Here's how you can prevent conflicts from escalating as a construction manager.
As a construction manager, you're well aware that conflicts are part and parcel of the job. However, it's how you handle these disputes that can make or break the success of your project. Effective conflict resolution is a critical skill in ensuring that minor disagreements don't escalate into major issues, potentially causing delays and increasing costs. By employing proactive strategies and maintaining open communication, you can navigate through conflicts with ease and keep your project on track.
Active listening is crucial in conflict resolution. It's more than just hearing words; it's about understanding the underlying concerns and emotions. When a conflict arises, listen attentively to all parties involved without interrupting. Acknowledge their points, clarify any misunderstandings, and validate their feelings. This shows respect for their perspective and can often defuse tension. By being an empathetic listener, you encourage a more collaborative approach to resolving disputes.
-
Muhammed Nagi
Mid-Career RE / Senior Site Architect, PMP®
-Encourage regular and transparent communication among all stakeholders, including contractors, subcontractors, workers, and clients. -Hold regular meetings to discuss progress, address concerns, and clarify expectations.
-
Chester R. Sanchez Sandino
Gerente de Proyecto de Construcción
En algún momento nos encontramos con profesionales que no logran iniciar a expresar una idea, preocupación u opinión adecuadamente, lo cual genera un desinterés inmediato para prestar atención, sin embargo en mi experiencia, con una escucha activa constante y un poco de empatía en la mayoría de los casos se logra encontrar la esencia de gran valor en el contenido escuchado, siendo este el punto clave para aportar a una resolución de conflicto o una mejora.
-
Seth Kalkman
Construction Manager / Builder | Creative, Innovative and Collaborative
Conflicts often arise specifically because someone feels like their not being heard. If a problem is to be solved the problem must first be understood. Jumping to an assumption about what someone means can also cause conflict because it may initially seem like someone is being unreasonable when really you just don't understand their meaning. Listen, ask questions and listen again.
-
Seth Hawkins
Senior Project/Program Manager | Creator of iconic places, spaces, and experiences
There are a lot of stakeholders on a construction project, and part of the job is keeping everyone informed, happy, and working productively together. Listening, so you understand their concerns, is a big key to that.
-
‘Lade Ogunlaja
UN Women UK Delegate for CSW68 | Project Manager | Civil Engineer (R.COREN) | WiC Ambassador | Girls Under Construction Ambassador👷♀️| 🏡 Exploring Innovative Living Solutions 🌱 | Sustainable Alternative Communities
Active listening is key in keeping confrontations from escalating. Pay great attention to team members' issues, displaying empathy and compassion. Acknowledge their opinions without interrupting, and clarify issues to ensure comprehension. By acknowledging their feelings and showing you actually care, you develop trust and minimize stress. Active listening helps uncover underlying issues early, enabling for quick and effective resolution before conflicts grow.
Clear communication is the cornerstone of preventing misunderstandings that can lead to conflict. Ensure that you articulate project goals, expectations, and updates in a way that is easily understood by everyone. Regular meetings and written communications can help keep all team members on the same page. When issues do arise, address them promptly and directly with the individuals involved, fostering an environment where open dialogue is welcomed and valued.
-
‘Lade Ogunlaja
UN Women UK Delegate for CSW68 | Project Manager | Civil Engineer (R.COREN) | WiC Ambassador | Girls Under Construction Ambassador👷♀️| 🏡 Exploring Innovative Living Solutions 🌱 | Sustainable Alternative Communities
Clear communication is essential for managing and preventing conflicts. Provide transparent and consistent information about project objectives, roles, and expectations. Use straightforward language and affirm understanding to avoid misunderstandings. Encourage open dialogue and ensure that all team members have the opportunity to express their viewpoints. Clear communication minimizes confusion, aligns efforts, and helps address prospective issues proactively, preventing conflicts from escalating.
-
Nicolas Oettinger
MBA MSc RED Architect
Clear and precise communication is vital to ensuring that project goals, expectations, and updates are understood by everyone involved. Regular meetings and written communications are essential tools for keeping the entire team aligned and informed. When issues arise, addressing them promptly and directly with the concerned individuals fosters an environment of open dialogue and mutual respect. By prioritizing clear communication, we can enhance collaboration, minimize errors, and ensure the successful completion of projects.
-
Mohamed Afify
Project Manager at ASTRA
As a leader you have to set a communication matrix to assure all concerned team members being updated, as you can't blame someone for ddoing something he never been informed that it was changed or canceled. keep every thing clear ... minimum conflicts will arise
-
Chester R. Sanchez Sandino
Gerente de Proyecto de Construcción
La mas eficiente que he aplicado para garantizar la comunicación clara en los proyectos es realizar la minuta de reunión, pero sobre todo lo mas importante para mi es reservar el espacio de tiempo adecuado al finalizar la reunión para leer todos los puntos de agenda, las observaciones/comentarios y los compromisos de cada uno de los integrantes con su plazo correspondiente; esto con el objetivo de confirmar todo lo expuesto y llegar a la siguiente reunión con resultados y nuevos temas.
-
Anwar Mohamed
Project Manager @ Al Rajhi | Civil Engineering Expertise
Preventing conflicts from escalating as a construction manager involves proactive communication, clear expectations, and swift resolution. Here's how you can do it: 1. Foster an environment where all parties feel comfortable expressing concerns and ideas. 2. Define roles, responsibilities, and project goals from the outset to minimize misunderstandings. 3. Schedule regular progress meetings to address any emerging issues promptly and keep everyone updated. 4. Establish formal processes for resolving conflicts, such as mediation or arbitration, to prevent disputes from escalating. 5. Keep thorough records of communications, agreements, and changes to the project scope to avoid misunderstandings later on.
