Flintco Talks

As part of Safety Week 2024, we invited Steve Eikanger, President and CEO of Flintco, and Barry Nelson, Founder and CEO of FactorLab into the Flintco Talks studio with host Daniel Oates to talk about the power of having authentic conversations around safety and how that helps build trust and respect among the team. The discussion centers around “SmartTagIt,” a video pre-task plan (PTP) application created by FactorLab and adopted by Flintco in 2023 that uses cell phone video to help crews get more engaged in safety planning in a language they understand. The application harnesses AI to help organize, translate, and analyze PTPs making them more effective in mitigating risk; the familiar interface looks like a social media news feed with "likes, comments and shares," which supports team engagement and helps develop leaders at every level while magnifying the Flintco Ethos. Learn how SmartTagIt is helping Flintco: • Gain real-time visibility into safety planning and team engagement • Identify and amplify exemplary leadership practices at every level • Address issues proactively before they impact safety, quality, or productivity

The Construction industry is facing an existential threat from a severe shortage of skilled tradespeople. The explosive growth in Austin and Central Texas since the early 2000s has accentuated the issue. Area educators, City leaders, and industry in general are taking notice. J. Norris Sebastian III, Career and Technical Education Director at Del Valle ISD sat down with Flintco Talks Host Daniel Oates to talk about the issue and what companies can do to help bolster workforce development programs at area high schools. Mr. Sebastian shares his own career development journey starting as a culinary student, to executive chef and current high school administrator developing career and technical education programs that prepare students for real-world success. We dive deep into the impact of these programs on the community, the challenges of the current workforce shortage, and partnership opportunities for local businesses with area educators. Whether you're interested in educational innovation, workforce development, or inspiring life stories, this episode of Flintco Talks is packed with insights and inspiration. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more engaging conversations!

Patti DeNucci, an award-winning author who helps professionals communicate better, joins Flintco Talks to discuss strategies for improving conversations and connections. DeNucci emphasizes making an intentional choice to build relationships through asking thoughtful questions, actively listening without judgment, assuming positive intent, and acknowledging others. She shares tactics like the "40-second rule" for being concise and aiming to listen 60% of the time. She advises starting small, with a consistent daily effort toward more authentic interactions. In this episode of Flintco Talks, we explore practical ways to create more caring, courageous conversations in service of stronger communities and mental health.

In this episode of Flintco Talks, host Daniel Oates delves into the reasoning behind that decision with Flintco VP of Health Safety and Environment Steve Jordan. The podcast also explores a breakthrough safety innovation from FactorLabs that makes creating pre-task plans more inclusive and effective using video and advanced machine learning. Exciting stuff! Available wherever you get your podcasts. Beginning March 1, 2024, traditional hard hats will no longer be optional for use on Flintco projects. It’s time. Traumatic brain injuries represent one-quarter of all construction fatalities. Safety helmets have proven to be more effective at preventing serious injury.

In this episode of Flintco Talks, host Daniel "DanO" Oates speaks with Mark Walker, a retired Navy SEAL and founding partner at Acumen Performance Group, a human performance company. Join Mark and DanO for their discussion around mental health, how to manage and maintain it, and the importance of building strong relationships. It’s an insightful conversation with actionable information for business leaders and their teams to perform at their best.

The 2022 mission to Rwanda in East Africa with Flintco was so successful, and the work so important, that we joined with our sister company Alberici to field another team of volunteers in 2024. In this episode of Flintco Talks, Host Daniel "DanO" Oates talks to Flintco Projet Engineer Kelsey Rollings about her experience with our first Bridges to Prosperity trip. The 2-week bridge build is set for February 17 - March 2, 2024. The team is traveling to the Muhanga (ma-hung-ga) District in Southern Rwanda. Alberrici and Flintco are contributing most of the funds necessary for the trip, however, each team member is responsible for part of the fundraising goal of $13,250. Your donation supports the completion of the Matovu (ma-toe-voo) Trail Bridge, a 103 meter hybrid suspension bridge that will dramatically improve the lives of a community of 5,538 people.

