Coaching & Development Team Kicks Off Leadership with Jeffrey Spatz

Vice President of Graham Company, Jeffrey A. Spatz, teamed up with RAWSO to put together an event that features discussion topics relating to safety, leadership, and personal growth. For the first time, RAWSO’s Coaching & Development Team also orchestrated two hands-on activities that test their skills in cooperation, communication, and problem solving.

The two activities were called “Telephone” and “The Blueprint”. Starting the day off, everyone was assigned a certain management position or role pertaining to the construction industry. A person was either assigned Operation Manager, Superintendent, or Foreman. RAWSO’s President of Construction Operations, Keith McBride, was also given a role but just as himself. Each position was only given two minutes to relay details about a new upcoming project. The person being told must take note of as much details as they can in those two minutes so they can successful pass the information down the chain of command. Keith started things off by relaying this new project to the people who were assigned as Operation Managers. Once the time ran out, Operations Managers then would have to pass this information down to the assigned Superintendents. This eventually finished off with the Foreman receiving the information where they will be questioned on the details of the new project. This included questions about certain dates goals, cubic yards of export, storm pipe, etc. Unfortunately, a lot of the assigned Foreman weren’t able to correctly answer the questions. Although it was a challenging game, this helped showcase how communication is very important and how information can get missed through the chain of command.

For the final activity, “The Blueprint”, everyone was assigned into five groups. Each group had to put together a structure with the materials given. A photo of the finished structure was displayed for only ten seconds before beginning. Although each team was more than capable of quickly putting together the structure, there was a secret hidden twist to the game. Prior to the game, critical pieces of the structure were taken out of everyone’s given materials. These pieces were mixed and scattered across other team’s materials. Every team had difficulty finishing the structure without the major component(s), so members of each team scattered across the room asking each other if they have the missing piece. As teams started to finish their structure, this narrowed down the amount of trading happening which led to everyone finishing. This game helped grow their problem solving skills and cooperations skills since they had to build the structure as a team.

Jeffrey Spatz also included moments of group discussions that really enhanced everyone’s communication skills. Many people stated it was a great opportunity to build relationship with people they’ve rarely talked to or people they’ve never met before. We’re thankful for having Jeffrey Spatz and his team come out to Tennessee to not only share his invaluable knowledge and experience within the industry, but for also helping us grow.