In this video, we're going to talk about how
to run a construction project step by step. By the end of this video, you'll understand
how running a construction project, whether it's large or complex, and running it well is
very possible if you know the component parts of how to do it and the steps to do it. So we're
going to go through the two things that everybody on the construction project should know in order
for them to be working as a collective team. The other thing that we get asked a lot is how do you
know if you have the right team? And there's three things that you can use to determine, three ways
to determine if you have the right people in the right seats and when you have those people, how
do you get them to communicate? There's two really key ways to get that done, and we're going to
show you that in this video and then lastly, no matter how big this project is or how complex,
there's one mindset I would call that you must have as you go through so that you can make sure
that you're fairly in a safe environment, meaning that you have all of your risks under control
and that you can run that project effectively and then really go home and be able to sleep
well at night because you have this one thing constantly under control. So let's get started. So
first and foremost, project management is complex. I remember when I was first an assistant
superintendent and then a superintendent, I thought that the construction process was-
it was extensive and it was overwhelming, and I didn't know all of the ins and outs of how I
should even just manage my area and let alone the entire construction project. So I was like super
zoomed in, focused on this part and that part, and am I going to get these all right and I realized
after doing a couple of projects, there really is a formula and if you follow that magic formula,
you could run a remarkable construction project. And so the projects that I was on typically were
like 50, 60, a hundred million dollar projects, sometimes up in the 150, 250 million range. And
if you get 'em going, they kind of start to run themselves. These keys that I'm about to show you
will help you to do that. The other thing probably some of you are asking yourself, well Jason,
that's fine. Those are big projects. What about the small ones? I'm here by myself. I don't have
a lot of help. I don't have a team. I don't have a system like you're talking about team members.
It's just me. How can I use the same pattern to run small projects? And I will say, you, well,
these patterns apply with the exception of maybe you don't have as many team members. But the
point is, I've run $200,000 projects, 2 million projects, 100 million projects, and the pattern
is the same. But the bottom line, the thing that I want to communicate is that if we don't follow
these keys, we are going to get overwhelmed. We're not going to make it home on time. We're not
going to be happy. We're probably going to suffer, and I mean this sensitively from some mild
depression or some massive anxiety because we're really worried about how things are going to go.
We're going to take on too much and do everything ourselves and just get worked into the ground and
burn out. And so my first message in this video is that construction is complex and you can't do it
all by yourself, and you can't just dive in and start to tackle it doing the tasks one by one.
We need to follow the system step by step, and then the system will enable the person you to go
run that construction project well. So the first thing you're going to want to do is understand the
project. I know that sounds basic and you're like, Jason, you're wasting my time right now, but I'm
telling you, we need to understand the project. And so the first thing you should do is get
the drawings, flip through all of the pages, flip through the specs and understand the prime
agreement. So drawing, specs, prime agreement, and get a general feel of what is it going to take
to build this thing? Where is it? What are the circumstances? When is it going to be done and
get that understanding. Now that's going to take a lot of time and a lot of work. So here's the deal,
grind, get it done, get a caffeinated beverage. Whatever you need to do, get in there and dive
in and figure that out. Now, I told you there's two things that your team is going to need to know
now. Number one, the typical details, the typical notes and the specification items that you're
most worried about. I'll give you a for instance, if you have an item where it says, Hey, you can't
strip these cast in place walls until seven days, or waterproofing may not be applied until 30 days
after the fact, or any other really stringent requirement that could affect the schedule or
the team or how you build it, you are going to want to pull those out and list those out. So the
project team knows. Then with the prime agreement, that agreement has certain provisions that might
also include the division one specifications that will explain to the project team the requirements,
the owner's requirements for that project. And that prime agreement is super long. But we
need to again, pull out the critical items from those requirements, from that agreement, from
those provisions, and explain to the team, Hey, watch out for these and watch out for these. If we
get this done, let's work as a team and let's move forward. So once you really understand the project
and you have all that cataloged or listed out, you're going to feel really confident and now you
might feel that you can go conquer this thing by yourself, that you can go slay this dragon by
yourself, but you can't. The next step is you assemble the right team. And there's a couple
of ways that you know have good team members, meaning that they're a fit for your construction
project. So the first one is the team members that you select and by the way, you should spend as
much time as you need to assemble the team. It's always first who and then what assemble the team,
who's going to build this? And then with the team, you figure out what you're going to do. So the
first part of knowing if you have the right people is do your skills and your abilities and
your personalities balance each other. Meaning if I'm like high level and I am a visionary, do
I have somebody on my team that is an implementer that's detailed that can really get down to the
implementation? So if you're assembling a team, make sure that you have complimentary skills.
