Foremen are the linebackers on your team.  As such, it’s as an important a position as we have on the team.  Why?  Because most of the time our team is in a defensive mode.  Remember earlier?  We said that we expect our defense to score.  A top-notch defense can shut out the other team, plus score on occasion.  In our game, that’s practically all you need to win!

“Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.”  Malcolm S. Forbes

Sure, you can classify the PM as the coach or the quarterback, and that’s probably a good analogy.  And as a PM, myself, I’m prepared to state that the degree of success you have on the field is directly proportional to the quality of your foremen or superintendents, as opposed to the quality of your PMs.

So now what: you’re all “bummed-out” and disappointed because it’s not all about you? Not quite.  But it is time for a reality check.  A really good field team is hard to beat.  When the client looks at your quality of work, and the speed at which it’s done, what’s the client’s impression?  If you have a good field organization, the client should be “wowed”.  And as you perform your contract work, your clients should realize that you have “got their backs”.  They can totally rely upon your team to perform at a high level and provide what the client needs-and quickly.

A good foreman brings this out in his crew.  He finds, trains and keeps good people.  He takes pride in his work and laying it out properly, as well as bringing in the project under budget and ahead of schedule.  It’s important that you realize how linked to the foreman’s skills you–as a PM–are!

“Sure, luck means a lot in football.  Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”  Don Shula

Good foremen are made-not born.  The truth is, it does take time-lots of it-to make a good foreman.  Foremen generally have a high degree of technical skill.  Liken this to a really good hitter in professional baseball, somebody like Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres.  He studied his craft for years.  He practiced all of the time.  He developed excellence, and it all took time.  It took years, but he became one of the best ever at hitting Major League pitching.

Same with foremen.  Appreciate their field skills.  You might not be able to help them very much here, but you can help to coach them develop their management skills.  Let your foremen know that you are there for them.  You’ve got their backs.  They know that you are relying on them, and you trust them to resist doing any non-contract work for free.  They believe-as do you-that it is the PM/foreman partnership that will go the farthest toward completing the project successfully.  Bottom line:  foremen can make their PM look good; PMs bring out the best in their foremen.  The two of you are a team in every sense of the word.

“Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen.  The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.”  Vince Lombardi

Consider this.  Your clients must believe that your team is the best thing since sliced bread, that it is a finely-tuned machine, and that its members know exactly what they are doing.  If so, it will be much more believable when the client receives an RFI from you which says, in effect, “Hey, we can’t figure this out.  The plans don’t show this.  We don’t think that this is in our scope of work.”

When a professional, for whom you have respect, tells you that there is a problem, it’s believable.  By contrast, let’s just assume that your foreman is less than average and that his team players are just average at best; maybe some are brand new-trainees.  Maybe your client has heard your employees talking to one another, or to the inspector, saying something like, “Man, I’ve never done this before.  This is only my second week on the job.”

Once the client hears this kind of talk, and then she receives an RFI saying that something is not right, is she surprised?  Of course not!  She is not at all surprised that such a rag-tag group of supposed-professionals, for whom she is convinced she is paying top dollar, is having a difficult time.  And thus, she is much freer to disregard or play down your messages for help.  You are being scrutinized, along with your RFIs, more so than someone who is seen to be of a higher caliber.

I found out a long time ago that the better my field crew, the better received are my requests for information and help.  And it only makes sense.  Clients want the best for their projects.  And they also want to be a part of the top-notch team building the project.  If the contractor is unable to maintain a schedule, his equipment keeps breaking down, or his entire crew does not show up for work everyday, it will be held against him.  And rightly so.

Face it:  one of the reasons you may have gotten the project in the first place is that the client was actually scared to use a lower-priced contractor, or one with a bad reputation.  Keep the client on your side for as long as you can and as often as you can.  Most clients want their contractors to succeed-at least modestly.  They don’t want to hear that you made a killing on their project, but they don’t want you to get hurt, either.  If you aren’t hurt, you have a better chance of completing the project, and that’s ultimately what the client wants.

