Building Better Relationships
At Optimum, we exist to build better relationships and better buildings. If this is the first Optimum blog you’re reading, that statement summarizes the entirety of who we are and what we’re about. If you’ve been reading along each month, you know that is the umbrella theme of all that we’ve been writing about. In fact, If you picked any of our past blogs at random, that is the common thread connecting all of them.
Several things may strike the reader when reading that statement, some obvious, the others not so apparent. First, it should be a no-brainer that a construction company should strive to “build better buildings.” If we did crappy work, there’s not a chance in hell we would have become a top-notch construction firm in Portland Maine expanding into the metro Boston area. But why relationships? That may be less obvious. Throughout our blogs, we’ve been making the case for why we think that excellent relationships are what undergird excellent building; it’s the key ingredient that makes a difference in our efficiency and in the quality of work we do.
Does it Have to be this way?
That doesn’t mean it’s been easy, or that we’re all happily singing Kumbaya at a campfire. There are a lot of egos in this industry and a lot of conflicting interests. In fact, this industry can be downright combative among all levels of people involved in getting a project finished. When we started this company, we asked ourselves, does it really need to be this way? Do project managers really have to act like pissed-off grumpy tyrants who have temper tantrums like a toddler who hasn’t learned how to regulate their emotions? Does the job site have to be an adversarial war zone with different parties constantly struggling to get their slice of the pie?
Optimum Construction was birthed in defiance of these norms and an attempt to answer these questions. Instead of working with a group of subcontractors constantly deadlocked in a power struggle, why not collect a group of quality subcontractors and employees we really liked working with? Well, that’s exactly what we did. As a result, not only did that make for a more positive work environment, but the work became more enjoyable for us and the people working with us. The quality of the work was proof that we had something special. Who would have guessed that people work better when they feel valued and respected?
As we grew, we started to really nail down who we were as a company and what our core values were that made us different from other companies. We make no bones about what our values are; that’s what has made us successful and drawn in the right kind of people to work with us. Employees coming from other companies have told us time and again how valued they feel at Optimum. Rather than feeling like a cog in a wheel, they know their input is valued and they have the support structures to succeed in their work. What’s more, we don’t pigeonhole any of our employees; we expect them to grow and take on new roles. We love watching people succeed because their success is our success.
Better Relationships in the Construction Industry
The reader may still be confused by what we mean by building better relationships. You may be wondering if we’re talking about a friendship, or even what kind of relationship we’re making better. Over the course of the coming months, we’ll be hammering home what exactly that means. So far, we’ve mostly been focused on what building better relationships within the company looks like, but we want to give the reader a glimpse into how that works outwardly. We’ll interview subcontractors, owners, owner’s reps, and clients, who will discuss their experience working with Optimum.
If you think about it, a project manager alone has twenty different kinds of relationships: designers, occupants of a building, owners, subcontractors, architects… the list goes on. Each relationship is different and you have to communicate differently with each one. While we may negotiate each relationship differently, it is still navigated by the same guiding philosophy. At the end of the day, we’re people dealing with other people. No one wants to be treated as an object being manipulated into giving another what they want at their own expense. Unfortunately, that is most often the norm in commercial construction.
We want to show our readers that just because that is the norm, it doesn’t have to be that way; success doesn’t have to be purchased at the expense of screwing over the other guy. At Optimum, we know from experience that there is a way to navigate this tricky, volatile world in a way that both parties are happy and successful, but it all starts with building better relationships.