Hello Team! It's great to be back with you after a bit of a hiatus. For the past several months, I've been working on a municipal improvement project. The project is located in a residential subdivision in a southwestern Chicago suburb and has required me to keep dozens of plates spinning simultaneously: On-site troubleshooting, design changes, coordination with the municipalities, residents, local police/fire/schools and of course, working hour-by-hour with the contractor and his activities. It has been one of the most difficult management projects I've been involved with, simply from the sta ..read more

As I was debriefing this past week (and really, much of this past month...), it occurred to me that I ought to consider sharing my personal "Lessons Learned" with the crew, thinking & hoping that maybe there are a few useful takeaways for all of us. Topics in this Debrief include: -Starting at a new company -Filling-in for someone on another project -Being curious & willing to ask questions -The importance of relationships in the construction industry Connect with me anytime!! LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bob Hildebranski, PE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hildebranski.com ..read more

I had an opportunity to interact with a group of high school students and had a great time. The Illinois Tollway (who our company is working for) hosted the students to introduce them to all of the different kinds of careers that are possible. It was a great time, the students & their instructors were great. The group got a chance to visit one of the active construction sites to see what a bridge under construction looks like. We broke the students into two groups and I got to talk to them about surveying. I brought out several of our instruments and showed them a level, a robotic total st ..read more

I am putting this out there: How can I be of service to you? What questions do you have? What issues are you working through in the jobsite that a seasoned member of the industry could help you with? I haven't been doing enough. I've been letting you down. We have a small but growing community of sitework professionals who come here to get a dose of positive impact. And I've been lax in pushing you & I forward. I've dropped the ball. I haven't been getting the messages out. I haven't added any tools to your toolbox. Not good. This is a call to action-Send me a DM on Linked in. Leave a comm ..read more

Hello Construction Engineers! It's great to be back with you for Episode #27. Being a college instructor, learning is a front-and-center part of my life. As much as I hope the students are learning under my tutelage, I am learning as well: Learning how to speak. Learning how to break concepts down. Learning how to present materials in a digestible format. Suffice to say, we are always learning. In this episode, I talk about how we, as people involved in construction, need to be cognizant of our need to constantly be learning. Are we creating a job office atmosphere where we are using the peo ..read more

Hey Crew - It's so good to check back in with you here on Episode 026.  With so many task management systems now in existence, there's an opportunity to turn your To Do list into a job unto itself. Managing your tasks should be a simple exercise: Prioritize and execute, that's the goal.  But it's now easy to become lost in app's, bogged down in trying to get this app to talk to Outlook, which then needs an add-in to talk back to your task management, which then needs to be updated so it can coordinate with your calendar. In my world, all of that linking of applications does nothing b ..read more

Hey Crew - It's great to be back with you for Episode 025. I'm a big fan of the fire service: Fire service podcasts, fire service leadership. I've come to really value listening leaders in the fire service. I think there is a lot of carry-over between the fire service and the construction industry: Our jobs place us in, sometimes, risky situations that we are called to mitigate. There are leadership issues in both of our industries that call for us to be sound in our inter-personal skills, navigating situations & issues. I love listening to great chiefs & leaders, in any industry, but ..read more

Hey Crew - It's great to be back with you.  For the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of free-time thinking about goals. I've been a goal setter since I got my first Franklin Planner in 1989. Back then, I learned the basics of goal setting that we all know & love: Determining values & what matters most, developing ways of creating task lists that would be the incremental steps that lead to accomplishing the goals. I don't consider myself to be a "Type A" personality who's always trying to get to the next ladder rung, I'm just a guy who's trying to better himself everyday. Safe to s ..read more

Episode 023 - I'm excited to be back after a bit of a hiatus! I've spent the last couple of months immersed in teaching a course in Construction Surveying, but the spring term has been secured, the final grades have been posted, and I now have time to get back to the podcast. This episode comes to us by way of a question from the Interwebs. Although I could list dozens of attributes, I discuss six characteristics, traits & skills that I think ALL OF US (not just the younger members of our industry....) can focus on to improve our on-site duties: Be Squared Away Constantly Improve Your Com ..read more

Episode 22 - It's nice to be back with you all!! The couple-of-month hiatus is past, just too much else going on... A couple of weeks ago, those of us at our company received our annual "Self-Evaluation Form." That means it's time to reassess. I've always enjoyed stepping away from the total station and the laptop and getting the 10,000 foot view of where my life & career are heading. I've done it since I got my first Franklin Planner in 1989. Self-assessment and goal setting have always been part of my life road mapping. But this year's analysis will be a bit different. New situations, bo ..read more