Sharpening MILCON Delivery Through the Design Charrette

IGE Insights

By Richard Stump, AIA, LEED AP, F.SAME, and Aaron Briggs, AICP, M.SAME

A key element to improving military construction project delivery is the execution of high-quality charrettes—and the tools applicable to effective charrette facilitation can also be applied to industry-government engagements.
Facilitating successful charettes is a key aspect to improving military construction delivery, with successful facilitators relying on a toolkit that helps to keep participants focused, engaged, and over the finish line. Photos courtesy RS&H.

Project delivery teams supporting military construction face many challenges. Constraints on the schedule and availability of funds, inflexible mission deadlines, procurement schedules, continuing resolutions from Congress, and timely, requirement-driven support of warfighter operations will only continue to increase.

A viable solution to improving military construction delivery, identified by Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command and other engineering branches, is efficient and effective facilitated planning and design charrettes. Whether used to define project requirements and costs or to rapidly evaluate a co-created solution to challenges, design (and designed) charrettes are a tool of choice. And a key element of success is the charrette facilitator.

Collaborative Tool

The term “charrette” can describe many activities, and is used differently by various organizations and services. Generally, they happen at the master planning, project programming, and design stages. Master planning charrettes develop and incorporate high-level requirements for military units, organizations, area development plans, and installations. These sessions assess current problem sets and a multitude of future scenarios to collaboratively build a roadmap for future development at the installation level or district/command scale. A programming charrette is an early step to creating a DD Form 1391, which validates the project scope, requirements, and justification for Congress to fund construction. These charrettes are often a first conceptual pass at the project’s facilities and infrastructure, which, after successful completion, gives the design and construction agent an opportunity to engage a design team with the task of completing design documents to be used for construction. Design charrettes may follow a programming charrette or focus entirely on the design phase. In either case, they work toward vetting project requirements, validating costs, and developing the conceptual design for the building.

Charrettes should be collaborative, intense, efficient, and productive. Achieving a successful charrette requires clear level-setting, time management, and strong facilitation skills. Regardless of the ultimate work product, this triangle of effective charrette management provides a solid first step in realizing efficient military construction delivery. In fact, Army Engineer Manual 5-1-11 requires After Action Review for each major project phase, including planning charrettes and design (GAO-24-106499: Military Construction, September 2024).

Facilitator Role

A well-organized charrette has a beginning, middle, and end. Establishing the credibility of the project delivery team and the facilitator begins in the first five minutes. If trust and competency are not established early, keeping the team focused is difficult.

A skilled facilitator takes on many roles, including pilot, conductor, and cat herder. They are wizards at organizing and delivering military design charrettes that keep everyone engaged and contributing to a successful outcome.

In facilitating a successful charette, the facilitator must play equal parts of pilot, conductor, and cat herder to keep discussions on track and representative of all parties.

The Pilot. A good pilot manages every sortie meticulously—from the planning before the event to the flight journey, and finally, to the safe return of the aircraft and passengers. Planning the event, running checklists, and confirming the flight’s objectives are important first tasks. Once the plane is on the runway, the pilot must get it into the air quickly and safely. At the end of the flight, they must successfully and safely return the plane and its passengers to the ground. A military design charrette is no different. In addition to the upfront planning that occurs before setting foot in the charrette space, facilitators must quickly establish a zone for effective, safe, efficient collaboration.
Upfront, they must execute answers to coordinating questions.

  • How will the charrette operate?
  • Who is in charge and when?
  • What are the objectives and mission for each day and activity?
  • Throughout the event, who will document findings, confirm takeaways, and organize follow-on activities?
  • A project’s stakeholders need to understand and buy into the outcome. They want to know the flight plan. Keeping charrette participants well-informed throughout is critical to its success.
Tools of the Trade

Preparation for the charrette is critical in achieving success. The interoperability of qualities like consistency, integrity, and inclusivity become readily apparent during execution.

The Four Agreements. A tool that has yielded significant positive outcomes is the framework presented in Don Miguel Ruiz’s book The Four Agreements: be impeccable with your word; don’t take things personally; don’t make assumptions; and always do your best.

Should disagreements arise between participants, a gentle reminder of the agreed terms allows for safe, effective resolution. Participants know they have given themselves permission to step back from their positions and statements. They can reconsider their words, focus on the project and charrette goals, and harmoniously course-correct.

Pomodoro Time Management. Thoughtful use of the Pomodoro technique will assist in managing time, minimizing distractions, and increasing focus on the immediate task at hand.

Pomodoro (Italian for “tomato”) takes its name from the fruit-shaped kitchen timer Francesco Cirillo used to overcome his struggles with time management. In simple terms, the facilitator focuses on a single, specific project aspect for 25-min (a Pomodoro), followed by a five-min break. Participants earn a longer break after four 30-min cycles are completed.

These short breaks allow for sidebar conversations, tending to other activities outside the charrette, and taking a mental breather before refocusing. Additionally, Pomodoro sessions align with a well-documented body of research known as the serial position effect. This is the observation that we most often remember the first things and last things we hear in a sequence of information.

By breaking the charrette down into many parts with clear breaks, there are more “first” and “last” bits of information. This improves the charrette team’s ability to rapidly remember, share, develop, and validate project requirements. The tool works wonders anywhere that time is highly constrained and tight time management is crucial.

