The challenge of delivering modern construction projects with speed, efficiency, and quality requires a more collaborative approach than some traditional delivery methods offer. To respond to that challenge, many owners are turning to the design-build delivery method.
Design-build is a project delivery method where the project owner contracts a single team responsible for both design and construction. By engaging designers and builders as one unified entity, often earlier than with traditional methods, it improves efficiency and allows shared expertise to shape the project from the start.
Design-build’s growth creates an urgent need to prepare young professionals for the integrated, relationship-driven work the delivery method requires. The AEC industry needs to give young professionals the tools to better understand and practice successful design-build delivery. More importantly, they need leaders who can mentor and help develop the skills required for this highly integrated environment.
Successful design-build leaders begin by understanding what matters most to each stakeholder. Architects, owners, estimators, builders, and other project partners each bring different values and motivations to a project. The goal is not for every party to get everything it wants; it is to understand where interests align, where trade-offs are necessary, and what will create the greatest value for the project as a whole. When I talk with our future design-build leaders, I recommend that they ask questions like “Are there any ‘must-have’ outcomes for you on this project?” or “What are the top three outcomes you’re hoping to achieve on this project?” These questions allow us to identify what is most important to each stakeholder. When you take the time to understand what matters to each stakeholder and why, it becomes easier to find common ground, navigate difficult conversations, and build trust across the team.
Understanding priorities is only the first step. With multiple stakeholders in a project, design-builders must communicate clearly, remain open-minded, and be willing to negotiate with different perspectives. Opinions can sound like arguments, but they often become the start of productive conversations. Design-build creates space for a variety of viewpoints, and when team members can challenge each other in a constructive way it often leads to better outcomes.
While the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has developed a bootcamp that serves as a strong foundational training, successful design-build delivery is ultimately learned through practical experience, real-time coaching, and reflection on how teams work through project challenges together.
I saw the value of that kind of coaching firsthand on my first project with Sundt, the CSU Sacramento Ernest E. Tschannen Science Complex. I was fortunate enough to work with a project team that was not only well-versed in design-build, but committed to being good partners. However, one project manager had just come off a design-bid-build project and was still operating from a siloed mindset. He was submitting change orders over relatively minor items before stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. Design-build delivery requires all parties to evaluate decisions in the context of the project’s overall scope, rather than as isolated changes.
Rather than letting frustration build, I pulled him aside for a candid conversation about ways to work together to deliver the best outcome for the client. We discussed how small project changes like this should be resolved collaboratively among all partners, balancing costs and scope in other areas of the project while working toward a solution together. That conversation changed the way we worked together. Today, I still request to partner with him because he understands the give-and-take that design-build requires and how the collaboration ultimately gives clients confidence in our team. I always share this story with new engineers, so they recognize the necessity and the value of these conversations.
As design-build continues to expand, the industry’s success depends not only on the delivery method itself, but on the people who lead it. Young professionals must learn to approach projects in a way that capitalizes on great ideas and creates the most value for the project as a whole.
That development does not happen by chance. It requires experienced leaders to mentor emerging professionals, create opportunities to engage in the collaborative process, and model the reciprocity that design-build demands. By investing in these skills early, the industry can prepare the next generation to build stronger teams, earn the confidence of clients and partners, and deliver better outcomes on increasingly complex projects.
Sean Falvey serves as Vice President and Northern California Regional Director for Sundt’s Building Group. He’s passionate about mentoring the next generation of construction professionals through his work with the Construction Industry Education Foundation and the AGC of California Delta-Sierra District.
