Impossible Missions: You Want Us to Do What?

As architects, we’ve all seen it: the RFP that describes an exciting mission—innovative design opportunities, a high-profile site, a prestigious Client; but something is not right—the schedule is crazy, or the budget is miscalculated. Sometimes, the fundamental program decisions seem misaligned with what the Client wanted to achieve. Like Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible, we are seduced by the opportunity, even when we know the journey will be perilous.

But Impossible Missions can often turn out to be the best projects, if project teams are able to confront the challenges and are adaptable along the way.

To the project sponsors out there—the Clients—be wary of sending your consultants on the Impossible Mission. Definitely dream the impossible dream, but also take steps that will secure your dream team and enable that team to deliver successfully and realistically.

Plan for Contingencies from the Outset

If we were all like Ethan Hunt, we would always accept the Impossible Mission when offered the opportunity. But professional services firms can’t operate like that. When consultants are considering a challenging and risky opportunity, we are interested in what mitigations and contingencies are available to us, should we choose to accept the mission.

Smart firms always have a rigorous go-no-go process. When the mission seems impossible, we pore over the contract language and determine the opportunities that exist after project award.

• What due diligence mechanisms exist to validate critical project parameters?
• Who has control of cost estimates and what resources can they mobilize?
• What flexibility exists in the fee structure if the project needs to go down a different path?

When the contract language regards every deviation from the plan as a breach of contract, many of the best teams are likely to just run away. If your project has enormous challenges, you want the top talent to submit a proposal, so it’s best to make sure the contract has an appropriate balance of risk for both sides. Every construction project is inherently about taking risks. Clients who emphasize the transfer of risk to other parties (like the consultants and contractors) are failing to establish the kinds of partnerships needed for Impossible Missions.

Make use of trusted contract forms, such as Document 6 from the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada and Document 600 published by the OAA in Ontario. These contracts set out ways for consultants to prove their case for a different plan if they perceive something to be impossible. These contracts also offer various mechanisms to renegotiate the services if the Mission needs to change.

Never underestimate the importance of professional cost and schedule consultants, whether directed by you or your design team. Unbiased and objective cost and time analysis is critical for every capital project… especially the complex ones.

Above all, Clients should put faith in the selection process. When you have appointed your preferred team, start from an assumption that they will succeed. Challenge and motivate them, rather than “squeeze” them with intimidating contract language.

Listen During the Question Period

Fundamental misalignments of scope, schedule and budget are often challenged during the question period. Don’t be too quick to rebuff questions that challenge your fundamental plan for the project. By asking these questions, consultants might be shedding light on aspects that weren’t considered by the project sponsors.

In your RFP, it’s valuable to tell the market as much as you can about your project. Budgets should never be a secret to be disclosed after award. If possible, break your budget down, it really helps teams to gain confidence in the project. Describe scope inclusions and exclusions. Describe the logic of your schedule to demonstrate how much groundwork has been done.

Remember that proponents are evaluating you as much as you are evaluating them. Transparency and preparedness inspire confidence and will resonate with the top performers.

Think of the Proposal as Free Advice

Proposals give consultants a chance to show Clients what kind of advisors we are. If you think your project is a major challenge, encourage proponents to provide their perspective. Ask them to lay out the major risks, as well as proposed means of confronting those risks. What would the team do on Day 1? Ask for case studies and project stories that help you understand how prepared each team might be. Even after award, consider input from the runners-up when defining and clarifying first steps with your selected team.

Day 1: We Need to Talk

Having said that, the RFP process is a competitive one, so every responding team will bring a can-do attitude to the proposal. On Day 1 after the award, it’s time for the design team to put the plan into action and sometimes to broach delicate questions.

Early in my career, I would hesitate to challenge fundamental project parameters in the “honeymoon” period after winning a new project. But experience has shown me that delaying the discussion is worse than the awkwardness of contradicting your new Client.

In my practice, I emphasize the importance of due diligence in the first 30-100 days. Broaching tough subjects and providing candid feedback always helps to build trust. Questions like these can break the ice and start me and my Client towards resolving the tough issues:

“I don’t seem to have all the details of your budget. Can we work through the breakdown to make sure we are starting from the same assumptions?”