Join us for a special Native American Heritage Month episode of Flintco Talks. Guest host Rex Woods, VP of Business Acquisition sits down with Vernelle Chase, Director of Tribal Relations at Flintco, to discuss her lifelong journey of service to Native communities. Vernelle shares stories from growing up on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in rural Montana. She talks about getting her start in construction, advocating for increased use of Native businesses on projects, and working her way up to a leadership role at Flintco. Throughout the conversation, Vernelle provides perspective on the growth of tribally-owned businesses, the increase in Native representation in industries like construction and design, and the future of renewable energy projects and water rights settlements in Indian Country. Vernelle also opens up about what drives her personally and professionally. She discusses her work supporting entrepreneurship through organizations like Native Women Lead, as well as her hopes for the continued success of Native peoples across industries. It is our honor to celebrate Native American Heritage Month with Vernelle and learn from her inspirational path of service and leadership.

Join host Daniel "Dan0" Oates and Melanie Gilbertson, Flintco's Director of Production Support, about the company's Lean journey. Melanie shares how she first got involved with Lean practices in 2009 and saw the benefits it brought to planning and scheduling. After joining Flintco in 2016, Melanie led the company's introduction to Lean with two pilot projects. Melanie explains Flintco's three formal Lean roles - Lean Champion, Coach, and Mentor. We hear how an internal steering committee comprised of coaches and mentors created a compensation program around the discretionary effort to drive Lean throughout the organization. Tune in to learn more about how Lean has helped transform Flintco's operations through collaborative planning, training, and continuous improvement.

Join host Daniel "DanO" Oates for an interview with Pat Coleman, the new VP of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (and Belonging) at Alberici Construction Company. Pat shares her journey from growing up in an underserved St. Louis community to becoming the CEO of a nonprofit before joining Alberici. Learn why Pat's role in DEI matters and hear her perspectives on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace. Pat discusses being on a "listening tour" to understand Alberici's culture and employees' experiences. Additional topics include: • Mental health & construction • Getting comfortable with discomfort • Employee resource groups • Giving back to the community • Trends in DEI like moving from reactive to proactive • Practical tips for increasing belonging at work Tune in to learn more about Pat's background, her vision for DEI, and how everyone can find their place in this important work.

Join host Daniel "DanO" Oates and Flintco HSE Area Manager Orlando Hernandez as they discuss how fostering a sense of belonging leads to better work and outcomes. They discuss the progress made in diversity and inclusion over the past 40 years, using the story of Orlando's father learning to read drawings on his own as an example. Orlando also talks about how taking the time to properly translate the Spanish safety video demonstrates Flintco's commitment to inclusion. Orlando explains the recent efforts Flintco has made to improve belonging among employees. He emphasizes how leaders should make an effort to be approachable, greet employees, listen to their input, and validate their opinions so everyone feels they have a voice.

In this episode of Flintco Talks, host Daniel “Dan0” Oates sits down with Bill Hart, a founding partner with the organizational performance consulting company Acumen Performance Group (APG), and a 20-year veteran as a Naval Special Warfare Operator with the Navy SEALs from 1992-2012. Following his decorated military service, Bill struggled with re-entry into civilian life. Extended multiple deployments during the Iraq War had taken their toll on his mental health. He got divorced and lost his oldest son to suicide. He was deep in debt, his driver’s license lapsed, and lost his personal identity as a Navy SEAL. But he didn’t give up. Bill shares his riveting personal journey as a warfighter while earning a master’s degree in psychology to starting a successful business with other retired SEALs. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of Flintco Talks, Host Daniel “Dan0” Oates talks to Kevin Grimwood, partner with the organizational performance consulting company Acumen Performance Group (APG), who shares his unique perspective as a former Naval Special Warfare Operator from 2005-2015. Kevin started his own construction company after leaving the military but struggled with personal relationships and his own mental health before finding his footing again. His background and personal story will resonate with those seeking a better understanding and awareness of positive mental health. Reference Material: “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential” by Carol S. Dweck

