Projects are made up with people thrown together. Establishing the role of a relationship designer in a project based company has many practical purposes. Let's call that person the Social Architect (SA). The Project Managment Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK) does not go into enough detail about the social aspects of project management, yet we assign this role as part of the Project Manager's job description. A better fit would be somewhere above the project level; a support person who provides guidance and training to the staff PMs and superintendents. This person would be someone with knowledge of organizational behavior and culture, as well as team dynamics. They should also be a Lean thinker.

Just as a building architect must account for both the structural limitations and aesthetics of a building, a Social Architect must account for both the technical and interpersonal makeup of the project team. A major root cause of such poor performance on construction projects is our industry's inability to effectively collaborate. Poor collaboration typically leads to the suppression of ideas, decisions being made away from where the work is being done in a top-down fashion, and overall poor trust and one way communication by project participants. A root causes of poor collaboration in our industry is the "boss man" mentality that is embedded in the organizational culture of many construction firms. Eliminating this root cause (the "boss man" mentality) is critical to resolving poor performance on construction projects. Here are some capabilities of the Social Architect do what is needed on modern projects.

Capabilities of the Social Architect

• The Social Architect is a natural facilitator. But one step beyond that is required. Not only adept at creating an enviroment that is conducive to learning and making sure the right people are in the room when needed, the SA must be able to identify when the group needs to come together.
• Just like facilitating, training is a big part of the SA's job. Their audience would typically be other managers. The Social Architect helps managers act in a way that aligns with an empowerment culture. They can coach other facilitators for effective meetings and help managers get accountability and commitments from people rather than demanded responsibility.
• They don't have to be the charasmatic leader, but they need to guide the leader with what the team needs to hear. For example, they need to be the ones that ask why they are focusing on a certian element rather than just going deeper into it. As the cliche goes, they need to be able to see the forest through the trees.
• The workplace of the 21st centuary needs to be a place where people want to come to work at. The Social Architect promotes consensus and demonstrates to managers how to achieve a level of participation with staff that allows them to feel like their voice matters. In addition, they could perform audits of human-related factors to ensure that project team members have a high-quality project experience.
• As a cabinet level position, the SA would track human-related metrics from project to project (stakeholder satisfaction surveys, absenteeism, turnover rate, etc). Company wide, the SA could facilitate an Idea Development System for soliciting and implementing team member ideas. At the start of the projects, the SA would help balance the project manager in selecting the team for a balanced technical and interpersonal compatibility levels.