CLF 2023 D1E4 | Best Practices in Construction with Rick Wagner (Maxwell Floors) | EP82 (Part 4)

Day 1 Episode 4 | In this episode, from the conference floor at the VRCA Construction Leadership Forum 2023, James and Christian are joined by a construction legend, Rick Wagner, President at Maxwell Floors.


EPISODE LINKS:
Rick Wagner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/r-rick-wagner-1a068116/
Maxwell Floors Website: https://www.maxwellfloors.com/

PODCAST INFO:
the Site Visit Website: https://www.sitemaxsystems.com/podcast
the Site Visit on Buzzsprout: https://thesitevisit.buzzsprout.com/269424
the Site Visit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-site-visit/id1456494446
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Site Visit Podcast Leadership and Perspective from Construction with your hosts James Falcon and Christian Hammond.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

We've talked about before in 3 bucks, 35 minutes, read scaling up, 353.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I can go off to the place where I've seen out 510 out of the drive from open 500 platform on your guys' podcast on it.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

Let's get down to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Alright, this is a good one. We've been waiting all day to have Rick Wagner on from Maxwell Flooring. You're a legend. You're a legend in the Vancouver construction scene. You know that, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:16

An urban legend, something similar to the Loch Ness monster. You haven't yet seen it, but you believe it. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Well, you were on the panel this morning with the legends of the RCA. And it was great. There was a lot of uh conversations and topics, or sorry, a lot of topics covered in that conversation. And yeah, I think it's just great that we can sit now, unpack it a bit. But why don't you give it for our audience and those that are listened the cold notes of your journey and how you came to where you are right now in the industry and it matters the cold notes, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

I mean, one of the things we were talking about earlier was best career decisions. And I think uh, you know, joining a group of advisors, a peer group, as we're getting together now, we talked about collaboration, we're here hearing culture. Yep. People are needing to get together. You know, we've been apart. COVID has driven technology, it's made construction a little bit better. We've embraced technology such as the Zoom and the meetings, but it hasn't brought people together as close as we want. We still have individuals at a hybrid level that are not wanting to come into the office. And, you know, I think that's a concern. Um but you also have people that are changing. You want to lose some good people because they're not coming into office. So we have to adapt as well as leaders in that part. Um yeah, so there's no really right answer with this. And even being a smaller trade contractor and working with general contractors, we're all in the same storm as I shared earlier, and but we all have our own boat. And a rising tide will lift all boats in a really good economy. But we we've got to see more change. We've got to get closer to the people and the we've got to get closer to working with generals, we've got to get closer to working with uh our clients as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Well, it's funny. Uh we just came off this last uh interview that we did, and and the collaboration word was brought up a lot. They were tongue-in-cheek joking around about the word gets thrown around so much. But so much was broken down during COVID between GCs, trade contractors, people in general, right? When you all of a sudden go to a remote, whatever, video conferencing, never really seeing somebody, you just you miss something about the human connection, and things begin to break down.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Absolutely. And that breakdown starts with I mean, we know it on screen, we're sitting across from here each other. When it's when it's face to face, you can pick up little innuendos, you're watching hand movement, you're watching how people are fidgeting. How am I doing so far? Yeah, what makes them what makes them uncomfortable? Where you don't necessarily notice that on a screen, and you know, you could actually block people. I mean one of the sessions here is talking about that. Getting consultants in architects to sites is becoming not tougher, but they're just not showing up all the time. Yeah. And I think they're an integral part. Uh people have intentions of what they want a project to look like or want to share, and we can't ask them face to face, and they're definitely hiding behind the screen more and more.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

And there's definitely like a bit of a uh uh tangent we can go on. You did say a couple things that I want to hone in on. You said COVID drove technology. Yes. You also said um, do you want to lose your great players by messing around with the whole hybrid work environment? So a couple things. That's a really good point about not getting architects or consultants engineers down to the site. When you got these great tools, and they're pretty good for certain things. Like, I know there's a couple particular point solution apps that allow you to just be like, hey, bring your guy on site, show him the thing. Oh, I see that done, yep, whatever. But to not show up for what can be a pretty comprehensive inspection or review or uh nuanced conversation about how something needs to be done according to specs and plans and details, and you don't have that, you can miss stuff.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

There could be some serious the thing is is the those offices of those organizations are also empty. You know, so it's that's right. And and that's and that's driving it. So, you know, they have this the professional class is they're basically mandating whatever they want to do. And it's like if I don't want to come into the office, well, do you really want to onboard someone else, pay another$70,000 on a recruitment fee, or do you just want to let me work at home? I mean, that's the kind of leverage they have. So, but sorry, I know it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Because you're a person, I can see Rick does not feel so good.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