The second point to make sure that you have the right people in the right seats is are they
a cultural fit, not just with the company, which is really important. So the company's
mission statement and the core values, that person has to be a cultural fit,
but also a cultural fit for the owner, what they're expecting and the team that's going
to be on site. So really having a vision of what you want that to look like is going to be
absolutely key. The third thing that you'll want to focus on is making sure that you're hiring
ideal team players and ideal team players. Like Patrick Le says in his book, the Ideal Team Player,
they are humble, hungry, and smart. So humble meaning that they're willing to dive in and dig
in with a team to accomplish anything hungry, meaning from a career standpoint or a growth
standpoint or a learning standpoint. They really, really just want to win. They're going to get
in there and they're going to get it done. And then smart means smart with people. It doesn't
just mean technically smart, it means, hey, this person can actually coordinate, communicate
with the owner, communicate with trades, communicate with the team. So those are the
three things that we really want to hire for as you're assembling that team and remember,
assembling the team is your number one priority and the biggest determinant of whether or not
that project will be successful. All right, so we're having fun here. I have four more key
points for you as we go through this step-by-step process. But first I'd like to ask you, if you
like this content, please and subscribe. We have about 10 million people in construction that we
must get these messages out to so that we can elevate the industry together. So please again,
like and subscribe. Love you. Alright, so for my next point, I'm going to label it as divide and
conquer. So I could say something boring, make sure everybody has their right roles. But no, I'm
just going to say divide and conquer. You cannot build this project by yourself even if you're on
the project by yourself. You cannot build this project by yourself. So divide and conquer. I want
to see beautiful, clearly written out scorecards and roles for everyone on the job. What are you
doing? What is the project manager doing? What is everybody else on the project doing? And make sure
that every key role, every bit of supervision, every geographical area that's covered has
somebody, a scientist, somebody running point. And that way you as a team can all stand where you are
and lift where you stand, meaning run point where you are in your role and divide and conquer. This
is one of the most important concepts that I could ever share with you. And it's not often done.
So be absolutely clear with everybody's roles, even if that seems prescriptive, even if that
seems like micromanaging, it's not. It's clear. And like Brene Brown says, clear is kind. We must
be clear about this. So divide and conquer. Now that you have everybody in their proper roles,
it's all about communication. I once talked to an international lean expert in, I mean, this guy is
the real deal. And he consults with companies all around the world, huge companies and he says the
number one thing that goes wrong in a company or a project or in a manufacturing facility, it
always comes down to communication. He said, Jason, communication is always the breakdown if
something's failing. And so you're going to want to really elevate your ability to communicate.
And once you have people on the right roles, now you need to communicate between those roles.
And so there's two things that you can really do to elevate your communication and number one is
to hold remarkable meetings. Meetings are not bad. Meetings are not a horrible if you do them the
right way. Meetings are where you get the team together, you communicate and you're actually
able to win as a team. In addition to meetings, you'll want proximity, meaning that the more
walls and doors you build between each other, the more barriers you have to communication.
So you'll want to at least have time where you can spend time face-to-face or be in an open
office environment or in a conference room or in brainstorming sessions or even poll planning or
scheduling together. Proximity is going to help you to increase that communication. So spend time
together face to face. And so those two things meetings, remarkable meetings, actually, I should
say that again, not meetings, remarkable meetings and proximity being together will increase that
communication now that everybody has their roles. All right, two more. Once you have everyone
assigned to a portion of the project and we know who's running point and now we're communicating,
the next thing we do is identify the biggest risks. Meaning that if I've assigned somebody to
a role or I know that they have a certain role on a project, I'm not going to sleep well at night
unless I know that the risks are covered. And I want everyone to see those risks, not just me. So
I will with the team, identify in a brainstorming session the biggest risks on the project, and I'll
put that on what's called a risk and opportunity registering. We'll cover that in a different video
on this channel. But that risk and opportunity register will outline, Hey, here are the risks
of the project. Here are some opportunities. This is what it costs, this is how much it costs
us by way of schedule and here's who is running points. So as a leader, I can trust that most of
the typical things are happening on the project, but I am going to check in and communicate with
the team members about the risks, and I'm going to monitor those with them and help them and coach
them and train them and be with them and connect with them as they manage them themselves.
So a great project manager, superintendent, or a great PR construction leader or a project
leader will always know and manage their risks. And lastly, monitor the numbers. I want you to say
something to yourself, I love numbers and numbers. Love me. I know that sounds silly, but say it
again. I love numbers and numbers Love me. You want to know if something's going wrong. If I was
unhealthy, let's say I was at risk for something from a health standpoint, would I want to know or
not? I would want to know because then I could do something about it. So not only are you monitoring
your risks, but you're monitoring the numbers, you're monitoring the schedule, you're monitoring
buffers and your contingency. You're monitoring the finances, you're monitoring your gross profit,
you're monitoring your contingency buckets. So to run a project really well, once you know the risks
and you're mitigating those, then you're going to ask yourself, are we doing well? We've, we've
mitigated these. Are we doing well now? Well, the only way to know is to do a blood test on the
project, meaning if I want to be healthy, I go get a blood test and they look at the numbers and
they're like, Jason, you're doing good. And so we do the same thing with the project. We do a blood
test, we get the numbers and we say, are you doing good or are you not doing good? And if you're not,
we can work as a team to really get that reigned in and make a course correction. So I just want
to say again the numbers love you and you love the numbers really to run a great construction
project, you will want to know those. Okay? So here's a call to action for you. And the action
is so that you can implement, right? Because knowledge is not power, knowledge and action
is power. So what I'd like you to do is take these points that are in the notes and actually
go through each one of 'em and ask yourself, how well are you doing for each of these on a scale
of one to 10, right? So if you go into knowing the numbers, for example, how well do I know the
numbers scale that zero being not at all, 10 being I've got some good numbers, I see everything on
a daily or weekly basis, right? Scale yourself in there and then see with these steps, if there's
anywhere you'd like to focus in the next 30, 60, 90 days. So that's personally something that I
would like to invite you to do so that you can elevate your leadership and the last thing that
I would say is that if you've enjoyed being here with me I've enjoyed recording this for you please
like the channel and subscribe because we'll have a ton of cool content coming in the future.
So I have appreciated being with you on we go.
