this month
...a better way of working
4-5 BIM: It’s Good to Talk Dr. Andy Ainsworth One of the foundations of successful change is good communication.
Welcome June Issue
Tim Whitehill Managing Director
6-7 Women + EI = Success
“
Hello and welcome to our third edition of The Improver.
Our main article features some of the key issues around how the construction industry is often critisised for poor leadership and management skills. Could emotional intelligence coupled with increasing womens involvement in the industry be the answer? We are also delighted to bring
you a second article ‘BIM: It’s Good to Talk’ which discusses how better comunication can be key to improving collaboration.
Tim Whitehill Construction is a greatly overlooked industry in terms of its status, both as a future career choice for the next generation...
Finally our third article ‘Digital Construction’, discusses how BIM is spearheading a revolution through the adoption of digital technologies for design and construction. Remember our views are our own and we welcome comments and viewpoints that you wish to share with us.
8-9 Digital Construction
Dr. Andy Ainsworth
Interested in the NFB Digital Construction Programme? See pages 8-9 to take the FREE online diagnostic!
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is spearheading a revolution in construction through the adoption of digital technologies for design and construction alongside collaborative ways of working.
BIM: It’s Good to Talk By Dr. Andy Ainsworth
I
n my last article, I wrote about the importance of managing change in relation to BIM. One of the foundations of successful change is good communication. Back in the mid-1990s, BT ran an advertising campaign around the theme of 'It's good to talk.' The campaign, starring Bob Hoskins, delivered BT an incremental £5 billion boost over the five years it ran. So, what's this got to do with BIM?! The success of the campaign was in its simplicity and the power of good communication. It goes without saying (I hope...) that BIM is a collaborative process. An organisation's BIM capability to deliver measurable project outcomes is only as good as the capability of other organisations in the supply chain. Delivering measurable project
outcomes is in turn reliant on those organisations across the supply chain being able to work collaboratively towards common goals. Understanding and harnessing the collective capabilities of a project supply chain is crucial to the success of a BIM project. Or any project for that matter. It makes sense then, that one of the foundations of success is ensuring that there are processes in place to ensure that common understanding exists. Hence the requirement in PAS 1192-2 to assess supply chain capability during project procurement. But, whilst the Pre-contract BIM Execution Plan provides a project level assessment, organisational change for BIM requires a more strategic approach.
One of the recommendations we often (in fact, always) make to the organisations we work with is to open the conversation with their project partners about their knowledge and skills in relation to BIM and their ability to embrace collaborative working. A common complaint we hear from designers and contractors is that ‘clients aren’t asking for BIM.’ And where they do, they have an unstructured approach to specifying what they want. ‘This project shall be delivered to Level 2 BIM’ is not infrequently encountered. Similarly, clients are often unaware of what their supply chain can deliver for them and as a result have unrealistic expectations. Some of the more enlightened clients and contractors we have worked with have recognised this. And those which have made most
progress have done it in an open and structured way. Unfortunately, one of the most common things we see is a general BIM questionnaire, often using questions from the CPIx assessment forms. A blunt approach perhaps, and a guaranteed turn off, it can feel like a hard gate selection process to some subcontractors. Although, perhaps it is a necessary evil, organisations particularly contractors, are dealing with large supply chains. However, this approach can feel unfocused and the value of the information collected is questionable. The best results are when organisations take a more open and collaborative approach. This includes clients as well as contractors. Possibly the best example is a
"Delivering measurable project outcomes is reliant on organisations across the supply chain being able to work collaboratively towards common goals."
large local authority we worked with, which engaged a wide range of organisations on its consultant and contractor frameworks in an open and honest conversation about the potential approach to BIM. Delivered through a series of monthly workshops over a six month period that group is still meeting and continuing the conversation two years on. We also know that both client and supply chain are actively engaged in BIM projects, and more importantly they are now beginning to report positive benefits. The same is true of subcontractors who suspect their Tier 1 contractors want BIM but haven't had the nerve to ask them the question. Sometimes this is through fear of giving the wrong answer and sometimes it is simply not knowing the questions to ask. Again, we have seen good examples of
where main contractors have engaged collaboratively with their supply chains to identify the most appropriate processes, tools and systems to support BIM and collaborative working. Sometimes, it simply comes down to picking up the phone and asking the question. As the saying goes, ‘It’s good to talk.’
About the author
Andy loves helping companies understand the challenges thrown down by BIM and wants to enable them to overcome those challenges. He also likes to write about these experiences and share his knowledge with the wider world. His words are his own and always thought provoking.
C
onstruction is an industry that offers so many opportunities and so many different roles in the creation of our built environment. Yet it is a greatly overlooked industry in terms of its status, both as a future career choice for the next generation, and by society as a whole who often don’t appreciate the design expertise, the technical skills and the intricate problem solving techniques required to build our roads, schools, hospitals and homes.
poor leadership and management skills; isn’t it about time we introduced a different solution; one that makes use of something women tend to have more of than men… introducing emotional intelligence (EI).
What is emotional intelligence (EI)?
