Blog #7: Stop Blaming The Field - Leadership Communication Is The Real Issue

Blog #7: Stop Blaming The Field - Leadership Communication Is The Real Issue

Most field mistakes don’t begin in the field.  They begin long before the work starts - with incomplete thinking and vague communication from leadership.

A superintendent once told me: “Can you put a door to the right of the stairs. That would be great.”

Seems simple….

Until the questions begin.

Questions come to mind:

• Right when looking up from the stairs or looking down?

• Mounted under the stair stringer or on the deck face?

• What size?

• Single or double barn door?

• What trim package?

• How close to the deck edge?

• Does drainage affect placement?

• What about the existing framing?

You get the picture - vague explanations from management with expectations that their staff will execute their instructions flawlessly.  How’s that possible?  Yet, this is an everyday occurrence across construction.

Once again: a delayed project, another call back, more expense for the client, and frustration from the deck builders.

Worse yet, a festering reoccurrence that signals a communication and thinking breakdown.

As kids, we’re taught to write, covering the basics (who, what, when, where, why, how), but somewhere between elementary  school and becoming a manager, many people stop answering these basic questions before giving instructions.  They assume everyone  else sees the project exactly as they do…. in there head.

They don’t.

An old journeyman repeatedly said to me, “If you can’t thoroughly describe what you are doing or need done, you need to go back to the basics.”

So true.  I’ve never forgotten that lesson.

Key point:

Operational communication isn’t about talking more.  It’s about thinking deeper, before giving instructions.