In the latest episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws talks with returning guest Josh Durham about one of the core principles in the Foundational Five: “Agreements.” From his own successes and failures in the construction industry, Josh provides some valuable insights into how leaders can develop clear and workable agreements that bring projects to successful completion.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Josh Durham is an expert in the construction industry with over seventeen years of overseeing complex projects worth over $1 billion in various sectors. Josh founded Gamut Project Solutions to offer guidance and support to his clients as they face the high stakes of commercial construction.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
MORE THAN A CONTRACT
Josh Durham, known for his expertise in the construction industry and his Foundational Five Principles of Leadership, had to learn things the hard way when it came to a contract that fell apart while he was trying to lead a project to successful completion. That’s why agreements, one of the core Foundational Five Principles, holds such a special place in his curriculum.
He explained that agreements go beyond written contracts and extend to the various agreements we make in our personal and professional lives. Whether it’s teamwork within an organization or societal agreements like driving on a specific side of the road, agreements serve as the foundation for the construction industry and beyond, and understanding and meeting these agreements is crucial for success in leadership and collaboration. So how do we make sure we’re all on the same page? According to Josh, it starts with mutual understanding, clarity, communication, and clear and established roles and responsibilities.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Our End of the Bargain
“Healthy relationships are based on solid agreements where both parties understand what they’re signing up for in that agreement… what they’re agreeing to do, right? Again, whether it’s a marriage or a friendship or a professional relationship, or yes, a construction contract, if both parties enter into that agreement understanding what it means and what their responsibilities are within that agreement, the relationship is going to go good. And we’ve all experienced the opposite of that, right? Where we’re caught off guard.”
A Lot at Stake
“You do have a great say and responsibility in creating those agreements. And you do have a great responsibility to understand the terms. And if you agree to something before you make that effort to understand what is in that agreement, again, [it’s] a very risky proposition for you down the road.”
Set Up For Success
“What I see more often than not is to try to renegotiate terms once an agreement has been executed […] — when you’re 4 or 5, 10 years in — that’s not the right time to do it. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, but that again, it’s a much more challenging conversation than when you’re getting into that relationship, right? So part of agreements are disagreements, and you have to speak up when you disagree. We talk about that in communication a lot. That’s what helps set these things up for success.”
Room For Misunderstanding
“That one happens over and over again — vague agreements, vague terms in legal contracts that don’t have clear deliverables, clear timelines, clear budgets, and in some cases, clear scopes. All those leaving undefined or gray areas in your contract, again, create the opportunity for a misunderstanding down the road that happens over and over again. I can’t tell you how many contracts I look at where the terms are undefined. Like, I can’t pick out of it what that scope is or what that agreement was. Someone who is not a party to the agreement should be able to open that thing up and say, ‘Oh, okay, here’s what they were going to do. Here’s what they were going to do.’”
Managing Risks
“A pitfall that happens over and over again is the various risks within that agreement […] getting assigned to the wrong party. In contracting, I say we’re basically risk managers. We’re always just managing risks on these projects, and really in any type of business, you’re managing risk. But in an agreement, […] each party is saying, ‘We’re going to take on this risk,’ and risks come in all shapes and sizes. Some are schedule-related risks. Some are budget-related risks. Some are insurance-related risks. And if the wrong party in the agreement is being asked to take on that risk, they are not most capable of mitigating it during the course of the agreement. You’re going to have problems down the road. You’re going to end up with an ugly conversation with that other party at some point.”
Securing Your Future
“But the reality of it is if you take the time upfront to get all this on the table, get it clearly defined what your agreement is all about and who’s responsible for what, you’re going to save yourself the time on the back end and build momentum into your next agreement, your next project.”
LEARN MORE
Take your leadership skills to the next level by checking out Gamut Project Solutions’ Foundational Five here.