Meta Title: The Power of Inclusion in Project Planning | OPR Best Practices
Meta Description: Discover how including diverse stakeholders in project planning improves outcomes. Learn how OPR best practices drive success in healthcare, pharma, academia, and more.
Slug: inclusive-project-planning-opr-best-practices
Focus Keyphrase: inclusive project planning
Inclusive project planning helps ensure that investments truly meet stakeholder needs. Whether solving a problem, improving quality, or boosting revenue, it's critical to define who the "customers" are and what success looks like to them.
In GMP pharmaceutical manufacturing, environmental monitoring requirements are well known. However, input from plant operators—those who maintain critical systems—can dramatically reduce errors and improve quality. Their insights ensure consistency, streamline operations, and help lower costs.
In hospitals, patients are the top priority, but many other teams—including Supply Chain, Food Services, Environmental Services, and Facilities Management—play essential roles. Their perspectives during project planning ensure a space that functions reliably and supports patient care effectively.
Technology is the backbone of modern facilities. Including IT professionals in early planning helps ensure seamless connectivity and infrastructure support across all departments from day one.
Simple design changes, like adding cleanroom coving and eliminating seams, reduce contamination risks. These ideas often come from the cleaning teams who understand daily maintenance challenges best—yet they’re rarely asked for input. Inclusion leads to smarter, more practical design.
Patients and families often have deep insight into how healthcare spaces function—or fail. Including them in design discussions, beyond just early meetings, creates better outcomes and more compassionate environments.
Student input helps shape facilities that reflect real academic needs. Involving them, along with faculty and staff, allows for more effective use of space and fewer post-occupancy complaints or redesigns.
These often-overlooked workers interact with every part of a facility. Their ideas on layout, storage, or equipment placement can significantly impact safety, efficiency, and job satisfaction. Inclusion ensures no detail is missed.
Inclusive project planning through Owner Project Requirements (OPR) empowers stakeholders, improves functionality, and builds pride in the finished space. When done right, inclusion becomes a strategic advantage—driving better outcomes, reducing rework, and boosting engagement across the board.
About the Author: Wes Pooler
Wes Pooler is Pintail Solutions’ Vice President of Facilities Services and offers more than 20 years of experience in leadership across both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. He has overseen projects over $150 million and served as Operations Section Chief during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contact:
Wes Pooler | VP of Facilities Services | [email protected] | tel: 207.660.5352
Jason Bork is the President and Founder of Pintail Solutions, a management advisory firm helping organizations drive partner growth and deploy new business strategies. He also serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, where he advances initiatives that accelerate Alzheimer’s research. With more than 20 years of corporate leadership experience across R&D, project and alliance management, and client services, Jason has led global teams of nearly 400 people and guided organizations through transformative change. A graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, he is known for his integrity-driven leadership, collaborative style, and passion for mentoring future leaders.
Pintail Solutions is a niche management advisory firm focused on enabling overall project and portfolio delivery, developing and deploying new business strategies, and delivering construction projects across life science organizations.
