How To Improve Your Communication As A Construction Project Manager

Summary

This video script offers practical advice for construction project managers to enhance communication effectiveness amidst chaos. It outlines six key steps, emphasizing personal organization, team health, diverse communication channels, and time blocking. The speaker advocates for face-to-face interactions, meetings, and quick digital communication like texts and WhatsApp, while cautioning against email overuse. The goal is to streamline communication, prevent emergencies, and create a well-planned, efficient workflow.

Takeaways

• 😀 **Embrace Chaos**: As a construction project manager, you're likely juggling multiple projects, which can create a chaotic work environment.
• 📝 **Clarity and Organization**: Personal organization is crucial, including maintaining a disciplined to-do list and using tools like the Leader Standard Work.
• 🗓 **Time Blocking**: Implement time blocking to manage your days effectively, even amidst the chaos of multiple projects.
• 👥 **Team Balance and Health**: Ensure team coverage for projects, with a clear schedule and awareness of who's on PTO to prevent overburdening.
• 🚫 **Limit Email Dependency**: Avoid becoming overly reliant on email, which can lead to wasted time and reduced productivity.
• 🗣️ **Prioritize Face-to-Face Communication**: Engage in one-on-one interactions and meetings for more effective communication.
• 📞 **Utilize Various Communication Channels**: Use a mix of communication methods including phone calls, texts, and apps like WhatsApp for diverse and efficient communication.
• 🔍 **Be Open to Communication**: Be receptive to new communication channels and avoid defaulting to email for all correspondence.
• 🔄 **Streamline Communication**: Create a natural flow in your communication process, ensuring a logical sequence from long-term to day-to-day planning.
• 📈 **Sequence and Adjust**: Organize communication in a way that creates the most flow and adjust as necessary to find what works best.
• 👀 **Make Communication Visual**: Use visual aids in meetings and communication to enhance understanding and retention.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video script provided?

The main focus of the video script is to provide strategies for construction project managers to improve their communication skills and systems in order to handle the complexity and chaos of managing multiple projects.

Why is it suggested that project managers should not be responsible for more than three projects at a time?

It is suggested that project managers should not handle more than three projects at once because managing multiple projects can be overwhelming and may lead to inefficiencies and reduced effectiveness in communication and management.

What are the six steps mentioned in the script to increase the effectiveness of communication for a project manager?

The script does not explicitly list the six steps but implies steps such as personal organization, team balance and health, utilizing various communication channels, and time blocking as part of the process to improve communication.

How does the script suggest streamlining communication through subscribing to a channel?

The script uses subscribing to a channel as an example of frictionless communication, where updates are automatically received without the need for the subscriber to remember to check for updates, thus improving communication efficiency.

What is the importance of having a personal organization system according to the script?

A personal organization system is crucial as it helps project managers to have clarity in their chaotic life, keep track of tasks, maintain discipline, and manage time effectively, which in turn improves communication and overall project management.

What does the script suggest about the use of email in communication?

The script suggests that while email can be useful, it can also become addictive and time-consuming if overused. It advises project managers to use email sparingly and to explore other communication channels that are more efficient and less time-consuming.

What alternative communication channels are recommended in the script besides email?

The script recommends various communication channels including one-on-one engagement, meetings, huddles, briefings, virtual meetings with cameras on, phone calls, texts, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams, as more efficient alternatives to email.

Why is time blocking suggested as an important strategy for project managers?

Time blocking is suggested as an important strategy because it allows project managers to create a structured schedule, ensuring that they allocate specific time for different tasks and projects, which can help in managing the chaos and improving communication.

What is the significance of having a coverage calendar for project teams as mentioned in the script?

A coverage calendar is significant as it ensures that there is always someone supervising the work, maintaining safety, and attending to the needs of the projects. It prevents emergencies by ensuring proper planning and coverage, thus improving communication and team efficiency.

How does the script emphasize the importance of communication in project management?

The script emphasizes the importance of communication by stating that all breakdowns in business come down to communication. It suggests that designing effective communication systems is a priority for project managers to ensure success in their roles.

