The RFI as Mirror: A Lesson from the Field Architect

Every question has a reflection if you know how to look at it.

Most people treat an RFI as a nuisance.

A delay.

Another ripple in a schedule that is already too tight.

But the Field Architect sees something else.

The RFI is a mirror.

Every RFI reveals what was assumed instead of clarified.

What was rushed instead of considered.

What was spoken softly when it should have been said out loud.

Some RFIs point to drawings that were never fully resolved.

Some point to field conditions that no one bothered to check.

Some point to a missed conversation that should have happened months before.

None of this is personal.

It is simply the truth rising to the surface.

The Field Architect reads an RFI the way a carpenter reads grain.

Not as a complaint but as information.

Each question becomes a window into alignment.

Each gap becomes a lesson in listening.

When viewed this way, an RFI is not a disruption.

It is a course correction.

A tiny chance to bring the work back into harmony.

If you study your RFIs long enough, you begin to see your own patterns.

Where you tend to over trust.

Where you tend to under explain.

Where your instincts were right but your notes fell short.

Where your presence was needed, but you hesitated.

The project is always teaching you.

The RFI is simply the part of the lesson that has been written down.

Field Note

Clarity is not an achievement.

It is a practice that reveals you every time you look closely.