The Power of Conversation
“People don’t tend to talk to each other enough. All change starts as a conversation, nothing’s going to change until people start talking about it.”
The insightful and wise words of our Junior Quantity Surveyor, Becca.
Now, there’s a chance I’ve just brainwashed her over time, because I’m constantly talking about the importance of learning and passing that information on, but I don’t think so. I think the generation coming up in the industry at the moment understand the importance of talking, generally, in life, in a way that those who came before them didn’t (and don’t).
We’ve always known the importance of training, of being shown how to do things – but I think that valuing education and collaboration is still new to many.
I believe it’s important to take the time; to take trainees and juniors through the right way of doing things (not the quickest way – the right way) and ensuring they understand WHY it’s the right way. Because understanding at that slightly deeper level is what will make them question the way another worker on site is doing it – rather than seeing it as a quicker way, they’ll see it as a potentially dangerous way, and hopefully decide that time saving isn’t worth the risk.
Don’t get me wrong, I think a lot of times, people are cutting corners because they don’t know the right way to do it in the first place. But again, the way to fix that is training and education.
And once you teach one generation the right way, “we can pass that on to the next generation. That’s how I think it will change.” – Becca again, with the wise words.
I think society as a whole has established that it’s important to talk, and that conversation is important – especially since the pandemic forced us all to confront the way we were living our lives head on – but we should be thinking about context.
It’s important to listen to those within your business – to say ‘you can always come and talk to me’ when what you mean is ‘… as long as you’re not going to say anything I don’t want to hear’ is not going to create change. (You might be having more conversations, but that’ll be about it.) A real conversation goes two ways, it involves listening.
Being honest is now seen as a sign of strength; the way people are opening up now is great – but it’s important that we all understand we’re not always the one with the information worth passing on. Keep your ears open, because there’s always something to learn.
