It is my honor to offer training for United Contractors’ Project Management Career Advancement (PMCA) Program for the second consecutive year. On August 9th, I’ll be delivering a virtual training for a cohort of future leaders who are guided through a 13-week curriculum of leadership development courses. This program focuses on developing each individual’s leadership across many disciplines, highlighting the high level of training needed to be an excellent project manager.
The curriculum touches on key competencies including: Emotional Intelligence, marketing and sales skills, construction contracts, change order procedures, finance, leadership, and I’ll be sharing my passion for conflict mitigation and resolution. According to Forbes, the typical manager spends at least 25% of their time dealing with workplace conflicts.
On the job site, per a recent Michigan State University study, the average conflict is valued at over $10K and takes an average 161 hours to work through and mediate. This has a profound impact on your team’s productivity!
While some minor improvements occurred since the 2020 study, the stakes for working through construction issues and preventing litigated claims continues to be growing. As we all know, in the construction industry it is still relatively common to have construction claims on projects. According to ARCADIS 2022 Global Construction Dispute Report, the average value of a disputed claim in North America has reduced slightly from 2020 (from $37.9M to $30.1M in North America) and on average extended in duration from 14.2 months to 15.4 months to resolve.
In the course we will cover four things:
- The benefits and value of early intervention,
- How to define common types of project conflicts and strategies to resolve them,
- How Mediators use the STAR approach to work through conflict,
- And some “tricks of the trade” I use to help ensure I have successful meetings where we can work through difficult topics and progress toward a mutually acceptable outcome.
Resolving conflict in the workplace and supporting team members by transforming anger and frustration into a productive conversation is an incredibly valuable skill for any manager or field leader. I consider sharing these communication and conflict resolution skills to be part of my life’s mission in the construction industry and I’m so excited to get to share them with a new generation of leaders.
I encourage you to sign up in the future or contact me if you are interested in learning more about our training offerings so you and your company’s future stars can learn more about how to transform conflict into opportunities to improve your projects!
-Rob
Rob Reaugh is President of OrgMetrics LLC. He facilitates the City and County of San Francisco Collaborative Partnering Steering Committee and currently works with San Francisco International Airport, San Jose International Airport, BART, Caltrans, and others. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
For more information please contact Rob Reaugh, RobReaugh@Orgmet.com / (925) 487-2404 (cell), or OrgMetrics, (925) 449-8300.
