Page 290 - Urban Construction Project Management

Meetings and Communications

13 (Someone besides me has to understand.)

COMMUNICATIONS IN AN EVER-CHANGING
ENVIRONMENT

Communication is the art of conveying to another party your thoughts, feelings, infor-
mation, and intentions through both verbal and non-verbal signals. Proper and timely
communications are essential to the success of a construction manager/general contrac-
tor (CM/GC) and to a construction project. Communications are even more challenging
while constructing a project in the urban environment, in that there are more project
stakeholders given the congestion and diversification encountered. Communications
often utilize many different media such as telephone calls, e-mails, letters, meetings,
memos, requests for information (RFI), field information memos (FIM), reports, logs,
and transmittals, each with their own unique way of conveying information.

The environment in which a corporation operates changes rapidly depending upon the
dynamics of the politics, regulations, technical issues, personnel, material and resource
availabilities, and competitive situations. Unless a company and its personnel have their
ears to the ground and are tuned in to the environment, the company will quickly find
itself behind the times and behind the eight ball. Change is a constant in life, and the
construction industry is no different in that regard. One needs to be able to understand
and manage the environment in which he or she is operating in order to manage the
change process. Change is a given, so either you must manage change or change will
manage you. In the latter scenario, you may find yourself in an unfavorable situation
and environment.

VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS

The spoken word, that is, verbal communication, articulates directly what it is we are trying
to express. Often people feel that what is said (the content) is more important than how it is
said (the delivery or the form). However, the non-verbal aspect of communication is the
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