The one thing...

Last week I got the opportunity to visit three very different construction customers in a 24 hour time frame— an Architect, a large General Contractor, and a Director of I.T.

As I walked into the architectural firm, sculptured metal bridges adorned wooden framed walls in a wide-open warehouse intertwined in exposed ceiling ducts and neatly arranged network cables. A very nice gentleman, technically savvy, and in tune with the virtues of document management shared nearly two hours of open conversation. We laughed, told a few tales and pondered the future, but interestingly everything turned to one thing....

The General Contractor experience, was much different— sterile walls, Microsoft generated wall graphics, and carpet from the 70's. Although the conversation took longer warm, words turned to laughter as we listened to many yarns about building codes, construction stories, and funny bosses. But again, everything always turned to one thing...

Finally, we visited an I.T. Director from a very large General Contractor. The company was so large; the I.T. and estimating department were housed in their own facility. Not too flashy but with amble decor for a modern office. The young I.T. Director opened with a summary of her vacation, but the skilled sales consultant quickly segued the conversation to equipment and document management. Soon, we were invited to visit with the estimating department discussing how we could get multiple software solutions to integrate. Again, everything came back to one thing....

The one thing? Communication. Each person— distinctly different in experience and surroundings— shared stories about how communication was needed, broke down, or made them laugh. Communication is often sited but rarely studied. As we dig deeper for ways to support the construction industry, we must study ways to help our customers communicate. We must study communication like a historian, a scientist, and an artist.