Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

[00:00:00] Welcome to Construction Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence, where we dive into innovation, success, and streamlined excellence in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your host and ally in simplifying operations and empowering dynamic teams. I help managers adopt people focused, tech forward, lean practices so they can move away from daily chaos, boost company revenue, and restore peace of mind.

On this show, we bring to light leaders who are innovating across the industry and creating outstanding results, inspiring you to forge your path to excellence. Today, we're joined by Bill Ratabenko, president of ACI Northwest, one of Idaho's top construction companies known for its community focused values.

and Collaborative Culture. Bill took over the company from his dad and has poured so much energy into fostering a people [00:01:00] first leadership style that turns big personalities into big leaders with an emphasis on humility, teamwork, and integrity. Under his guidance, the company has been recognized as a top privately held business in Idaho for four consecutive years.

If you're ready to leave behind the daily firefighting and move toward a streamlined operation with a team that consistently delivers success, then you're in the right place. Discover more about us and catch up on past episodes at ConstructionTrailblazers. com. All right, Phil, let's dive in. I want you to just give our listeners a little bit more insight into your journey and some of the key moments that have influenced your leadership style.

Thanks, Phil.

Well, thanks Samantha for the intro and appreciate being here with you. So I've kind of always been a hands on individual and wanting to work in the trades from right out of high school. And it all started when parked outside my parents house the day after graduation.

My dad gave [00:02:00] me a card with a phone number on it and I jumped in my truck and I drove from Idaho to Phoenix. And when I got there, I was supposed to contact this guy and become a roofer. And as a 17 year old leaving Idaho, going to Phoenix to work the summer as a roofer, it was quite the shock. It was quite the shock.

So it was a long hot summer, but it did definitely teach some lessons in life there for sure.

A long road trip. There's a lot of time for you as a 17 year old to build up a lot of different scenarios in your head, I bet, of all the things that might go wrong when you show up.

Yeah. And growing up in a household of, demanding hard work, and working with my dad As the boss's son as a teenager growing up was not the easiest thing because that's definitely a double edged sword.

So, after that summer ended, I ended up coming home and joining the apprenticeship program and I had a mechanical contractor here in the lane. And I wanted to be someplace outside of my [00:03:00] dad's business. I wanted to be someplace where I was Bill Ratavanko, not the boss's son. And so I ended up joining the apprenticeship program and went through the apprenticeship program and kind of really started to find who I was and what I really enjoyed.

And it was most certainly building things and building things with my hands And working with the team and working with people you trusted and you kind of had success with. And so, did that, worked up kind of through the chain, in the fabrication department, out in the field doing large construction, HVAC construction projects.

And then I found myself in the office doing estimates and project management. And it just turned out in early 2000s that the contracting, or the HVAC Commercial Contracting Company that I was working for came up for sale. And my dad had a general contracting company, more in the excavation heavy excavation company at that time, which ACI Northwest, that's what it was back then ended up buying the mechanical contracting business that I was in.

And so, for 15 [00:04:00] years, I was running around not wanting to go to work for my dad. And he kind of giggled. After that transaction was done because we were here, we were again working together and, it was a super fun experience for both of us. There's probably nothing better for a father to watch his sons come up through his business.

So, yeah he really enjoyed that.

There's a lot of wonderful irony in that story. And I think also what I like about that is you were very adamant about I need to go find out what I'm good at what. And what I enjoy. And so there is, you are still in the same industry, right? Not in dad's business, but similar industry.

And there's a lot of authenticity to how you got to where you are now. And before we pressed record for our listeners, we were just talking about Bill's son. And so it sounds Bill might not be buying his son's business soon, but your son is also not in the family business. He's out doing his own thing, but still in the industry.

My oldest son, that is, that's correct. [00:05:00] My youngest son actually does work here following a very similar footstep with me as the apprenticeship program runs a fabrication department now is really fluid in that kind of.

So, again very exciting to be able to do that with your boys and get to see them every day. And, yeah we're nudging the older one to come back home. So,

yeah, that is, there's a lot of moments then for you to be a proud dad. And I want to dump a little bit back to Jethro.