“I know you understand the importance of obtaining sign-off. Are your 35 separate  stakeholders really committed to reviewing each milestone submission within 48 hours like your RFP indicates? Can we map out this process together to make sure we are successful?”

It’s not an easy thing to break it to your Client that the budget is not enough to fulfill the ambitions. Often, Client’s don’t want to believe it. After all, by the time a project gets to the RFP stage, it has gone down a long road of steering committee approvals, executive sign-offs and political horse-trading. No one wants to contemplate reopening that process.

My approach is to be generous with information: benchmarks, quantity-based validation of the budget, and other data to demonstrate the case.  We need to establish contingency plans for elements that we don’t agree on.

When it comes to scheduling the design work, I like to emphasize joint project planning with the client team. When I line up my team’s activities against the tasks that the Client needs to do, we can quickly identify logic that’s simply, well, impossible. The beginning of the project is the best time to iron out those wrinkles.

The 3-legged stool of scope, cost and schedule still reigns supreme. You might not be able to get "everything," "cheap" and "fast." But if you can let up on one of the three, there's a better chance of achieving the other two.

Run Scenarios

So, having uncovered the crux of the Impossible Mission, what now? The best thing is to run scenarios. In a room full of creative people, we can probably find some acceptable alternatives.

One of my federal clients was desperate to spend as much as possible before the end of their fiscal year. Their default position was to see the entire project designed and built by that arbitrary deadline, a feat that proved impossible for the team as a whole.

As we deconstructed the critical path, it became clear that 80% of the project value was related to critical security equipment. By establishing a pre-order package for the security program, we were able to get the gear on site in time for fiscal year end, while providing the design team with the runway needed for the remaining design process. This satisfied the fiscal objectives and still delivered the project within an acceptable time frame.

Pull-Planning and the Value of Collaboration

Often, the Impossible Mission really comes down to a small number of tasks with impossible logic. In 2016, I was the Project Manager for Perkins&Will in the design of a STEM Complex at the University of Ottawa. The RFP described an Impossible Mission, requiring design and construction to be completed in just 22 months to qualify for 100% of the funding. Working together with the Client and their Construction Manager (PCL), we used pull-planning extensively to jointly make decisions and keep each other honest.

PCL started from a position of wanting construction-ready documents ASAP. At the same time, the Client was still finalizing its functional program and my design team was just starting to sketch. In our energetic design meetings inside the trailers, you could almost hear the excavators idling outside, eager to begin.

“What can you give me?” the Site Superintendent begged, “Can you at least tell me how big the hole is and how deep to dig?” Although framed in jest, it was essentially a plea for the team to begin fixing some parameters.

Photo: The uOttawa STEM Complex Under Construction, courtesy PCL Constructors

So that’s what we did. Over the 22 months of design and construction, the team negotiated and renegotiated commitments on a bi-weekly basis. We agreed on the dimensions and position of a box and we gradually defined its every detail, sharing real-time information in Building Information Management (BIM) software. We didn’t achieve every interim deadline, but all team members agreed to continue reducing the number of variables until we reached certainty. We found ways to pivot at every obstacle. All the while, the quality and performance of the building were never compromised. And that impossible deadline? Well, we got that done.

Conclusion

In the world of design and construction, Impossible Dreams are worth dreaming. For project sponsors, it’s important to set out a plan that prepares for the unexpected. When you recognize that your project has major challenges, develop a selection process that will get you a high-performing team who will be motivated to partner with you. Be candid about your ambitions and the work you have done up front.

Utilize the knowledge or your consultants during the RFP and after award. Make them live up to the promise of a dream team—not with menacing contract language, but with motivation and trust.

Like Ethan Hunt, we often find that the Impossible Mission doesn’t go exactly as planned. As we confront the reality of the challenges, project teams will find a successful path. Through due diligence, scenario-testing and collaborative problem solving, there is always a way.

Often times, we find that we can achieve the impossible after all.