Outlines

00:00

🚧 Enhancing Communication for Construction Project Managers

This paragraph emphasizes the importance of effective communication for construction project managers, who often juggle multiple projects amidst chaos. The speaker introduces six steps to improve communication and four elements that make these steps successful. An example of streamlining communication is given, such as subscribing to a channel for automatic updates. The focus is on personal organization, maintaining a disciplined to-do list, establishing Leader Standard Work, and time blocking days. The speaker also suggests embracing time blocking despite the perceived chaos, as it can significantly improve communication and overall project management.

05:01

🔄 Streamlining Team Communication and Organization

The second paragraph delves into team balance and health, highlighting the necessity of a covered schedule and coverage for project sites to prevent overburdening. The speaker advises having a visible calendar for team schedules and PTO, ensuring everyone is aware of their responsibilities and coverage. This transparency prevents emergencies and fosters a dynamic team environment. The paragraph also touches on the importance of open communication channels beyond emails, advocating for face-to-face interactions, meetings, huddles, and briefings as more effective means of communication.

10:03

📱 Diversifying Communication Channels for Efficiency

In this paragraph, the speaker discusses the over-reliance on emails and the need to diversify communication channels for efficiency. They suggest using virtual meetings with cameras on, phone calls for quick resolutions, texts for brief messages, and WhatsApp for versatile communication needs. The paragraph also mentions the utility of Microsoft Teams for in-house messaging and virtual collaboration. The speaker advises against defaulting to emails and instead encourages leveraging various communication tools to reduce response times and workload.

Keywords

💡Communication

Communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, or messages in speech, signals, writing, or behavior. In the context of the video, it is the central theme as it discusses how construction project managers can improve this skill to manage their complex lives and multiple projects more effectively. The script mentions various methods to enhance communication, such as face-to-face interactions, meetings, and phone calls.

💡Project Manager

A project manager is a professional responsible for the coordination and completion of a project from its initiation to the closing phase. The video emphasizes the challenges faced by project managers in handling multiple projects simultaneously and suggests ways to streamline communication to improve their efficiency. The role is portrayed as chaotic, necessitating effective communication strategies.

💡Personal Organization

Personal organization refers to the ability to manage one's own tasks, time, and resources efficiently. The script highlights the importance of personal organization for project managers, recommending tools like planners and time blocking to maintain clarity and control over their responsibilities.

💡Time Blocking

Time blocking is a time management technique where a calendar is used to schedule tasks, meetings, and other activities during specific time slots. The video encourages project managers to embrace time blocking to manage their chaotic lives, giving the example of scheduling daily tasks and meetings to create a more structured workweek.

💡Team Balance and Health

Team balance and health refer to maintaining a harmonious and productive team environment. The script discusses the importance of having a coverage calendar for team members to ensure that projects are always supervised and that no one is overburdened, contributing to the overall health and balance of the team.

💡Leadership Standard Work

Leadership Standard Work is a concept where leaders establish routines and practices to guide their daily activities and interactions with the team. The video mentions this as a key component of personal organization for project managers, suggesting it as a systematic approach to lead and manage teams effectively.

💡Communication Channels

Communication channels refer to the various methods and tools used to convey information within a team or organization. The script explores different channels such as one-on-one engagement, meetings, virtual meetings, phone calls, texts, and apps like WhatsApp, emphasizing the need to diversify communication methods to avoid reliance on email.

💡Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are online gatherings where participants communicate and collaborate using video conferencing tools. The video stresses the importance of virtual meetings with cameras on for effective communication, as they allow team members to see body language and engage actively in discussions.

💡One-Piece Flow

One-piece flow is a lean manufacturing concept where work is produced at a steady pace, one piece at a time, to reduce waste and increase efficiency. The video applies this concept to communication, suggesting that project managers should aim for a smooth, continuous flow of information and tasks to improve workflow.

💡Consolidation

Consolidation in the context of the video refers to the process of bringing together various communication methods, tools, and social groups into a cohesive system. It is suggested as a strategy for project managers to streamline their communication, making it more efficient and less chaotic.

