When it comes to managing construction, you will have to work with a lot of clients, crews, trade partners, and subcontractors. It is critical to know when and how to speak to people in order to convey thoughts and instructions clearly and help avoid misunderstandings. The construction industry involves a million moving parts, so teams must know how to talk clearly about their work. When things go wrong, you can be prepared to work together to create new ideas on how to solve them.
It may seem easier than done since we communicate with people daily. But it takes time and work to form good speaking habits. In this article, let us learn the importance of communication and a few tips on how you can communicate and collaborate closely with your team.
What Does Good Communication Look Like?
Good communication means that you are able to effectively convey your message in a way that is understood as clearly as possible. When people share their ideas, thoughts, views, knowledge, and information, the other party must be able to understand it concisely and transparently.
Learning how to communicate well is more than just speaking clearly. It means finding the right mix between active listening, talking, body language, nonverbal cues, and emotional intelligence. It also requires good listening skills and a deep knowledge of how people interact with each other. By using these skills, people can close communication gaps, make intelligent choices, and strengthen relationships.
What Is Workplace Conversation?
Any conversation about work is called workplace conversation. This may include discussing individual or group tasks, project delivery updates, or giving feedback to managers or employees. For teams to work together well, you must know how to speak to others. If you cannot talk clearly, you might not understand each other, cause confusion, or even hurt someone’s feelings without meaning to.
In today’s digital world, teams can now talk to each other at work in person, in writing, or online through social media, videoconferencing, or group meetings. This communication can also happen in real time or asynchronously. Asynchronous communication occurs when you talk about work via email, recorded video, or a site using construction management software.
Why Is Communication So Vital In Construction?
The construction business is challenging to understand and risky. Even the slightest miscommunication on a building site can cause substantial cost and time overruns and terrible accidents. It is critical to build solid relationships with your team and communicate efficiently and effectively. Without it, there could be misunderstandings, mistakes, and delays in projects, which raise costs and make parties unhappy. Let us look at the benefits of good communication.
Fewer Mistakes
As mentioned earlier, even minor misunderstandings about design details, choosing materials, or schedules can lead to costly mistakes. It is one of the general contractor or project manager’s critical responsibilities to ensure everything is going according to plan. Consistent communication is the key to ensuring everyone is on the same page with the same updated information.
Job Safety
A construction site is dangerous because of all the heavy equipment and busy people. Part of the project operations should include safety training, rules, and regulations that should be communicated with the team. Clear signs, regular safety training, and open lines of communication for reporting possible dangers are essential to prevent accidents.
Project Progress
A team that knows what exactly is going on in the project can plan for problems and quickly adjust to changes. Regularly communicating project goals, delays, and changes can reduce confusion and improve project flow.
Customer Satisfaction
Clients want to know the truth. Giving them regular updates, straightforward accounts of problems, and a way to ask questions builds trust and lets them ultimately get what they want.
Team Spirit
Keeping everyone on the team updated builds safety, a sense of belonging, and drive. Communication helps people from different levels of authority and skills work together as a team.
Goal And Expectations Setting
Clear communication helps partners set realistic goals by letting everyone know what’s possible within the limits of time, money, and resources.
How to Make Conversations Work?
Now that you know what kind of conversations happen at work and their importance, how do you start getting better at them? While you can use the same basic rules for good conversation, it does not hurt to incorporate a few strategies to ensure proper communication. In this section, let us look at some ways you can do this.
Know Where To Talk
There are many different ways to talk to someone, such as in person, via email, instant messaging, and project management apps. Your company may use various communication tools. This makes it even more important to know which tool to use.
Which tool should you use for your comment or question? Does everyone need to talk simultaneously, or is it okay to send a message at a different time?
Learn How To Collaborate
Collaboration is the key to working well as a team. To be good at working together, you must practice being open and honest with your team. It is okay to sometimes agree on everything. Being able to disagree and work through your differences is also an essential part of working together.
Try to Talk In Person If You Can
Talking to someone in person is the best way to make sure you understand them. If your team is spread out, you can also talk to each other through videoconferencing. If you know the talk will be tough, look the other person in the eye. It can be hard to write with the right tone, so you want your team members to be able to see your body language and facial expressions.
Attempt To Be Precise
Be clear and to the point when you talk to people, whether you are writing an email, communicating via software, or responding on the spot.
Avoid and Fix Conflicts
No matter our industry, we often have to work together to solve problems and complete projects or jobs at work. In the workplace, good communication can mean pointing out issues, finding solutions, or giving feedback.
Pay Attention to Body Language
Not only what you say but also how you say it is essential for communication. Ensure your arms are not crossed and you don’t seem rude. Your body language might not always be related to what is going on. Sometimes, you may be tired or stressed out about something in your personal life.
Ensure A Two-Way Conversation
When you are at work, you must be able to talk and listen simultaneously. As a collaborative team member, you should listen to other people’s thoughts and your own. People often listen to answer questions or to understand what is being said. When you listen to react, you pay attention to what you want to say next instead of what the other person is saying.
Stick To Facts
We all make stories based on facts, so stories will always be around. But try to tell the difference between stories and facts, and act on stories when you can prove them. In this case, you could ask your boss during your next one-on-one meeting why they gave you feedback in a team meeting.
Talk To The Right Person
What you say is only half of good communication at work. Who you talk to is also very important. You probably need to communicate better when you speak to the wrong people or try to share knowledge in the wrong place. To avoid this, make sure the right people are in the room or getting the news. If you need to know who that person is, do an activity to find any critical project partners who might be missing.
Solve Any Underlying Issues
Before you work on improving how your team talks to each other, ensure no deeper problems stop people from being honest. Empower your employees to speak freely so they can share valuable insights and provide feedback.
As a leader, one of the most important things you can do is ensure your workers feel like they can be themselves at work or bring as much of themselves as they want to.
Ask For Feedback
You might never get feedback on how you talk to people if you do not ask for it. Team members might think of conversation as something other than something to give feedback on right away, even though it affects everything else they do at work. By asking your workers what they think about how you talk to them, you can keep improving and develop clear communication strategies for your team.
Get To Know Your Team
To improve your speaking skills, you need to get to know your team. Setting aside time to get to know your team outside of work is especially important. Icebreaker questions can make every meeting more fun and personal, so before you start going over your meeting schedule, you should start with a light chat.
Set The Mood
Remember that how you talk to each other and work together will affect the whole team. You are in charge of making sure everyone can speak to each other freely and clearly at work. Once you set this standard, your team will follow it.