You said you, you grew up at kind of where hard work was expected. And something that you mentioned that one of the first times we talked was this idea of you've got to kind of shut up and listen, right? And that, even though it sounds a little harsh, right? For when you're growing up, that has kind of influenced how you lead your teams now, or how you transitioned into the leader for this company.

Can you talk to us a little bit more about that?

So growing up, As a kid in the 80s, 70s and 80s from a strong [00:06:00] personality, very type A, do as you're told, it definitely taught me to listen and to listen more than I speak. And, that, that is is grown in, it's what started out as, possibly one of my faults of not speaking up, but it's turned into a major skill I feel like has, that has helped me really listen to my team, really listen to.

Potential problems. Listen to suggestions, listen to desires and hopes. And that doesn't matter if you're talking to a new employee, a seniored employee, a manager, or even a customer. It's what do we, what do, what are they asking? What are they, what are their needs? And you definitely learn more than trying to assume, what that is.

There's a lot of wisdom in staying silent, right? Where again, you can warp all of that and stretch those active listening skills, which is something that a lot of us need to work harder at. What was, you mentioned that it was a weakness at first where you weren't speaking up enough. Was there a [00:07:00] moment that things started to click a little bit more and you started to take a little bit more initiative and weigh your own opinions more heavily?

So in 2014, my, my father passed away. And all of a sudden, all of that direction and knowledge and influence was gone. And, he had been sick for just about a year. And so the succession plan, which was supposed to be five to ten years, turned into one, and so there was definitely a very high speed ramp up and then all of a sudden takeover that was, could say I wasn't quite ready for, but, then there became a time where it's okay I've listened and, And now we need to send it to a direction that I feel personally is best for the, for business decisions and whether it's the little ones or the big ones.

And it's you better make a move because you can't just sit here and, you learn by sitting too long sometimes that you have to make an, make a decision and sometimes it's not an easy one. And, but if you built that trust in your team, [00:08:00] they're looking for that direction.

They're looking for you to make those hard decisions.

Those, that's one of those examples of where the worst decision is indecision, right? And again, so sorry to hear about your dad, cause we're coming up on 10 years without dad helping to lead the organization. This is probably where that succession plan was coming to an end and that original plan and all of that was accelerated.

Something else with that, though, is you were put in this really intense pressure position where you're also Weaving. So there's all these other personal things. And so this is one of those moments where as leaders we see where that true character comes out, where things are really put to the test.

Action is going to meet words and things. And it sounds like you always had this element of humility in everything you did in business. And that humility has played such a big role in building trust with your team and how you lead with your team and have this shared [00:09:00] decision making. Can you tell me a little bit more about how, again, humility has impacted the business?

I think when you show, when you're open to showing that humility, it truly builds trust, and it shows that humility is okay, and we're in a construction industry where big egos have driven this industry for hundreds of years, and We've kind of moved the needle on that in, in, in the recent, five, 10 years of, we just we're different than we used to be because of that.

you still need to have some ego to do the big projects we do and to have the mindset that, we can do anything we want to do. We just got to make the decision to do it. You still have to have that ego to do that, but you don't have to bulldozer over the top of. other, traits that your team has, and so having that humility personally and making sure that you show that's a [00:10:00] positive thing down the line it's empowering.

You're really toeing that line between what confidence and arrogance is and helping other people realize, hey, we don't need to be arrogant and we don't have to treat. people poorly in order to achieve this really big goal. And you're absolutely right about big egos. And I'm, I've been very pleasantly surprised since starting this podcast in August of this year, I, have the intention of, okay, let's share our stories on success and innovation and leadership.

And I really thought some of the people I'd be inviting would share more practical strategies. And so many of the stories have just been focused around, Hey, I listened to my people. I care about my team. And we're able to do this really big, awesome thing because we've built such a strong team. And I want to dive into that a little bit more with you because something else we talked about the first time was, Hey, you have had to contend with some big personalities and there were big egos on the team when you started.

