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We all get the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it.” But we don’t get the concept of “if it is
broke, fix it” in the design industry. Project delivery is
broken. Projects are riddled with cost and schedule overruns,
rework, arguments, and lawsuits. Who is happy in the end? Our
current approach needs more than patches and bandages.
Current approaches are fundamentally mismatched. They do not
focus on delivering value, collaboration, continuous improvement,
and innovation. Instead, silos are built, work is thrown over the
wall, communication is defensive, and work must be redone
throughout projects. Value is lost to waste. Motivation is lost to
dissatisfaction. The problems begin when we misapply a linear,
waterfall planning approach to design, which is organically
cyclical and iterative. Then we add command-and-control habits that
lull us into a false sense of control over an emergent process.
More of the same isn’t the answer. So where can designers look
for a solution that will reform the process at its core? One
answer: look to lean practices and principles to change
the industry.
What Is Lean?
Lean is the term used to characterize the Toyota Production
System. It is based on defining value from the client’s
perspective and taking only those actions that deliver that value.
It is about making work flow, working at the pull (request) of the
customer, improving the predictability of workflow, and constantly
pursuing perfection and learning. Ultimately, it is about people
building trust by making and keeping commitments to one
another…it is about honoring people.
On the surface, it may sound like what we are already doing. Dig
deeper and it is clear that we are not. Current practices and our
contracting methods create barriers, leaving us caught in a blame
game with our clients, consultants, and contractors. We can take an
approach based on recognizing the autonomy of design professionals
coupled with lean principles.
Responsibility-based Project Delivery
Responsibility-based Project Delivery™ (RbPD) is a
commitment-based, value-focused, highly collaborative approach to
planning and managing projects. It addresses the pitfalls of
traditional project management. It views a project as a promise, a
very big promise that is planned, designed, and delivered by people
operating in ever-changing networks of commitments.
RbPD draws from years of research of both Toyota’s product
development and agile software design approaches. Using lean
practices and principles, small cross-functional teams collaborate
and communicate to perform work in small batches. These teams
self-organize to deliver predetermined, clearly defined work in
time-boxed cycles. They make daily commitments to each other within
their team, and as a team they commit to the project as a whole:
creating and activating a network of commitments. The client’s
requirements and definition of value (their conditions of
satisfaction) are the sole focus and responsibility of the chief
designer, who commits to deliver to those conditions.
Project planning is done collaboratively by the whole team.
Commitments to the client are aligned to those within the team.
This produces a shared understanding of what needs to be done and
when. Teams continue to plan as they go, keeping the work
synchronized. Assuming responsibility for specific deliverables,
teams are empowered to balance their own workload and adapt to
emerging situations. Individuals and teams identify and communicate
constraints to getting their work done to a team steward, who is
responsible for removing them to keep work flowing.
The teams include people from multiple disciplines and
functions, such as architects, engineers, estimators, and
subcontractors. They operate in a constant plan-do-check-adjust
(PDCA) cycle: a fundamental lean mode that leads people to be
reflective on and constantly improve their work.
The RbPD approach supports the iterative nature of design work
as it moves, indeed cycles, between technical specialists. The
approach allows work and information to flow, fosters collaboration
and innovation, prevents rework, and focuses on delivering value to
the client. For most designers it creates the circumstances that
attracted them to the field in the first place. RbPD is a far more
human way of doing design.
What Can We Do?
We can stop clinging to command-and-control habits that are
counterproductive to building high-performing teams. We can replace
those habits with new behaviors of making and securing reliable
promises. And we can embrace the natural autonomy of human beings
with the approach we take. We can throw away our bandages, and as
an industry, take a more responsible approach to the work that we
do.
Kristin Hill, AIA, is a principal with Lean Project
Consulting, Inc., a firm that focuses on helping architecture,
engineering, and construction firms move from traditional project
delivery approaches to current best practices based on lean
thinking, collaborative processes, and language action–based
practices for coordinating action. Hill can be contacted at KHill@leanproject.com
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