💡Frictionless Communication

Frictionless communication is the idea of making the exchange of information as smooth and effortless as possible. The script encourages finding tools and methods that facilitate easy communication, like texting or using apps, to reduce the time and effort spent on exchanging messages.

💡Scaling Communication

Scaling communication means expanding the reach and effectiveness of communication within an organization. The video emphasizes that leaders must scale communication to ensure that all team members are informed and engaged, which is crucial for the success of projects and the team.

Highlights

The video discusses improving communication for construction project managers amidst their complex and chaotic lives.

Project managers often juggle more projects than recommended, leading to the need for enhanced communication strategies.

Six steps are presented to increase communication effectiveness, along with four elements that make these steps successful.

The importance of subscribing to communication channels for streamlined and frictionless updates is emphasized.

Personal organization planners are recommended for project managers to achieve clarity and discipline in their tasks.

The concept of time blocking is introduced as a method to manage a chaotic schedule effectively.

Team balance and health are crucial, with the need for a covered schedule and clear communication of PTO and coverage needs.

The coverage calendar should be visible and accessible to all team members to prevent emergencies and ensure preparedness.

The speaker discourages over-reliance on email, suggesting it can create an addictive cycle and waste time.

Various communication channels such as one-on-one engagement, meetings, virtual meetings, phone calls, texts, and WhatsApp are suggested.

The importance of using cameras in virtual meetings for better engagement and understanding of body language is highlighted.

Phone calls are recommended for time efficiency and avoiding lengthy email exchanges.

Texting and WhatsApp are praised for their quick and efficient communication capabilities.

Microsoft Teams is presented as a versatile tool for internal communication, with features like chat, virtual meetings, and whiteboarding.

Emails should be used sparingly and only when necessary, to avoid slowing down communication response times.

The need for a natural flow in communication is stressed, with long-term planning feeding into weekly and daily tasks.

Time blocking for superintendents and projects is suggested to streamline communication and interactions.

The video concludes with the statement that all business breakdowns come down to communication, making it a top priority for project managers.

Transcripts

How to Improve your communications  as a construction project manager.  

Really, what we're going to talk about in this  video is how to make communications work for you

and I do want to say you have a complex life,  just by virtue of being a project manager, like  

your life is chaos, right? I did a previous video,  but how many projects is responsible for somebody  

to ask you to run, it ain't never more than three,  and it's probably you should just run one. You're  

probably running 4, 5, 6, 7 projects. I feel for you. We  have got to improve the communication channels,  

so that you can win in this environment. I love  you. We're going to cover these in this video  

right now. So what are the six steps that you  can use to increase the effectiveness of your  

communication? Now, what are the four things that  make those steps work? We're going to cover that  

now. Let's go. So before I begin, let me give  you a good example of streamlining communication.  

First and foremost, like subscribing to  this channel, you'll automatically get  

that communication. frictionless don't have to  remember, boom, like right now, we're already  

improving our communication. So let's get  into the real steps for how you can improve  

it in your role. We at Elevate Construction have  made personal organization planners for project  

managers and project engineers. I will link it  to you in the description below. But you must  

have clarity on your life, number one. Number two  keep it to do list in a disciplined way all out  

of your head. Number three, have Leader Standard  Work and number four time block your days. Yes,  

I said time block, you're probably thinking to  yourself, my life is chaotic, I can't do it. Yes,  

you can. That's just the thought we can get a  better one. So here's what I want you to do.  

Really embrace the concept of time blocking your  days, even though you have a lot to time block, it  

can be done. I'll explain it in a minute. Number  two, team balance and health. This is what you're  

going to want to do with that process. First of  all, for your team or your teams, God forbid,  

you should have a covered schedule and cover  in your weekly team meetings, PTO and needs for  

coverage for your project site. So that you know  there's always someone supervising the work with a  

safety presence in the field, and always attending  to the needs of the projects that you have. That's  

number one, it will keep your team and you from  overburdened. As a part of that, I expect to see  

that coverage calendar either on the wall in  your conference rooms, or in your online systems.  

