👋 Hey, Kyle here! Welcome to The Influential Project Manager, a weekly newsletter covering the essentials of successful project leadership.
Today’s Overview:
My experience as a Construction Manager & General Contractor has taught me a vital lesson: early project engagement consistently leads to better outcomes.
The MacLeamy Curve is a graph that illustrates the benefits of making important decisions early on in a construction project. It suggests that the sooner you plan and solve problems, the less it will cost and the easier it will be to make changes. The idea is that by shifting the effort toward the very beginning of a project can save a lot of time, money, and hassle later on.
Our commitment as builders should be to seize every chance for early review and integration. As a practitioner, I'm thrilled to see services like Current Sets that support this initiative, making the path to successful project management clearer than ever.
Today’s Newsletter is Brought to You by Current Sets!
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The Impact of Early Coordination on Project Success
Presented by Current Sets.
In the construction industry, we have a saying: “time is of the essence.”
It’s a fancy way to stress there's a strict deadline for something, and being late is not an option. In our world, timing really makes all the difference.
My experience as a Construction Manager and General Contractor has taught me a vital lesson: early project engagement consistently leads to better outcomes. No matter the project delivery method, timely and thorough planning is crucial for success and client satisfaction.
The wisdom of early planning is supported by extensive research, including insights from one of my most recommended books "How Big Things Get Done" by Prof. Dent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, which echoes a simple yet powerful philosophy:
“Think Slow, Act Fast.”
This simple heuristic emphasizes the importance of careful planning, analysis, and “effort” before executing a project. Projects that fail typically follow the opposite philosophy, "Think Fast, Act Slow."
Essentially if you “think fast” during the planning stage of your big project, you’ll be forced to “act slow” in the future while you deal with the challenges of a plan that doesn’t work.
This mantra has led me to the MacLeamy Curve, which advocates for making early decisions (effort) to sidestep costly errors later.
In this week’s edition, I'll be detailing out the MacLeamy Curve and how it can shape successful project outcomes. Fortunately for us, with tools like Current Sets, early coordination is more accessible than ever, transforming the landscape of project management.
Why Early Coordination Matters
Why start early? Early coordination sets the stage for project success by helping us gain:
Crystal-clear understanding of client needs.
Early detection of potential hiccups.
Time to iron out issues before they grow.
Assurance that designs are both constructable and efficient.
We can't control everything in a project, but we can make sure our plans are good to go. This is where we can really make a difference.
Current Set’s plan review has helped Thompson Thrift Development to catch several plan conflicts that would have cost us 3-4X the cost in change orders. We have found the plan overlays, of our custom projects, to be invaluable.” - Steve Shaver, Sr. VP of Construction and Design @ Thompson Thrift Development
The MacLeamy Curve
The MacLeamy Curve, created by architect & HOK Former CEO Patrick MacLeamy, is a graph that shows the benefits of making important decisions early on in a construction project.
It advises that the sooner you start the “effort” (plan and solve problems), the less it will cost and the easier it will be to make changes. As a project advances, making changes gets costlier, so focusing on early planning can lead to significant savings in time, money, and effort.
Imagine you were planning a family vacation that included visits to several countries — and you wanted to arrive back home on time and on budget. It would be smart to make detailed plans and arrangements (where, how, what, when, and how much) well before you began to travel. The same is true for the design and construction, or major renovation, of a high-performance project.
The MacLeamy Curve illustrates the logic of moving analysis and decisions to early in the design process:
This approach enhances teamwork, leverages technology for efficient planning, and maintains cost control with minimal additional effort.
Even though traditional and early planning require similar amounts of “effort”, early planning is more impactful.
Cost control is easiest early on but gets harder as design and development proceed.
The “cost of design changes” is very low in the beginning but rises exponentially through Development, Documentation, and Construction.
Sharing this curve with your team can help underline the advantages of making early decisions and the role clients play in a project's financial and practical outcomes.
Implementation: The Integrative Approach
The MacLeamy Curve champions a proactive strategy, emphasizing early efforts in project planning for optimal flexibility and decision-making.
To apply this shift, here’s the playbook:
Dive into problem-solving as the project kicks off.
Coordinate with engineers right from the start - it pays off.
Collaborate with contractors early for a smoother ride later.
Adopt the 'measure twice, cut once' philosophy for accuracy and efficiency.
Key early review areas should include:
Site Plans: Coordination of structures, parking, and amenities, including site gradients, piping, and accessibility.
Site to Building Connections: Align site and building plans across all disciplines for seamless utility connections.
Building Plans: Verify the alignment of structural elements, openings, and layouts for systems and ceilings.
Enlarged Plans: Perform detailed coordination of architectural, structural, and MEP elements, including specific room plans.
Drawing Quality: Maintain consistent naming, completeness, and correct approvals on drawings.
Constructability Checks: Use experienced insights during planning and design to identify and resolve potential issues.
“Current Sets takes the administrative and formatting work out of the coordination reviews. It is a place where I can easily overlay multiple documents and change transparency, color, and move items around which assists in highlighting issues and errors quickly, taking less time to locate and communicate items that need further coordination.” - Reb McKinney, Design Manager at Current Sets
Software tools like Current Sets facilitate this integrative approach, making it easier and more cost-effective to apply the MacLeamy Curve principles and dramatically improve project outcomes.
Starting Strong with Early Coordination
The Construction Industry Institute highlights that early coordination can slash costs by 6 to 23% and significantly trim schedules.
Beyond the numbers, the real gains are in sharper scheduling, boosted productivity, better construction sequencing, improved quality, less maintenance, and safer work environments. Here’s what Earl Childs discovered:
To reap these benefits on your projects:
Champion early collaboration in your projects. Whenever possible, take the lead in initiating early-stage discussions and planning.
Drawing Coordination Reviews: Use services like Current Sets for comprehensive design reviews. They can help you sidestep 30-50+ RFIs per project, offering high level and in-depth insights from the Design Development phase through to Construction Documents.
Revision Reviews: Use Current Sets for quick revision reviews to easily spot differences between updated drawings. This is crucial for addressing Architect’s Supplemental Instructions (ASIs), any supplementary documentation, and amendments, or when you need to compare project progress across different stages.
Door and Hardware Review: Take advantage of their latest service for door and hardware reviews to ensure material consistency and accuracy across your design documents.
Peer Reviews: Architects can alleviate project coordination pressure and improve project and drawing standards with a peer review.
“Current Sets significantly improved our ability to track ASI / RFI related changes, compare drawings across different disciplines, and be able to manage the project document control.” Chris Larsen, Superintendent @ CBG
Embracing these practices with services like Current Sets can transform your approach to project management.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, starting coordination efforts early in construction projects can significantly improve their success. By simply beginning these efforts sooner, without increasing the overall effort, you can greatly alter your project's direction for the better.
This approach improves project quality, ensures predictability, optimizes resource usage, and delivers financial benefits.
Our commitment as builders should be to seize every chance for early review and integration. As a practitioner, I'm thrilled to see services like Current Sets that support this initiative, making the path to successful project management is clearer than ever.
Their solution aligns with The Influential Project Manager's mission, helping us evolve from task-oriented managers to strategic leaders who drive significant project value and avoid the common traps that result in mediocre project performance.
Experience the shift for yourself—partner with Current Sets for your next coordination review and construct with confidence.
Until next week,
Kyle Nitchen
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