Construction team alignment starts at kickoff. What you set up in the first few weeks decides how your team communicates for the rest of the project.
Why trust drives alignment on your job site
On high-trust job sites, 40% of people say they can clearly ask for what they need, because they feel safe enough to speak up. On average-trust sites, that number drops to 5%. Average trust looks fine most days. The problem shows up when someone from your team needs to report an issue and stays quiet.
That silence costs money:
- $17 billion lost every year to miscommunication in U.S. construction
- 52% of project failures come from poor communication
- $17.5 million lost each year on a $100 million contract, just from missed schedules
Sources: Autodesk & FMI, Construction Industry Institute.
What team alignment gives you
- Faster decisions
- Problems solved at the lowest level
- Early issue reporting
- Workers who care about the job
- Repeat business
What are Team Agreements?
Team agreements are the ground rules for how your site team operates.
What they are:
- A shared way of working together
- Clear limits, a way to hold people responsible
- A way to open up communication
What they aren’t:
- A tool to catch your team making mistake
- Guardrails that prevent open conversation
- Rigid guidelines that don’t allow for flexibility
What alignment looks like on your construction project
Setting the course at kickoff
- Everything DiSC® via Catalyst™: Identifying workplace styles and how that affects the work your team does
- Creation of a Site Purpose Statement: A statement your team writes to give meaning behind the work
- Teaming agreements: Co-written to build trust
Learning the styles is only the first step. You also have to change how you talk to each other.
Building momentum after kickoff
- Identify a regular cadence to talk about trust and agreements
- Collect data to identify your site team’s challenges and strengths
- Continue learning through quarterly workshops to continue teaming together
- Connect your onboarding materials back to the site purpose, including posters, notecards, and slide decks
Our article on working styles on the job site explains why you and your team communicate so differently.
Get the full key takeaways
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Want help with your own site? Book a free site culture assessment. You’ll find the problems and get action steps you can use right away.