But you didn't get rid [00:11:00] of those big egos right away, which is something that I think most companies either decide we're going to let this bad apple just sit and ruin some things, but they do good work. Or, okay, we're going to wipe this slate clean and get rid of all these big egos. And you took a different path where you started really developing these people and transitioning them to the leaders that they are now, instead of getting rid of them.

Tell us more about that whole journey, maybe the ups and downs and the success stories now from that.

Well, I don't want to, I want to make sure we don't paint the wrong picture that all those big egos are still here, and, but one of the things that you have to recognize is there's value.

Everybody has value. Everybody wants to have a voice. They want to feel like they're making a difference. And you just have to try to help them understand that. All those are still taking place, but you don't have to mow over somebody. You don't have to bulldozer somebody else's idea because it has to be yours.

When you really show that the purpose of what we're trying to do [00:12:00] is win as a team, when somebody else gets success as success, we have to celebrate that. I'm not a huge sports guy. I just tend to use a lot of sports analogies, and we have a lot of different departments and I always look at it like it's my sons, I do everything that I possibly can to make sure that my sons don't feel like the other one's the favorite.

It's the same thing in my departments. I give them as much divided or individual attention as possible and making sure they're rooting for each other. And, when you get your team to root for the other players. It's just, it's compounding, and it's contagious, and I use the analogy of when the defense is standing on the sideline rooting for the offense.

It's your, you become unstoppable in and, but if you have the, there's, if there's a little bit of, a little bit of infighting between the two, you'll never win a Super Bowl. It, you have to have cohesion between all the departments so much that I don't, I, there, everybody knows in, in this, in these [00:13:00] buildings that there's no divisions.

We don't have an HVAC division. We don't have an excavation division. We don't have a shop division. It's all departments because division has a connotation that they're separate.

And

we're not separate. We're all the same. I was just going to say, and it's a mindset shift that, and some of those big egos have a hard time letting go with, I have to be the one that wins, and I'm the main player.

And so it's just, a constant, steady, even pressure that nope, we root for the defense when we're at offense.

It sounds like you have cracked the code on avoiding silos, which I'm sure some of our listeners are like, Oh my gosh, how, I want that because it's so easy for silos to come into play.

And I don't want to diminish because you're making it sound rather easy. Hey, we just have we're rooting for each other. We know that the other team for when the other team wins, we win as well. But it's not always that simple, right? And because you're dealing with departments or people that don't always [00:14:00] see what the other department is dealing with, or you don't always see what the people in the field are dealing with, and you're in the office, right?

And you're in the office, right? We don't have that visualization. That is usually what we need to drive empathy and compassion and understanding. So where do you still like kind of have those warning flags of, Oh, I see some frustration, I see some silos popping up and how do you go about really getting rid of those?

Yeah, and I want to be cautious about thinking that I've cracked the code. I think that's like I said.

There's the humility

coming in again. Right. We're not quite there, but we figured out that the more you get your managers working together on, on global projects. I mean, let's talk about simple things.

We just finished out our company summer picnic, and we had all our, all our GMs working together, collaborating ideas for that, and we're doing things together within that picnic, whether it's softball games or whether it's kickball games or raffles and celebrating and, different, things for the employees.

[00:15:00] And, in our, we do a monthly safety council meeting, and everybody's in there celebrating successes in that and given kudos and just recognition. And, that has been a long, big ship to turn, right? It does not happen overnight. And, but when you really these guys that, When the other team wins, when the defense is out there having success, that is going to make my job easier.

That is collectively making us better as an ACI team. And, the managers that I got in there now doing that stuff, they get it. They understand, they want the other teams to succeed. And if that means that they're pulling men off their project in order to go help on other departments, they'll do it.

And it's. They have no qualms about jumping over there to help because they just, they get it that, that

Yeah, again, it's not about them winning. It's that it's everybody together.

Yeah, for sure. [00:16:00]

So you also had the moment of clarification earlier of not all those big egos are still on the team.

And so you don't have to dive into specifics here. We definitely don't want to call anybody out too harshly. But it. from that, from the sounds of that, it's okay, we have made some big decisions of this person isn't on offense or defense. They're just not on the team. What does it take for you to really get to that point of, okay, you're not on the team anymore.