Popularised in the mid-1990s by Daniel Goleman, put very simply, Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to manage and regulate their own emotions, harnessing them to become more productive, as well as better team The largest sector of society that members and leaders. In addition overlooks the industry is women. high levels of emotional intelliThe industry has seen a drop in gence can improve a person’s the number of women from 19% ability to manage other people, to 11% over the last few years. At using skills such as empathy in a time when workload is beginorder to help them motivate or ning to pick up once more and negotiate. skills shortages have become our next crisis; if we are already The construction industry has not alienating 50% of our potential been as receptive as other sectors workforce, that shortage will only to the concept of EI. Perhaps this get worse. is because it is seen as a ‘soft skill’. Or perhaps the word More women equals ‘emotional’ in a male dominated more emotional intelligence. environment is largely unappreciWe’ve seen countless drives and ated. Yet construction is an initiatives over the years to industry that relies heavily on increase women’s involvement in teams and interpersonal relations, the industry, mainly targeting effective leadership and people issues such as harassment, bully- management is key. And key to ing and the subconscious sexism people management is emotional for instance, which are just some intelligence. The evidence says of the barriers that make recruit- so. ment and retention of women in our industry such a challenge. EI training of people has been And whilst these campaigns and trending in other sectors for the support for women have been several years now. Retail, finance, to a degree effective, and are and even the armed forces are certainly vital for cultural and being taught the skills of EI. And behavioural change, there needs having worked with my colleague to be something more we can do and EI coach, Dr Michelle Brenthat will create a stepped change. nan, for the past 5 years it has become more and more clear to And coupled with the fact that the me that construction is missing industry is often criticised for out.
More emotional intelligence equals better industry.
We are often portrayed as an industry that doesn’t like the idea of being touchy-feely in our approaches to management, but the business benefits of increasing our EI are widely accepted as indisputable. Notably, women are good at engaging with their emotions and perhaps this is part of why women leaders in particular are proven to be more collaborative, less adversarial and more inclusive (all the skills our industry needs right now) as a study by Mckinsey shows. This same study also evidences that diverse organisations, outperform their competitors by 15%. We need more women in our sector. Blighted by poor performance and poor collaboration perhaps it’s time we took this different approach to improving our wonderful industry. I’m not saying it’s the complete answer to all our problems but should we become a more emotionally intelligent workforce, more consciously aware of our responses to certain situations or people, perhaps we can obliterate the issue of subconscious sexism and unconscious bias altogether enabling a more diverse workforce – and a better industry for all.
By Tim Whitehill
Take the diagnostic Click Here
DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION By Dr. Andy Ainsworth
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is spearheading a revolution in construction through the adoption of digital technologies for design and construction alongside collaborative ways of working.
P
roject Five has spent much of the last five years working with organisations across the construction supply chain to raise awareness, build capacity, capability and skills to implement BIM at both an individual and an organisation level. Whilst the industry has made good progress in grasping the theory, there has been limited impact in terms of BIM being consistently applied on projects. We recognise this through market intelligence and this is backed up by a number of surveys that have been carried out to assess the industry’s understanding and adoption of BIM. Construction News has reported that less than 25% of tenders include an Employer’s Information Requirement with data needs set out and the NBS found that 46% of the industry is only just aware of BIM. On the back of these results, Project Five has
around BIM and collaborative working. The programme is designed to support contractors and their project supply chains on a live project to develop and embed knowledge and capability through focused support around specific aspects of BIM and to develop approaches to collaborative working. If the original hypothesis for BIM The programme comprises 33 was ‘Government as a client can days’ training and consultancy support for the duration of each derive significant improvements in cost, value and carbon perfor- project. It is based on a series of mance through the use of open structured training modules to support main contractors and sharable asset information’ then their project teams with underour hypothesis for Digital Construction is that ‘the industry will standing, implementing and make more progress with where it delivering BIM and collaborative is supported to apply BIM and working in a live project environment. The aim is to move the collaborative working on live industry on from the theory stage projects.’ into practical implementation, with a focus on how collaboration Digital Construction is a CITBfunded programme, which makes supports the outcomes and beneavailable up to £30,000 of fund- fits envisaged for BIM. ing for levy paying contractors for practical training and support been working alongside the National Federation of Builders to secure funding for Digital Construction, an exciting new support programme to develop and enhance the ways in which contractors and their supply chains work collaboratively using BIM on live projects.
"Delivering measurable project outcomes is reliant on organisations across the supply chain being able to work collaboratively towards common goals."
The programme modules include: • An online BIM and collaborative working diagnostic • Strategic Leadership Programme in BIM and Collaborative Working • BIM Fundamentals course to embed basic knowledge and skills • BIM Practitioner programme to train key individuals to lead BIM implementation • Collaborative Working programme to establish the Common Data Environment • Collaborative Working and Information Delivery programme to develop proectlevel information management processes • BIM, Technology and Collaborative Working programme to deliver a range of BIM outcomes, including 4D, 5D and 6D outcomes • BIM and Lean programme to support the collaborative production and use of infor mation for construction teams on site The NFB and Project Five Consulting are inviting Expressions of Interest from contractors and other organisations wishing to access this funded support. However, there is limited funding available and the programme is only able to support 10 projects over the next 12-18 months. To find out more about the programme and the support available please contact Andy Ainsworth by email andy.ainsworth@projectfiveconsulting.co.uk