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SET THE TONE, from page 7
to this mission and illustrates how public needs are evolving? WS: Here in Texas specifically, there’s an urgent need for more resilient and sustainable infrastructure to withstand and protect the public from the effects of natural disasters, which are expected to increase in severity and frequency over the next decade. One example of a project that illustrates how we’re addressing this is the Exploration Green project in Clear Lake City, Texas. Partnering with the Clear Lake City Water Authority, we’re transforming a former 178-acre golf course into five massive detention ponds for flood mitigation purposes. Each detention pond can hold 100 million gallons of stormwater (the equivalent of 750 Olympic-sized swimming pools). In addition, Exploration Green will also serve as a nature park comprising 105 acres of natural habitat with wetlands and native grass land areas, six miles of hike-and-bike trails, two athletic fields, and other amenities. Building the detention ponds has turned out to be immensely beneficial to the community, which previously experienced drainage and flooding issues during extreme storm events. During Hurricane Harvey, although only 80 percent of the Phase 1 pond was completed, it protected at least 150 homes from flooding. In 2019, Tropical Storm Imelda hardly made a dent on the community, and the project withstood Tropical Storm Beta easily. Ultimately, when all five phases are completed, Exploration Green will protect 2,000 to 3,000 homes. Exploration Green is transforming Clear Lake City from a flood-prone community into one of the most flood- resilient communities in Texas. In addition, it is creating a healthy, sustainable neighborhood for its residents. “We’ve found that empowering employees has resulted in greater levels of service for our clients, better performance on our projects, and better collaboration and work sharing across the company.” TZL: Have you had a particular mentor who has guided you – in school, in your career, or in general? Who were they and how did they help? WS: I’ve been very fortunate to work with many mentors who were brilliant practitioners. They were not only great at the engineering and technical side of the job, but also had the skills to effectively collaborate and communicate with non-engineers when working on projects. My first boss, Philip Lane, had a broad range of expertise. He was a terrific structural engineer and extremely knowledgeable about other elements of civil engineering. Phil really helped me transition my academic training into practical applications. Another mentor, Ralph Smith, was excellent at critical thinking and maintaining perspective. In difficult
LAN is currently serving as design engineer for the Exploration Green project in Clear Lake City, Texas.
situations, he had the ability to sift through heightened emotions, maintain composure and make rational decisions. These mentors taught me how to put projects together and how to work with others to get them done. TZL: They say failure is a great teacher. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve had to learn the hard way? WS: Change management for contracts never gets easier with time. Early in my tenure when I was a project manager, my supervisor told me, “Just do a great job, the client will settle with you in the end, and you will be fine.” I managed two different challenging projects using this philosophy, and it was difficult both times. I learned that if you have project issues, you must stop and work through them immediately. Bad news never gets better with time! TZL: Research shows that PMs are overworked, understaffed, and that many firms do not have formal training programs for PMs. What is your firm doing to support its PMs? WS: Making the transition from an engineer to a project manager is hard. You’re going from a task-oriented specialist to a generalist who is managing tasks and people. To support the PMs, we provide them with various kinds of training programs. We have long had internal PM training programs for our business processes. We’re also providing industry-specific training from an external vendor to help our PMs align with one basic management system. Over the last two years, we’ve also implemented a monthly project review process that helps us identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas that need improvement. These training programs provide our PMs with guidance and support on an ongoing basis. TZL: In one word or phrase, what do you describe as your number one job responsibility? WS: Set the tone.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 13, 2021, ISSUE 1408
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