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This week, we’re taking another dive into our new model of organizational change, the newly named “Groundswell Theory.” As we prepare to roll out our new PM Basic Training program in a couple of weeks, we wanted to spend some time talking through the details of the framework that supports all of our construction training, Arcade’s Project Life Cycle. We talk about • Phases of a construction project • Construction Processes • Roles on a project • The Steps of each Process • Why understanding your Project Life Cycle is so critical to training a new PM Don’t miss this information packed episode of The Critical Path!

This week, we are talking about growth, hiring and promotion – all of the ways that a company gets an infusion of fresh blood. Of course, being the nerds that we are, we went ahead and made the vampire analogy. We talk about: • Promoting from within the company • Hiring people from outside the company • Sources of new talent and information • Case study of companies who get left behind • How to promote from within the right way • How to make sure you are still bringing new knowledge and information in to the company, if you promote from within • Why Growth is essential to taking care of your team Don’t miss it!

This week on The Critical Path, we are talking about a subject that is at the center of a great deal of stress and drama in the industry – Value Engineering. We talk about: •What Value Engineering is and who is benefits • Understanding which pieces of the puzzle are immovable • Understanding the role of the building life cycle in Value Engineering • ‘Smart Value’ Engineering • Finding more appropriate products or applying the economy of scale • Cutting Scope / Quantity • Cutting Profit LAST

Last year, just before Covid hit, we recorded an episode about how to manage schedule in construction. The plan was to record a second part to that episode where we addressed how to handle impacts to the schedule, once it was all built out. Now that we’re getting back on track with the podcast, we thought it might be a good time to revisit that subject and finally talk more about managing impacts from the field perspective and from the office perspective. We talk about: • The importance of understanding a few scheduling basics • What the field roles need to understand about the schedule • Some typical places to watch especially closely for impacts • What the office roles need to understand about ownership of risk and how it relates to cost and schedule impacts • How to quantify impacts so you can make sure you recover what you are owed Don’t miss it!

It’s been a while since we have made an episode of The Critical Path, but we’re back and we have lots to talk about! After a long break to think about our business, our podcast, and what’s next for Arcade and The Critical Path, we’re talking this week about what’s been going on, and how we’re changing our whole outlook on Organizational Change. Stay tuned!

This week, on The Critical Path, we’re talking with architectural innovator Kathryn Larsen, who has earned the nickname, The Seaweed Girl in the international design community. Kathryn is doing some amazing research into how we can avoid reinventing the wheel, by making use of materials and methods that were used by the ingenious craftsmen of previous generations. We’re really excited about this episode – don’t miss it! You can check out some of Kathryn’s work at https://kathrynlarsen.com/ You can check out the livestream of this episode (complete with visuals of some of Kathryn’s work) here!

This week’s episode is a lot of fun! We’ve been working to learn more about how Extended Reality (XR) is being put to use in the construction world for a long time. From using Virtual Reality (VR) for safety training or to better understand models while offsite to Augmented Reality (AR) like HoloLens that lets you look at the models for the project overlaid directly on the actual environment, technology is changing the way we build in a lot of fascinating ways. This week, we got a chance to sit down with the Innovation Team at BN to learn more about what that technology looks like in day to day use. We spoke with Brian Arnold, Chris Everist, and Tony Castillo about the ways that BN is using AR right now, and how that evolution came about. If you want to check out some cool video of the technology in action, you can check out the livestream of this recording here. Don’t miss it!

