Craig Battye: ‘Emails are no substitute for a face-to-face’

It was a little bit of an accident, but I’d done some work experience with the local authority and the CITB through a mutual acquaintance and I found I really enjoyed the insight that my work experience gave me. I liaised with the CITB more closely and after my GCSEs I joined a local well-established family construction business to start my future career.

All I really remember was thinking how many moving parts there were and all the different workstreams interfacing with each other but requiring separate actions and decisions all to keep pace with the programme. I thought I’d never get used to the pace – that soon changed with a little bit of advice and lots of practice.

The best practical advice was “Make a plan”. As my career developed as a construction planner, this was very apt, but any new strategy/task starts with a plan. Probably the longest-lasting management advice was “Talk to people”. It’s a people industry and emails and e-chats are not substitute for picking up the phone or having a face-to-face.

Delivering professional standards continuously reminds you of the importance of what we as construction professionals do and, more importantly, how we do it.

From the fellowship application to my everyday working, how I conduct myself and what standards are expected of me has been clearly demonstrable in my work, my teams and my successes – all of which are attributable to the standards required of FCIOB.

Far too many to mention! But I have always enjoyed the challenging projects where the team dynamics have been the main reason for delivering the project, no matter the circumstances.

I have had several instances in my career where against all the odds and despite the naysayers we’ve delivered the project on time. The PFI Leeds schools with Mowlem falls into this category.

I often wonder why I didn’t get more involved in the CIOB regionally earlier in my career, as it has acted as a mentoring tool in my management style and professional development ever since.

Our ongoing ability to impact people’s lives for the better, whether it’s delivering new transport infrastructure, hospitals or schools – these all leave a lasting legacy that we can be proud of. More recently the way the industry continued to deliver during the pandemic was a credit to the skill and hard work of a determined workforce.

Develop a ‘sponge’ mentality and learn all you can through not being afraid of asking plenty of questions. Use all the great repositories of learning out there (CIOB Academy) to enhance your knowledge and skills for work you have been tasked with to undertake or manage.

I think a lot more must be done with shining the light on the positives of the industry and how we promote ourselves in the public eye and subsequently at schools. There have been very negative perceptions of the industry through major national scandals – and rightly so – but a lot of good is delivered by the industry which often goes unsung.

It has to be the evolution of digital technologies in construction and how that has had a positive impact on stakeholder engagement, design development and review, and quality delivery into construction. Digital construction permeates all elements of construction delivery and there is plenty of development and benefits still to come during my career.

I have received lots of excellent training and continue to do so but I think my executive management training at Carillion and ISG has been the most useful – in particular, the ability to move my thinking and application to a more strategic position.

With this insight, my management approach and planning approach to projects, tasks and initiatives have had greater success because the strategic goals were considered long before the methods and solutions were developed.

Plenty that I cannot repeat here – but I’d like to think “Everyone works with me, not for me” underlies my commitment to get stuck in, but always as part of a bigger team pulling together to deliver the same goals.