Resource Management

“We’ll update the docs later.”
Four words that cost a GC I know $180,000.
Here’s what happened:
Scope change gets discussed on-site. Super and owner’s rep shake hands on it. Nobody writes it down. Nobody tells the office.
Three weeks later, three trades mobilize to build something that doesn’t exist anymore. Framing goes up wrong. Electrical gets roughed in to the old plan. Plumbing follows.
By the time anyone catches it: two weeks of rework, a schedule blown by 30 days, and an owner on the phone with their lawyer.
All because one field conversation never made it into the project docs.
I’ve been in this industry long enough to know this isn’t rare. It’s the norm. The dirty secret of construction project management is that most cost overruns aren’t caused by the work — they’re caused by the communication around the work.
The fix is painfully simple:
→ If it changes scope, schedule, or money — it goes in writing within 24 hours. Period.
→ One place where field decisions live. Not a text thread. Not a voicemail. One log.
→ A 10-minute weekly check: is what we’re building still what’s in the contract?
You don’t need a $50K software platform for this. You need discipline and a shared spreadsheet.
The PMs who figure this out early build careers. The ones who don’t keep writing checks.
Which one are you?
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I write about construction PM and help contractors stop losing money in the handoffs. DM me if that sounds like your jobsite.