Back to your linebackers.  Your foremen have to fully understand their scope of work.  I suggest that you have an in-house, pre-job meeting with the management team, including foremen, superintendents, estimators, PMs and assistants-anyone having knowledge of the project.  This is about the same time that the foreman begins to get the project into his head.  At the meeting he is “force-fed” data about the project.  He learns what is included.  Just as importantly, he learns what is not included.

Your foreman has primary responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the project-for running the team.  Most days, most things go pretty much according to plan-literally.  But then–the client throws something unexpected at him!  He has to react instantly, size up the situation, and make a call.  He is the captain of the defense, and has to recognize what offensive play is being run by the client.  Mainly, if he can recognize that something does not look quite right, and can call the PM, that is the beginning point.  By the way, that is something where most of your competitors fall down.

If your linebacker does not see the play for what it is, you are in trouble.  Your linebacker has to watch over his defense, make the adjustments, call the signals, and call the PM!  This is in addition to keeping the team lined up properly, well-equipped, trained and motivated.  Your foreman is one, important guy.

“If you’re a champion, you have to have it in your heart.”  Chris Evert

Plan “B”

“A good foreman also has a back-up plan, a “Plan B”.  This is a daily contingency plan which is put into play when some kind of a roadblock appears out of nowhere.  For instance, if your foreman’s plan for the day is to do a certain type of work which requires a continuing supply of materials over the course of the day, and the delivery system breaks down, to where does the foreman shift his resources?  Can he do it immediately?  He should have this thought out ahead of time so that he can minimize any lost time.  Good foremen do this.  It would be a great idea for the PM to ask each foreman everyday about his plan B.

The reason I make such a big deal of foremen is that, if your foreman can keep timely, quality workmanship in the field, your client will take much more kindly to your RFIs, letters, proposals and change order requests.  But there is definite teamwork required between the PM and the foreman.  The PM’s part of this team is in keeping the paperwork straight so that the revenue from the field is maximized and the company gets paid for what it is entitled!  And managing changes is extremely important paperwork.

At the subcontractor level, one properly-trained Full Contact PM, working in concert with a handful of equally-well-trained foremen, can successfully and simultaneously manage a number of projects.  At the general contractor level, a PM and a good assistant, both utilizing the strategies described in this book, can still manage a number of projects simultaneously.

“If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.”  Richard Branson

Bringing it all together

Let’s make another leap of faith and assume that your company has a good group of competent foremen.  They have the proper experience, and they know how to run the field.  Now what?  Let’s help them to become great at identifying and managing change.

It all starts with a phone call

Here’s the game plan to use, step-by-step, whenever your foreman runs into a potential issue.

Your foreman will probably be the first person to realize that he sees potential extra work ahead of him.  What has tipped him off?  It might be one of several things:  the client has asked him; there is nothing in the project budget for this item; it doesn’t appear in his contract language, the specs or his plans.  Something like that.

When something comes up-potentially out-of-scope-it’s an issue.  By definition.  Foremen should be trained to know their scope of work and, when something new or different pops up, they know to call in to the PM.  If the PM agrees that it is out-of-scope, he will write an RFI.  In order for work to actually commence on this, an issue number has to be assigned to it.  Quite simple.  Tends to prevent foremen from doing extra work without pay.  In some companies, a foreman might have just filled out an extra work ticket, hoping to get the CM to sign for it sometime.  That is not acceptable anymore.

A Full Contact PM does not allow that to happen!  No extra work ticket can be generated by a foreman unless it has an issue number on it.  This ensures that both the foreman and the PM know that extra work is taking place and that they believe the work to either be compensable or a legitimate bid miss which should be tracked.  Too often, contractors simply fill out tickets on good faith, hoping that the client will sign them, giving themselves a false sense of security, and assuming that they will be paid.  Issue numbers stop that nonsense right now!

