I love today’s theme one drop thousands
of ripples if you think about it
TED talks are like that one quick talk
and the opportunity to impact millions
of people there was an impact in my home
recently just a little ripple a 10 year
old ripple and it’s my son Ryan
so he’s been watching me practiced for
my TED talk for the last few weeks and
he was inspired to put together his own
TED talk so he put together some Google
slides and marched into his class
yesterday his grade 5 class and he did a
presentation on the American Revolution
so I figured if Ryan can do it I can do
it I asked him last night I said how did
it go rye and he said it went fine the
thick me wasn’t even nervous so anyway
I’m here to talk to you today about the
construction industry the construction
industry is a powerful one there is over
500,000 workers in Canada working in the
industry and it represents 6.1 percent
of the gross domestic product
it’s a powerful industry and it has the
power to make a lot of positive ripples
in the community but first I want to
take an informal pool so when you’re
sitting in traffic and you hear that
there’s delays due to construction how
many of you think about all the positive
ripples that construction project is
going to create never mind okay but I
want to talk about some of the positive
ripples so think about it how many lives
would a hospital save how many children
will be educated by the construction of
that school and how many athletic and
social events will be enjoyed by that
newly constructed recreation center I
want to pause for a minute and talk
about that recreation center because
it’s had a huge impact in my own life I
was born in Toronto two teen
parents they didn’t finish high school
let alone attend university or grad
school they’re amazing parents but they
didn’t have a lot of money so we didn’t
travel much instead we went to Pape
Center which was around the corner from
us the City of Toronto had and they
still have all kinds of our creation
centers with free programming so instead
of traveling we went to the recreation
center and I mean I lived at that
recreation center I was there seven days
a week I attended tap baton jazz
gymnastics art classes swimming cooking
classes the cooking classes didn’t help
but I did become a provincial champions
in missed and what did that teach me
going to that Recreation Center taught
me that I could achieve whatever I
wanted in life no limits no limits at
all the only limits are the ones that
you impose upon yourself or that you let
others impose upon you so when I started
telling people that I wanted to go to
law school some of them told me only the
rich kids go to law school I didn’t
listen some of them told me that only
the boys go to law school I didn’t
listen I went back to paper recreation
center when I was old enough to work and
I taught gymnastics
I thought swimming I taught senior
citizens Aquafit classes and I actually
made enough money to pay my university
in law school tuitions books and a trip
down south so I was the first one in my
family that actually went on an airplane
so tuition was a lot cheaper though back
then so I was able to do all of that so
as you can see the Recreation Center had
a tremendous impact in my life and I
enjoyed working at the Recreation Center
so much working with the community that
it really did inspire me and solidify my
decision to go to law school and become
a lawyer I went to law school to help
others I really and truly love helping
others deal with their legal problems
and I wanted to buy my dad a really cool
car back
so once I had been practicing for a
while I want to decide on a specialty so
I thought about it and I thought the
construction industry would be a good
one because a there’s only one piece of
legislation to deal with the
construction lien Act and I thought it
would be interesting and I also thought
if I didn’t like it I could always
switch and try another field but what
happened next
surprised me I fell in love with the
construction industry I’ve been a
construction lawyer now for 17 years and
I’ve loved every minute of it what do I
love about the construction industry
well one of the things I love is I love
the uniqueness of the projects I love
learning about the history of the
projects so does preparing for my talk
today I googled what is the oldest
constructed building in Ontario and lo
and behold Brantford showed up so the
oldest church first Protestant church in
Ontario is the Royal Chapel of the
Mohawks
and it was built in 1785 and it was a
gift from the Queen to acknowledge and
thank the Mohawk people for their
support of the British during the
American Revolution by the way when Ryan
did isn’t his talk on the American
Revolution he already knew this and he
didn’t even have to google it but why
don’t what a project so this probe does
this this church has been in the
community for over two hundred and
thirty two years I think it is where is
a really bad at math but I believe
that’s the correct amount of years but
what an impact it’s had on the community
so all these years later you can go
there you can get married there you can
worship there you can have a tour and
learn about the Mohawk nation and you
can enjoy entertainment and arts at that
building so what what a tremendous
impact that one Chapel has had on the
community of Brantford the other thing I
love about the construction industry is
that it’s really the epitome of teamwork
it takes an entire village to create a
construction project one of the projects
that fascinates
me is right here in Brantford the new
Laurier Brantford YMCA which I’m sure
you’re all familiar with that project is
the culmination of a whole lot of people
in the community it’s the culmination of
funding contributions by the city of
Brantford the federal and provincial
governments the Laurier University the
Students Union and private members of
the community what a contribution and
