Silicon carbide manufacturing facility

Background

Beyond the ubiquitous COO, CFO, and CEO roles, current common C-level positions in business include compliance, data, diversity, experience, human resource, legal, marketing, information, technology innovation, knowledge, product, security, sustainability, and technology. These disciplines also apply to all projects.

Obstacle

The leadership team (Core Group) for a silicon carbide manufacturing facility comprises dozens of design, construction, and capital program experts, but lacks a unifying force that aligns the goals and actions of the entire project team. The team consistently runs into challenges symptomatic of a large organization ( breakdown in communication, etc.) due to the massive scale of the project.

Approach

To address these challenges, we developed an unconventional role for IPD coaches, creating a Chief of Staff position for the megaproject. The Chief of Staff identifies areas where the project needs C-level support and makes recommendations to address those needs. We continuously survey the needs of the project team and fulfill multiple roles typical for a Chief of Staff for a large company or a government body:

• Trusted advisor: the Chief of Staff provides a confidential, safe space to express concerns about the project, team performance, and lean practices. We are often called the “IPD Therapists”.
• Sounding board: project leaders know they can bounce ideas off of the Chief of Staff and receive honest feedback, a lean perspective, and big picture thinking.
• Unifier: the Chief of Staff brings the leadership group together and organizes their efforts to reach their own stated conditions of satisfaction.
• Implement creative solutions: the Chief of Staff develops solutions to problems identified by leadership, executes, and improves until the process is operating as a well-oiled machine.
• Special projects: The owner leans on the Chief of Staff to assist with ad-hoc projects such as grant writing, event planning, and media development.

The Chief of Staff position helps us to treat capital  projects as temporary business organizations that convene for the express purpose of delivering the project per the conditions of satisfaction.

Result

The owner and Core Group rely on the Chief of Staff as the central hub for anything involving the IPD team and the project as a whole. We act as an extension of the owner’s staff, charged with supporting the goals of the project.

Lessons Learned

As an industry, we must treat projects as temporary business organizations.

“We are smart people – we can figure it out!” A technical teammate may not have the education and experience to marshal the technical, communication, and leadership skills needed to fill a C-Suite role.

Recommendation: Account for the roles required to make the temporary project organization run smoothly.

Stop treating projects as projects and treat them as a business. Even the largest project won’t necessarily need a slew of C-Suite individuals, but sound strategy and competent execution are required.

Recommendation: Bring on qualified staff to serve the larger team and implement the project’s conditions of satisfaction.