Contributed by Jake Ortego

Construction projects can be highly complex and unique endeavors. A successful project relies on each person/company performing their function as required.  However, in many cases the exact roles and responsibilities of each entity is not mutually agreed upon, nor understood. Consider the following contrasts in expected functions.

• Some architects say that their function is only to “convey design intent,” while many contractors and owners assume that the architect’s role is to design every nut and bolt on the project. 
• There are contractors who only install what is shown in the design while there are architects and owners that believe the contractor should “know” what it takes to build something and account for inferable efforts in their contract price. 
• A number of owners expect their architect and constructors to know what they want.  In many cases, however, the owner’s involvement is so great that it impacts the project.

 
Chances are that you have an opinion for each one of these examples.  These examples focus on the architect, owner, and constructor.  But that is only the tip of the iceberg.  There are many more parties involved in the construction process and each major group can be made up of multiple professions with a wide range of functions, as well as approaches, to accomplish their scope. This includes estimators, schedulers, specifiers, owner’s reps, material reps, accountants, and legal counsel to name a few.
 
As you read this, you are probably thinking that you already know who does what for the entire construction process.  And it’s possible that your views are shared by people within your company or some of your local professional groups. But the standards can vary between industries, geography, project complexity, corporations, and even between two people sitting next to each other.  To be clear, the primary definitions of many project roles can be agreed upon. Estimators estimate, schedulers schedule, engineers engineer, and so forth.  But gray areas of responsibilities do exist, and it is these areas that may be the root of disagreements that can derail a project.
 
So, what is the solution?  A universal standard may seem to be the easiest answer.  But imagine the complexities of having one standard that covers every possible industry, culture, and available resources for each project. Ideal…but probably not achievable.

Contributed by Eric D. Lussier and Michael Riscica

In early October, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Michael Riscica for his Young Architect podcast.  For those of you who don't know Michael, he contributed a fantastic piece to our website entitled "Let's Fix Mentorship", which I strongly suggest you read here.

Michael is a Licensed Architect who is passionate about helping Young Architects change the world. After becoming licensed, Michael was frustrated by the lack of support, bad advice and misinformation he had during the years between graduating architecture school and becoming a licensed Architect. In early 2014 he began blogging at YoungArchitect.com to address that problem and launched his podcast earlier this year.  Cherise Lakeside of Let's Fix Construction was featured on an episode entitled 'Expanding Your Knowledge through CSI and CDT' which you can listen to here. 

On his podcast, Michael and I discussed:

• How I got involved in the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI).
• What CSI is all about and why I'm so excited about it.
• What to do to get the most out of being a CSI member and why it’s such a great organization.
• How to stay on top of all of the fast changes in construction and architecture.

And of course, we discussed 'Let's Fix Construction', including: 

• What type of posts Let’s Fix Construction shares and who some of their bloggers are.
• How we can learn from each other by talking to other people from different industries for 15 minutes at a time.
• Future plans for Let’s Fix Construction including our podcast launch

While you await the next 'Let's Fix Construction' technical post or podcast episode, PLEASE go over to the Young Architect website and listen to 'Let's Fix Construction with Eric Lussier'

Contributed by Cherise Lakeside and Eric D. Lussier

LetsFixConstruction.com was born on a whim a little over a year ago.  A glimmer of an idea based in a passion to help our industry improve.  A thought that we could bring all members of our industry, from all disciplines, to the table to collaborate and share knowledge rather than to continue to complain or point fingers.

We launched this effort with no real solid plan for what it would look like or how we wanted to make it happen.  We just knew that we wanted a place where we could all come together with positive, forward thinking solutions and a place to share knowledge for better understanding, resulting in an improved project delivery process and built environment.  We’re presently calling it ‘visionary logic’ but we are still looking for a better phrase than ‘thinking outside the box’.

With a ‘Go Big or Go Home’ attitude, we decided to just run with it and see where it would go.  We can honestly say that neither of us were quite prepared for the response.  It was clear to us, from very early on, that people needed this place.  People in our industry were hungry for a place to stop complaining and get better.

We started with blogs.  We wrote some of them and invited friends, peers and guest bloggers to write others with a simple premise: Pose a problem you face and your perspective on how to make it better.  Share your knowledge.  It’s that simple.  A little over a year in, our stable of guest bloggers is over 24 knowledgeable industry professionals and growing.

Somewhere midway through our first year, after seeing such an overwhelmingly positive response to the blogs, we brainstormed ways to take it even further.  With two brains that are constantly in high gear and a passion to go bigger, we thought ‘What if we could take these problems that people face and get them talking about them? Face to face, at the same table.’  In the blink of an eye, our Let’s Fix Construction Workshop was born.  A problem solving, interactive and dynamic event geared at getting people to openly discuss issues in our industry with people they often don’t appropriately communicate with.

We now have eight workshops under our belt with a ninth and tenth in Atlanta on November 13th.  In addition, we have at least eight workshops tentatively planned for 2018 and have added a slate of other programs to our growing list outside of our namesake session. Again, the response was overwhelming.  Again, we found that our industry NEEDS this environment of sharing in a positive manner, more now than ever.  We hope to do these workshops and presentations all over the country.  Maybe even the world!
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So why did it feel like something was still missing?