For this third installment of Flintco Forward’s look at the Texas Capitol Complex project, Ruben Martinez, President of Martinez Moore Engineers, LLC, Tom Stuhler, Vice President, Senior Project Architect, at HKS, Inc., Brian Eason, Senior Project Manager at HKS, Inc., and Jason Riley, Senior Superintendent, Flintco, LLC focused on the 1801 Congress portion of the project. “The 1801 Congress project, also referred to as the George H.W. Bush building, is a 15-story office tower that sits on a four-story, below-grade garage,” Riley said. A lot of effort goes into keeping a project of this magnitude on track with the various Texas Facilities Commission Agencies. “There is a lot of coordination necessary,” Stuhler said. With five other packages to consider, this project touches upon others. Eason mentioned hundreds of people and multiple teams, from engineers to designers, working on this project phase. For Martinez, there’s a lot of pride on the line with his firm’s ability to tie the state's traditions to those shaping Texas’ future the way companies such as Martinez Moore and HKS have done for years. “When you can contribute to a very important part of Texas that a lot of people will one day get to enjoy, [including] everything this complex will have to offer, it’s just something I find very fulfilling,” Martinez said. “All of the various phases are not under one general contractor's direction or designed by one architect,” Riley said. “There are a lot of different challenges where these projects meet and come together, and there’s a lot of coordination that goes into that on Flintco’s end to make sure what we’re providing can tie into what the other contractors are providing and vice versa.” One thing is for sure: the efforts, teamwork, and shared mission of so many will make the Texas Capitol Complex project a smashing success for Austin and something Texans can be proud of for years to come.

The Littleton, Colorado community understands the relationship between a child’s nutrition and mental health. And it is with those students, the future of the community, in mind the Littleton public school system (LPS) took on the responsibility to improve food quality, accessibility, and students' experience. They invested in a complete renovation of the kitchens at several elementary and middle schools, sourcing Flintco to help. LPS’s Jon Widmier, Coordinator of Social, Emotional and Behavioral Services, Jessica Gould, Director of Nutrition Services, and Terry Davis, Chief Operations Officer, joined Flintco Forward to dive into the project's reasons and the benefits they’ve seen thus far. “Having food is a basic need for students,” Gould said. “When those needs aren’t met, a student’s ability to learn in the classroom is not there.” Ensuring students have access to healthy, nutritious food to learn and achieve their fullest potential is a primary focus for Gould. Expanding on that thought, Widmier said, “What we know is physical health and mental health are two sides of the same coin. So, eating and drinking well can help a person lead a healthier lifestyle and sleep better. And sleep is one of those KPI’s that can really change a student’s game.” With such importance placed on nutrition for students’ health and well-being, having a school system with state-of-the-art kitchens designed to execute nutrition is essential. To help meet these goals, LPS enlisted the help of Flintco for their kitchen renovations. “Flintco came to the table with a creative scheduling approach we had not seen before,” Davis said. “We [had] a two-and-a-half-month construction timeline. And they came in with an approach that did not cost us above and beyond the work scope. Their ability and willingness to make changes without adjusting costs is why Flintco rose above and beyond the competition.”

