Freedom and Control in the Construction Process
THE PROBLEM:
Your dreams are high-quality, top-notch, and on budget; but the construction process is often anything but that: stressful, disorganized, and ‘do-the-minimum-required-amount-of-work.’ You want control over the process but not to get bogged down in the details; you want the best of the project finished but not to have a heart attack making it happen. So here is the dilemma: How do you get your ideas into reality quickly, efficiently, on time, and on budget without losing freedom and becoming the bad guy?
THE CAUSE:
Projects are unpredictable. Contractors are a challenge at every step. Every experience you have with one will be unique. Jobs often take on a life of their own; and contractors can exacerbate the bad or magnify the good of a project. You have setbacks, change orders, unexpected personnel issues, and delays in supply chain to overcome. Murphy’s Law (that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong) has its way of introducing itself to your organization at every point of your valuable project.
It is at this point customers react in two predictable ways:
REGAINING CONTROL:
If the contractor relationship goes unmanaged, then you lose the unique and important nuances of your project. If no one is watching the process, no one feels the need to do their best. “The cat is away, the mice will play” is decidedly true on every job site. Intuitively anyone who wants to get the job done knows that you have to “inspect what you expect” or nothing really happens like you want. Who is better at knowing what you want than you yourself?
It is at precisely this point that most customers stop being the customer, transition to being the project manager, and clamp down in an attempt to maintain whatever semblance of control they can, often times to the detriment of the project. While you know what you want best, you often don’t know the ins and outs of project management. Seasoned customers turn into power-greedy control freaks; and your project moves from a dream to a nightmare in nothing flat. And this is precisely because the only thing moving your project forward is the control you exercise over it.
LOSING FREEDOM:
No customer wants to be the one to keep things moving, on point, or even civil. You begrudgingly enter the mess of project management without experience. “The customer is always right” rings hollow because you have to be the bad guy and the people you are paying no longer cater to your needs and work for you; instead you have to make them do what you need. It’s evident that you’ve lost the freedom of being a customer and joy of seeing your ideas come to reality. But you shouldn’t have to police the process; you shouldn’t have to be the nanny. Yet often times this is exactly what happens to customers who lose the freedom of being the customer.
THE SOLUTION: A design build project led by the experts.
What is the way to get your ideas into reality while not losing control and not getting ulcers through it all? How can you enjoy the freedom to not have to be on the job site at every moment and still get what you need out of the project?
Let the experts lead you through a design build project.
It’s called design build. It’s what we do best.
Design build means we do the scoping, the quoting, the procurement, and the project management for you, alongside you, with you, and because of you.
We give you both the control and the freedom of the project that you so desire: You won’t have to be onsite constantly (unless you want to) and you have the freedom to leave it in our hands. But at the same time, you have creative input, approving check points, and the right to demand changes. And we have the skill to make it happen.
Dream a bit: How great would it be to give us your ideas, be as large or as small a part of the process as you want, and to sit back and watch us deliver it on time, on budget, and on point? That is the beauty of design build. It truly is the best of the seemingly divergent worlds of control and freedom with none of the downside.
“Let the experts do it. That’s what we do. And you get the best of it all while we deliver consistently.”
–Jared Hellums, Principal
No longer do you have to morph into the bad guy. We’ll do it for you. You now have the license to show up (or not show up) at any point of the project, inspect what you expect, or just sit back and watch us work our magic. It’s all up to you… provided that you contract with us to make it happen.
It is our goal to provide customer satisfaction, not just customer service. At Constructable, you’ll notice the difference.
ACTION POINT: (With each article we will present one action point as a measurable takeaway for any owner or executive sponsor.)
Expect a lot. Inspect what you expect. And sit back and watch it happen.
We welcome you to dream a little (expect a lot); we welcome you to be a part of the process (inspect what you expect); we welcome you to tell us what you want and how we did (watch it happen).
