LEO A DALY Architecture, Planning, Engineering, Interior Design
Positive interdependence.
My most powerful leadership technique,” says Leo Daly, “is commitment to a concept that my firm refers to as positive interdependence.
“At LEO A DALY, we utilize positive interdependence as a driver for collaboration between project team members to ensure that we achieve the best possible outcome for each project and each client. To us, positive interdependence means that everyone involved in a project, or in achieving a goal, is vested in its successful outcome.
“This concept is an important part of my leadership vision. Its genesis-was in a management strategy adopted by my grandfather when he started the firm in 1915.
“He successfully integrated architects, planners, engineers, and interior and landscape designers into teams to approach each project from a holistic, or fully integrated, approach. Although this approach is standard practice today, in 1915 it was quite radical.
“As a firm we take care to hire design professionals who are skilled team players. We then foster a culture of shared values based on professional respect. We encourage active discussion and input from our design professionals while exploring the firm’s approach to a project. However, once a decision is made, everyone is expected to collaborate to achieve the goal.
“As architects, engineers, planners, and interior designers, we are always responsible for the performance standards of a vast number of consultants and subconsultants who actively participate in every project.
This challenge is magnified by the complexity of the projects that our firm undertakes and by the fact that we now employ 1,000 design professionals in sixteen offices worldwide. We use positive interdependence to streamline the design and construction process, and find that it also provides an effective means of problem solving.
“We begin implementing positive interdependence in the early stages of each new project. By integrating the activities of all the necessary players at every stage of the project, we can quickly establish aligned goals and objectives, clearly define expectations, fine-tune attitudes and values, and establish a total commitment to schedule and budget. The results lead to a high level of client satisfaction, which we use to our strategic advantage as a business development tool.
“Our means of establishing this commitment to positive interdependence varies from project to project. It is, however, deeply rooted in our corporate culture and influences our selection of consultants and subconsultants for each project. We then utilize whatever communications tools are necessary to sustain the high level of collaboration, communication, and trust necessary to achieve the maximum results on highly complex projects.
“While the technique of positive interdependence may seem an obvious solution, it is in fact very difficult to achieve. My grandfather and the founder of the firm, Leo A. Daly, Sr., introduced this process when he began integrating teams of architects, engineers, planners, and interior designers to collaborate on projects. Since that time, positive interdependence has evolved at LEO A DALY to include all members of the team, from the design concept stage through to construction administration.
“One of the best recent examples of positive interdependence in our firm is the design, engineering, and construction of the new headquarters for First National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska. LEO A DALY was selected as the design architect from a shortlist of six international architects.
“After reviewing several locations, our client decided to build a new signature tower and complex in downtown Omaha. The design of this project was intended to both create a new corporate image for the First National Bank and to create a catalyst for the development of Omaha’s downtown.
“We selected an extraordinary group of professionals to work on this project and to design a state-of-the-art tower and complex that accommodated our client’s diverse needs. The design team was based in our Washington, DC, office while the engineers, project managers, and interior designers were based in our domestic headquarters in Omaha.
“By utilizing positive interdependence as a tool, we used the collective intelligence of all members of the team to design the project. This process also allowed us to deal with potential design challenges efficiently and effectively.
“We also established a formalized strategic alliance partnership with the client and the contractor, Kiewit Construction, to ensure that the project was built to the highest possible standards while also keeping on time and on budget. The strategic alliance process also allowed us to take advantage of composite construction practices to reduce cost. These savings were reinvested back into the materials and workmanship of the building.
“What made this strategic alliance succeed was that the client was intimately involved at every stage and, therefore, actively participated in problem solving. With a project the size and complexity of a corporate headquarters, there are usually a percentage of errors and omissions calculated into the agreement. The client’s active participation and oversight, together with the constant dialogue between the architect, LEO A DALY, the general contractor, Kiewit Construction, and the subconsultants, kept the errors and omissions to a minimum.
“The client’s active involvement in the strategic alliance partnership also led to both transparency in decision making and a sense of trust among the key players. As a result, when a major problem did occur, there was an immediate response among the players and very little finger pointing.
“For example, midway through the project the custom curtain wall manufacturer went into bankruptcy protection, which could have led to both finger pointing and costly construction delays. Because the selection of this manufacturer was a joint decision made by the strategic alliance partners, and also because it was based on the manufacturer’s qualifications and the best information available at the time, there was no finger pointing.
“Once the partnership became aware of the problem, the partners spent their time dealing with the solution rather than blaming each other. The result was a joint effort to retrieve the custom components from the first curtain wall manufacturer and integrating them into the design of the replacement manufacturer.
“Safety in the workplace was also an extremely high priority for this project. The close collaboration established between all parties by the strategic alliance partnership led to the team receiving the STAR award from OSHA for excellent standards in workplace safety. The injury rate on the job-site was 61 percent below the national average, which is quite an accomplishment with an average of 450 workers on the site everyday.
“The result of the integration of positive interdependence and strategic alliance partnering is an elegant, award-winning tower and headquarters complex which has established a design benchmark for downtown Omaha, and has prompted the investment of over $2 billion dollars in the downtown area. LEO A DALY is also very proud to have First National Bank as a happy and satisfied client.
“Surround yourself with the best people, listen to their advice, and empower them to succeed. Establish the person’s challenge and then provide him or her with manp1ower and technical resources needed to succeed (within reasonable budgetary guidelines.) and, probably more importantly, give that person your trust and reinforce that trust publicly in front of his or her peers and other employees.”