Communication Just Became the #1 Way to Avoid Claims. We Can Help you Train for It

Every year I look forward to the Arcadis Construction Disputes Report, and every year I read it looking for one thing: what the people closest to construction claims say actually works. This year the answer is plain. When respondents ranked the most effective ways to avoid claims, "good communications" came in first.

That didn't happen overnight. Two years ago, communication ranked sixth. Last year it climbed to second. This year it passed contract and specification reviews to take the top spot. And when respondents ranked what matters most for resolving disputes early, the #1 answer was "transparent communication and owner/contractor willingness to compromise."

Same causes, higher stakes

The causes of disputes haven't changed much either. The top three in 2025 were:

1. Owners, contractors, or subcontractors failing to understand and/or comply with their contractual obligations.
2. Errors and/or omissions in the contract documents.
3. Delays and time extensions.

The first two have topped the list for years. What has changed is the pressure around them. Nearly 58% of respondents handled more disputes in 2025 than in 2024, and 75% expect more in 2026. The average dispute was worth $56 million and took just over 12 months to resolve.

Yesterday it was delivery methods. Today it's technology.

When I wrote about the 2023 report, the lesson was that alternative delivery methods like design-build and CM-at-risk hadn't eliminated the errors and misunderstandings they were expected to fix. Better structures help, but they are not the answer.

This year's report tells a similar story about technology. More than half of respondents (57%) are now bringing AI into project management, and digital platforms promise centralized records and better transparency. Arcadis calls innovation "both a solution and a stressor." Uneven adoption, poor data, and unclear contract language around digital deliverables are creating new friction of their own. As the report puts it, incomplete designs and accelerated schedules "can quickly translate into claims when governance, documentation, and communication fall short."

The tools keep changing. The people using them still have to talk to each other. A 2015 Penn State study of integrated projects found that the delivery system itself was not what drove success. The driver was "highly integrated teams engaged in practices that brought individuals together, in multidisciplinary interactions" [2]. No software license delivers that.

The cost of getting it wrong is real. An often-cited FMI study estimated that in 2018 alone, rework caused by poor project data and miscommunication cost the U.S. construction industry $31.3 billion [3].

What "good communication" looks like on a project

The survey ranks communication first but doesn't define it. The report's sector discussions fill in some of the picture:

• Review the contract together. Hold regular contract reviews with all stakeholders, not just the people who negotiated it, so obligations are understood before they're tested.
• Meet to stay aligned. Frequent stakeholder alignment meetings keep every party focused on shared objectives and surface problems while they're still small.
• Engage early. Bring in regulators, the community, and the people who will build the work at the start, when expectations are still easy to clarify.
• Treat technology as a channel, not a substitute. Shared digital platforms help dispersed teams communicate and document, but only if people use them to talk candidly.
• Be transparent when it's hard. Accurate, timely schedules and open cost data rank right behind communication as keys to early resolution.

Communication is a skill, and skills can be taught

If communication is the industry's most effective tool for avoiding claims, we should invest in it the way we invest in software, contracts, and delivery models. The good news is that communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution are skills, and skills can be learned. They're learned best when owners, designers, and builders practice them together, in the same room.

Communication and negotiation go hand in hand. Look again at what respondents ranked first for resolving disputes early: transparent communication and a willingness to compromise. Every change order, schedule recovery, and disputed invoice is a negotiation, and how well we communicate decides whether it ends in agreement or in a claim. Good negotiators listen for the other side's real interests, say clearly what they need, and keep talking when it gets hard. Those are communication skills, put to work at the moments that matter most.

That's why I hope you'll join us on December 10 for the Construction Institute's Negotiation Skills class. You'll practice alongside owners, designers, and builders, and leave with techniques you can use at your next project meeting.

The class is part of the Construction Institute's broader Professional Education program. Our courses give participants concrete skills they can use on the job the next day, and we can help you train your team in communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and the art of collaboration.

The industry already knows what causes disputes and now, what prevents them. It's time to act on it.

Sources

1. Arcadis, Disruption to Innovation: Disputes Amid Technical & Economic Shifts, 16th Annual Construction Disputes Report, United States (2026). Prior-year rankings from the 15th edition, Construction Disputes in Motion (2025).
2. Leicht, R. M., Molenaar, K. R., Messner, J. I., Franz, B. W., and Esmaeili, B. (2015). Maximizing Success in Integrated Projects: An Owner's Guide. Version 0.9, May. Available at bim.psu.edu/delivery.
3. FMI and PlanGrid, Construction Disconnected: The High Cost of Poor Data and Miscommunication (2018).