Decentralising Flow Conversations: Improving Productivity through Collaboration with Site Operatives

Low productivity remains a persistent challenge in the construction industry, often stemming from fragmented workflows, poor integration, and collaboration across the supply chain. This study aimed to investigate how site operatives can be actively engaged in identifying and resolving constraints to site workflow through a structured collaborative practice using the eight-flow model as a framework. The study adopts an Ethnographic Action Research (EAR) methodology, encompassing three iterative stages—observation, action, and reflection. EAR was applied through 3 rounds of workshops with 30 site operatives on a live construction site in the UK focusing on collaborative risk management using a flow activity. Data was collected using observation notes, the output of the flow activity and post-workshop feedback comments and analysed using content analysis. Findings reveal that constraints relating to information, materials, and equipment flows were often compounded by poor communication, unrealistic programming, and inefficiencies in material logistics, while collaboration with site operatives is central to success. By embedding site operatives into flow conversations, the study emphasises the transformative potential of leveraging the expertise and insights of operatives at the workface to address workflow inefficiencies and improve productivity. As a wider implication, tools like WhatsApp and site-level flow task boards were suggested as potential platforms for ongoing engagements with site operatives in conversations about flow on the site using the eight-flow framework. Further research is needed to embed flow conversations as part of standard practice, through toolbox meetings and daily hurdles, to create a culture of proactive engagement that fosters shared understanding.