What do you see when you imagine a construction site? A chaotic mess? Let me tell you from experience, they certainly can feel like one. I still remember one of my first site visits to a commercial project. There was demolished building in the corner, a giant pit in the middle, and these huge tank like tractors, pulling long trailers that would scrape up dirt as they passed. Workers seemed to move around independently at random, but still with common purpose. I’d never seen anything like it before. It was terrifying. Pure chaos, and I stood right in the middle of it. Reality soon set in, I’m here to manage this Chaos…

What is Chaos?

a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.

– From Dictionary.com

Well that’s the definition… But did you know there’s also something known as Chaos Theory? You probably haven’t like me. Unless your a scientist. Its a branch of mathematics that takes on Chaos. Head first like an unsung hero.

Chaos is a collection of multiple disciplines working together without boundaries. It wasn’t thought up by one person struck in the head by a falling fruit. It was always there. Waiting for those willing to look outside segregated disciplines. And search for patterns in the random disorder and complexities of our world. It’s everywhere. From weather forecasts to economics to corporate team building methods.

But I’ll save the technical lecture for some later time. For now, just think of it as cause and effect, only on a much larger scale. It’s everywhere and in everything. From weather forecasts to economics to corporate team building.

Here’s what I found:

Wouldn’t you know, I found Chaos by luck really. It was sitting on a shelf in my local Half Price Books store. A book called Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick jumped out at me. It’s spine simply read – “Chaos” in black bold text on a bright red background. So I shrugged and thought what the hell, at the very least, I could add it to my continuously growing home library. But little did I know, this book would change my outlook on everything.

So Chaos looks at the randomness of a complex system and focuses on it’s initial condition. Take the Butterfly Effect for example. Most of us have heard of it by now or seen the 2004 movie. Which actually wasn’t that far off, so I recommend watching it. Anyways, the Butterfly Effect says that even an extremely small change in a system’s initial conditions can cause catastrophic changes through time. Each definition has its own variation of the story, but the central theme is “…the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world”

That’s when it dawned on me… Construction is Chaotic!! The complex issues didn’t seem so random anymore. I started to see patterns proposed in Chaos Theory. Just like the butterfly effect, one small issue at the start of the project can cause thousands of dollars in delays at the end. If not addressed, that small issue can spiral out of control. Causing the project to fail. For instance, the lack of a well defined project management plan can cause an iron worker to fall of a roof weeks from now.

Don’t believe me?

I know what your thinking. Sounds like a crazy overreaction, right? I wish it was. I experienced this exact scenario on an retail store expansion project.

The delays piled up from lack of man power to owner readiness to customer coordination. So we had to accelerate critical scope activities to stay on schedule by adding crews and overtime. Because of this, a young steel erector came in unannounced late on a Sunday to make up some time. More like 12:00 am Monday morning. But bottom line is that it was dark and he was most likely overly tired after returning from the weekend. Rushing to get some routine work done, he carelessly forgot to turn on adequate lighting and tie off his harness. Which is just a recipe for disaster.

As the young iron worker walked near the edge of the roof opening, the unexpected happened. An unsecured piece of deck lifted and he road it like a sled, 20 feet to the ground. Although he only suffered minor injuries, it could have been much worse.

See the mason was very behind schedule. Barely installed block out of the ground. Which means that wall reinforcing steel rods (rebar) were still exposed. Luckily, he landed on that piece of metal deck rather than the partially built wall. I still remember exactly where I was standing when the call came in and what I told the rookie superintendent what to do. Probably something I’ll never forget.

Okay, so what’s the point??

Construction Managers (CMs) are responsible for the successful completion of a Project. CMs utilize industry-standard practices to resolve issues and maintain order. Usually, a CM develops the Project Management Plans (PMP) to provide organization, establish procedures, and issue resolution. When issues arise, and they always will, a properly prepared PMP is your best friend. It will make sure your ready to eliminate Chaos!

Construction Management as a professional service, provides a project’s owner(s) with effective management of the project’s schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope, and function.

Reference: Construction Management Association of America

In the coming weeks (or even months and years if this catches on), I’ll post more and more topics on https://constructionchaos.com/ relating Chaos Theory to Construction Management. And how we can use it to develop better management plans that will help resolve issues efficiently as inevitably occur. And how to use your lessons learned to regularly to increase your Construction Management abilities.

Projects used to be complex, until CMs came along. Now lets expand our toolbox once more… Chaos doesn’t have a chance!!