Related Links: Teaching the Elephant to Dance Continuum Advisory Group Ten years ago, I left the construction industry because I needed a change. I wanted a break from the constant travel, and I wanted to get to know my home town of Denver again. So I took an opportunity to run a foundation and, later, became assistant dean at the University of Denver's business school. Last year, I was coaxed back to the construction industry to become president of Continuum Advisory Group, a management consulting firm focused on our industry. After a decade away, I decided to catch up on
MoesWhen I was five years old, my dad, a chemical engineer, bought me a clever American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) shirt sporting Dalmatians with the caption “can you spot the future chemical engineer?”It became a running joke in my family, especially since a large number of my extended family members are also engineers; like any contrary child, I stubbornly denied that I would ever be an engineer.However, as I grew, I began to understand what engineers actually do, and I slowly realized that the profession fits every aspect of my personality—from little details to overarching goals.As a simple example,
Every 10 years or so the American Institute of Architects (AIA) updates and revises its standard form family of construction documents and in 2007 the AIA modified the AIA A-201 contract to add the Initial Decision Maker (IDM) as a condition precedent to mediation.This laudable change marks an important shift, moving away from the architect as the resolver of disputes. Unfortunately, change comes slowly. The architect is the default IDM unless the parties affirmatively insert a name, other than the architect, in the contract to act as the IDM.Nonetheless, unlike prior AIA agreements, the AIA has opened the door to
Related Links: Chief Engineers of the Panama Canal New York Times Obituary for George Washington Goethals Link to Gen. Temple video presentation on George Washington Goethals and the Panama Canal TempleAll industry professionals go through a maturation process that shapes their approach to challenges they face daily to become effective leaders—and Colonel George Washington Goethals, who led the successful U.S. completion of the Panama Canal a century ago, is no exception.As the canal's huge expansion nears completion, we need to study how Goethals, the one-time Corps of Engineers officer, prepared himself for the task in distinct stages—which I call his
Considering our future and our real social security net—the industry's young talent—I will share some unconventional wisdom, as well as an alternate perspective on mastering of new technologies.The punch line of many a cartoon or joke, “Wanted – recent college graduate with twenty years experience,” is a good start in this discussion.HR departments today more than ever desire recent college graduates with specific software product training rather than the broader experience of perhaps a veteran who has returned to gain a college degree.My students often ask me to view and comment on their resumes.Highlighted is fluency in PHP C++ Java,
Related Links: FIDIC Report Focuses on Obstacles to Sustainability Viewpoint: Engineers Must Draw a Line on Sustainability The concept of sustainable engineering has been around for more than 25 years. During my term, from 1988 to 1992, as chief of engineers and commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, I focused on this concept as integral to the Corps' post-Cold War role. Back then and continuing today, this (to me) unassailable concept has been often condemned as a no-growth environmental conspiracy. In the early years, people told me that sustainability was a slogan destined for oblivion.As Brig. Gen. Anthony
Related Links: A Success Formula for Contractors Managing the Profitable Construction Business, the new book by Thomas Schleifer Too many construction organizations become slaves to their overhead, their general and administrative expenses. Increased overhead usually equates to increased capacity and is common and appropriate during growth periods.Unfortunately, these expenses are much easier to put in place than to get rid of, and in a cyclical market they become a burden and create losses. This is especially true now that we have such a weak and slowly developing business upswing.A common reaction in a declining construction market is to search for
Related Links: From Model to Layout Plan, Autodesk App Seeks To Close Gaps PDF Coalition Making Noise About Standards To take in the many presentations about building information modeling tools at the recent BIMForum conference in Dallas is to see first-hand the velocity of change arriving on construction jobsites, along with the upward move of the BIM adoption curve each year.Chris Heger, a superintendent with Turner Construction, talked through how BIM tools are changing the pace of construction with some keynote examples among many. Modeling tools give his team the ability to create construction patterns and then mine for repeatable
Courtesy of David Goldberg Recent book outlines a new vision of engineering education at the Olin College of Engineering and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Related Links: Big Beacon nonprofit Website Website for A Whole New Engineer In the same way that revolutions in entrepreneurism, quality and information technology in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s brought wrenching changes in the modern engineering and construction workplace, there’s a revolution underway in engineering education—and it’s about time. GoldbergEngineering education as now practiced in the U.S. was a creation of the Cold War, when a 1955 report called for more science and math in
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