Creating an error-free culture through training

A full suite of GIRI-accredited training courses alongside the recently-launched project workshops form the backbone of GIRI’s support to those who are serious about eliminating error in the construction industry. 

The accredited training courses, which back up the message that error elimination can help address many of the industry’s most pressing priorities from cutting carbon and reducing cost to improving productivity, safety, and quality, are designed to give individuals and organisations the skills and resources to achieve these objectives. 

The courses have recently been approved by CITB for grant purposes, making them more accessible to small and medium sized businesses.

The training is divided into three streams that can be delivered independently or together as part of a comprehensive training programme across all levels of an organisation. All the courses have been developed in close consultation with industry and tested with more 60 organisations during the pilot phase to ensure they meet the needs of construction businesses and deliver maximum impact on error reduction and productivity.

All three streams of training, which include courses focusing on supervisory and management skills, training across interfaces, and leadership training, explain and build on GIRI’s research into the root causes of error and how these can be avoided. Each course address different areas, from the construction site to senior management. For more detail on the different training streams, visit the training pages or watch this short introductory video.

All the training focuses on behaviours, communication, and processes to ensure participants develop the right skills to collaboratively understand, pre-empt and avoid error in their daily work. This is achieved through a variety of techniques and exercises, including the popular Lego exercise, which challenges participants to build or communicate plans for a seemingly simple structure in Lego and in the process highlights many of the behavioural and communications challenges that can lead to error.

Behavioural pitfalls such as optimism bias are addressed in the Get It Wrong exercise on the leadership training course, which demonstrates how a pre-mortem approach can identify and mitigate project errors before they occur. 

The leadership course also looks at processes and what makes these effective or ineffective and gives participants the tools to identify practical measures to improve their processes to reduce error.

Currently, the training can be delivered face to face or remotely directly by GIRI Training & Consultancy. Read the feedback from participants or find out more about how these courses have been implemented, and their impact, by different organisations in our short case studies. GIRI members receive a discount on all the training courses.

For those who would like to learn how to deliver the training, a ‘train the trainer’ model is also being rolled out that will enable organisations and individuals to become approved by GIRI to deliver the training themselves in a face-to-face environment. More information.

In addition to the training courses, GIRI Training and Consultancy also offers Project Workshops, a consultancy service that focuses on the needs of specific projects or project teams to instil a zero-error culture right from the start. Watch this short explanatory video for more information.

For more information about GIRI’s training courses or Project Workshops, contact rachel.hogarth@giritraining.co.uk.