what an example of a community pulling
together and let’s not forget the
workers who are constructing the project
you’ve got the general contractor the
subcontractors the architects the
engineers the laborers the equipment and
material suppliers truly an entire
village has come together to create this
recreation center this YMCA now let’s
look at some of the ripples that this
Center is going to create it’s going to
create improved health and wellness in
the community it’s going to create all
kinds of fun social programs like the
ones that I experienced at Pape Center
it’s going to improve the athletics in
the community which when in turn will
increase the enrollment at Laurier
University and I want to acknowledge the
huge contribution that the Laurier
University is already made to downtown
Brantford it’s going to create closer
ties to the students and the community
and who knows maybe some of those young
people will consider going to university
like I did even if their parents didn’t
attend it’s also going to add community
development programs to the community
and it’s also going to create lifelong
memories and that’s something I’m really
passionate about as I told you my
experience with Pape Center has created
lifelong memories for me
and a testament to that impact that a
recreation center or community center
can have is the contribution a huge
contribution that to families right here
in Brantford have have donated to the
center but
family and the Davis family together
have donated millions of dollars to help
create this community center I’m gonna
is reading about them in the media I
learned that a lot of their kids took
swimming classes at the YMCA and they
are now in turn are contributing to the
community swimming classes are something
that our dear is dear to my heart
I taught kids to swim when I was at
though a pape center and I remember this
one little kid Ronnie who was three at
the time and I remained good friends
with his mom for years and every time
Ronnie would come into the swimming pool
he would scream and cry like he would
sit at the ledge and he would just have
a total meltdown and eventually Ronnie
got used to the pool and he learned to
swim and now Ronnie is like six foot
three and I see him in the community and
I’m like hey Ronnie how’s it going it
was like I Genesis done any swimming
lately and he smiles because he
remembers you know those years when he
was just learning to swim in the
swimming pool so you cannot
underestimate the impact that this
Center will have and it reminds me of a
quote from Jim Ron which says whatever
good things we build will build us and
so the coming together of the Brantford
community and the Laurier community and
all the other parties the coming
together to build this Center will in
turn build you as a community now one of
the other things that I love as a lawyer
in terms of the construction industry is
the complexity of it I love the
challenges of litigating files and one
of the challenges is that construction
projects are extremely complex they’re
complex because of the interdependent
nature of them they’re in turn to been
interdependent financially so as lawyers
when I when I train younger lawyers we
always do the pyramid so we do the
pyramid on the the you know the law
sheet paper that we use to prepare for
trials and we talk about the owner being
at the top of the pyramid the general
contractor the subcontractors and then
the labor Labor’s towards the bottom of
the equipment suppliers and the material
suppliers so what happens is there’s
trust funds on a project and if the
owner doesn’t pay the general contract
then the general contractor usually
can’t pay the subcontractors and so it
flows down the chain so if one party
stops paying on the construction pyramid
it can freeze the project and you can
have all kinds of litigation that ensues
as a lawyer I enjoy litigating but as an
owner or a contractor not so much fun
the other thing about construction is
that in order to get the project done
you really have to work as a team and
each each trade is dependent upon the
other so for example if you have
lighting such as the lighting in this
room that’s going to be supplied
if those lights are delayed then the
electrician cannot install the lighting
so they’re delayed and in turn the
drywallers would be delayed because they
can’t finish their work until the
electrical work has completed so you can
see that one delay on the project can
have a negative ripple effect all
throughout the project now in the
construction industry there’s extreme
pressure to bring a project on time and
within budget most projects never are
completed on time I’ve never really seen
one that’s completed on time so it’s not
unusual but that’s the goal to complete
it on time and within budget what all
kinds of things can happen in the
construction industry that make that a
real challenge one of them can be
unsightly unforeseen site conditions and
we have an example of that in the new
YMCA I’m sure you’ve all become aware of
the fact that on the project the new
YMCA during excavation they found over
400,000 artifacts 400,000 artifacts
dating back a thousand to 1500 years ago
what an opportunity to learn about
communities past what a beautiful
opportunity for the community but not
such a beautiful opportunity for the
contractors and the owner of the project
because a delay like that on a
construction project can cause a lot of
extra time and cost and in fact I
believe the Brantford project was
delayed approximately 18 months with an
over running costs of about 9 million
so the challenge of that construction
project is to now complete it find extra
funding and complete it on a schedule
that’s you know a lot more extended than
originally intended but it will be done
as most projects are and it’ll be
completed in in the spring or summer for
all of you to enjoy now in terms of the
challenges of the construction industry
