Last week I attended a seminar on building for the “Church / Religious Market.” The seminar focused on how to market, design and build for churches and other places of worship. Many of the contractors expressed a belief that to be qualified to build churches, a firm must be Christian-based. This made me wonder: should a Christian-based firm build only Christian churches? Is it important that a contractor mirrors the values of its clients?

I decided it’s important that a contractor’s values do not clash with its client’s.  Here are some contracting firms’ written, and unwritten, values:
 
Safety
Written: The contractor has a great safety record.
Unwritten: What about its subcontractors?
MSR: We have a great safety record for all workers on our jobs, not just MSR workers.
 
Cooperation
Written: The contractor talks about partnering.
Unwritten: It is their architect, subcontractors and suppliers – period.
MSR: We consider our client, architect, engineer, subcontractors and suppliers as all active members of our team, and we have a written plan do include them in our work process.
 
Integrity
Written: They have a great marketing program.
Unwritten: Their performance does not match their promises.
MSR: We only build projects that are a win for our clients and win for us.
 
Quality Construction
Written: They offer a one-year warranty.
Unwritten: Once it expires, you’re history.
MSR: We have never left a client hanging when we made a mistake.
 
Accountability
Written: They make it clear they have learned from their mistakes.
Unwritten: When asked, they can’t remember when they made a mistake.
MSR: We review projects at completion to develop “lesson learned” improvement ideas.
 
Respect
Written: They show respect when meeting with you.
Unwritten: There is us and the there is the little people.
MSR: Everyone deserves respect, and every organization’s values are respected.
 
Community
Written: They boast they are involved in community organizations.
Unwritten: But only those that assist their business.
MSR: We donate to Habitat for Humanity, Santa Fe Food Depot, and educational programs.
 
Renewable Construction
Written: They have LEED certified personnel.
Unwritten: But in their own building, there is no sign of recycling.
MSR: We not only recycle paper and kitchen items, we used recycled building materials in our headquarters.
 
Choose a contractor whose walk matches their talk. Look beyond marketing brochures. To learn a firm’s values, watch its behavior. When we encounter clients whose values clash with ours, we decline to be their builder. We recommend that clients do the same. When you don’t, the entire project will be a struggle.