Recently, we started hearing about some really cool projects that have been happening around the world. We wanted to learn more about what companies like Sextant Foundation and Construction for Change are doing, and how the rest of us can help them in the important work they are doing. We sat down to have a cup of coffee and film a Live Stream with Shannon Bunsen and Kevin Hunter about their philosophies, their projects, what we should all know about humanitarian efforts, and how we can all help. Don’t miss this special episode! Watch the Live Stream here Learn more about Construction for Change here Learn more about Sextant Foundation here

This week, we start running our first group through our Foreman Basic Training program. For that course, rather than give our trainees reading assignments, we put together a series of podcast style audio reviews, so that they can listen to their homework while they drive or get other things done. We’ve been really busy getting the final touches on the program, so we missed recording an episode of The Critical Path last week! Instead of just skipping an episode, we thought it might be fun to give you a sneak peek behind the curtain of the Foreman Basic program, by letting you listen in on that first week’s review. We talk about: • The changing needs that the ‘Foreman of the Future’ will have to address • The Value of the foreman to a project • The 4 main goals of a foreman • What does leadership look like for a foreman? • The importance of organization for a foreman Don’t miss it!

As we gear up to roll out our Foreman Basic Training Program next month, we’re talking about the phenomena that prompted us to create that program – promotion without preparation. It’s a major factor in the conversation about psychological safety, and a problem that we see on a daily basis in this industry. We talk about: • The pressure that a promotion can bring • The gravity of escaping the financial pain point • Promotion from field to field lead to office management • What kind of support currently is the industry norm • Some ways that your company can support these leaders through the transition

It’s been 19 years today since the September 11 attacks. That date is engraved in our minds for a reason – many things about our world changed on that fateful day. In a recent conversation with this week’s special guest, Brian Polis, Director of Health, Safety and Environment at Graham, we talked about implosion demolition as a practice, how it might look different today from how it looked in 2000 when the King Dome was demolished, and how we learned a lot, as an industry, from the effects that the aftermath of September 11th had on the people living in the area. Join us and learn more!

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, and lots of guests on The Critical Path lately. It felt like it was time to just settle in with an audio only episode and talk some serious construction (but also get silly with some nerdy movie references.) So, we present to you – Bidding in Construction – Is It a Xenomorph? in which we discuss how the bidding process can look a little like the Alien movies (mostly the first one, though you can’t talk about Alien without some reference to the franchise!) We talk about: • Understanding the work • Building a ‘Missing Information’ List and what to do with it • Understanding the Risks • Assumptions • Exclusions • Submitting the bid

As COVID has changed our world from the highly localized Seattle community to a more global perspective, we’ve been talking with a lot of people who are further away than before. As we found ourselves having more distant conversations, and building those communities up, we have been talking a lot with people affiliated with the school we both attended – Purdue University! From conversations with recent grads to professionals working with Purdue to rethink the construction program, we had a series of interesting discussions that ultimately led us to talk with Mark Zimpfer, Assistant Professor of Practice about how Purdue has been changing up their approach to construction education, and within 5 minutes of starting the call, we knew that we wanted to talk with Mark on the podcast! This is a great episode about what construction education should be, what it can be, and what we can expect to start seeing in the grads of the future. You can listen in the usual way, or check out the video episode here! Don’t miss it!

It seems like every day we see some new tool or software solution that is the ‘next big thing’ in construction. It’s true that there are a lot of new advances that can go a long way to saving us from injuries and unnecessary mistakes in the construction industry, but it’s important that we think new tech through just like any other business decision. This week, we’re talking with Trevor Lunde, who sees a lot of new technology move through the vetting system at GLY, and we’re talking about how to get to the bottom of whether a new technology tool is actually going to bring value to the jobsite (especially by *reducing steps* rather than adding them. We’re also talking about the importance of thinking about the people who will be using the technology, and how we can actually use it to collaborate better, rather than drifting further apart. We talk about: • The technology of learning to livestream (which led Mary to miss the first 11 minutes of Trevor’s audio in the original livestream video – Thanks to longtime Arcade friend Jim Schmidt for letting us know!) • The process for vetting new technology • Onboarding project partners who haven’t used your tech before • The future of Augmented Reality in construction • Geolocation and how it might be the most useful near future technology • The future of the foreman position • Jetpacks in construction! Don’t miss it!