Setting clear expectations from the outset can significantly reduce the potential for conflict. As a construction manager, it's your responsibility to establish project guidelines, timelines, and quality standards. Ensure that all team members understand their roles and the performance metrics by which they will be evaluated. A mutual understanding of what is expected helps prevent disputes related to job performance and project outcomes.
-
Albert Bou Fadel
CEO @SmartBarrel.io - Construction | Technology | Hardware | Inventor | Techstars Mentor
Expectations act like a benchmark - a baseline. Once expectations are set, everyone can share a common truth. From this point end, arguments, disagreements and conflict are mitigated because they come from a singular starting point. This will not resolve all problems, but will definitely avoid many unnecessary and avoidable issues.
-
Jacques Havenga
Site Project Manager at Zukra Blox
Set an expectation with the team you are working together, making sure everyone understands what the team is working towards, having a weekly meeting helps you understand where the whole team is from reaching a deadline, when you see they not going to be able to reach a deadline one can ask them what is the delay.
Fostering a strong team environment can go a long way in preventing conflicts. Encourage collaboration by involving team members in decision-making processes and recognizing their contributions. When individuals feel valued and part of a cohesive unit, they are more likely to work together harmoniously. Team-building activities and regular acknowledgment of collective achievements can strengthen bonds and reduce the likelihood of conflicts arising.
-
Seth Kalkman
Construction Manager / Builder | Creative, Innovative and Collaborative
Sometimes people just want to enjoy their day. I find that if I focus hard on completing all my work with excellence and helping others around me and then I inject a bit of enjoyment and try to make someone laugh things can improve rapidly. If its possible to turn a tough situation into something funny I think most often this can be helpful to the team's morale.
-
‘Lade Ogunlaja
UN Women UK Delegate for CSW68 | Project Manager | Civil Engineer (R.COREN) | WiC Ambassador | Girls Under Construction Ambassador👷♀️| 🏡 Exploring Innovative Living Solutions 🌱 | Sustainable Alternative Communities
Fostering collaboration helps prevent conflicts by promoting a collaborative and supportive environment. Encourage team-building activities and create opportunities for team members to work together on duties. Emphasize shared objectives and mutual respect. Recognize and celebrate collective achievements to strengthen team cohesion. By building a strong sense of unity and cooperation, you reduce the likelihood of conflicts and assure a more harmonious work atmosphere.
-
Mohamed Afify
Project Manager at ASTRA
you can feel love even no words said ... Words is not the most important when you deal with a team, let them feel and belive that there is a collaboration environment even you didn't say it. honstly to feel it is way better than to say it without really feeling it.
-
Jacques Havenga
Site Project Manager at Zukra Blox
Teamwork means being a team player helping everyone where you can and giving them advice how to better work productivity which in turn is going to reduce time spend on certain aspects of the project
Developing strong problem-solving skills is essential for de-escalating conflicts. When a dispute occurs, approach it with a solution-oriented mindset. Gather all relevant information, evaluate the situation from multiple angles, and consider various solutions. Engage the conflicting parties in finding a mutually acceptable resolution. By focusing on solving the problem rather than assigning blame, you maintain a positive atmosphere that is conducive to conflict resolution.
-
Flora Fang-Yu L.
Renewable Energy & Transportation Specialist | Founder & Chief Content Creator at EngineerWithFlora.com | Construction & Product Photography
The best way to resolve the problem is if you can gather information from different people with relevant background and expertise. Part of problem solving is to identify what the root problem is.
-
Mohamed Afify
Project Manager at ASTRA
choose the rational reasonable proffisional promlem solving team members to spread this mentality and logic ways to define the problem and solve it then cercilate lesson learned to other team members.
-
Michael Lemmon
Owner of Cowboy Log Homes and Venture Home Design
During construction projects there are always things that arise that are not planned for. That is part of the 'nature of the beast' with job sites. It is important that the supervisor who is heading up the job has strong people skills and a wide variety of experience so that they can solve issues quickly and effectively without wasting a lot of time and resources.
Embrace the concept of continuous improvement in your management practices. Reflect on past conflicts and analyze what could have been handled better. Seek feedback from your team and be open to making adjustments in your approach. By continually refining your conflict resolution strategies and management techniques, you create a dynamic work environment that evolves and adapts, reducing the frequency and intensity of conflicts over time.
-
Collin Creach
Outbuild 🏗️ Construction Scheduling & Planning Software 🔗 Former Leader at Procore & Bluebeam | ConTech SME 🔗 Growth Champion & Community Builder
As leaders it's important to highlight your own vulnerabilities so that others feel comfortable doing the same. Model the behavior. If you actually ask for feedback, and highlight an area that you felt you could have done better, people will open up and share more. This creates a snowball effect for the entire team to get better together.
-
Flora Fang-Yu L.
Renewable Energy & Transportation Specialist | Founder & Chief Content Creator at EngineerWithFlora.com | Construction & Product Photography
In practice, I think the best way to have better cross-departmental communication is to have a single contact window. This allows inter-departmental staff members to find and communicate concerns to , and it's easier to track if problems have been resolved. This works for both internally and externally in a company.
-
Mohamed Afify
Project Manager at ASTRA
the fact if you setup a proper responsibilities and communcation matrix and forced team to follow you will get minor conflicts. in construction you sholud have clear scope , coordinated drawings and memers collaboration to success.
Rate this article
More relevant reading
-
Construction ManagementHow can construction managers maintain productivity during conflicts?
-
ConstructionWhat are the most effective ways to manage conflict in construction administration services?
-
Construction ManagementWhat do you do if conflicts arise among your construction management team?
-
ConstructionYou're managing a construction project. What are the biggest misconceptions about conflict resolution?