Help DPR Move “Ever Forward”

True to the company’s guiding philosophy, the people at DPR are championing one of their four core values: Ever Forward.

Say hello to the Ever Forward Champion. Hatched in the San Francisco office as part of DPR’s continuous improvement process, the idea has come to fruition at many of the company’s 15 offices and has begun to bring the Ever Forward value to life.

DPR’s Scott Reay, with a group of DPR San Francisco personnel, conceived the Ever Forward Champion position and made, as their primary goal for the Ever Forward Champion, the implementation of a sustainable, consistent process to improve accountability and measure Critical Success Factor (CSF) performance at jobsites.

One of the results of the ongoing efforts is the innovative Jobsite Metrics-a large poster displayed at the jobsite and reviewed regularly-that breaks down the goals and results of the various action items for DPR’s five critical success factors. Under this system, an individual is assigned responsibility for each component necessary to the successful completion of a project. According to DPR San Francisco’s Ever Forward Champion Doug Adler, the system “is a ‘living document’ that can be adapted and regularly updated by each office.”

“Reviewing the poster provides an ideal forum for project teams to share success stories and lessons learned with regional leadership,” comments Bruce Reid of DPR’s Portland office. “This ensures our project teams are taking the necessary steps to be successful.”

“Jobsite Metrics works as a tool to directly involve management in jobs, distribute the various responsibilities in an organized fashion and communicate the progress of a project to the customer,” says DPR San Francisco’s Tony Koblenz.

The system represents a breakthrough in project accountability for the construction industry, says DPR Sacramento’s Ever Forward Champion Stephanie Dutton, who has 15 years of industry experience. “No one is doing anything like this,” she said. “No one.”

One of the primary roles of the Ever Forward Champion is to interpret feedback from clients and employees and tailor DPR’s training programs in response to that feedback. The champions also monitor each project’s Jobsite Metrics and help project teams implement it. Beyond that, the position is a dynamic one that is being defined by each office. In Austin, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco many of the Ever Forward Champions’ responsibilities have centered on diversifying and building DPR’s educational programs, as well as analyzing employee and client satisfaction surveys. The philosophical focus of the Ever Forward Champion is to help define the direction of the office and instill the Ever Forward value: self-initiated change, improvement, learning and the advancement of standards for their own sake.