When you are constructing your house, you will have to deal with lots of different people who are involved in your project. And to ensure that your project is successful, you will need to come up with a way of ensuring that you effectively communicate with each of them. They need to understand your goals and expectations, and you will also need to get updates from them.
The good thing is there are lots of communication methods available. You can meet online, talk over the phone, send updates via social media, or even get a meeting room for hire in Melbourne. However, that’s not enough, as communication is an art. Below are some tips to help ensure that you achieve the desired results through communication.
Identify your Stakeholders and their Communication Preferences
The first thing you need to do is identify who the stakeholders are in your project, as they vary from one to the other. First, these are the individuals or groups of people who are playing an active role in the project. They will influence the end result, so communicating with them is very important. In most small construction projects, they will be the architect, contractors, sub-contractors, the regulatory agencies, and the suppliers. They can also stretch to community members in larger projects.
From there, understand what each of them will need from you as it’s your project. You will need to relay your goals and expectations throughout the process, as well as ask for any advice. But each of them is different, so it would be good to find out their preferred mode of communication and the frequency.
Develop a Communication Plan
Since there are lots of things involved in construction, you can often talk about some and forget about other important ones. You can avoid that by coming up with a communication plan for your project. Basically, this is a document that will outline the objectives that you aim to achieve with your communication, the methods and tools to use, the strategies, and the responsibilities of both you and the various stakeholders.
In your communication plan, you can include the following aspects:
- The purpose and scope of the communication
- The communication goals and objectives
- The key messages and topics you will need communicated
- The various stakeholders along with their preferred communication means
- The channels you’ll use for the communications
- How often you should communicated
- What is expected of each party
- How feedback will be provided
Having such a plan will prove crucial in ensuring that you communicate both consistently and effectively. This plan can be effectively conveyed through a well-structured project presentation, ensuring clarity and coherence in communicating your project’s communication strategy.
Be Transparent, Clear & Concise
It’s important to ensure that your stakeholders can rely on you, and the way to do that is through transparency. Ensure that you are open and honest about the challenges you are facing during the construction or even the tough decisions you are struggling with. This is important as they will know they can always get accurate information from you and that you have no hidden agendas.
During all your communications as well as theirs, you also need to ensure that you avoid construction jargon, technical terms, or convoluted explanations, as these can easily lead to misunderstandings. Ensure that you verify that they understand all your requests and ask for clarification for any technicalities that you may not understand.
Seek Feedback and Input from Your Stakeholders
Communication is always two-way for a successful project. But while you may be active in communicating what you expect, your stakeholders may not always be. First, encourage them to share their insights about the project with you as they are the professionals in the field, after all.
Besides that, encourage them to provide consistent updates about the project or seek clarifications about your expectations whenever necessary. By doing this, you will improve collaboration and the eventual outcome of your project.