So we interview for when we've this happened three times in the last 12 months, we've interviewed someone, someone's come in and they, they show to have pretty good credentials. And so we sit down and just have a conversation. You're more like interviewing for cultural fit. And we start there because we know what our culture wants to be.

And so we know how, you start to get an indication of how they fit within that culture. And so when you're doing that, you also have an understanding of how certain team members are not fitting [00:17:00] into that culture. Right? As you're trying to go down this road, you start to get resistance and you kind of, you start to pick up signals to how they are not fitting into where you want to go.

And some of these have been really hard decisions because they've been a long time. Family members and it's super unfortunate and they're hard decisions andfor them, and I totally get it. what they believe are making the right decisions for how they feel ACI should be.

culturally where we want to go. It doesn't fit into, and they are kind of, kind of stiff arming where we want to go. And so makes it for some difficult conversations and it's kind of that you're either on the bus or you're not. We're heading this direction.

We would love for you to go this way, but you gotta want to go this way. And yeah, I

think it's an important point there is you've got clarity on where that bus is going on what we're going to miss it. We're mixing analogies now and metaphors, but [00:18:00] either what the game plan is for the team or where that bus is going.

You've got clarity there. And that is what helps with those big decisions. I think sometimes. We are, a lot of managers are faced with big decisions and they don't really know what that right thing to do is or what the right next step is because that clarity on the vision and the goals and really understanding what is best for the team isn't there for them to lean on to then take that next step.

Yeah, for sure. And that, that goes back to, it's a chapter in Jocko Extreme Ownership book of the why. Why if you're going a direction, you better understand why you're going that direction. And it has to be displayed to your team, and they got to understand why you want to go this direction.

That, helping the labor understand why they're doing what they're doing. So they can, they, they just, everybody does a better job when you understand the end result. It's just not shovel that dirt into that pile. It's what we're trying to do here is this, and it's going to require shoving that dirt into that pile.

And so when you have this [00:19:00] cultural compass where you want to go and everybody understands why it's so important to your employees and your customers that we're heading this direction it's so much easier to get everybody heading that direction.

And that is going back to that trust that you've built in on your team, which was not an overnight thing, right?

And so people are, they're not just blindly trusting that this is going to be a winning team or that everything is going to be okay. You are taking the intentional time and effort to explain to them. where we're going and why they're doing certain things. Was this something else that was just an a natural thing for you based off of things that you learned growing up and that hard work ethic?

Or was this another evolution because of some hard lessons that you learned as a leader?

We through the, 2008 downturn, just like a lot of construction companies, it was, there was a lot of difficult time, there was a lot of difficult decisions that were made, there was some hardships, we [00:20:00] shrunk down to a third of the size, and there's a lot of The leadership here experienced that, those hardships, and when you kind of walk through that fire with some, with people, you know you kind of gain some further trust, and then we have some great leadership here that, that wasn't here through that time.

And so, and building that trust through solid decisions and a good mantra of this is why we're doing that. It brings those two groups together because one has been through that hardship and understands that, that the decisions we make today and it's, you're forged under fire, of those hardships.

And it's definitely, challenging, but you know, we're better for that. And our relationships are stronger because of it.

Yeah, I also, I love that you are really placing such an emphasis on taking the time to communicate things and going back to, hey, you do these summer picnics, you go to baseball games, you [00:21:00] do all this fun stuff with your team, you do it in a thoughtful way, but those are really cherry on top things that your team gets to enjoy because you've already got this really great foundation.

on all these other things of communication and breaking down silos and the why behind why you do things. And again, this is something that a lot of companies are not doing. They plan these happy hours or they plan these cultural initiatives that employees really don't want to show up to because they don't like their team.

They don't like their managers. And so now it's Oh, this is something obligatory to show up to versus no, I enjoy my team and I want to celebrate these wins

together. Yeah. No very well said. It's kind of a cherry on the top, but it's also part of who we are, right? It's, yes, it is a cherry that, that it is an event that we get to celebrate together.

