Gathering Wisdom

About the time that Brian Catalde got involved in the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Southern California, he read a book titled The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, by James Surowiecki.

Initially, the book didn't have much of an impact on Catalde, president and COO of Paragon Communities in El Segundo, Calif., and incoming president of the 235,000-member NAHB. “When I first picked it up, I didn't really understand the overall message,” he admits.

Yet the book and the lessons it offered about teamwork stuck in Catalde's head, encouraging him to take a team-oriented approach when he served as president of the BIA of Southern California in 1995 and as president of the California BIA in 1999.

As the incoming NAHB president, Catalde is applying the lessons he learned from The Wisdom of Crowds, choosing to work with the organization's executive team to build long-term goals.

NEW APPROACH: New NAHB president Brian Catalde wants to set in motion a system of long-term goal-making for the association. “I don't want to build a legacy as president. If I do the job right, I won't be remembered, but the culture will have changed, and the organization will be a little better than it was before.”

“I've adopted the mentality that leading the NAHB is not about me,” Catalde says. “It's about giving the team the right information and encouraging them to make the right decisions for the NAHB's future.”

Catalde has been active in the Southern California home building industry for more than 30 years, founding Paragon in the early 1980s. The company, which specializes in single-family homes ranging from entry-level to luxury and builds some multifamily, grew substantially throughout the 1990s, delivering more than 3,000 homes annually.

Today, Paragon is much smaller, producing about 500 homes a year. Catalde decided to downsize the company to focus on his NAHB responsibilities. Earlier in his career, Catalde found it challenging to balance his full-time job at Paragon with his volunteer activities at local and state building associations. But he felt that the benefits of his involvement far outweighed the costs.

“Through the [NAHB], I was able to access resources and talk to other builders who offered incredible insight and knowledge,” Catalde recalls. “Their wisdom helped us save money and make money.”

With his commitment to governmental affairs, Catalde ended up serving as chairman of government affairs for the BIA of Southern California and eventually held a similar position at the state level. He joined the NAHB's Federal Governmental Affairs Committee in the late 1990s and chaired the committee in 2001.

Catalde's participation on the Federal Governmental Affairs Committee paved the way to a position on the NAHB's board of directors. He also served as a national vice president and as a member of the NAHB's political action committee, BUILD-PAC, the fifth-largest trade association PAC in the country.

After six years on the NAHB board of directors, Catalde became quite familiar with the multiple issues the organization tackled. He quickly realized that the association's goals and objectives lacked continuity from one year to the next.(see page 112)

As part of the preparation for his new role, Catalde reviewed the notes from every presidential planning meeting held over the past six years. “There was a lot of jumping around because each new president wanted to work on something different from what the outgoing president had worked on,” he says. “Working on an issue for just a year—that lack of a long-term commitment—was a problem.”

Catalde hopes to solve the NAHB's habit of moving from one issue to the next like a bee buzzing from flower to flower looking for nectar. “This is a $100 million organization, and we need to operate with a large corporate mentality,” he says. “You run a big company by sitting down with your top execs and figuring out what your long-term goals are.”

Late last year, Catalde gathered his executive team, got them to share what they hoped to focus on during their own eventual presidencies, and brought the group to a consensus on the pertinent goals. “By establishing long-term priorities, we all know what we need to do to accomplish our goals,” he explains.

PERFECT FIT: Catalde brings a wealth of experience to his role as president of the 235,000-member NAHB, having served as president of the Building Industry Association of Southern California and the California Building Industry Association.

“We all want to be something bigger than just individuals. We want to be part of a great, record-setting team,” he says, adding that great leaders, whether in business or in politics, appeal to people's desires to be part of something greater than themselves.

“If we're going to get people to believe in our vision and get them engaged, we have to genuinely care for them,” Catalde adds. “To do that, you have to make one of the more difficult investments you'll ever be asked to make. It's not a financial investment; it's an emotional connection with them.”

During his stint as president of the NAHB, Catalde is going to focus on team building and achieving common goals. To that end, he plans to encourage the NAHB's senior officers to start working on their programs now rather than waiting until they become NAHB president themselves. He hopes that this long-term vision will help the NAHB ultimately achieve much more than would otherwise be possible. Communicating better with members, encouraging member diversity, and restructuring membership levels to reach out to more prospective members have emerged as the organization's key internal priorities, he says.

Catalde hopes that his efforts will change the NAHB's culture, but he admits that implementing this kind of long-term plan requires a certain level of finesse and self-sacrifice. “To do this kind of plan, you have to give up autonomy and work together for a common goal,” he points out. “You can't get people to buy in if you're king for a day.”

Jennifer Popovec is a freelance writer based in Fort Worth, Texas.