Menu of Services

Menu of Services

Owner representation

Imaginative and systemic solutions to problems in construction operations

Strategic project management, including training & mentoring

Establish Project parameters and setup communications protocols

Competitive bidding coordination

Cost & resource management systems to work with your current systems, including cost/budget reporting

Claims avoidance & dispute resolution

Strategic negotiation guidance

Training and seminar presentation

Seminar Instruction

‘Getting Paid’ Series for Specialty Trade Contractors

The Specialty Trade Contractor seminars are designed to improve the survival odds of those contractors who actually build commercial construction projects. Distilled from the Dan Stuart’s White Paper “Bringing Better Value to Construction: The Specialty Trade Contractors’ Perspective,” and fed by experience gained over 30 years of management experience in the construction industry, these seminars are designed to help trade contractors protect themselves and get paid.

Fast-paced, interactive and highly informative, the workshops are not for the dreamers who believe that CMs are their friends. Rather, they embrace the realities of the construction marketplace and present a set of defensive weapons that help level the playing field. Attendees will learn how to deal with Construction Managers, Designers and powerful Owners, and will also learn that solidarity among trade contractors can beat the “bully syndrome.” You will walk away with tools that can be immediately put to
use on your current projects.

The seminars are presented in two half-day sessions, building logically from RFP to project completion. Session 1 is entitled “Pre Contract Project Management & Alternate Contract Language.” Aimed at the critical period up to the submittal of your bid for a project, it includes:

An overview of the 6 major problems encountered in commercial construction that are identified in the White Paper (i.e., design problems, payment & change order problems, schedule and sequencing problems, project management problems, contractual problems and project programs problems).

A checklist to be used for the assembly of bids.

Alternate contract language, presenting an extensive array of substitute clauses to replace the killer terms found in most CM contracts.

Session 2 is entitled “Getting Paid for Changes and Extras,” and continues where the first seminar ended. This seminar/workshop addresses the post-bid period from negotiation to contract award to project closeout, and includes:

A project management checklist presented sequentially by project phase

Identifying claims and building documentation to protect your extras payments

An interactive exercise

Tips on relationship building, including avoidance of warfare and how you can benefit by intelligent collaboration

The special “Foremen’s Seminar” is a 4-hour variation on the “Getting Paid for Changes and Extras” that is presented specifically to trade foremen. Understanding the unique balancing act that foremen must perform in working both with his or her company people as well as with the CM’s or GC’s Superintendent, this seminar provides the day-to-day tools that are needed to become indispensable to the Project while always protecting your company’s interests and providing the information your Main Office people need. This seminar includes:

A project management checklist presented sequentially by project phase

Identifying claims and building documentation to protect your extras payments

An interactive exercise

Tips on relationship building, including avoidance of warfare and how you can benefit by intelligent collaboration

Balancing the 4 Elements: Scope, Cost, Time and Quality

This 4-hour seminar is a distillation of CSI's very popular 16-hour "Project Management Principles" seminar that follows the guidelines set forth by the Project Management Institute. A shortened version targeted specifically at the construction industry, this fastpaced seminar examines the interplay between the four elements of every construction project: scope, cost, time and quality. Dan Stuart draws upon on extensive "in-thetrenches" experience with construction projects, and liberally sprinkles this seminar with common-sense tips that his listeners can immediately apply to their day-to-day work. All attendees, from the "old hands" to the new or soon-to-be Project Managers, will gain useful tools that will help their projects run smoother and more profitably.

Stuart is an ardent advocate of the collaborative approach to dealing with the conflict that inevitably exists on construction projects. This seminar supports the principles of Alternate Dispute Resolution, old-fashioned ethics, competence, and "win-win" solutions. Moreover, attendees will gain appreciation of the power of teamwork--both within organizations and between the players on construction projects -- as a tool for improving efficiency and profitability.

This seminar is an excellent companion to CSI's other construction-oriented seminars: "Communicating, Negotiating and Managing Conflict" and the “Getting Paid Series” for Specialty Trade Contractors.

Communicating, Negotiating & Managing Conflict

This 4-hour highly interactive seminar demonstrates the effectiveness of the "Successful Negotiator" approach to negotiation, which incorporates four vital components:

Understanding that successful negotiation is a collaborative process that builds a framework for creative thinking, rather than an adversarial procedure that relies on emotions and reflex

Recognizing that the needs and interests of both negotiating parties must be addressed if there is to be a long-term resolution

Understanding that negotiation is an ongoing process, and that the long-term relationship between the parties will be determined by today's negotiation

Understanding that the negotiation process must be guided through six distinct and unavoidable phases, from planning through bargaining to settlement confirmation

Attendees will learn the value of "separating the people from the problem," by encouraging the ability and willingness to communicate dispassionately throughout the negotiation process. Communication skills will be outlined to support the Art of Managing Conflict, and will also squarely address the usually tense chore of dealing with conflict within your own team.

Attendees will participate in enlightening exercises dealing with negotiation and conflict that will help hone their negotiation skills both in the work environment and in their private lives.

This seminar is an excellent companion to CSI's other construction-oriented seminars: "Balancing the Four Elements: Scope, Cost, Time and Quality" and the “Getting Paid Series” for Specialty Trade Contractors.


	*Balancing the 4 Elements: Scope, Cost, Time and Quality*

	This 4-hour seminar is a distillation of CSI's very popular 16-hour "Project Management Principles" seminar that follows the guidelines set forth by the Project Management Institute. A shortened version targeted specifically at the construction industry, this fastpaced seminar examines the interplay between the four elements of every construction project: scope, cost, time and quality. Dan Stuart draws upon on extensive "in-thetrenches" experience with construction projects, and liberally sprinkles this seminar with common-sense tips that his listeners can immediately apply to their day-to-day work. All attendees, from the "old hands" to the new or soon-to-be Project Managers, will gain useful tools that will help their projects run smoother and more profitably. Stuart is an ardent advocate of the collaborative approach to dealing with the conflict that inevitably exists on construction projects. This seminar supports the principles of Alternate Dispute Resolution, old-fashioned ethics, competence, and "win-win" solutions. Moreover, attendees will gain appreciation of the power of teamwork--both within organizations and between the players on construction projects -- as a tool for improving efficiency and profitability. This seminar is an excellent companion to CSI's other construction-oriented seminars: "Communicating, Negotiating and Managing Conflict" and the “Getting Paid Series” for Specialty Trade Contractors.