I’ve created my own leadership model
research research shows that if
employees are happy and they feel
engaged they’ll be more productive and
the company will be more profitable in
the construction industry where profits
can be tight you really need to have
strong with positive leadership to
ensure that your projects are successful
so what does lead stand for L stands for
lead with your heart and in an industry
I practice in the industry I’m often the
only world woman in the room still to
this day but I really enjoy working with
the men of the industry leading with
your heart it’s not something that gets
discussed a lot but it’s something
that’s necessary people whether you’re
male or female need to feel as though
your employer cares if you feel cared
about you’ll care about the work and
you’ll care about the company and the
company will in turn benefit is for
excelling at conflict resolution
something that’s near and dear to my
heart as a lawyer and a private trained
mediator excelling at conflict
resolution is really important because
productivity is killed by conflict
conflict on projects is a huge
productivity killer and the more
insidious conflict is that that is
hidden because you don’t know about it
you can’t resolve it so you need to
become skilled at resolving conflict to
improve productivity and profitability
the third is a adding value to the lives
of your employees research shows that
people are motivated when they feel that
there is opportunities for development
and growth and advancement in the
company so you need to add value to your
people and give them opportunities to
grow or they’ll leave and finally
developing trust as leaders with
trust you cannot lead to anybody you’ll
only lead them you will lead them but
only to the extent that they have to
follow you because you’re the boss but
true leaders inspire people and motivate
people and people want to follow them
because they’re truly they truly feel a
connection to them if you develop trust
in the culture of your company people
can focus on their work and in an
industry where safety is paramount you
want people focused on the work and you
want people focused on getting the job
done if you develop a culture of trust
you’ll increase safety and you’ll
increase productivity and profitability
so I just want to conclude my talk
really by thanking the construction
industry this industry has had a huge
impact on my life both personally and
professionally I really want to pay
tribute to the men and women that toil
in the industry day in and day out
building these beautiful products and
projects that we benefit from every day
they really are the dream builders they
are the change makers in society and I
want to challenge you the next time
you’re sitting in your car or walking by
a construction project and there’s a
delay I challenge you to take a deep
breath smile and think of all the
beautiful ripples that projects going to
create for you and the community thank
you
[Applause]
of ripples if you think about it
TED talks are like that one quick talk
and the opportunity to impact millions
of people there was an impact in my home
recently just a little ripple a 10 year
old ripple and it’s my son Ryan
so he’s been watching me practiced for
my TED talk for the last few weeks and
he was inspired to put together his own
TED talk so he put together some Google
slides and marched into his class
yesterday his grade 5 class and he did a
presentation on the American Revolution
so I figured if Ryan can do it I can do
it I asked him last night I said how did
it go rye and he said it went fine the
thick me wasn’t even nervous so anyway
I’m here to talk to you today about the
construction industry the construction
industry is a powerful one there is over
500,000 workers in Canada working in the
industry and it represents 6.1 percent
of the gross domestic product
it’s a powerful industry and it has the
power to make a lot of positive ripples
in the community but first I want to
take an informal pool so when you’re
sitting in traffic and you hear that
there’s delays due to construction how
many of you think about all the positive
ripples that construction project is
going to create never mind okay but I
want to talk about some of the positive
ripples so think about it how many lives
would a hospital save how many children
will be educated by the construction of
that school and how many athletic and
social events will be enjoyed by that
newly constructed recreation center I
want to pause for a minute and talk
about that recreation center because
it’s had a huge impact in my own life I
was born in Toronto two teen
parents they didn’t finish high school
let alone attend university or grad
school they’re amazing parents but they
didn’t have a lot of money so we didn’t
travel much instead we went to Pape
Center which was around the corner from
us the City of Toronto had and they
still have all kinds of our creation
centers with free programming so instead
of traveling we went to the recreation
center and I mean I lived at that
recreation center I was there seven days
a week I attended tap baton jazz
gymnastics art classes swimming cooking
classes the cooking classes didn’t help
but I did become a provincial champions
in missed and what did that teach me
going to that Recreation Center taught
me that I could achieve whatever I
wanted in life no limits no limits at
all the only limits are the ones that
you impose upon yourself or that you let
others impose upon you so when I started
telling people that I wanted to go to
law school some of them told me only the
rich kids go to law school I didn’t
listen some of them told me that only
the boys go to law school I didn’t
listen I went back to paper recreation
center when I was old enough to work and
I taught gymnastics
I thought swimming I taught senior
citizens Aquafit classes and I actually
made enough money to pay my university
in law school tuitions books and a trip
