The Construction industry is littered with important-sounding words that seem clear until people are asked what they mean. Dave Stitt FCIOB considers what it takes to turn words such as ‘collaboration’, ‘accountability’ and ‘leadership’ into useful tools for action – and offers a practical CPD exercise for readers and their colleagues
I’m a bit nerdy about words. When I come across a word being used in a significant situation, I like to dig into it: where it comes from, what it means and, as a coach, how we might use it in a substantive way to guide behaviour and get things done.
In construction, you’ll often hear words like collaboration, partnering, transformation, alignment, accountability, responsibility, integrity and leadership. We use them as if everyone understands and agrees on what they mean. Yet when I ask people to explain them, it is often far from clear.
It’s as if we expect the word to do the work. Keep mentioning collaboration, and somehow we expect to find ourselves collaborating, even though the actions, behaviours and expectations that would make it happen haven’t been agreed.
In my work as a leadership team coach, there are always calls for better communication. NEC’s 2026 global study of construction supply-chain relationships gathered views from more than 1,000 industry professionals across five markets. When asked what mattered most in minimising disputes, effective communication was the leading answer, at 48%.*
What is effective communication?
But what is effective communication when we have different understandings of the words being used? The word communication has roots in sharing and making common. Sending the same words around a room or repeating them at every project meeting doesn’t result in their meaning becoming common.
The difficulty comes with words such as collaboration and leadership. Everyone recognises the word, everyone can join the conversation, and everyone can leave believing they’ve agreed something, when perhaps all they’ve agreed is the word.
I remember seeing an extraordinary piece of art in Edinburgh: Christine Borland’s L’Homme Double. Six sculptors were given the same two photographs of Josef Mengele and written descriptions from Auschwitz survivors, and each was commissioned to make a clay bust. The six interpretations were remarkably different.**
The source material was the same, yet what each artist saw and created was different. I think the same happens with words. We hear the same word and form different pictures of what it means. Those differences can enrich communication when we make them visible and discuss them. Left unexplored, they create an illusion of agreement.
What I thought I said
When I was a manager, I sometimes struggled to articulate what I wanted to get done. More experienced people often understood my vague expectations, while less experienced colleagues, or those facing something unfamiliar, needed a better explanation.
I’d worked it out in my head but found it difficult to explain clearly. Under pressure and in a rush, I’d sometimes resort to the polite equivalent of “just effing do it”.
Poorly briefed, people would start an activity, wondering what they were supposed to produce, hesitating and working with low confidence and productivity. After the due date, I’d ask how they were getting on, only to discover they’d gone in the wrong direction.
My communication is the response I get. It took me a long time to understand that. Experienced people had been compensating for my poor communication; their experience enabled them to fill in the gaps. Others exposed what I’d left unclear.
I hated being a manager. I love being a coach. Communication is difficult, and words having multiple meanings makes it even more so. Then everyone says we need to improve communication.
Definition and distinction
A dictionary definition is a useful start, but I’m reaching for something deeper: distinction. A definition gives us the meaning of a word. Distinction enables us to see more in it.
The same applies to collaboration. A dictionary may tell us it means working together to achieve something. A richer understanding asks what we would see people doing, how they handle competing interests, whether they trust each other enough to raise difficult matters and what happens when work comes under pressure.
Knowing the definition of collaboration doesn’t mean we know how to collaborate. For that, we need to understand what it requires and how it shows up in our situation.
Accountability is a good example from my own life. Earlier in my construction career, accountability was the noose around my neck if the project I was leading went wrong. My first coach, 30 years ago, got me to look at how the word was made up, and I arrived at a meaning that worked for me: counting on.
My boss was counting on me to deliver the project against agreed success criteria, and would hold me to account for progress. I would give him an account of how I was getting on.
With that understanding, accountability moved from being a huge burden to clarity and liberation. I knew what was expected and was happy to explain my progress. I’ve since asked leadership teams about the difference between responsibility and accountability. The question usually leads to confusion and disagreement, followed by a useful conversation about what each word means in their situation.
A CPD exercise
CIOB members must complete at least 25 hours of CPD each year, including three hours in each of four core themes: professionalism; quality; health, safety and wellbeing; and sustainability. Informal, self-directed learning can count, with members reflecting on what they’ve learned, how it was useful and what they need to develop next.
Choose one important word currently being used in your project, team or organisation. It could be collaboration with your supply chain, leadership of your team or accountability for an outcome.
Write down what the word means to you, why it matters now and what you’d expect to see if it were being lived properly. Go beyond the definition and identify the distinctions that matter in practice. Then ask two or more colleagues to do the same without sharing your answer first.
Compare what you’ve written. Notice the differences without rushing to resolve them; they are the starting point for a richer conversation. Agree on what the word will mean in your situation and the actions, behaviours and expectations that will give it substance.
Finally, record what you’ve learned, what changed through the conversation and what you’ll do differently. The time spent reading, thinking, discussing and reflecting can be recorded as informal CPD where it fits your learning needs and CIOB’s requirements.
What’s the important word in your organisation, team or project, and are you expecting this word to do the work?
