The art of communication
ICE Attribute 8 Interpersonal Skills and Communication. Obviously an important attribute towards being an effective engineer and ultimately chartering otherwise it wouldn’t be on the list. Going through the sequencing of the infamous starburst today I hit a bump in the road with a senior site manager. I thought I would share today’s experience to see if anyone else has had similar. This is what happened…..
Having actually paid attention to John and his picture method statements, sequencing, logical bite sized chunks of a single activity to communicate a plan in its simplest form, I decided to query part of the staging breakdown for the construction of the starburst. To read you in: we had Stage 2 – installing a temporary cantilevered deck, followed by Stage 3 – craning and installing screens to the temporary platform paired with the pouring of a concrete slab – completely unrelated tasks, completed by different subcontractors, and not done concurrently. Suggesting that the screens could potentially be a separate stage in itself nearly induced a heart attack; so the suggestion that stage 2 – the installation of 4 x 2.8m deep trusses topped with secondary steel and ply decking, may require breaking down a bit further didn’t fair much better; so I steered towards grouping the installation of the deck and screens together – done by the same subcontractor, both temporary works, both require the crane – seemed logical to me. Now, the actual sequence of works was not under debate, just the sequence breakdown into stages, which is ultimately how this will be communicated. For something that will be constructed 220m in the air, cantilevering 9+m off the superstructure, I think it’s important to remove any form of ambiguity and confusion. Putting two unrelated activities by different subcontractors into the same stage, I think, treads the line of ambiguity and confusion. Especially when the two people planning this thing, will not be there to see it constructed. This is at least what I told myself when I chose to challenge the plan and was shot down– or was it just a red flag to a bull when the response which finally ended the conversation after a bit of discussion, was ‘I’ve done this for over 20 years, I know what works, and this just works’? No further explanation required/offered. I’ve got my own answer to that question.
Maybe I need to work on my communication skills!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Oh Jo, you have my sympathy, I am dealing with a similar problem. I can only offer what I did, which was call for reinforcements.
After multiple H&S issues we had a meeting with a sub-contractor who was trying to explain the improvements they were going to make in order to not be thrown off site and therefore loose all the money. We (the main contractor) didn’t really want them thrown off site either as construction of the UKPN room was critical to getting permanent power onto site which in turn was pretty critical overall.
During the meeting, in the middle of the subby PM’s grovelling, the main PM said “I want you off my site”, got up, left the room and returned with a packet of crisps. He ate the crisps and then started reading the packet and talking about the allergy information on the back of the packet. I can now tell you that you should not eat walkers salt and vinegar crisps if you are lactose intolerant. After this he discussed the weather and Newcastle’s changes of winning the Premier League – mostly with himself. Occasionally he would again thrown in that he wanted the subby gone – who would then reiterate his plan to ensure safety.
During all of this the subby sat there in shock while me and the construction manager tried desperately not to laugh. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.
After about half an hour of this the main PM stood up, agreed to the subby’s plan and left the room again. Meeting over. Very odd!
Encountered a great deal of this myself and have been frustrated by individuals’ unwillingness to examine an alternative.
Funnily enough, I was thinking about some of the “personalities” in construction the other day and came to the conclusion that the industry is possibly the last bastion of the old school style of management (I say probably as clearly elements of the military are up there too).
Ask for help…
“I am very sorry if my desire to learn from someone with extensive experience in the installation of 9m cantilevers 220m off the ground came across a challenging yesterday. I may perhaps be slower on the uptake than I would like and I am keen to understand how….”
“My limited experience of planning the execution of works has previously been guided by story boards showing each stage, knowing who has responsibility for what and how critical resources such as crane time will be allocated. I am unclear as to why…. is a better way of working in this situation and would value any help you can give that might allow me to learn.”
And don’t use the evidently sarcastic bits…
Having someone explain a barking mad plan will either 1) help them to realise it’s baking mad and so change it, 2) Allow others to realize it’s barking mad and that the originator needs their bumps read for not being big enough to face up to it and sort it out before it goes wrong, or 3) Allow someone to explain to you why it’s not mad at all. Any competent professional should be able to explain their trade, reasoning and rationale to another…
Plan B of course is to accept that you won’t be there when this moves into the going badly wrong phase and just be glad you’re not relying on it for a TMR…
Jo,
Sorry I have had too much coffee today so may not be reading this properly. Do you mean the Construction Manager wanted this all as one stage with all the multiple SCs involved as one?
I am assuming less stages means less paperwork/MS and therefore approvals – although if the Construction Manager thinks he can get two SCs to work together, then more power to him.
I would also be keen to understand if there is some kind of Inspection and Test Plan for the cantilever deck prior to the screens being installed – this might provide you with a natural break in the sequence anyway.
If you still don’t get anywhere with him I would ask…”If you’ve done this for over 20 years, what did you do for your first 50 years?”…and then make a bee line for the exit!
Chris
The actual sequencing of works will be: install deck (which is an operation in itself sand requires is own construction methodology), install screens, pour slab. The deck and screens will be by one subby and both require the tower crane, the concrete will be by another subby. These actions are all sequential not concurrent as it would be unsafe to pour the concrete without the screens being in place. The work we are doing is ensuring we have covered everything, identified the risks and the product output is going to be used to communicate the plan. My issue was you should be able to plan for a subby to do stage 3 without needing to them further qualify which part of stage 3. As you said, are they concurrent, are they sequential? A good communication plan should leave no area of ambiguity or questions open to interpretation.
Ref the ITP, no-one will have access to the platforms before the screens are installed and the deck is enclosed, with the exception of the riggers. The temporary works engineer will sign off the decks before the tradesmen then have access.
I also hadn’t realised this guy had built 9m steel cantilevered temporary decks, 220m up in the air before. No wait – he hasn’t!!
Jo,
This is a pretty alien compared to my experience on site. I always found that if I had safety concerns they were listened to. As incompetent as Carillion were they did take safety very seriously. Who has to sign off the risk assessment? Echoing Chris’ comments, what’s the benefit of not changing the plan? Any chances that there’s sadly some old fashioned sexism at play?
Rich, there are no benefits that I could see and my questions basically challenged his logic and he couldn’t answer me. The risk assessment for the decks will ultimately be done by the steel subcontractor and signed off by the site manager from Multiplex. To note though, I’m just doing the planning for this but unfortunately won’t be around to see it built. Construction of the starburst is set for June 2018. Ref the sexism part, it has been muted by others before. I also don’t think they are used to people challenging them either as everyone else just seems to ask how high, whenever they are told to jump, regardless how barking or unnecessary the task is.