Contractors

Whenever a sentence starts "Some of my best friends are ...", I prepare myself for the opinion of a bigot who attempts to cloak their bias with illusions of open-mindedness.

Alright, now I'm going to do it; and, I swear, there is not a scintilla of bias.  Some of my best friends are Contractors.  I like them, I like what they do, I like what they know, I like the pride they show in their craftsmanship, and I like collaborating with them.

But ...

I can't figure out why so many institutions are infatuated with Contractors when it comes to hiring for leadership positions in their facilities organizations.  Perhaps, more accurately, I think I know why; but wonder how effective the preconceptions are in practice.  By and large, Contractors are perceived as being "tough negotiators", with the training and experience to get the most value for virtually any contract.  They're seen as focused, no-nonsense managers who extract performance from those who work for them.  Actually, in my experience, much of this is true.

But then they commonly get thrown into an arena for which they have scant background.  Whether it's facilities operations (very different from construction), or negotiating with academics at a College or University, or a myriad of other activities for which they struggle to relate; they often have performance issues.

The goods ones, the smart ones, figure out how to adapt; but where does this leave the institutions which has those who struggle?  Adrift, I would venture.

Is this a business cycle that will shift at some point?  I wonder.

Standards?

For the last few months I have been working on the development of Design Standards for a Northeastern College.  While there is no denying the satisfaction of the work, I am intrigued by the lack of consistency from place to place of such documents.

In preparing for this series of documents, not only did I have my own work to recall; but there were any number of accessible precedents for this work.  No two were alike, or even similar in format.  How very odd.

The Construction Specifications Institute has format examples, and MasterSpec will guide you through a specification writing procedure (selling you their proprietary software to make this happen); but neither are on-target for the sort of guideline that good owners should have documenting their facilities expectations.

I suppose I shouldn't be too upset by this, since it presents a vacuum for my consulting practice to fill.  Good for me, and good for those who hire me.  But I have this vague sense that I'm missing something.  Comment, please, if you think I've missed the point.  Set me straight.  Thanks!