Team Building on Engineering and Construction Projects

Dr. George Jergeas, P.Eng.
Chair, iProjects Inc.

While the contract establishes the legal relationships, the team building and partnering process is designed to establish working relationships among the parties through a mutually developed formal strategy of commitment and communication. It attempts to create an environment where trust and teamwork prevent disputes, foster a cooperative bond to everyone's benefit, and facilitate the completion of a successful project.

Seminar Description

The seminar will aim to:

• Forge common goals and objectives;
• Establish working relationships;
• Create an environment of trust and teamwork;
• Foster a cooperative bond, and facilitate the successful completion of a project; and
• Create mechanisms to sustain and expand collaboration.

Through the workshop-styled session, attendees will discuss and develop:

• Problems and barriers that have prevented collaborations on past projects;
• Project vision:
  • Project goal;
  • In scope and out scope;
  • Project milestone schedule;
  • Success criteria;
  • Critical success factors;
  • Project org. structure; and
  • Project risks, assumptions, and stakeholders.
• Teamwork:
  • Health check;
  • Issue/dispute resolution mechanism;
  • Ground rules; and
  • Roles/responsibilities.

At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Better understand and apply team partnering and alignment concepts on their next project;
• Develop a mindset that is aligned and focused by improving alignment of goals across and between organizations;
• Better plan and commit to timelines, yielding better results;
• Create buy-in by everyone to achieving the goals of the organization/project;
• Develop project goals and objectives;
• Develop team ground rules;
• Develop a Performance Evaluation Mechanism for evaluating team relationships and performance (Health Check Mechanism); and
• Develop an Issue Resolution Mechanism for resolution of issues and disputes in a timely manner.

What Previous Participants Have Said About the Seminar

• “Excellent, dynamic, knowledgeable speaker. Very good examples. Lots of applicable examples. Very good case studies.”
• “Excellent seminar.”

Presenter

Dr. George Jergeas, P.Eng.

Chair, iProjects Inc.

Dr. George Jergeas is a civil engineer with a M.Sc. and PhD in Construction Management from Loughborough University, UK with over 45 years of industry and academic experience. He served as a professor of project management at the University of Calgary from 1994–2020.

George has a strong passion in increasing the efficiency and competency of teams delivering major engineering and construction projects. His expertise includes, project governance, assurance and readiness, risk management, project execution planning, contract strategies, partnering and collaborative relationships, claims and disputes with focus on dispute resolution, and project management training and coaching. George’s partnering methodology has been successfully implemented on over 180 projects across North America.

George has delivered project management training, leadership coaching, and consulting services to professional associations and companies across North America, Asia, and Europe. George is also the author of 3 books, a chapter in a 4th book, and over 100 articles and publications.

His books are:

• "Risk Navigation Strategies for Major Capital Projects: Beyond the Myth of Predictability", Springer, 2011
• "Benevolent Dictatorship for Major Capital Projects", LearnAcademy, 2017, Amazon.ca
• "Project Risk and Opportunity Management, The Owner’s Perspective", Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019
• "Evolving Toolbox for Complex Project Management", Taylor & Francis Group, November 2019 – The Legal Issues chapter