down south so I was the first one in my
family that actually went on an airplane
so tuition was a lot cheaper though back
then so I was able to do all of that so
as you can see the Recreation Center had
a tremendous impact in my life and I
enjoyed working at the Recreation Center
so much working with the community that
it really did inspire me and solidify my
decision to go to law school and become
a lawyer I went to law school to help
others I really and truly love helping
others deal with their legal problems
and I wanted to buy my dad a really cool
car back
so once I had been practicing for a
while I want to decide on a specialty so
I thought about it and I thought the
construction industry would be a good
one because a there’s only one piece of
legislation to deal with the
construction lien Act and I thought it
would be interesting and I also thought
if I didn’t like it I could always
switch and try another field but what
happened next
surprised me I fell in love with the
construction industry I’ve been a
construction lawyer now for 17 years and
I’ve loved every minute of it what do I
love about the construction industry
well one of the things I love is I love
the uniqueness of the projects I love
learning about the history of the
projects so does preparing for my talk
today I googled what is the oldest
constructed building in Ontario and lo
and behold Brantford showed up so the
oldest church first Protestant church in
Ontario is the Royal Chapel of the
Mohawks
and it was built in 1785 and it was a
gift from the Queen to acknowledge and
thank the Mohawk people for their
support of the British during the
American Revolution by the way when Ryan
did isn’t his talk on the American
Revolution he already knew this and he
didn’t even have to google it but why
don’t what a project so this probe does
this this church has been in the
community for over two hundred and
thirty two years I think it is where is
a really bad at math but I believe
that’s the correct amount of years but
what an impact it’s had on the community
so all these years later you can go
there you can get married there you can
worship there you can have a tour and
learn about the Mohawk nation and you
can enjoy entertainment and arts at that
building so what what a tremendous
impact that one Chapel has had on the
community of Brantford the other thing I
love about the construction industry is
that it’s really the epitome of teamwork
it takes an entire village to create a
construction project one of the projects
that fascinates
me is right here in Brantford the new
Laurier Brantford YMCA which I’m sure
you’re all familiar with that project is
the culmination of a whole lot of people
in the community it’s the culmination of
funding contributions by the city of
Brantford the federal and provincial
governments the Laurier University the
Students Union and private members of
the community what a contribution and
what an example of a community pulling
together and let’s not forget the
workers who are constructing the project
you’ve got the general contractor the
subcontractors the architects the
engineers the laborers the equipment and
material suppliers truly an entire
village has come together to create this
recreation center this YMCA now let’s
look at some of the ripples that this
Center is going to create it’s going to
create improved health and wellness in
the community it’s going to create all
kinds of fun social programs like the
ones that I experienced at Pape Center
it’s going to improve the athletics in
the community which when in turn will
increase the enrollment at Laurier
University and I want to acknowledge the
huge contribution that the Laurier
University is already made to downtown
Brantford it’s going to create closer
ties to the students and the community
and who knows maybe some of those young
people will consider going to university
like I did even if their parents didn’t
attend it’s also going to add community
development programs to the community
and it’s also going to create lifelong
memories and that’s something I’m really
passionate about as I told you my
experience with Pape Center has created
lifelong memories for me
and a testament to that impact that a
recreation center or community center
can have is the contribution a huge
contribution that to families right here
in Brantford have have donated to the
center but
family and the Davis family together
have donated millions of dollars to help
create this community center I’m gonna
is reading about them in the media I
learned that a lot of their kids took
swimming classes at the YMCA and they
are now in turn are contributing to the
community swimming classes are something
that our dear is dear to my heart
I taught kids to swim when I was at
though a pape center and I remember this
one little kid Ronnie who was three at
the time and I remained good friends
with his mom for years and every time
Ronnie would come into the swimming pool
he would scream and cry like he would
sit at the ledge and he would just have
a total meltdown and eventually Ronnie
got used to the pool and he learned to
swim and now Ronnie is like six foot
three and I see him in the community and
I’m like hey Ronnie how’s it going it
was like I Genesis done any swimming
lately and he smiles because he
remembers you know those years when he
was just learning to swim in the
swimming pool so you cannot
underestimate the impact that this
Center will have and it reminds me of a
quote from Jim Ron which says whatever
good things we build will build us and
so the coming together of the Brantford
community and the Laurier community and
all the other parties the coming
together to build this Center will in
turn build you as a community now one of
the other things that I love as a lawyer
in terms of the construction industry is
the complexity of it I love the
challenges of litigating files and one
of the challenges is that construction