This week, we’re talking about all the time you spend doing things that aren’t your strongest or best skills, and why you should do less of that! We talk about: • Aleister Crowley (and Ozzy Osbourne) • The risk of being a little good at a lot of things • The role you are ‘built’ to play at work • The pain point of wasted time • An exercise to help determine what you’re made to do • Hiring based on what kind of people the organization needs, rather than to a job description

This week, we’re talking about a subject that is on a lot of minds right now – looking for work. As everyone tries to sort out the best way to respond to the economic uncertainty of the COVID crisis, many people who are great team members with valuable skills are finding themselves looking for a new team to join. We’ve been having lots of great conversations with people, talking through how to take next steps, and we thought it would be a good time to talk about it on the podcast. In other news, we have also been talking with ABC Western Washington about ways to keep the Builder Chat peer group up to date and on everyone’s minds, and the conversation about live streaming came up. Since we’ve never done it, we thought it might be a good time to learn a new skill. If you’re interesting in seeing the video of this episode as we recorded it, you can check here. Watch for announcements for future live streams! In this episode, we talk about: • Step one of the job search process (it’s not your resume!) • Writing a great resume (hint: it’s not about fonts!) • Why you *really do* need a cover letter • How to use metrics on your resume • LinkedIn and your job search • Prospecting to find the *right* new home

This week, we’re catching up with Nigel Chiddick, who has been running a series of LinkedIn stories about his experiences with racism in his history in the construction industry, the importance of mentors and relationships, and what it’s like to share your own, very personal life stories with the world on a social media platform. We talk about: • How the industry looked when Nigel was starting his career in the 1990s for people of color • The impact that several meaningful mentors have had on Nigel’s life and career • How the industry has and has not changed over the years, with regards to opportunities for black and brown people • Some changes that construction companies can take to help move the conversation forward

A question we hear all the time is, “How do I get my team motivated?” A related question that not enough leaders ask is, “How can I keep from demotivating my team?” Keeping people engaged, coming to work and being excited about getting things done is one of the most common concerns of leaders. This week, we’re talking about how motivation works – get your psych textbooks out and let’s dive in! We talk about: • The five levels of motivation (and why most companies spend most of their time working on the 4th and 5th levels) • Why settings goals is the top tool in your motivation toolbox, and how to help set good ones! • Stretch goals and how and when to use them • Building cooperative games vs. competitive games • The science of reinforcement • The use of ‘coercive’ power (and when NOT to use it!) • Expectancy Theory and motivation (The three factors that *have to* be in place to motivate a team!)

Downsizing. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to have to do it. It’s not exactly a fun topic. In the era of COVID though, it’s more important than ever that we think carefully about downsizing decisions and then handle the implementation of those decisions in the right way. So, this week, we’re talking about downsizing. We talk about: • Survivor’s Syndrome: The effect that significant downsizing has on the remaining team • The impacts of Survivor’s Syndrome • Steps you can take to minimize the negative effects of Survivor’s Syndrome, so that your team has its best chance of recovering and moving forward to keep from any more downsizing in the future! In this episode, we talked about a book we read with the Jetpack Leadership Cohort called Then We Came to the End, by Joshus Ferris. It’s a story about a company where layoffs keep happening, and the team is caught in a downward spiral. It’s an interesting look at what happens when team morale starts to take a hit, and leads to some interesting conversations about what leadership can do to help steady the ship.

Recently, we had a great conversation on the podcast with our friend Jason Jones, and that conversation brought up a lot of really great information. After recording that episode, we found that we wanted to learn more about what a Chief Diversity Officer really does, and get some thoughts from someone who is really out there doing work in the field of Diversity and Inclusion in Construction. We put out the bat signal, and connected with Dan Lester, Director of Field Diversity, Inclusion and Culture at Clayco in St. Louis who had a lot to say on the subject. We talk about: • What does a CDO really do? • Psychological Safety, and why it’s important – *both* to your team’s well being and your bottom line • How to start integrating a more diverse team into your organization • Why stories matter in the D&I conversation • What do the people in power have to gain from working toward diversity objectives? • During the podcast, Dan mentions a great website called Build Your Future with resources for people interested in starting careers in construction. This was a really great conversation and Dan is a natural at podcasting! Check it out!