Our Services - Partnering Facilitation

The PMC approach to partnering services is to tailor a program that meets the unique needs of each project. We often recommend for projects to use executive, contractor and closeout partnering sessions along with intervention sessions as necessary.

Projects that utilized PMC Partnering Facilitation services include:

The executive partnering session is initiated by and for the project stakeholders in the early stages of the design process. The project team key owner representatives (users, administrative and executive levels), construction manager's team, architects, engineers and any other key consultants, meet to discuss the project, using interactive team building exercises to address practical project problems identified by the project stakeholders. We facilitate the establishment of team goals, identification of obstacles and opportunities and the initiation of action plans dealing with project issues. The session also includes a project alignment exercise to identify the roles and responsibilities of the team members, a benchmarking exercise and development of a framework for a dispute resolution plan.

We conduct a contractor partnering session once trade contractors come on board. One of the outcomes of the facilitated session with all trade contractors and the owner team is the establishment of agreement on construction processes and timeframes. Each project is unique in the design solution, and either variations in approaches to traditional construction processes or confirmation of the processes is beneficial to all parties involved. Trade contractors bring a unique perspective and can be allies and assets in successful execution of any building project. Delineation of owner expectations and the goals in conjunction with the contractors provides an opportunity for early exposure to potential difficulties in executing the project. We will facilitate the development of a dispute resolution plan that includes the participation of trade contractors. Having up front an agreed-upon process for the resolution of disputes can reduce or eliminate claims against the project.

The nature of traditional construction can be confrontational but even on the best projects, disputes can and will occur. We conduct intervention partnering sessions to facilitate the mediation of any dispute that arises during the course of a project. Our goal is to maximize project communications and assist in the resolution of all disputes within 30 days. One of the processes we put in place at the previous sessions is the need to surface disputes, whether internal to the owner team or with the trade contractors, to be able to resolve the disputes in a timely manner without resorting to costly outside consultants who have the least knowledge of the history of the project.

As a project approaches the 75% completion mark, we have used a closeout partnering session with the owner team and the trade contractors, to discuss and review critical elements of the project. It is typical for any project, and especially for construction, for the last 10 percent of the work to take a significantly disproportionate effort. The goals of the closeout session include validation of project completion schedules in any potentially hidden cost issues. Reiterating the requirements of the paper trail that is concurrent with the completion of the contracting activities at a point four to six months prior to substantial completion has been very beneficial in assisting contractors in expediting their final closeout and transition to 100% ownership of fully functional and complete buildings.