Construction Curiosities #103
The Construction Productivity Conundrum | Summer Roast of Bad Construction Personalities
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter!
This weekly Newsletter explores the Curiosities of the Construction Industry. It's meant to help Drag the Construction Industry into the 21st Century by making you think, smile, and become motivated to drive innovation in your realm of the industry.
The Newsletter will focus on 4 primary areas of Innovation:
Technology & Tools
Growth Marketing
Upskilling/ Mentorship
Being People First in all of the Above
We won’t hit on each of these topics every week but that’s what is in rotation!
Summary
This week we will look at:
One Guest Post: The Construction Productivity Conundrum
One Livestream: Summer Roast of Bad Construction Personalities
One Quote: Always Done It
One Meme: Uber of the AEC
The Construction Productivity Conundrum
by AJ Waters, Chief Evangelist at Kahua
I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. Until we solve it though, we’re just going to keep on hearing it.
Construction productivity has flatlined (or even dipped) since the early 1990’s.
There are dozens of studies, lectures, and opinions all trying to pinpoint why this is the case, but it remains to be a problem we all are dying to solve. Especially as productivity continues to soar in other industries. So, for years now, we held out hope that new, innovative technology will come along, leading the way to a more productive future. What then, is the hold up?
First off, tech is not the answer.
Didn’t expect the tech guy to go there right out of the gate, did ya? You read that right, tech is not the answer to construction’s problems. But, with a better understanding, it could be an answer.
A buddy of mine once said, “We treat tech like flex tape, just slapping it over problems left and right.” That is a fact. There is a complaint about people not getting paid fast enough, so we roll out mobile apps for timesheets. There was a change that we couldn’t process due to lack of documentation and we lost money, now we have dedicated forms for the project. Time and again we as an industry have looked to tech to be the quick fix to a process that seems cumbersome or incomplete.
But this is a people business. Those processes are executed by people within the larger ecosystem of a complex project. Instead of rushing out to the newest tech on the market and slapping it over top of a problem, perhaps we should take a step back and assess the entirety of the issue. If we truly want to increase efficiency and productivity, we need to begin making decisions with the future of our projects in mind.
And more importantly, decisions with our people in mind.
Where do we begin understanding tech?
As you can probably guess, it starts with the people. Gather a core group of people across different projects and collect their thoughts. What kind of people? Well, typically I see the most success with people that are influential among their coworkers, are a bit tech savvy (but not too much), and are highly motivated. Now you might be thinking, “That pulls my best people off of leading projects.” And you’re absolutely right. But I’ve seen firsthand the cluster that comes from not using your best people. It’s not fun.
Once you have that core group in place, it becomes a matter of making success repeatable. Why do you do things the way you do? What can be adjusted or changed to enhance your outcomes? Where is automation most likely to make an impact? These are the types of process questions that this group will need to dive into. After all, doing things “the XYZ Corp way” developed over time, and it must continue to mature as the company matures.
With the people in place and the processes all aligned, then it’s time to make decisions on the technology. You see, tech is meant to enable the process, not the other way around. Use your newfound knowledge to go after the tasks that are most time consuming (and try not to sweat the small stuff). Work hard to break out of the “we always did it that way” mindset and learn from the tech solutions as you evaluate.
And whatever you do, know that this order of operations is vitally important. It is people. Then processes. Then technology. Once you get that order correct, you’ll be ready to answer the next big question.
Do you build it, or do you buy it?
One-size-fits-all software is a myth. Yup, there goes that tech guy again, dogging on tech. But if I’m being honest, I admit that the idea of an out-of-the-box, all-in-one, end-to-end solution to solve all problems is unachievable. In fact, the average digital worker relies on 11 applications each day.
That is a lot to handle, let alone try and integrate. With conglomerations like that, it’s no wonder data slips through the cracks and steps get missed.
But building it yourself is no picnic either. Trust me, it’s much closer to a nightmare. Just when you think you have all the requirements in place and you have the developers begin coding, in comes another wish list from the peanut gallery. Which reminds me, developers, you need those if you plan to build it yourself. Not exactly the type of folks that construction typically has on staff. Add to that maintenance, scalability, ongoing enhancements and custom training and you have an entirely new cost center to account for.
So yeah, neither option looks all that great at first glance. Don’t get me wrong, there are pros to each approach. Buying a product off the shelf speeds up implementation and time to value, not to mention continuous innovation from a variety of customers. Meanwhile, building it yourself allows for the most purpose-built solution possible, maintaining your “secret sauce” and complete data ownership.
In reality though, we could debate this until the cows come home, and I certainly have. But believe it or not, if you’re looking to diver deeper, there is an intriguing third option here.
Turns out it could offer the best of both worlds while eliminating most of the headaches.
One final hurdle to consider.
Whichever route you decide though, you must prepare yourself for the “valley of despair.” Even if we hand our people state-of-the-art new software, things are going to start out slowly. It is just a fact of life, with everything new there is a learning curve. And sometimes that learning curve dips before it rises as people find their way out of the rut of old habits.
It is like I said in the beginning, tech isn’t really the answer. It is an answer that, when understood and properly coupled with investing in your people, has a massive impact. You see, at the end of the day, when you invest in your people and support them (tech or otherwise), that’s when you truly begin to see the productivity gains we have been striving for.
Want to be featured in a future Construction Curiosities Newsletter???
Want to be featured in a future Construction Curiosities Newsletter like AJ??
Welp, here’s your chance
There are only a few rules:
1. The Article has to be about something in the Construction Industry (duh)
2. The Article needs to be long enough to cover the topic but not a novel!
3. I get to insert Memes & Gifs within the article 😁
Submit your articles here: Construction Curiosities Guest Article Submission
One Live Stream
You’re probably off work & recovering from your July 4th festivities. Sooo come join us in the Can’t Miss Event of the Summer.
The Summer Roast of Bad Construction Personalities
Join Armando Tunales, James Gable, Jesse Hernandez, Jason Schroeder, and myself (Matt Graves) in a Roast Event of all those awful (err “interesting”) personalities we see on jobsites across the Country.
This one will be Livestreamed through LinkedIn and there will be some Legit Prizes for the Best Roast Comments and whatever else we feel deserving.
Head here to RSVP and make sure you hit the button to “Add to Calendar” so you get reminded on Go Time!
One Quote
One Meme
Cheers again to Nick Heim for a meme submission that went so perfectly for this week too
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Hey, just want to thank you for this article (and all of them, but especially this one). I am currently implementing a new tech integration at my company and we are definitely in the valley of despair. It’s tough to be doing it on my own up against so much backlash. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.