Boots on the Ground

Scoping out the scope of work

Sean, Hazardous Materials and Demolition Superintendent for 3 Kings Environmental an environmental, excavation, and demolition solutions company based in Vancouver, WA told Session 10A of the Leadership Development Lab™ (LDL):

“In late October 2021, our up and coming Demolition Superintendent Skyler Denny and myself were at our 3 Kings Summer Office in Burien, WA. We were working on the best way to transfer our estimator’s and project manager’s knowledge to the field. We wanted Skyler to have as complete an understanding as possible of the project’s scope. We wanted to eliminate the misunderstandings that are the main causes of the “us versus them” between the field and the office.

“In January 2014, I moved to the office to start estimating and in early March 2014, I was awarded my first project to manage. I felt the job coming up in Burien, WA was a good time to transfer our Office Estimator’s project knowledge to the Field/Demo Superintendent. “I’ve worked my way up from being a truck driver, laborer, demolition superintendent, to combo hazardous materials & demolition superintendent. I understand how important this office-to-field exchange of information is.

“I created a dialog with our estimator, added highlights to drawings, and explained my demolition plan. Then, I sat down with Skyler and created an onsite, demolition plan. Now, we could both agree on the scope of work, methods, staffing, materials, the logistics (truck access), the safety requirements and schedule.

“After we had all the paperwork completed, we made a site visit to verify our plan, to be sure we accounted for the actual conditions and contracted scope of work. Taking this upfront extra time to ensure the field had all the correct information made this project a success. The project came in on budget and the communication and cooperation between field and office was smooth and easy.

“The lesson I learned from this experience is sharing project information, upfront, helps quicken the process of getting our Field Superintendent up to speed. He could start the project with a clearly defined mission for successful project completion.

“The action I call you to take is to put in the ‘boots on ground’ time. Invest time upfront with your Field Superintendents. Show other workers your willingness to invest in their success, your projects will benefit, and your crews will achieve success. You will have more time to search for your next project because your crew understands their scope of work clearly and can work independently without constant communication with you.

“The benefit you will gain is your projects will ‘beat the bid’ and your crew will experience the winning feeling of success.”

See Turbo Leadership Systems’s Turbine for Turbocharging your construction company