupid like how to use the porta john, but I bet somewhere someone has written a checklist for ordering one or inspecting one for cleanliness or graffiti. (One needs to appreciate a run on sentence about a crapper)

Here are a few Controls combined with some sarcasm.

1. Building Shit - Everything we do from submittals to final QC is controlled by some sort of checklist.

2. Scheduling - Now you could say this would fall under building shit, but scheduling is a special animal now a days so I’ve been seeing more checklists and flow charts for developing them.

3. Estimating - These guys are kings of checklists from early project win strategy, counting widgets, purchasing subcontractors, etc. all has a list.

4. Safety - No safety program would be complete without a series of checklists. This is probably one of the most important ones as we want to see everyone go home safe every day right?

5. Quality Control - If Safety is the Queen of checklist, the Quality Control has become the King of Checklists. If you do not understand the reference, then I cannot help you. (Safety and Quality are the two sacred cows that one cannot pay homage too enough in the eyes of the Safety/QC pharisees)

6. Financial - As the margins are tight the controls are even tighter. Trust me. Weekly reporting for labor and productivity. Monthly reporting for Project and company margins, etc. I used to call if FAFO, Financial Analysis Forecasting Obsession. Trust me it is a thing.

7. People - the dreaded HR process though it should not be. Read the chapter on Staff Standups for Development.

I was getting tired of writing but you get the point. Controls are embedded into everything we do. You know how they got there and what they are, but do you understand really why we have them. This is where I always got stuck. Trying to explain to someone to comply with all these controls but I could never really put a finger on the true, “Why”, beyond “Just do what you are told”. It worked for me when I was younger but now we are gentler and kinder industry so maybe we should explore the real “Why” behind the Controls.