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When Critical Thinking has Minimal Impact on Project Outcomes

Critical thinking is beneficial. We all know this. Critical thinking doesn’t accept norms and the way that things have always been done. It doesn’t accept assumptions, plans and ‘facts’ at face value. It challenges teams to see potential snags that people might not notice or would rather not acknowledge.

Critical thinking brings in other points of view and wider information sets and synthesizes them to support better decision making. It is something that the construction sector needs to do more of.

As powerful as critical thinking skills are, there’s one certain way to make sure they have next to no impact on the success of a project. That’s to apply them too late in the process to make a difference.

No single organisation has the monopoly on good ideas, valuable experience or critical thinking skills. This is particularly relevant on infrastructure projects that involve multiple teams and disciplines. Yet the sector has a patchy record when it comes to applying the collective knowledge of all partners to deliver better outcomes and greater value.

Early involvement of contractors and specialist subcontractors allows potential issues, quality improvements and economies to be identified when the project is being defined and scoped. Potential problems are cheaper to solve when they are identified early. There’s less disruption to the project and less inconvenience for road and rail users.

Why Don’t We Pool Expertise?

Technology means that the location of different teams isn’t a barrier and that collaborative problem solving shouldn’t be difficult. BIM and online collaborative tools should make it easy for everyone to work together. Collectively, we can make everyone’s part of the project easier and achieve more with less – if we are all engaged early enough to make a difference.

This still doesn’t happen as widely as it should. The reason? Collaborative problem solving isn’t yet ingrained in our culture. This has to change.

As part of this, we all need to become skilled and grateful recipients (as well as givers) of constructive criticism. If our plans and ideas are flawed then having this pointed out is something we should welcome. It helps us perform better and deliver greater value to our customers. Why wouldn’t we want that?

The other element that needs to evolve is the relationship between customers and contractors. A more open and collaborative relationship on both sides helps us all focus on the same business goals. The procurement process needs to become more sympathetic to this way of working.

Embracing the well-intentioned insight, experience and expertise of others at each stage of the project will produce a better result and a better experience for customers and infrastructure users.

Find out more about our Infrastructure projects here.

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