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So you’re just about to start your next Building Project or you’ve just come to the end of one and you’re thinking to yourself, “Why did that not go as smoothly as I thought it would?”
You know we have a lot of tools at our disposal when it comes to Building Projects in the Residential, Commercial and Mining Sectors, and most of our frustrations, headaches, minor problems can all be put down to the failure of one important tool. And that tool is …. Communication.
G’day, I’m Mitch from Next Gen Building and over the coming weeks we’re going to be recording some videos about the importance of Communication and how to effectively use it.
So let’s talk about Communication for a sec. When it’s done well, it makes your Project run really smoothly, efficiently, everything’s got a great outcome to it. It’s just an overall great experience, but when Communication is done poorly, it can really throw your Project off the rails, create negative attitudes, and in some cases, unfortunately can create irreversible ramifications.
So a horrible fact is, that poor Communication, is at the basis of a lot of litigation cases in the Residential Building Industry and if the People involved had just communicated even just a little more a lot of those cases probably would’ve never needed to be put in front of the Courts. So be careful to not let your next Building Project become one of these statistics.
Communication is a really crucial tool and getting it right involves putting all of these different pieces of the puzzle together and it’s critical that Everyone, from the Apprentice all the way up to the CEO and Everyone in between share the same picture or the same vision as you do.
So for the next couple of minutes I’m just going to take you through some ideas and different elements of Communication that you can use in your Project, to ensure that it comes out the way you want it to and avoids any unnecessary headaches or trip hazards on the way.
Whether you’re the main Project Manager on Site, or you’re an Owner Builder trying to do some work in house to save a bit of money. It’s pretty obvious that at some point you’re going to have to get together some Team Members to assist you with your Project.
Choosing the right Team Members can be key to having a smooth running Project if you choose them well, it can also set you up to have great Communication right from the get go.
Have you ever felt misunderstood, or the person you’re trying to talk to is just not listening - It can be super frustrating.
A way to avoid this is when we're choosing Team Members to work along side us in our Project we look for Individuals or Companies that are willing to work with us, and not against us.
Also, don’t forget that your Team Members aren’t isolated to your Direct Employees or your Direct Staff - It can extend out to your Sub-Contractors, or even your Sub-Contractor’s Sub-Contractors
If you can find some People or Companies to work along side of, that share the same vision that you have, then that can really go a long way to avoiding a lot of unnecessary headaches that just don’t need to be there and it can really accelerate the process of getting to your desired outcome a lot more smoothly and efficiently - a bit of a bonus on the side is, that you’ll probably have a bit of fun along the way because you’ll be working along side people that are really fun to be around.
Your Team Members regardless of who they are whether they’re Employee’s or Sub-Contractors or whatever, need to have some clear guidelines as to what your expectations are as far as Communication is concerned.
So, whether they are allowed to make decisions themselves and then just involve you to let you know the outcome or whether you want to be involved with all the critical decisions, however you do it, it’s ultimately up to you, but you just need to set a clear precedence right from the get go.
To sum up, the quality of your Team and the choices that you make when choosing your Team Members can have a really big effect on the outcome of your Project.
If you do this process well, your Project can run really smoothly and efficiently, and when we’re choosing our Team Members don’t forget that you want to be choosing people that’ll share your vision, that want to work with you and not against you, and they really want the same outcome that you do.
Effective Communication is the KEY to an effective Project.
If you’d like some more information on this topic of Communication or anything that we’ve discussed so far, drop a comment below, and I’ll try and get back to Everyone, but if you’ve got any questions, throw them in there and I’ll be trying my best to get back to Everyone.
If we get enough questions on the same theme, I’ll just do another video on that as well, if not, hang tight, look out for the next video in the series.
Don’t forget to like, comment or subscribe depending on what platform you’re on, and we’ll see you next time.
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