You break bread together and you get to see each other in a different lens, but that's also part of who we are. It's also because we are like this that we do that. So, [00:22:00] Yeah, it's kind of a mix of both of those.

It's a very integrated people focused strategy. Now, I want to go back to something that we included in your introduction was that you guys have been a top 100 privately held company in your state for the past four years, which is not a light accomplishment.

So big congrats to that. I want to understand more about how the greatness of your team internally has impacted the community at large around you.

So, we feel that we're community driven we're locally owned, we are, all our employees are from our community, the communities we work, our employees are living in.

Our main mantra that we build off of is we're building better communities through cultivating employee success. That's our drumbeat right there. We're building better communities through cultivating employee success. And so the more you get your team to be really embedded in their communities, the more they're proud of [00:23:00] that and who they, when they're driving around in the red ACI truck, they're proud of who they work for, and we partner with the local chamber, the local rotary where there's the, ACI entrance at the county fairgrounds, the, for the state fair.

And we sponsor all the, as many park and rec teams as we can and just really giving back to the community like that, because this is where we call home and we want to be a part of that, not just by, getting the next job or, becoming the next 300 employee. Employer, it's driving around with your ACI t shirt on going through the grocery store and seeing your local community and being proud of who you are.

And it's kind of embedded into who we are because we want people to come to us for services and we want people to come to us for employment because they are pretty excited about who we are. It's just part of who we, how we do business.

Yeah, that is amazing that people can take such pride [00:24:00] in where they work and also your customers are like, I can trust them because I know they care about the community.

And if they do a bad job, everybody is gonna know about it, right? And there's also such an amazing employee attraction and retention, especially during them. Yeah. In an industry where there's often labor shortages or it's hard to not only find people that want to apply to the job, but find people that are qualified or can really do the job and be trained on it.

You're now getting people that, hey, I want to work here because I know that they're an awesome team. I know that they do. Great quality work, and I want to learn from them. Have you had moments where there were labor shortages or there was a struggle to find candidates? Or has all of the effort you've put into the company just kind of kept a good pipeline for hiring?

No there's, the last few years, this year has been much better, but the last previous few years have been very difficult on labor and finding, finding, I don't want to say good quality labor, but just even just getting people to come [00:25:00] into the door for a conversation was difficult and that, that starts right down from the laborer, no experience, wants to try construction right out of high school.

all the way to an experienced project manager. And we work with the high schools getting in front of the kids through the tech programs, work with several of the community colleges doing internships and ride alongs. We work with the other trade associations for their apprenticeship programs, work with the state.

We run several different apprenticeship programs trying to Get the information to the younger coming into workforce age kids and people that want to try something other than going to college and majority of that, it's just getting information out there. And if we get enough information out there where five of the graduating class goes into the trades, even if they don't come to ACI, that's a benefit for ACI because that's five new tradesmen [00:26:00] into the trade.

That potentially won't leave ACI to go someplace else or won't leave a contractor looking for somebody that's working at ACI and it's just better for everyone. And so the more we can do in order to get that new workforce trained and offering you to communicate what it's about, the better.

And, I've interviewed people recently that it's man, you're a great you're a great person in our community. And they just, so this example is someone who moved into the community from out of state, and they're just, so after, it was after three interviews, and I closed the interview with, whether you choose to come to work for ACI or not, I'm really glad you're in our community.

You bring values to this community that I appreciate and, I hope you come to work for ACI, but if you don't, I'm glad you're in our community. And that's a positive for everyone. And luckily he came to work for us. So, yeah, but the more you can, you kind of display that and have that feeling towards it.

If you get [00:27:00] it, it just helps, get people curious about who ACI is.

But this is another example of you stay true to who you are in your philosophy, right? So earlier we talked about how with your teams where we don't have silos, or we often don't have the tension that comes with silos because everyone knows that, hey, if this other department wins, then we win as well.

And you're taking that into a larger scale here of even if we don't win by having this candidate on board, the community is still going to win, We in turn are going to win somehow. And it's just this escalation of the philosophy that is so impactful and so wonderful. And I completely admire you guys for going that approach.