Internships offer great opportunities for businesses and students. Alberici, a diversified, global construction company, has a long history of tapping into new talent and sharing real-world expertise with interns. In past years, the group of interns met at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, but COVID-19 restrictions made that impossible. The company came up with a plan for an Intern Hackathon to enable interns to innovate together on an actual problem—construction practices in the world of COVID-19. Intern Adnan Malkoc, Alberici Global Automotive Constructors President Jose Garcia-Aranda and Flintco project manager Dan O’Hara spoke about the experience. “We had several goals for the hackathon,” Garcia-Aranda said. “We wanted to promote innovation within teams, leverage the interns' talent and expertise and solve a real problem in the industry.” Eight teams competed to deliver a practical and innovative way to “hack the new norm.” O’Hara and Garcia-Aranda were both inspired and in awe of all the great ideas. They and other executives and industry leaders judged the presentations. Malkoc’s team was the winner with the TRACE contact tracking idea to monitor employee activity accurately. “We wanted to come up with the idea that hit all points. We came up with the TRACE solution; it works with a phone app and an embedded chip sticker for hard hats,” Malkoc said. “It tracks the daily activity of workers and other data.” How much is something like this needed on a construction site? “We’ve had a few employees contract COVID. Attempting to trace that person’s interactions was impossible. The TRACE system immediately tells you this. It saves time in notifying others. It’s a useful idea that can make an immediate impact,” O’Hara said. Its impact was so great that a customer serving as a judge requested it be implemented at their largest construction site.

This second installment of Flintco Forward’s focused look at the Texas Capitol Complex project in Austin, Texas, zeroes in on phase one construction. Host Tyler Kern spoke with three of Page’s architects working on the project, Lawrence W. Speck, Senior Principal, Paul Bielamowicz, Principal Senior Project Manager, and Ryan Losch, Senior Associate, Urban Designer. The goal of the new Texas Capitol Complex is multi-fold. It will not only celebrate the State capitol, and house state employees in state office space with more space than ever before, but it will also create well-defined civic spaces for various events and community engagement. “We want to create a district that connects to the city around it,” Losch said. Speck noted that creating a large mall to the north of the capitol building will result in a grand, green space where the public can gather for enjoyment and events. “It will be a place where families can bring their kids,” Speck said. There are many museums in the area to visit, and a planned cultural venue will generate excitement. “One of the project's big drivers is a practical financial benefit to the state,” Bielamowicz said. “The state has a lot of agencies that currently lease spaces, and by constructing these office buildings and having the state own and operate these buildings, they are saving a lot of dollars in the long run.” Be sure to subscribe to Flintco Forward to access all past and future episodes on the Texas state capitol complex.

Time goes on, but our landmarks often stay the same. The Texas Capitol, beloved by Texans for being taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., will remain, but the area around it is bring brought into the present. That’s thanks in no small part to John Raff, Deputy Executive Director, Facilities Design and Construction for the Texas Facilities Commission. Raff and his team are modernizing the complex, making structural improvements, modifying the urban design and ultimately hoping to give Texans another element of Austin they can be proud of. The original plan was designed in the 1950s, then updated in 1963 and 1989. In 2016, leaders decided that it was once again time to consider the space. “Many times, you just have to update your plan based on what’s going on around you and what’s changing,” Raff said. “The solutions that you come up on master plans also evolve, so it’s (adding) contemporary architecture and engineering solutions to the plan.” Making the plan is a tall enough task, but implementing it is even more daunting. Raff’s team has overseen a massive projecting involving excavating and hauling things away, then completing deep construction for basements of buildings that eventually will soar into the Austin skyline. “It’s 520,000 cubic yards of material we’re pulling out of the ground. I think if you lined up the 80-foot trucks that haul that material off, they’d stretch from Corpus Christi to Amarillo and beyond, bumper-to-bumper,” he said. A project the size of Texas, Raff is sure it will be worth the effort. “The end result of this project is going to be spectacular,” he said. “You’re really going to like it.”

Bhavna Nim, Sarah Nario, and Alex Janota are just three of Flintco's many female professionals succeeding in the heavily male-dominated construction industry. On this episode of the Flintco Forward podcast, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with these three successful women to discuss their different pathways to a career in construction and offer advice for the next generation in the industry. A mere 9% of the construction industry is comprised of women, and only 3% are employed in hands-on production roles as opposed to administration, human resources and marketing roles that make up the bulk of jobs in construction. Though they've found a home at Flintco, which has been a repeat winner of Constructech magazine's “Women in Construction” awards, Nim, Nario, and Janota will tell you they've faced plenty of obstacles getting to where they are now. Family members told Janota, a project manager at Flintco and Vice President of the Austin chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, to consider choosing "something a little more feminine like nursing or teaching," she said. Nim, virtual design and construction manager for Flintco, said she's also experienced these types of microaggressions. "But I wasn't going to be dissuaded," Nim said. Nario, a senior estimator at Flintco, has found at least one surprising advantage to being a woman in the male-dominant construction industry. "I think my presence actually keeps people in check with regards to their attitudes and behavior," she said.

