My dad used to say that the best blogs write themselves.
This week’s topic certainly did.
For the past few months, we’ve been working through a subcontract issue on a project.
It wasn’t a major dispute. There were no significant disagreements over money, scope, schedule, or contract terms. In fact, many of the revisions we proposed had already been accepted on previous projects.
One of our comments wasn’t even a point of negotiation. It simply noted that part of the Scope of Work exhibit had been written for an entirely different trade.
By all accounts, it should have been a straightforward conversation.
Instead, it became months of follow-up.
Emails were sent. Phone calls were made. Voicemails were left. Text messages were exchanged. Status updates were requested.
The responses were usually some versions of:
“I’m working on it.”
“I’ll get back to you.”
“I’ll call you later.”
“I’m trying to figure it out.”
The remarkable part is that there was never a major disagreement to resolve. The issue wasn’t conflict. The issue was the absence of communication.
Everyone was corresponding, but nobody was actually communicating.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how common this has become in business. We have more ways to reach each other than ever before. Email, text, Teams, Slack, voicemail, video calls, project management software, and countless other tools.
Yet it often feels harder than ever to have a simple conversation.
Technology has made communication easier, but it has also made avoidance easier.
A difficult conversation becomes an email. An email becomes a forwarded email. A forwarded email becomes a task on someone’s list. Weeks pass. Activity continues, but progress doesn’t.
Looking back on this situation, I’m convinced that a 10-minute phone call would have resolved most of the outstanding questions. Instead, months were spent chasing updates on something that likely could have been settled in a single conversation.
It’s a good reminder that many business problems aren’t really contract, project, or process problems.
They are communication problems.
The tools matter. Documentation matters. Written records matter.
But sometimes the fastest path forward is still the simplest one.
Pick up the phone.
Have the conversation.
Move the work forward.