However you managed those multiple projects,  and everyone on your project should know who's  

covering what the key activities are, who's on PTO,  so that you're never stuck in an emergency having  

to cover for someone because it wasn't planned.  This will enable you as the project manager to  

have that level of communication that will prevent  emergencies and like I said in previous videos,  

please create that culture at work and at home.  And make sure that everyone is where they're  

supposed to be as that dynamic team. Step number  three, right once you have a personal organization  

system, and that is aligned with the needs of the  team, and there's proper coverage. I'm asking you  

to be open to more communication channels. Let me  say like this, you are not a professional email,  

answer. I love email. Here's what email does.  You write it and you're like, oh, I wrote a  

little book. That's awesome. Your brain releases  dopamine. Now you formed an addictive habit cycle,  

you send another email, you're like, Oh, I feel  so good. I love that. Oh, pretty. All you do  

another one. You're like, Oh, I love my signature.  So beautiful. I feel so important. I'm so cool. I  

love me. Some me like that's what you're thinking,  right? You keep sending email after email after  

email. And it's like, you're just doing drugs over  here and like your pharmacy in your brain is just  

reducing chemicals that create this addictive  cycle. And pretty soon all day is just emails,  

emails, emails, emails, and you're wasting at  least two to four hours every day. Stop it. I've  

got a two word sermon for you on this deal. Stop  it, like just don't do it anymore. Like we're done  

no more emails unless you absolutely need it.  I want you to use all of these different types  

of communication, devices and channels. Number  one, one to one engagement. I know most of us  

in these new generations are like, Oh, I don't  want to talk to somebody. I'll text them or do  

something behind a closed door, turn my camera off  in a Zoom meeting. But honestly, face to face in  

proximity in office interactions are probably your  most effective. Number two meetings, huddles and  

briefings. Meetings don't suck, sucky meetings  Suck like meetings, hug. huddles and briefings  

are amazing, right. That is probably one of our  best forms of communication. If you learn how to  

run remarkable meetings, you're going to be set  there's a book called Death By Meeting on that by  

the way. And so I do want to suggest your second  option for really good stuff. AOL communication  

is meetings, huddles, and briefings. Number  three virtual meetings. If you're not there,  

fine. Just get on Zoom get on teams. But I do  want to say, for all of you, internet, no, no,  

I'm not gonna say that. No, no, no. You don't  have got sick, turn your camera on, you don't-

I'm talking about talking to you turn your camera  on. This is a meeting for crying out loud. Like,  

we need to see your face. When you see your body  language. We need you to weigh in, we need your  

input. Do not be looking at like vacation ads or  scheduling your next cruise or like looking at  

inappropriate images on the other end of the  computer, like pay attention to the meeting,  

please. So number three virtual meetings as  long as everybody has their camera on. And  

they're paying attention number four phone calls,  right? I hate phone calls just as much as anybody  

but they're effective and they don't waste time.  Right? If you need to pick up the phone, right?  

Have you ever seen the email back and forth? Hey,  should we do this? No. Let's pick that date. No,  

let's go back for it. No, thank you. No, actually,  let me tell you like after 15 emails, I should  

probably just pick up the phone and call somebody.  So always consider phone calls. Number five, texts.  

I love text. Hey, I can text faster than my  kids. I grew up with cell phones. Like you can  

send somebody a text, right? Communication. You  don't need to throw it in that email. You don't  

need to write that like quarter of a book, right?  You're Not You don't need to see your signature.  