projects are extremely complex they’re
complex because of the interdependent
nature of them they’re in turn to been
interdependent financially so as lawyers
when I when I train younger lawyers we
always do the pyramid so we do the
pyramid on the the you know the law
sheet paper that we use to prepare for
trials and we talk about the owner being
at the top of the pyramid the general
contractor the subcontractors and then
the labor Labor’s towards the bottom of
the equipment suppliers and the material
suppliers so what happens is there’s
trust funds on a project and if the
owner doesn’t pay the general contract
then the general contractor usually
can’t pay the subcontractors and so it
flows down the chain so if one party
stops paying on the construction pyramid
it can freeze the project and you can
have all kinds of litigation that ensues
as a lawyer I enjoy litigating but as an
owner or a contractor not so much fun
the other thing about construction is
that in order to get the project done
you really have to work as a team and
each each trade is dependent upon the
other so for example if you have
lighting such as the lighting in this
room that’s going to be supplied
if those lights are delayed then the
electrician cannot install the lighting
so they’re delayed and in turn the
drywallers would be delayed because they
can’t finish their work until the
electrical work has completed so you can
see that one delay on the project can
have a negative ripple effect all
throughout the project now in the
construction industry there’s extreme
pressure to bring a project on time and
within budget most projects never are
completed on time I’ve never really seen
one that’s completed on time so it’s not
unusual but that’s the goal to complete
it on time and within budget what all
kinds of things can happen in the
construction industry that make that a
real challenge one of them can be
unsightly unforeseen site conditions and
we have an example of that in the new
YMCA I’m sure you’ve all become aware of
the fact that on the project the new
YMCA during excavation they found over
400,000 artifacts 400,000 artifacts
dating back a thousand to 1500 years ago
what an opportunity to learn about
communities past what a beautiful
opportunity for the community but not
such a beautiful opportunity for the
contractors and the owner of the project
because a delay like that on a
construction project can cause a lot of
extra time and cost and in fact I
believe the Brantford project was
delayed approximately 18 months with an
over running costs of about 9 million
so the challenge of that construction
project is to now complete it find extra
funding and complete it on a schedule
that’s you know a lot more extended than
originally intended but it will be done
as most projects are and it’ll be
completed in in the spring or summer for
all of you to enjoy now in terms of the
challenges of the construction industry
I’ve created my own leadership model
research research shows that if
employees are happy and they feel
engaged they’ll be more productive and
the company will be more profitable in
the construction industry where profits
can be tight you really need to have
strong with positive leadership to
ensure that your projects are successful
so what does lead stand for L stands for
lead with your heart and in an industry
I practice in the industry I’m often the
only world woman in the room still to
this day but I really enjoy working with
the men of the industry leading with
your heart it’s not something that gets
discussed a lot but it’s something
that’s necessary people whether you’re
male or female need to feel as though
your employer cares if you feel cared
about you’ll care about the work and
you’ll care about the company and the
company will in turn benefit is for
excelling at conflict resolution
something that’s near and dear to my
heart as a lawyer and a private trained
mediator excelling at conflict
resolution is really important because
productivity is killed by conflict
conflict on projects is a huge
productivity killer and the more
insidious conflict is that that is
hidden because you don’t know about it
you can’t resolve it so you need to
become skilled at resolving conflict to
improve productivity and profitability
the third is a adding value to the lives
of your employees research shows that
people are motivated when they feel that
there is opportunities for development
and growth and advancement in the
company so you need to add value to your
people and give them opportunities to
grow or they’ll leave and finally
developing trust as leaders with
trust you cannot lead to anybody you’ll
only lead them you will lead them but
only to the extent that they have to
follow you because you’re the boss but
true leaders inspire people and motivate
people and people want to follow them
because they’re truly they truly feel a
connection to them if you develop trust
in the culture of your company people
can focus on their work and in an
industry where safety is paramount you
want people focused on the work and you
want people focused on getting the job
done if you develop a culture of trust
you’ll increase safety and you’ll
increase productivity and profitability
so I just want to conclude my talk
really by thanking the construction
industry this industry has had a huge
impact on my life both personally and
professionally I really want to pay
tribute to the men and women that toil
in the industry day in and day out
building these beautiful products and
projects that we benefit from every day
they really are the dream builders they
are the change makers in society and I
want to challenge you the next time
you’re sitting in your car or walking by
a construction project and there’s a
delay I challenge you to take a deep
breath smile and think of all the
beautiful ripples that projects going to
create for you and the community thank
you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: