Here's how you can navigate conflicts in the structural engineering field.

It's a good practice to engage. Regular engagements would help minimise conflicts on a project. As a best practice, ensure that there is a basis for design report that entail the design philosophy to be adopted for a project also, technical specifications must be agreed upon before design deliverables are issued. This helps bring all technical stakeholders to a common understanding as there would be documents guiding design and if that should be changed, all stakeholders must engage for this purpose. For major concerns, organising an engagement session to understand issues raised works better than mere exchanges of emails.

Yes, I agree! Communication skill is critical for resolving conflicts in engineering design project. Understand what the issues raised are, prepare a response which is chronological, brief and concise. In your presentation, understand your audience and make your presentation engaging but adding quality visual details. If there are things to compare, endeavour to place them side a side for easy comparison. Detailed drawings, progress charts, S-curves, bar charts and other excellent visuals aids could prove very useful. Your choice of visuals depend on what to be communicated, information to extract and audience in most cases.

We may atimes have to reach a compromise in structural engineering field especially in the commercial aspect. For instance, clients after having review your deliverables came up with late minutes changes that require alot of manhours to execute. While you want to ensure that your time is paid for, you may have to be diplomatic with a reluctant client. Strike a middle ground by accepting to make the changes at far reduced cost and you request for additional time to deliver. The newly alloted time may not be as it would be without compromise but you as the structural engineer have to push and mobilize your resources to meet the new demands of the client. This may help foster continued business relationship.

All clients are potential referrals so there is a need to maintain positive relationships always. There would always be conflicts in structural engineering practise. Don't take it personal. Conflicts are project should be handled professionally always without friction after conflicts are resolved.