On this episode of Flintco Forward, we spoke with Vernelle Chase, Director of Tribal Relations, Flintco, LLC, and Steve Eikanger, Vice President, Area Manager, Flintco, about Flintco’s long-standing heritage in building and growing positive relationships with the Native American Territories. Chase works with the various tribes to ensure successful building projects and healthy relationships. “Understanding the sovereign immunity laws for the lands in which they build, and the various intricacies of the many tribes,” said Chase, “ensures the alignment of both the tribe’s goals and Flintco’s goals.” Eikanger added, “The learning never stops. The needs of the tribes keep evolving, and our job is to meet those needs and continue to grow with them.” Chase and Eikanger noted some current building projects that were in the planning stages for 40-50 years. A new healthcare facility project will bring essential services and economic opportunities to a tribe. “A project like this does not just become the Healthcare resource for that area, it becomes a community center,” said Eikanger. Earlier this year, Eikanger attended a project groundbreaking ceremony that turned into a community celebration event. Chase and Eikanger see a growing sophistication and knowledge of the tribal community in the understanding and execution of building & construction projects. Allowing tribes to rely less on contractors for every step of the process brings more control and ownership of these projects. Eikanger said, “We see a lot of tribes move to design/build procurement methods that are much more progressive than in the past.”

Regional Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Managers for Flintco, Kevin Bromenshenk & Jason Schrader, joined us on Flintco Forward to help redefine as-builts as more than just being a two-dimensional format of marked changes made during the construction process by emphasizing the importance of as-builts during and after construction. As Bromenshenk put it: “The perception of as-builts from the past is not what the definition of as-builts today.” Bromenshenk explained that the perception of as-builts hinged onto its early stages, when the industry did not have access to advanced technology where assistance in planning and problem solving in the field were as readily available. As-builts as the industry understands the term today came to be through trial and error in the field. “A PDF version of a red line drawing that was derived from something, whether it was a guy taking a tape measure in the field or marking up a coordination drawing, or construction document,” Schrader said, agreeing with Bromenshenk. “But to us, that does not really meet the need or the term in today’s world of an accurate as built.” According to Schrader, as-builts are often a task that is completed at the end of the project, which can result in inaccurate data, lost time and lost money. Schrader insisted on placing an advancement of tracking changes as they happen, updating models during construction. “It must be done along with the project,” he said. It is crucial for contractors and their teams to systematically communicate and recognize each other’s role. According to Bromenshenk, taking this course of action could help take the burden off of the tradesmen, who frequently spilt their attention between the office and the field. With the entire crew participating, the integration of responses might continuously be used to update construction documents. As-builts have evolved into numerous deliverables, surpassing simple PDF drawings. “It is a conglomerate of different mediums or technologies used during the process,” Schrader said. Technology such as 360-degree cameras can depict exact location. Laser scanning alerts engineers to preventable problems. Both pre and post project completion crews gain assurance of where everything is, resulting in a significant finished product for the client. “In the end the owner needs, tangible deliverables, that defines as-builts,” Bromenshenk said. Assimilating new technologies, such as laser scanning, designers, engineers and contractors are enabled to adopt a proficient workflow. Educating not only the crewmen, but the clients for current and future projects. According to both managers, Flintco’s new approach to as-builts is being used as a quality control tool. Resulting in a decrease in unnecessary reverse-engineering and the costs associated. It is only with accurate as-builts that engineers and work crews in the future could possibly know what is already installed and exactly where.