New Zealand needs to be more productive. If we want to enjoy the same or better quality of life, and to afford quality public services, with an aging population, we simply need to earn more. This means being more productive, i.e. working smarter, not harder. One way we can achieve that in the construction industry, is by working better together.
We love to talk about collaboration – with clients, between consultants, and within our own internal teams – but is a high-performance design team the exception or the norm? And how could we do it better?
First of all, I should note that our team enjoys excellent working relationships with other consultants on many of our projects. My intent is not to rant but to suggest that there are opportunities for improvement. That said, if you find yourself offended by my commentary, perhaps the message is for you.
On that basis, and lest I encourage any comments about stones and glass houses, I’ll start with Architects. As typically one of the first consultants to be engaged by clients, Architects are in a unique position to convince clients to engage more of the design team at an earlier stage. The same goes for project managers in this respect.
There’s no better way to begin a project, in my view, than by having all the key members of the design team around the table to form a collective understanding of the issues. For Architects, taking the time to engage with other design consultants early in the process ultimately saves time and rework later.
There’s a tired old trope of Architects creating fanciful designs, and Engineers making them actually function. Unfortunately, I’ve seen and heard examples of both Architects and Engineers approaching projects in this manner. On the one hand, Architects reluctant to invite early engineering input, and on the other, Engineers (structural in this case) blindly specifying enormous amounts of steel to make something stand up, without sufficient consideration of the design intent or project feasibility. These mindsets don’t serve our clients well.
I think that’s the key point running through this column – remember who we work for. As design professionals our job is to work in our clients’ interests.
With regard to Engineers, the various engineering disciplines are necessarily specialised and detail-focused. However, I see a real opportunity for Engineers to add value for clients by stepping out of that detail to understand the bigger picture, and by proposing pragmatic solutions that help to make projects more feasible.
Equally, while most other consultants are focused on specific pieces of the puzzle, it is Architects who have a broad overview of a whole project or building. Architects, therefore, have opportunity to take more ownership of the design process. This is traditionally a part of the Architect’s role, but, in some cases, requires a willingness to take on more risk and responsibility. Also, crucially, to propose an appropriate fee allowance to cover design management, as distinct from architectural design work.
Returning to the theme of working in clients’ interests, the best consultant Planners we work with are those who understand that their role is not just to advise on the rules, but to advocate for a good design or outcome that breaks them. Granted, it can be a fine line between, being up for a fight, and picking unwinnable battles – again, the best Planners know the difference.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, I’ve observed that there are two types of project managers in our industry. Acknowledging that this is a sweeping generalisation, there are project managers who seem to create process and paperwork for the sake of it, and there are project managers who add real value to projects. The good ones keep the project team, and clients, pointed in the right direction and focused on the most important issues at each phase of the process. Once again, this is about keeping the client in mind.
With a bit of luck and grace, I hope I’ve not offended too many of our colleagues, but rather provided some food for thought about how we can work better and more productively together, and collectively achieve better outcomes for our clients.
I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but if I’ve raised something worthy of further discussion, I welcome an email or LinkedIn connection.
This opinion piece was originally written for the Property Council NZ. Read the original column here.