The Conductor. In any orchestra, each musician plays their own instrument and has something to contribute. Roles, responsibilities, and opportunities to contribute are clearly defined in advance. The conductor’s role is to make sure everyone understands why they are there, keep everyone on task, and guide the musicians through a piece harmoniously and collaboratively.

Similarly, the facilitator guides the charrette process. They provide opportunities to collaborate and contribute, guide participants toward a collective definition of success, and passionately promote the project objectives without taking sides. Good facilitators encourage broad input by setting norms that draw those who are quieter into the conversation. They make sure louder voices do not dominate and limit sidebar conversations.

The composition of charrette participants can vary substantially depending on project complexity, availability of stakeholders, and the makeup of owner/partner agencies. Individual knowledge, experiences, and agendas can all differ at the outset.

To establish the credibility necessary to conduct a disparate group of stakeholders, the facilitator gathers inputs to define the charrette’s framework. They then execute this agenda alongside participants. Like in music, there is improvisation and reaction, and a good facilitator can balance the instinct to react to what is happening in the moment with the need for structure and progress.

The Cat Herder. Assembling extraordinarily talented individuals into an intensive, focused strategy session often requires some creative wrangling of perspectives, desires, and outcomes.

Project sponsors, key stakeholders, and subject matter experts can be professionally passionate about how they support the military mission. Without a mindful approach to managing discussions, it is possible for a strong-willed participant to take the conversation down “rabbit holes” that distract from the objective.

Well-prepared, skilled facilitators recognize that their role is not to have the answers but to be prepared to execute the event while managing all the personalities in the room. Through pre-charrette preparation, understanding the skillset each charrette participant brings to the table, and in-charrette documentation of “off-topic yet important” observations, nothing is left behind.
Ideally, the charrette team creates the framework and objectives through the facilitator’s guidance. Initial level-setting provides the framework for success. The subject matter experts are given many opportunities to contribute, and, with guidance from the facilitator-cat herder, the charrette team gets over the finish line.

Managing for Success

Success in gathering the project team is not enough to ensure positive charrette outcomes. An ever-increasing operations tempo makes schedule deconfliction challenging for government stakeholders and design team members. Additionally, work outside the room does not stop simply because the charrette begins. Clear rules of engagement must be established to keep everyone focused on developments inside the charrette instead of allowing demanding “day job” activities to grab their attention.

Defining the rules of engagement upfront and getting all parties in agreement sets up a charrette for success. It also provides participants with relief opportunities during the session that can be utilized to keep the formal charrette most focused.

Knitting it Together

Every military design charrette is different. The nature of defense projects requires them to be highly structured yet flexible enough to investigate and consider the many aspects of end-user requirements. Clear intentions for the event yield understanding.

Effective level-setting and everyone’s acceptance of the Four Agreements sets the rules of engagement, providing intention and permission simultaneously. The firm yet flexible incorporation of Pomodoro time management allows participants to move between periods of intense focus and engagement with outside work activities. Finally, by donning multiple hats during the charrette, the skilled facilitator elevates their role beyond that of a simple timekeeper or cheerleader. Instead, they create a positive tension that gets the most out of everyone in the room.

Driving Partnership for Delivery

The challenges of successful military construction (MILCON) project delivery in a world of aggressive nation-states and bad actors are too clear and present to ignore.

At the Navy Design & Construction presentation during the 2024 SAME Capital Week, two NAVFAC leaders, S. Keith Hamilton, SES, Chief Engineer, and Cindy Readal, SES, Assistant Commander for Contracting, both referenced the U.S. Navy’s FY2023 Performance Report and addressed the strategic objectives of improving speed, cost control, and quality of construction project delivery, amplified by the need for continued improvement.

NAVFAC is not alone in recognizing the need for action. At the same time that the 2023 stakeholder report findings were being unpacked stateside, leaders in the European area of operations recognized similar challenges in timely, accurate, and efficient MILCON delivery. Leaders from NAVFAC EURAFCENT, USACE Europe District, and AFISMC Detachment 4 approached SAME to help address these challenges and develop collaborative solutions to improve planning through design delivery. The Tri-Service IGE Workshop in Naples, Italy, co-hosted by SAME in February 2024, featured a multi-session discussion on Planning Through Design, which provided an opportunity to advance these needed collaborative solutions.

This well-choreographed event, which took key tools from charrette planning including pre-workshop planning calls, pre-briefing of participants, the development of a “flight plan,” and Pomodoro time management, was successfully executed. This industry-government engagement event was replicated and enhanced a few months later as part of the 2024 Joint Engineer Training Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Additional plans are underway through SAME to create a formal IGE Task Force in support of the need for continued attention and improvements to the planning through the design project delivery process.

Planning, leading, and executing an effective design charrette is a challenging but necessary and important task. Charrettes are part of the solution to delivering buildings and infrastructure to support our warfighters and agency missions. Additionally, formal industry-government engagement events also provide an equally focused yet broader effort to apply the facilitation skillset to support addressing and solving a national security challenge.

Richard Stump, AIA, LEED AP, F.SAME, is Vice President, and Aaron Briggs, AICP, M.SAME, is Vice President, Principal Planner, RS&H Inc. They can be reached at richard.stump@rsandh.com; and aron.briggs@rsandh.com.

Article published in The Military Engineer, November-December 2024

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