Active Listening

Can one of the most undervalued skills in construction be costing your project millions?

Picture this: You're standing on a highway construction site at 6 AM, watching a crew prepare to pour concrete for a critical bridge foundation. The foreman approaches with what seems like a simple question about the mix specifications. He goes on to explain his question in detail but you're juggling three phone calls, reviewing updated plans, and thinking about the client meeting later. You give a quick nod and a brief response before moving on to the next crisis.

Three hours later, you discover the crew used the wrong concrete mix. The pour has to be redone. The schedule slips by two weeks. The client is furious. The budget takes a six-figure hit.

Sound familiar?

Precision matters greatly in construction. A misunderstood specification can mean the difference between a bridge that stands for decades and one that requires costly repairs within years. Safety protocols misheard can literally be a matter of life and death.

Yet despite this reality, we've somehow convinced ourselves that communication is simply about talking louder, sending more emails, or holding longer meetings. We focus obsessively on getting our message across while completely overlooking the other half of the equation: how well we can receive the messages coming our way.

There's an old saying that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. In short, we should listen twice as much as we speak.

In construction, where clear communication can make or break a project, this principle isn't just good advice. Ist's a competitive advantage.

Think about your last project meeting. How much time was spent with people talking past each other? How many "quick clarifications" led to longer debates because someone misunderstood a key point? How many change orders could have been avoided if someone had truly heard what the client was trying to communicate in the first place?

The reality is that most of us are terrible listeners. We're so busy formulating our next response, defending our position, or thinking about the next item on our agenda that we miss crucial information being shared right in front of us.

But here's the thing about listening. It's not just about hearing words. It's about understanding the meaning behind. It's about creating an environment where people feel heard and understood. It's about picking up on what's not being said as much as what is.

When a subcontractor mentions they're "managing fine" with the new safety protocols, are they really managing fine? Or are they struggling but afraid to admit it? When a client says they're "happy with progress so far," do they mean it, or are there concerns brewing beneath the surface?

The difference between hearing and truly listening can be the difference between catching these issues early and dealing with them as full-blown crises later.

When we improve our listening skills on construction projects, something remarkable happens. Trust builds faster. Collaboration becomes more natural. Problems get surfaced and solved earlier. Teams feel more aligned and engaged.

Projects run smoother not because we've eliminated problems (construction will always have challenges), but because we catch issues earlier, understand them more completely, and solve them more effectively.

The safety foreman who feels heard once is more likely to speak up about potential hazards next time as well. The project engineer who knows their concerns are understood is more likely to flag design issues before they become field problems. The client who feels heard is more likely to be flexible when inevitable changes arise.

The irony is that in an industry built on precision, measurement, and technical expertise, we often treat communication as a soft skill that we'll just ‘figure out as we go’. But what if we approached listening with the same rigor we bring to structural calculations or quality control processes?

What if we recognized that the ability to truly hear and understand others isn't just a nice-to-have interpersonal skill, but a core competency that directly impacts project outcomes?

The construction industry is evolving rapidly.

Technology is transforming how we build. Sustainability requirements are changing what we build. But at the end of the day, construction remains fundamentally a people business. And people communicate through more than just drawings, specifications, and schedules.

They communicate through tone, emotion, concerns, hopes, and fears. The question is: are we listening?

Your next project's success might not depend on having the latest equipment or the most sophisticated software. It might depend on something much simpler and much more powerful. Your ability to truly listen to the people around you.

The conversations are happening whether we're listening or not. The question is: what are we missing, and what is that costing us?

In an industry where margins are tight and schedules are demanding, we can't afford to let poor listening be the weak link that breaks our projects. The good news? Unlike many project challenges, this is one we have complete control over.

We just need to start listening.

At GLA, we know that technical expertise alone doesn’t deliver successful construction projects - relationships, trust, and proactive communication do. That’s why we advocate for construction partnering: a structured process that brings all parties to the table early and often, aligning around shared goals and surfacing potential misunderstandings before they escalate.

Active listening is one of the 21 key partnering skills defined in Caltrans’ ‘Field guide to partnering on Caltrans construction projects’ and is one of the fundamental skills we touch upon during partnering sessions to help teams succeed in their construction projects. We are currently building a library of mini courses to elevate key partnering skills across the construction industry.

If you’re ready to improve collaboration and reduce conflict on your next project, schedule a no-obligation meeting with us to explore our services.

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