Stop emailing people at work. Talk to them instead.

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I’ve only been in the superintendent position for a short time, but one thing has struck me more than anything else: how often communication, not labor, not procurement, not even bad weather, has a bigger impact on schedule and morale.

More specifically, I’ve been amazed at how much we rely on email for problems that could easily be solved in a simple, direct conversation.

At the beginning of my paper, I assumed that email was efficient. Now I’m starting to see that in many cases it actually slows things down.

The more time I spend in the field, the more convinced I am of one simple thing: when communication is important, talking to people is still the fastest way to get work done.

Email just feels productive

The email looks official. It looks like progress. You can include your bosses to show you’re on top. Create a digital paper trail that makes you feel like you’ve “handled” the problem.

However, without consistent follow-up, email rarely creates efficiency. Instead, it often produces:

• Delays
• “Standby” waste.
• Increased chances of misinterpretation.
• Permission to avoid a problem entirely.
• Slower decisions that should be immediate.

On a previous project, my team was waiting at another trade overseen by a different superintendent to finish their scope so mine could go behind them.

When I asked him why his business partner was holding back, he said he was still waiting for an email response from his foreman. Instead of waiting, I went straight to that foreman, asked a couple of questions, and got the clarification they needed. Within minutes, the business partner was back on the job and was able to yield the area so my team could stay on schedule.

That experience stuck with me. Not because it was dramatic, but because it was such a simple thing. No formal meeting. No paper trail. Just two people talking in front of the work.

Email from a lean perspective

Lean construction identifies eight forms of waste and “waiting” is one of the biggest. Every time someone sends an email, what they’re really doing is handing the problem over and hoping it gets resolved.

Reasons for email:

• Batching (people respond in groups hours later).
• Overprocessing (typed explanations that would be clearer verbally).
• Duplication (explaining things twice: once in writing, once in person later).
• Defects (misread tone, unclear instructions, wrong assumptions).

Lean emphasizes conversation first, documentation second because conversations create flow. What I’m learning is that in a workplace, conversations create movement. Email usually creates a wait.

More disclosure

One thing I’ve learned over time is that when you talk to someone face to face, it’s more honest than in writing. The foremen will tell you things on the ground that they would never put in an email.

Things like: “We need a boy today” or “the materials haven’t arrived yet”. Instead, emails offer polished versions of reality. Face-to-face conversations give the real story, and the real story is what superintendents and project managers need if we want our schedules to reflect the truth.

I’m learning that a superintendent sets the tone, whether they intend to or not. If I rely on email as my primary form of communication, so does everyone else I interact with. If I do the work and talk directly to people, others follow suit. When communication is done face-to-face, problems are reduced, accountability is increased, and decisions are made more quickly.

Talk first, email later

I don’t claim to have this mastered, but these are just some of the habits I’m trying to build early in my career:

• If something affects the flow, I try to talk first.
• If someone or I look confused, I stop typing and walk over or pick up the phone.
• I send short emails after conversations to document decisions.
• If something is urgent, I avoid emails entirely.

The build worked this way long before inboxes existed and I’m learning there was a reason for that.

I’m still learning every day. I don’t have it all figured out, but the biggest lesson so far has been the simplest: most workplace problems don’t need a perfectly written email. They need real conversations. Building is built by people and when people talk to each other and communication is clear, people tend to build better