Are You Building or Eroding Trust?
In the workplace or on projects, how do you decide to trust someone? Most people determine their level of trust by watching and judging others’ behavior. It takes a lot more time to build trust than it does for a single behavior to destroy it. Trust also has to be reinforced by consistent...
5 Project Interview Disasters – And How To Prevent Them
During 50 years as a consultant, I’ve participated in many project interviews held by potential clients as part of their consultant selection process. I’ve been a member of a proposing team, a selection panel member and interview coach at different times. I’ve seen a variety of interview...
What is Progressive Design Build?
Why has there been increasing interest in the Progressive Design Build (PDB) project delivery method? What is PDB? And why is PDB being heavily promoted by companies that provide Design-Build (DB) services? In both DB and PDB the owner contracts with a private entity to design and build the...
Team Communication No-Brainers
Teams come in all shapes and sizes. Team members come with diverse communication habits and preferences. As a project manager or team member how do you accommodate these preferences and still have cohesive team communication? Here are 5 No-Brainer Tips for facilitating effective team...
The Heart of Consensus Building
What makes people willing to work together to come to consensus over polarizing situations? Whether it's a construction project, new development, a piece of legislation, or any dispute, the way the parties interact and consider the issues will significantly influence that level of willingness....
How to Pick a Project Delivery Method
The conventional approach to deliver projects is the design-bid-build (DBB) method where a designer prepares the project documents and contractors submit bids for constructing the project. The low bidder gets the job, builds it and the owner operates it. Frustrated with dealing with low bidders,...
Smith-Culp’s Book Hits the Best Seller List!
The 2016 ASCE list of publications has just been released and The Lead Dog Has the Best View – Leading Your Project Team to Success by Gordon Culp and Anne Smith is on the best seller list. This book shows you how to make the crucial transition from project manager to project leader. Project...
Tracking Project Progress
What's the perfect "tool" for tracking project progress on engineering projects? Is there a "system" that can track all the following information that is typically needed to assess if you are on or off track on your project? Costs to date Invoicing and payments status Milestones and deliverables...
Managing Scope Creep
Scope Creep on a Project is Bad: - True or False? It depends! For the Client/Customer, it is bad if there isn't enough budget or it's an unwelcome surprise, or it could be good if it adds value to the project. For the Consultant/Provider, it could be good as it adds to the value of the services,...
Defining Customer Expectations
How do you know what your customer/client really wants before you start work on their project? Just saying you always meet with the client at the start of the project sets a low bar. Often, they are clearer about what they don't want than knowing what they do want. Just hearing their demands and...
Effective Conflict Management
Anyone like to get bad news? How about "surprise" bad news? You've probably been on the receiving end of it, so you know what you felt, panic, disappointment, anger, hurt, fear, stress? How did you react outwardly? Be honest, did you "Kill the Messenger" - Fight Response or "Raise the Drawbridges"...
Win-Win Resolution Process
Have you encountered situations where you have observed or are dealing with two opposing positions that seem to be mutually exclusive and there seems to be no hope that they can be reconciled? Often it seems impossible to resolve because people get personally invested in their positions and to...
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