DECEPTIVE PROJECT REFERENCES

Many years later, Doug would recall this project as one of the most exhilarating assignments he had undertaken, and the one that supercharged the trajectory of his career.?The same summer that he completed his architectural licensing exams, Doug received a passing-in-the-hallway notification from his department manager that he would be the lead on a new project for the nearby teaching hospital, with the team kickoff meeting already scheduled for later that week.?Doug’s boss did not know much more about what the scope of work or services entailed, but happily shared with Doug that the firm’s marketing coordinator was the sister of the facility director of the hospital.?Doug’s other projects were wrapping up in the next few weeks, so he as pleased this assignment had come along without a gap in billable activity.

At the kickoff meeting between the hospital’s facility director and Doug, he was informed that a large yet-to-be-announced bequest was going to allow the hospital to construct a new emergency care facility.?Through the sister, the facility director knew of Doug’s exceptional experience with this type of facility.?Doug’s initial responsibility was to perform the planning for this project.?This would include compiling the design requirements for the new facility, plus identifying all the work required to prepare for the addition such that the hospital would remain fully operational throughout the construction.?An overall schedule of 5 to 7 years was anticipated.?The facility director also insisted that this planning task would require Doug’s full attention for the next few months so the analysis would be completed to present when the funding was announced.?Doug’s department manager was pleased to commit Doug’s full time for the profits from 100% time utilization.

The next few months were a whirlwind of interviews of all the stakeholders of the project and progress presentations to the CEO, CFO, Marketing Director and Board Chair of the hospital, as Doug prepared phase diagrams, timelines and financial spread sheets.?At the end of the process, just before the public announcement, the facilities director asked Doug, “How would you like to come on board and implement this plan for us?”

Doug was thrilled.?The salary being offered was significantly greater than what Doug was earning as an architect, although a lot less than what his firm had been charging for Doug’s services.?Doug’s senior management was not thrilled by the staff poaching, but could hardly object to this action by a long term client.?At Doug’s exit interview, the expressed hope that Doug would direct more work back to his former firm was embarrassingly blatant.?The next week, Doug’s new business card identified him as the Manager of Facility Planning and Project Management for the hospital.

Along with the planning for the new emergency care facility, Doug also assumed overall responsibility for all the hospital’s construction projects from planning through construction.?He had a staff of eight who were equally excited to again be receiving a manager’s direction and to now have some professional architectural experience on staff.?After being briefed on all projects, Doug decided to first focus his attention on those projects that were about to solicit proposals from architects and engineers.?This procurement process was definitely in Doug’s comfort zone.?In the next two months, Doug guided the efforts to prepare the requests for proposal, to review and analyze the submittals, and to participate in the design firm interviews.?Doug’s experience with these interviews and the follow up revealed an aspect of marketing design services in which Doug had not previously been involved:?project references.?In drilling down on these, Doug was shocked at the deceptive-yet-truthful practices employed:

• Expertise by Association:?The names of major hospitals, some world renown, were listed prominently as past clients.?Infrequently included were the scopes of work and services as well as the number of projects that were commissioned, and how well or not-so-well they were completed.?While one of his staff was duly impressed that a firm had worked at Sloan-Kettering and therefore must be well-qualified, Doug happened to know a former client that had moved on to S-K; ?Doug called to verify the work done by this design firm.?Doug’s contact did not know of this firm immediately.?When the contact called back in a few days, she reported that indeed the firm had performed work there several years ago, limited to identifying conditions that did not comply with ADA requirements in a hospital-owned medical office facility.?The project design was ultimately done by inhouse staff.
• Assumed Expertise Due to Building Type:?Another firm identified a hospital in a nearby state for which they had executed multiple projects.?In checking this reference, the hospital confirmed that the firm had completed multiple projects and the hospital was pleased with the work.?However, none of the projects were associated with hospital functions.?The projects involved the administrative offices, lounges, conference rooms and cafeterias.
• Expertise Now Absent:?The described projects were indeed performed by the firm, they all required medical facility expertise, and the hospital clients were appreciative of the quality of the work and the responsiveness of the design team.?However, the projects detailed in the portfolio were accomplished by project managers and/or designers no longer on the design firm’s staff.

The latter project reference omission was typified by the interview with Doug’s former firm relative to the design of that emergency care facility project.?The three projects listed as most similar to the hospital’s project had all been designed by Doug.?When Doug checked the proposed project team organizational chart for who was being identified as the assigned designer, Doug well knew the colleague whose photo smiled back at him, and that this person had little emergency care facility experience.?The firm could certainly claim to have done the work, but perhaps should not be suggesting they could recreate that success.

When Doug asked his staff about reference checking in the past, promising his new reports immunity, they all confessed that there was rarely time to check references to that depth.?If these industry leading hospitals employed these firms, couldn’t his staff assume that those hospitals’ larger facility staffs had fully vetted the design firms??If the project had not gone well, the design firm would not include these projects in their references, right??And didn’t it seemed unlikely that a firm without the expertise could be cost competitive in design fees while facing a learning curve or having to subcontract for the expertise?

Doug was a bit more cynical than his staff.?The hospital’s design proposal submission process was modified to require identification of exactly what was the nature of the referenced projects and what current staff had worked on those past projects.?The RFP now also noted, “all project references will be confirmed.”