A key fact about human beings: we forget important things. At the humblest level, we have a tendency to overlook and forget the fact that first and foremost, who we are is proportional to the roles we play. In order: We are human. We are someones child, a brother or...
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When we can’t tell the client we don’t quite get what they want, so we plough on half cocked – they might think we are dumb? When we can’t ask the team for help as they’ll think we are a weak link. When we can’t mention someones great work, in...
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It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our doubt can be fuelled by an internal sense that group opinions must have a sound basis, even when we are not sure what this basis may be, often because they have been...
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What consistently happens in the tea room, at breaks in conferences and in the car on the way home from work? Gossip. Humans gossip. We seemingly take compelling pleasure in talking ill of others and spreading the word about those who are deemed scoundrels, untrustworthy, wasters or downright dangerous. From...
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I had a row with my wife last night. Of course, we were both right – except I was more right than Talane… This morning, having collected my thoughts in the cold light of the gym, I realised winning this argument and ‘being right’ was really a losing strategy. I,...
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‘It’s a personality Clash boss’… …the justification for the p*ss poor relationship between two well-paid construction professionals that accommodates mediocrity cooperation and the slide into silo working. Your ROLE is to be an engineer, designer, surveyor, project manager – your JOB for which, you are also paid and that which...
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The last thing I want to hear when I’m down is that I’m down. The first person to know that they are struggling is the person struggling. The Project Team or the delivery partner organisation likewise know when the heat is on – they don’t need a kick, they need...
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(This is a reworked piece from a few years back – ahead of a CIOB session I’m jointly delivering next week with Talane Miedaner – ‘Breaking through The Glass Ceiling’.) “As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently...
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Picture the scene. The room full of constructions male finest. The speaker extolling the virtues of soft skills capability for the new generation, for collaborating, for bringing woman into the industry for adding value and cutting costs. I despair when soft skills are mentioned. It’s like Pavlov’s dogs. Stimulus –...
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Social capital is defined as the inclinations that arise from networks that want to do things for each other (norms of reciprocity). Shooting the breeze about Social Capital is not the most common conversation you hear in the contractors corridors, the design studio or the partners meeting – but the...
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