Now, I want to back up a little bit into some of kind of connecting the dots on a few of the things that you've said about teamwork and communication and the humility and how you do things and something else. We've talked about the first time we spoke was about how There's still continuous improvement.

You guys have all these amazing things going for [00:28:00] you and you recognize, Hey, we can still always be better. So what is the next thing that you guys might be focusing on to really elevate ACI?

So, the technology is definitely, is always expanding in. in our industry, both in the HVAC mechanical side and the heavy excavation side.

The heavy excavation side we have five different drones that we use for mapping and GPS calculations. And then on the HVAC side, and it's all the digital experience that the customer sees. From the technician, if he's in Mrs Jones's house, what's that and always trying to stand in front of that stuff.

And so, currently we're working on both of those and just trying to utilize the technology within our industries the experience that the customer. sees from them the ease of the workflow that they get from when they make that phone call to the time that they're, the technicians arrived at the time that they're [00:29:00] complete and how that goes for them is extremely important.

I mean, the happy customer experience is going to create happy customers, which everybody knows what that does. And then the efficiency on the civil excavation side of the GPS controlled graders and the drones and, having our guys out in the field, having the electronics to be able to be more efficient, the modeling and, a digital as built and all that stuff.

So. That's definitely something we're working on, and I've always had this note on my desk about operational excellence, always not being satisfied with where we're at, what's, we can always be better, what are we going to focus on being better, and. And so we get our managers get together and this also goes back to trying to keep those silos out is the managers are all of all those departments we get together monthly and we kind of round table ideas from each one of our departments.

So you have outside eyes looking into sometimes where you get tunnel vision into a problem. And so that kind of helps as well. And [00:30:00] so it's fun to watch those challenges turn into opportunities when I'm just sitting back, listening to my guys figure it out.

You're going back to the speak less, listen more.

And with that also is. You've got a really good grasp on healthy conflict, which is what we need to solve problems and choose the best decision to improve a process. And with your technology, what's awesome there is, yeah we do have collaboration. We've got transparency on what every department needs, but you also have a strong understanding of what the workflow is and what's going to make your customers happy, which usually.

Companies are missing one or two of those pieces when they choose a new technology platform, and then it just creates way more headaches for them than it should have instead of making things easier. So we've covered a lot of different topics that I have absolutely loved today for our listeners that are maybe struggling on what is the, if I, if they're struggling with connecting with their team or really struggling to take this collaborative, more communicative and empathetic approach with their [00:31:00] teams.

What's really like the first step that you would suggest that they take?

explaining to the team what the why everybody. One of the things that I've struggled with over the years is thinking that somebody knows what I'm thinking. And that is, no, and it's an easy trap to fall into.

And it doesn't matter if it's something little simple or it's no, this is our trajectory. This is where I want to go. And if we don't explain that, How do we expect our team to know? And so I think that would be my number one focus point is make sure they understand the why. And there's not, there's nothing wrong to say, you know what, maybe I need to write down what my why is.

I mean, I want to go here, but why? And when you start to understand that further, It's going to help you explain that even better to your team, and they might say something when you explain that to your team, they might say some things [00:32:00] that helps you maybe change your angle just a little bit because it fits better.

And when you listen to your team and talk through that stuff, it just, it clarifies things that you didn't realize were fuzzy.

Yeah. When you can invite them into the process with you, and then you can avoid that it's lonely at the top feeling, right?

For sure. Yeah, for sure.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Bill.

I will link your LinkedIn and your company website in the show notes for our listeners. And if you heard Bill talk about, Hey, we interview for culture fit, and this is how we bring people on. And you want to understand a little bit more about that. We do have a free course right now for building your winning team to understand the best interview questions to bring on the right candidates.

We'll include that in the show notes as well. And as always, we give a shout out for the superhero that our guest scored. Bill scored a. Thunder Trooper, which is one of our higher superheroes. So big shout out there to find out what superhero you might be. Go to construction trailblazers. [00:33:00] com forward slash quiz.

That will also be linked in the show notes for you. Thanks again for joining us today and we'll see you next time.