You're okay waiting another day. Send a quick  text for some communication is fantastic six,  

probably my favorite app of all time. WhatsApp  love it, you can do videos, you can do voice to  

text, you can do polls, you can send images. I  love me some WhatsApp, right. So if you have the  

fight between the iPhones and the androids of the  world, and the text chats aren't working, you need  

to do a group chat WhatsApp, it's amazing. By the  way, if you were gonna put Androids and iPhones,  

well, I want to I don't want to make half of you  met. But you know, it's when we when Finn actually  

regardless of whether you're using an iPhone or an  Android, you can use both to hit subscribe on the  

channel. And I know you want to. So go ahead and  do that right now. We're already practicing with  

technology. It's amazing. All right, let's keep  going. Microsoft Teams, I love me some Microsoft  

Teams, you can use the chat function, you can keep  your messages in house, you can use the virtual  

meeting function, you can use the whiteboard  amazing tool, right? And then we cut there's  

probably more but then we come down to emails.  I'm telling you, if you wouldn't send a letter  

to the person, why are you sending an email,  right? Consider all of the other options first,  

because emails, especially if you become victim  to them, can really, really do some damage. Now,  

I didn't say get rid of them all together.  If you need to send that transmittal crate,  

if you want to put that trade partner I noticed  great, you want to do a mass notification. Great,  

I love it. But just use them sparingly because if  you do everything default by email, you've taken  

your response time and automatically shifted it  from a possible real time to a 2448 hour response  

time and you're bashing work. And that's all  you're doing now and it takes extra time. And  

you have to like write the email, check the email,  proof the email, send the email, read the email,  

decipher the email, interpret the email, like  it's just like it literally takes three to four  

times the amount of work that it would to just  make a phone call or send a text. So use all  

the different communication channels that are  available to you. That is a key step for you as  

a PM. And then number four, we'll close this out  strong. Once you know that you have your personal  

organization system, you have good coverage people  are present on the team. You have good proximity  

good communication channels, put everything in  sequence, right. So what I mean by that is there  

should be a natural flow. If I'm talking about  the last planner system, for instance, I want my  

long term planning to filter into my weekly work  planning to filter into my day planning to then  

filter into talking to their crews to then filter  to the team and then to create a repeating cycle,  

right. So as a project manager, you probably have  multiple superintendents spread out all over the  

place, you probably have multiple projects,  you have owners calling you all the time,  

I would 100% say, hey, time block all Supers.  We're doing it from eight to nine every morning,  

right? We're going to time block that in, right.  And so I'm going to have communication channels  

that fit that time blocking, and then I'm  going to say hey, Project One is on Monday,  

project two is on Tuesday, Wednesday, project  three is on Thursday and Friday. And I'm going  

to start to streamline and put these meetings and  interactions in the order in which it will create  

the most flow. So get your communication channels,  use the tools, make sure that you're creating the  

right social groups, put them in the right time  blocking and put them in the right sequence and  

then find what works and adjust from there. But I  promise you the key things you're going to want to  

do is you're going to want to get working in one  piece flow, consolidate proximity communication  

channels and social groups. Make sure that's time  blocked, focus on one thing at a time and really  

streamline your chaotic world into a fairly well  planned out week. And so I hope this helps. I'll  

close by saying that there are some other things  that you can do. Really leverage your weekly team  

meeting with your teams, make everything visual.  It's either on a mural board a mural board,  

it's on your whiteboard on teams, it's on  whiteboards in the offices, it's up on visuals,  

make every bit of your communication, visual.  Also make your communication frictionless. If you  

have to, like type multiple things, and multiple  locations, and it slows you down, and it's like,  

I don't like using this, that's probably not the  communication channel for you. Why do people use  

email? It's pretty frictionless, right? So find  other communication tools and technology that  

are pretty frictionless and remember with  communication, you may need to say it seven  

times. So say it, ask what's been said, make them  confirm it, or ask them to confirm it. And repeat  

when necessary. As a leader, it is your job to  scale communication. Remember, true leaders build  

the team, they have the hard conversations, they  manage coach and mentor direct reports. They hold  

remarkable meetings, and they scale communication.  And so you can't scale communication unless you  

have the right communication channels. So we  will provide an audit form in the description  

below that will help you to analyze how well are  my communication systems working for me and some  

options of some things that you can use. But as  a project manager, it's not enough to know, you  

must be able to get people to do and in order for  people to do it comes down to communication. I'll  

close by saying I want to talk to an international  lean expert. And he said Jason, all breakdowns  

in every business I've ever seen, come down  to communication and so designing effective  

communication systems is one of the first  priorities for you and your success. On we go.