No, this is good. I I think you've got to look at the different departments where this really is a factor, right? Yeah. So you've got an estimating department, and many, whether it be a trade contractor or a general, um, they have people that are quantifying all day. They've been digital, they've been emailing uh information, they've been using Google Drive for years. So that's been a good piece of it. You know, we've all know how to make our three-way calls or do FaceTime. But one of the biggest things that individuals didn't know how to do was set up a Teams call and then put a document on a screen. Right. That is where we've grown being able to share information when we wanted to have project going. Like what we don't realize is how fortunate we were here in British Columbia, having just been back in Ontario with some Canadian Construction Association meetings. Ontario was shut down. We were seeing manufacturers' reps fly out here because they could be out here for two weeks. I think a week of it was just to take a break from the lockdown. They would get dogs so they could go for a walk. Here we were, here we were engaged. And I mean, I brought it up earlier. You look at um the parliament buildings, you know, they're under renovation right now, and it's let's call it's gonna be a 20-year project of taxpayers' money upgrading the facilities. But it was PCL and LSDON that worked together, and they worked, the CCA pushed to make sure that safety, health, and safety was changed and putting protocols in place to keep it working. So that moved to VC. BC picked up on that. Well, the the local um the regional construction associations, so the local construction associations also picked up on that, and wherever it was possible, they engage. Now you move from estimating and you go into sales. It's very difficult to do a sales presentation when you want to do it over Zoom. You can't, you don't have the touchy feel if you're looking at a wall fabric or want to do paint colors, you can't show that. So now there's a whole procedure where you've got to ship product. Back in back earlier, you were disinfecting products to put it in a bag and then you ship it off. It's called a courier, it arrives at the other side to be disinfected again. So the sales process was huge, was really interrupted.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Well, you would know they're you would know that because of your core business dealing with all these flooring materials or different whatever construction materials.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Yeah, you have you have large retail, large retailers that are wanting to change their corporate colors and plans inside. And oh, I don't like that color. What is what is the other option? And now you have to bring, you know, our manufacturer's representatives, and they were doing a great job. They were still motoring around, dropping samples off. People, some people were looking to keep their jobs, and others were just getting on with it. Like, okay, we're gonna drive this. This is the time to load up on government projects. You've got to work with them. They've got a number of rentos going because they don't have people in their buildings. This was working well. Some of the private people or private companies, I don't think they were sure how they were gonna get paid. So we've talked about the estimating side, we've talked about the sales side. You get to the finance side. I mean, we've moved to EF, ETF, or and you know, you're not getting a check in the mail anymore. Yeah, bank deposit books gone. So there's that's just at a very simple level. We've also now seen BIM move from 2D to 3D. Now we're at C D 6D is you know, carbon capture 70 is is where we have uh um to a project being run side by side. Do you see the building being built simultaneously in the schedule that it was proposed to be built, and then you see it being built in actual time? So items like that are really changing our view on on where it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

This is you know, it's a lot to pack into a really short conversation. It is, yeah. And I I knew as soon as we got talking, Rick, that there would be a lot, there'd be a multitude of things to cover. So we will tidy up the conversation. I know it's a brief one. Right. We're getting the tink the tinging on the glass. We are we're getting it. That's what I'm hearing. Yeah, I'm hearing it. But now that you've got your now that you've dipped your toe in, now that you've kind of got your feet wet on the hole joining us, it would be great to have a longer conversation at some point in time. Really appreciate that. But we'll end it like this. We're at the Construction Leaders Forum here in Whistler for the VRCA. If you were to leave uh our audience and those that'll listen in, just a little nugget. Maybe tie up all these things that you've talked about today. Just one nugget about it could be industry advocacy, it could be advocating for building great workplaces, whatever. Just leave a little nugget of wisdom for the audience, if you would.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Youth. We need to promote construction to youth. Really young age. They're gonna be the next, they're our future, they're our future builders, they're gonna be our robot builders, they're gonna be our infrastructure builders. Um, let's embrace them. Let's let's tell them that this is a great trade. Tell me who doesn't like playing with Lego.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

No doubt. I do. That's cool. That's awesome. That's a great way to end it. Thank you so much for joining us, Rick. Really appreciate it. Great to be here. Thank you. Awesome. Yes, likewise. All right, enjoy the rest of the conference.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Thanks, Rick.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Thanks, gentlemen. Well, that does it for another episode of the Science. Thank you for listening. Be sure to stay connected with us by following our social accounts on Instagram and YouTube. You can also sign up for our multi newsletter at SiteMacSystems.com. There are thousands of contractors in North America and the engine podcast. All right, let's get that to build a