Dee Davis (00:00)
Some of the challenges you face when you're starting on a project, not from the beginning, but
20, 30 % in is that you have people that are established, you have processes that are established, have, let's call them attitudes that are established.
Good morning and welcome to the Management Under Construction podcast. I'm your host, Dee Davis, and you might notice I'm coming at you from a different space. If you're on the video, it certainly looks different, may even sound a little bit different. I'm back from Europe now and wow, what a trip it was.
So as soon as I got back from Europe,
I got a purchase order to go mobilize to a mega project in the middle of America. I am sitting somewhere in the middle I was back about a week before I got on a plane and flew out to middle America to do a massive project out here. I'm in a state I've never been in before. I just moved into an apartment in a town I've never been to before. And it's always a new adventure. The fun part of
projects is starting new ones. Like we've talked about, this is the honeymoon stage where I'm on my way to Disneyland right now on this project. And of course I'm catching a moving train. This project has been going on for a while and I'm catching it as it's going, which is always a really tough spot to be in. Some of the challenges you face when you're catching a moving train, i.e. starting on a project, not from the beginning, but somewhere.
20, 30 % in is that you have people that are established, you have processes that are established, have, let's call them attitudes that are established. And coming in as a new person into one of those projects can be really, really tough. I've done this dozens of times, so I know a little bit what to expect. If you're earlier in your career and you come into a project and you're thinking, wow,
What is going on here? There's people that might be a little tired. They might be a little grumpy. They might be having an attitude that you don't really appreciate. You have to realize that you're coming in with this shiny new attitude and shiny new ideas into this project. And the people that have been there, they're a little bit tired. They've been fighting an uphill battle for a while before you ever got there.
So it's kind of a hard place to be. And as a consultant, happens to me all the time where I'm coming in, not necessarily at the beginning, but somewhere a little bit later. Sometimes I'm brought in as late as like halfway through a project. There's a lot that has already gone on in this project. There's buildings that are already within a few months of being done where there's other buildings that are just barely getting started.
So when you're catching that kind of moving train, the best way I've found to handle it, if you're finding yourself in that situation, is to just step back and listen. Watch, listen, and learn. Find out what's going on. Talk to as many people as you possibly can the first few weeks that you're on site. Talk little, listen lots.
is the best strategy that I've found when you're brand new to a project,
especially when it's already been going for a bit. There's so much that you don't know, and there's so much that you have to learn. It's your job to get up to speed as quickly as possible so that you can be useful and ask smart, intelligent questions. In the very beginning of anything, there's no way you can ask smart questions because you don't even know what questions to ask yet. So watch, listen,
learn. People are not expecting you to come in to an existing project and come in with guns ablaze, and in fact, they're probably going to resent you if you try and do that. They want you to watch, listen, and learn, and
They will teach you, but you have to be patient. They're already doing their full-time job and teaching you what's going on and getting you up to speed might not be their highest priority. So when you're in this situation, just realize that it might take you a little bit of time to get up to speed. You're not going to hit the ground running the first week, not even the first month, maybe, depending on what your scope is.
and the size of project and how much time people have to spend with you. It's a lot like my philosophy when you're a brand new project engineer It's your first one. And I always say follow that foreman around like you're a lovesick puppy dog. Well, I'm following everybody around on this job like a lovesick puppy dog. Anybody who will let me listen to their conversation, will let me get up to speed, will spend a few minutes talking to me. I will go around and listen and talk to
anybody who can help me understand what is happening so that I can bring the most value the fastest without coming in guns a blazing thinking I know what's going on and that I'm going to come in there and just mess everything up. You have to take a few steps back and be willing to watch listen and learn. Big job issues are different.
than little job issues. Big job issues can be things like we've got so many contractors on site and different contractors are working in different buildings. Some are working on multiple buildings. Some are only working on one building. How do you keep communication going on jobs like that? On a really, really big job, sometimes you're not even sure who's in charge, who's making the decisions, who do you go to? That kind of stuff can take time to figure out.
So again, watch, listen, learn. Thanks for joining us and I will let you know how it's going. Bye bye.
