MnDOT Project

Partnering

Jerry Pitzrick

Partnering Facilitator

Pitzrick and Associates, Inc.

What is Partnering

• Seeking fairness – it is not waiving contract

requirements or bending the rules

• Trust and open communication from all parties

• Issue resolution at the most direct level

• An awareness of common goals and willingness to

find solutions that work for all parties

• Task Planning

Why Partnering Now?

• More permitting requirements

• Shorter durations

• Less experienced people in the field

• Projects not being finaled out in a timely manner

puts federal funds in jeopardy

MnDOT’s

Partnering Field

Guide

• Developed jointly with

AGC

• Available on MnDOT

website

• Many tools especially for

large, complex projects

Partnering Objectives

• Reduce & eventually eliminate claims

• Reduce total project costs for everyone

• Higher quality

• Safer projects

• Quicker close-out

How was Partnering used in

2015?

• Formal partnering on 15 projects

• A few projects did informal partnering

• End of year review meetings

Key components of partnering

• Pre-construction questionnaire

• Pre-activity discussions

• Productive meetings with minutes

• Timely issue resolution

• Project close-out

Questionnaire

• Distributed with pre-con

invitation

• Responses by prime

contractor, major subs, and

MnDOT

• Reviewed by smaller group

usually after the Pre-con

meeting

Pre-activity

discussions

• Held before any new activity

on project

• Foreman/Inspector &

PM/PE

• Duration varies by

complexity of activity

• Informal

• Anyone can take the lead in

requesting meeting

Pre-activity discussions

• Understand the plan for the work

• Review specifications, any questions?

• Agree on testing and inspections needs & schedule

• Safety review

• Quantity reporting process

• Err on the side of doing too frequently

Weekly Meetings

• Have an agenda

• Have the right people at the meeting

• Do minutes or e-mail with decisions and follow-up

assignments

• Track open issues

Planning

• “If I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening the axe.”

• Abraham Lincoln

• “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

• Anais Nin – author

• “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.”

• Grover Cleveland

Informal Partnering

• Used on most projects

• No professional facilitator

• Use questionnaire

• Do pre-activity discussions

• Good meetings

• Timely issue resolution

Professional facilitated

partnering

• Professional facilitator will be retained for Kick-off

partnering meeting

• Facilitator will be acceptable to both MnDOT &

Contractor

• Costs of partnering will be evenly shared

• There may be follow-up partnering meetings with

facilitator if project requests

Communication

• Commit to not writing letters without talking first,

unless written notice is required by contract

• Helps to understand issues before positions are put

in writing

• People have different personalities and

communication styles, try to meet them half way

• Start of day discussions by foremen and inspectors –

take five

Partnering in 2016

• Professional Facilitated partnering on two projects in

most districts

• Informal partnering on most projects

• Year end reviews to learn what has worked well and

where we can make improvements

Closing

• Questions

• Comments

• Experiences

• Concerns