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For what was
once a fairly stable and conservative occupation, today
we are caught up in a sea of momentous change affecting
nearly every aspect of our business. Time was you could
pace out a site, scribble some numbers on the back of a
piece of paper, make a few calculations, add in your secret
fudge factor, and come up with a decent bid. When the electronic
calculator came along, it allowed you to add a few extra
decimal places to your initial calculations, but your secret
factor rounded those off so the end result was pretty much
the same as when Assyrians pounded out their bid documents
in cuneiform.
But then came
the computer and spreadsheet and the bidding wars began
to heat up, leading us to the present where if you don't
have a pretty high-powered business software suite you're
liable to find yourself among the also-rans. And that's
just one aspect of the digital revolution that has both
blessed and cursed our lives.
Face it—life
was pretty good before the microchip. Do you remember the
days when you'd meet face-to-face with the project owner
to discuss what the job entailed, lay out the schedule,
talk about money, shake hands, jump on a machine—with levers
and mechanical linkages, oh my goodness—and move some dirt?
In those days it seemed that amid all the dirt, smoke, and
confusion you were able to make time for some fishing or
golfing or camping with your family. The machines you operated
were beefy and often needed to be coaxed to perform with
a firm hand that was on an honest-to-goodness chunk of metal
rather than a something more suitable as a child's toy than
a thundering behemoth turning mountains into molehills.
You don't have to have been moving dirt for too many years
to remember the day you saw your first joystick and wondered
just what the designers were sprinkling into their oatmeal.
Now look what's happened.
Instead of a
couple of rugged gauges designed somewhere during the Middle
Ages by a blacksmith who basically told you that the engine
was working just in case you had any doubts in the matter,
today you have multifunction displays capable of telling
both the physical and the mental state of your engine, transmission,
and electro-hydraulic systems, including what's wrong and
how to fix it. Nor does the technological intrusion end
with status checks. Laser and global positioning systems
can show you almost as well as your eyeballs where you stand—literally
and in terms of your project—where you'll be when you finish
the job, and how to get there from here.
For sure computers
have brought a lot of aggravation into our lives, perhaps
causing you to wonder whether your job is as satisfying
today as it used to be. But when you compare what you can
accomplish in an hour or a week today against the same period
only a decade ago, the difference is astounding, and the
revolution is only in its infancy. Can you imagine meeting
the emerging regulatory, environmental, safety, and legal
challenges without the help of today's technology? I seriously
doubt it. And it's only going to get more demanding from
here on out.
Risingto
the Challenge
Perhaps the most
challenging situation we face today—and one that will become
even more critical in the future—is the evolving makeup
of our workforce. Nationwide, nearly two-thirds of our construction
workers do not have English as their primary language and
in many cases do not speak, read, or understand English
at all.
Technology can
and will help us adapt to the situation, but that's only
a small part of the answer. The solution lies with you and
your ability to stay on the front side of the power curve
when it comes to change. What does this entail? Well, to
begin with, it means taking an inventory of your entire
operation to see how it measures up to the challenge. Just
what are the language and cultural conditions in your workforce?
Do such things as your policy manual, instructions, signage,
and warning decals reflect the actual needs of your workforce?
Are you and your supervisors able to communicate fully and
precisely with your workers? Have you found ways to provide
both the education and the training to develop the language
and technical skills of your non-English-speaking workers?
Those who are
able to meet such challenges as these will have a distinct
advantage over those who carry on "business as usual." Staying
on top of change is tough, but luckily there are a lot of
resources out there to help. We're one of them, and it's
our job to tell you about them. But you can help us be even
more valuable by letting us know about the changes you're
experiencing and the steps you've taken to stay on top of
them.
In future issues
we want to present these—your——experiences
in a "Dealing With Change" column. We'll do the
writing, but first we need to hear from you. If you've met
and overcome challenges of change and you're proud of what
you've accomplished, please contact us by e-mail at editor@forester.net
and allow us to share your experiences with others.
Send
John an Email
GEC
- July/August 2004
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