Ranting and raving to get what you want are out, gentle persuasion and diplomacy are in. Now so-called soft skills have formed part of a masters degree.
The paint used on the indoor swimming pool your firm is building has started flaking off the walls just two weeks after it was applied. The supplier says he needs two months to secure the right alternative – and it’s not going to be cheap. But you need it now, and for a reasonable price. What are you going to do?
It’s the kind of problem most project managers can expect to face throughout their careers. It appears, however, that the current generation of young managers is struggling to find the best solutions. In January this year, a report by the Association of Graduate Recruiters stated that nearly half of all large employers found graduate applicants were lacking ‘soft skills’ – meaning leadership, teamwork and above all, communication ability. And the construction industry was especially bad in this area.
Knowing the finer details of the Building Regs won’t be much use if you’re going to persuade a supplier to pull their finger out like, now, because the clock is ticking and the costs are rising. Using soft skills, on the other hand – diplomacy, tact and leadership – will. That’s why students who sign up for Oxford Brookes University’s newest post-graduate construction degree will face ‘live project’ dilemmas similar to that above.
According to course leader, Dr Esra Kurul, the MSc in Project Management in the Built Environment has been specifically designed to develop soft skills using problem-based learning. ‘Some practitioners would argue that project management is 95 per cent soft skills and five per cent technical,’ she says.
The CIOB has backed the development of soft skills for a number of years. In 2005, the CIOB Presidential Commission on Higher Education recommended that universities adopt a more structured and rigorous approach to the application of soft skills and the development of practical, integrated activities.
A number of courses do indeed already tackle the softer side of construction. For example, Salford University’s project management post-grad programme has a module dedicated to ‘culture and people’ and the CIOB non-cog diploma course also seeks to develop people-orientated skills. But Kurul says the new masters course at Oxford Brookes is unique in that it has been specifically designed to develop soft skills using problem-based learning. ‘It’s not about standing up in a classroom and listing skills we think are important. We pose them a problem, which would require students to use these skills, and ask them to solve it.’
The flaky paint scenario is based on reality. It was just one of many problems that plagued the Thermae Bath Spa project, which was completed three years late last summer. Kurul’s students will examine similarly troubled projects such as Wembley and the Scottish Parliament, and replay scenarios using soft skills in place of an adversarial approach. ‘We’ll pose the problem, allocate roles and video the exercise,’ she explains. ‘Then we’ll sit down and discuss it and compare and contrast our version with what really happened.’
The aim is to encourage students to negotiate effectively and learn how to control timescales and budgets from a people perspective. Kurul suggests that comparisons will be made between similar projects, such as the two recent stadium builds in London: Arsenal’s Emirates venue and the new Wembley. ‘It could provide a good how to and how not to guide to project management,’ says Kurul.
Technology will play a key role in delivering the two-year part-time course. Beyond a three-week block at the start of years one and two, when the full class will sit together for lectures and workshops, students will use a variety of media to explore their future roles as soft-skilled project managers. Kurul says they’ll use Skype and webcams, email for one-to-one sessions and other virtual learning environments, such as discussion forums, for group work.
Kurul adds that another unique feature of the course is that it looks at a building’s lifecycle in totality – from inception to demolition, which, she says, highlights the interdisciplinary relationships that exist in the delivery and maintenance of new buildings. ‘Despite the collaborative processes there are still clear disciplinary boundaries with people remaining within their silos,’ she says. ‘If you increase communication between the disciplines, you’re going to find better project solutions.’
The first cohort of 15 students will begin their part-time studies at Oxford Brookes when semester one begins later this month. A pre-requisite for entry is a good first degree and at least six months’ experience with their current construction industry employer. Kurul says the course has been tailored so that project managers from different disciplines can attend and that applications have come from quantity surveying firms as well as from government quangos, such as English Heritage, among others. ‘With the move towards partnering contracts, communication within and between disciplines is increasingly important,’ says Kurul. ‘Project managers must unite a team behind a single project goal and that can only be done with the right skills and attributes.’
Cost consultant Cyril Sweett has signed up two of its staff to the course because, says Richard Barrell, a senior project manager with the firm, soft skills are essential to manage design teams as projects grow in size and complexity. ‘There’s a greater emphasis on front-end management today. Globalisation has increased competition and made us all more customer-focused so soft skills are essential to project delivery now.’
The ultimate objective of the new course is to create leaders for the industry. Kurul explains: ‘We’ve moved on from thinking that leaders are born. We’ve realised you can develop the appropriate skills, and that emotional competence is more important than managerial competence. The need today is for project managers to motivate teams to deliver results rather than simply issue tasks.’
Motivating the paint supplier to play ball, of course, will be considerably easier once you know how to best use your new suite of soft skills. Making sure the problem doesn’t arise in the first place, however, is the ultimate management goal. cm
Softly does it – ‘It’s the sign of a leader and much more effective’
You may ask why construction is ‘going soft’. The answer is simple: it’s because, despite all the hardware, software, regulations and contracts, construction remains a people-focused business.
According to the Association for Project Management (APM), at its most fundamental, project management is about people getting things done. Donnie McNicol, chair of APM’s People Special Interest Group and director of Team Animation agrees. ‘Sometimes we lose sight of this simple fact,’ he says. ‘It’s not about computer packages, it’s not about form filling and not about doing certain things just because the programme says so. The primary focus of project management is getting people to deliver effectively.’
McNicol’s firm works with organi-sations to improve project perform-ance by focusing on people. He says a project’s failings are often blamed on specifications, processes, systems or tools when really it all boils down to people. He explains: ‘You might think the contract is the problem but who agreed to go with the contract? Who wrote the contract? Who was supposed to read the contract it and remove all the unnecessary clauses?’
Despite reducing everything to the personal this approach is not about apportioning blame – it’s about understanding how people think and connect with each other. ‘20 years ago if you had a problem with a certain person, it might be how much you could do them over!’ says McNicol. ‘Now of course it’s, “how can I understand them; I wonder what’s driving them; maybe I can adapt my behaviour to deal with this.” That’s not weak, it’s strong. It’s the sign of a leader and far more effective.’
Like Dr Esra Kurul, course leader of Oxford Brookes’ new MSc Project Management in the Built Environment, McNicol says the bottom line is that the construction industry needs good leaders. And with teams getting bigger and more diverse and with multiple stakeholders to keep happy, soft skills and problem-solving abilities are highly-prized.
Indeed, a forum of senior civil servants, industrialists and academics at the University of Central England recently concluded that expensive delays to major building projects, such as those experienced at Wembley, could become a thing of the past if professional leaders were available who can balance the competing positions of those involved. McNicol agrees: ‘Many employers are saying to me: “We’re no longer looking for project managers – we’re looking for leaders. We can backfill behind good leaders.”’
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Construction Manager
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