Do it now!

These are the three watchwords for the foreman and the PM:  Do It Now!  If the foreman will call the PM as soon as a potential issue arises, and the PM immediately writes an RFI to the client, and this process is repeated on every project, the contractor will realize thousands (and maybe tens of thousands) of more dollars in revenue and/or cost savings over the course of the year.

The other advantage

It’s incredibly important to find out-right away-where your client stands on this issue.  You’ll know this by the response you get to your RFI.  Remember, when you write an RFI you are actually taking a stand on an issue:  “it’s not in our scope/it’s not in the plans/we don’t know what the architect wants”; something to that effect.  We’ve asked the client how we are to proceed, because we can’t proceed the way things are now.  What are we supposed to do?

A well-written RFI (a winning RFI) gets you a prompt answer back from a responsible client.  The client either agrees or disagrees with your RFI.  If the client agrees, it is a simple matter of negotiating how the contractor gets paid.  If the client doesn’t agree readily, further explanation may be required, and the contractor may then receive a notice to proceed with the work.  And if a client vehemently disagrees with the position of your RFI, and no further discussion is invited, the client still has to tell you to proceed with the work.  You can then advise your client that you will proceed, but that you are preserving your rights to prepare a claim for that work.

Coach’s Tip:  Never let a client get you into a position  where you do the work now but you negotiate later whether the work is compensable to you-and for how much.

An Important Point

Let’s reinforce something right here.  Once you have written an RFI it is still NOT okay to proceed with the work.  Not even if you have assigned an issue number to it.  Your client has to answer your RFI and tell you how to proceed.  Always know how you are proceeding-even if it’s on a claims basis-before you create an issue number.  The issue number is assigned once you have a response allowing you to proceed and you are ready to begin the work.  If you proceed without written authorization from your client you are in danger of doing the work for free.

In any event, you now know what your client’s position is going to be on this issue.  You won’t find yourself wondering whether you’ll get paid.  Never get yourself into a position where you do the work now and negotiate later whether the work is compensable to you.  Once the client has what he needs (the work is complete), you have absolutely no leverage.  What this methodology does is allow you to know-right now-whether you are going to be paid for this work.  You won’t have to whine about it later.  You will simply go about the business of filing a claim.  In the end, it is much more fulfilling to file a claim than it is to beg for the return of money which you spent on behalf of an ungrateful client!  Worse, you’ll avoid having to listen to your client tell you how he is going to take care of you at the end of the job.  And then, every issue which comes up will be treated the same-negotiated at the end of the job.

Don’t allow yourself to be placed in that position.  Discover the color of your client’s money when your client still needs to have the work done.  I would much rather know-up front-that I am going to be stiffed for this piece of extra work, rather than wishing and hoping that I’ll be “taken care of” later.

“Therefore, the skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.”  Sun Tzu

The Bottom Line

Finally, what it all comes down to is the project’s bottom line and the PM’s commitment to improving it.  If the PM has the company’s interests at heart, he or she will put in the effort necessary.  But if the effort is put in, it will be rewarded.

The Full Contact Project Management approach to getting paid for your change orders is a relatively simple process.  That doesn’t mean that it is easy, because it does take considerable effort to break some old habits.

As your “coach” in this transition to more profitable extra work, I suppose that I could just exhort you to work hard and achieve victory-that it’s within your grasp.  I could tell you that, if you’ll use this system, you’ll win every time on every issue.  Rah!  Rah!  Go win one for the team!

I could do that, but it’s not necessary.  You and I both know that you are not going to have unbeaten seasons for the rest of your life.  Here is what I can tell you:  this system works.  If your expectation in joining this Team was to make a dramatic impact on the profitability of your company’s projects and your status as a PM, then you can achieve that.

You won’t win every battle with this system.  (But you aren’t winning enough, right now, anyway, are you?)  My expectation for you is that, over the long haul, you will win so many battles that you will eventually wonder how you ever did business any other way.