Managing Owners’ Risk
Norine Bagate is a teacher—not by profession but in practice. Professionally, she’s the founder of NWB Consulting, a technology-based firm that develops software aimed at helping owners ensure that projects are completed as smoothly as possible while maintaining clarity about liability.
Here’s a quick rundown of Norine’s professional history:
Earned an architecture degree from University of Texas at Austin
Moved to New York and worked in construction as a project manager
Managed capital projects in the corporate world, which included working with an in-house design team
Worked in the realm of construction law (in a non-lawyer role)
During her time in various aspects of construction, Norine came to realize that there was a problem with “Spearin risk,” which relates to the burden of legal liability in relation to owners and contractors. (If you’d like to learn more about the technicalities of Spearin doctrine and risk, read this article. If you’re not up for that adventure, you can just call it scope risk.) She decided to do something about that.
One way to look at it is that Norine helps people define the boundaries of responsibilities. This means planning thoughtfully in the earliest possible stages of projects. She recites a quote whose original source is uncertain: “The best plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy.”
Norine believes that the burden of discovery rests with the owner. The owner is the source of the financial incentives for all other parties in the construction process.
Norine shares a vivid analogy involving a shotgun and owners who are at risk of shooting themselves in the foot. Norine offers to hold the shotgun safely. She anticipates problems that nobody else sees or wants to face. She brings those to the front and addresses them proactively.
Norine says that owners need to digitalize their contracts, not just digitize them. Here’s an explanation of the difference.
Meta-governance helps in this process. It sets up a situation where you can share information without accepting risk from another party.
She helps companies work toward a content-based information system where information can be shared across silos while maintaining proper liability links. It’s about thinking in more than 2 dimensions and seeing a web of connections.
Why take so much time in advance to do this? Because it prevents battles. It makes everything move more smoothly and predictably.
Eddie asks Norine to discuss the dynamics of information silos. She argues that silos are healthy as long as governance is handled properly. Her company’s software translates structural engineers’ insights so they can be understood by architects and vice-versa.
We discuss the role that Ai might be able to play in this pursuit of increased communication and efficiency.
Norine believes “we have too many [software] applications of very low value.” She sees way too much time and energy being spent on cross-platform interpretation and believes we should work toward a more seamless solution.
We discuss these concerns from the perspective of wasted intellectual energy. So much time is spent figuring, comparing, and arguing.
Norine’s Megaphone Message: Building-project risk does not begin or end with construction. If we can internalize that, we’ll understand that you have to push discovery upstream to the earliest stages of planning. If there’s an unknown that can be made known, it’s best to know it and address it as soon as possible. Start interrogating early. Start doing robust due diligence early. Continue that culture of observation, interrogation, and validation throughout the entire process.
Find Norine Online: LinkedIn - NWB Consulting
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