Construction project management is one of the most important aspects that upper-level managers face daily. From setting up the project to completion, they have to monitor every activity with utmost care. However, despite their efforts, there are scenarios where things go wrong.
Most importantly, for any project manager, is how they solve problems when faced with them? It’s important because it shows your ability to handle pressure and deliver results while keeping stakeholders’ interests at heart. Thus, successful Construction Project Managers know how to handle challenges and arrive at solutions. If you want to start your Medical fitouts and Healthcare fitouts projects with fewer problems, avoid these top 10 lessons learned from challenging construction projects:
1. KEEP YOUR TEAM MOTIVATED
The success of challenging projects depends largely on the attitude and motivation you as a manager must provide to the team members. Always remain positive and give well-deserved credit when due, which will motivate them to continue working hard.
See that they have all the resources to help complete the project smoothly. Have a short, productive meeting where you highlight areas where improvements can be made, and discuss different concerns with a cross-functional group before a problem escalates.
2. COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY
These three functions go hand in hand, as without one of these tasks, it would be difficult to complete the other project tasks.
Firstly, you have to timeously communicate regularly with all project stakeholders and end-users to get their requirements and expectations on the project updated regularly.
Secondly, monitor the progress of the construction project by regularly checking status.
Finally, hand over responsibility for resolving issues from one team member to another as they arise, rather than dealing with them yourself, which will keep your focus on completing the rest of the construction project activities, as well as preventing over-reliance on any one person in the team. Priority issues are based not only on urgency, but also on the potential impact of an issue.
3. BE OPEN & HONEST
One important aspect of challenging projects is that when things are not working out, it’s valuable to be open and honest with the team members involved. They are likely to better understand what is causing issues, rather than hide behind pretences, and this will make them more open to finding ways to resolve the problems together.
Let them know that you will be available if they have any questions. Be clear about the methodology used to resolve any issues, and how it is related to your overall plan for completing the project within time and budget.
4. NO SURPRISES
It is important to be transparent about the status of the project at all times, so that you can avoid unpleasant surprises down the road. This will give your customers an excuse to take their business elsewhere, or make you look bad in front of upper-level management who may think you haven’t been doing your job properly.
Ensure senior-level executives are kept informed, ideally every week, and that they understand the current project issues. If you think there is a risk of upper-level project management not believing your status reports, you will need to explain what the risks are to your project and how they will be handled.
5. MONITOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
This step should come before any issues arise, because by taking time to get valuable feedback from end-users, you can identify risks ahead of time and resolve them before they become major obstacles. If you have a poor track record in this regard, it will be difficult to convince your customers that you know what you are doing.
Also, you need to have the authority to resolve an issue if it arises, which you will not have if you did not involve them in decision-making initially.
6. EMBRACE CHANGE
The best way to do this is to work closely with business unit managers, who are responsible for implementing the solution once it’s delivered, so that you have a good understanding of their needs. This knowledge can help minimise or eliminate any changes requested, which could cause headaches down the road.
There are fewer things that can go wrong if your team knows all aspects of what is required upfront. Perform regular “lessons learned” sessions, where everyone gets together after projects have been completed to share how they were managed successfully or otherwise, gather feedback on what worked well and didn’t work so well, and capture lessons learned from the project for future reference.
Finally, expanding the use of lessons learned, and asking for help if you feel stuck with any issues, because smarter people than you may come up with a creative solution.
7. FOCUS ON QUALITY OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
One tip is not to start working on a new phase or activity until the previous one has been successfully completed. This will help you maintain a high level of quality throughout the entire life cycle of the project, which in turn will help minimise any delays & issues that could pop up later in the life cycle.
This would cost more money and time down the road, plus damage your reputation with customers if they feel your team can’t deliver what was promised promptly and within budget.
It is especially important to be clear about the assumptions made during planning, and whether they will lead to issues later on. This will help you come up with a plan B if it turns out that not as much training is needed as originally anticipated.
8. ENSURE PROPER RESOURCES AVAILABILITY WHEN NEEDED
It is important to schedule resources without underestimate how much effort each member of your team will require effectively. This can be done by taking time to properly plan each phase or activity of the project, which will ensure you have no waiting around waiting for resources to become available when you need them.
If, for example, one of the team members is overloaded and has too much work to complete in a reasonable amount of time, it may be beneficial to ask for help from an outside consultant with the skills and experience. This will also lead to a better end result.
9. STAY CALM & FOCUSED
It’s easy to get frustrated if your team is not able to meet deadlines because they spend too much time on one activity at the expense of something else due to lack of planning, but that isn’t going to help resolve an issue faster or prevent it from happening again.
Try your best not to show any frustration with your team members until you have discussed the problem privately, so as not to sabotage the morale of your entire team, which will only worsen things in the long run. Give positive feedback when needed, especially when problems are resolved quickly, to motivate the team and keep them engaged.
10. DON’T GET BOGGED DOWN IN THE DETAILS
This point goes hand-in-hand with number nine above, because if you are trying to do everything yourself, it will take up a lot of your time and likely make you grumpy, which will rub off on other members of your team.
Allow them to contribute ideas even if they haven’t experienced problems from the customer’s perspective, and take advantage of their expertise when available. Allow your project team to make mistakes once in a while, which is the only way they will learn.
You probably heard the saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” While this may be true in certain situations, trying to do everything yourself leads to a lot of frustration, missed deadlines, and problems that could have been avoided if you had allowed others to contribute.
That being said, don’t fall into the trap of consistently asking people to do work for you if they’ve already offered, because it appears you don’t trust them to complete the task at hand.
You Will Encounter Problems During The Process Of Making
Whenever a construction project starts, problems occur, and nothing goes wrong. Hence, the Project Manager must be ready to deal with many obstacles simultaneously. a project plan, you should not expect everything to go as planned right from the beginning, because it is only natural that there will be problems along the way. Doing your best to minimise these problems at the start of a project will result in an easier time later, but there are always some that pop up unexpectedly no matter how much you plan ahead.
It’s best to plan for different scenarios, which include problems, so your team will be better prepared. This way everyone knows what they should do if the situation occurs again.
