Written by LetsBuild
Last updated October 18, 2023
鈥淚nteresting Bits鈥� in Construction.
Some of us older 鈥渂uilders鈥� are considered, by the younger generation, as being completely out of date and just not in today鈥檚 construction world!
Well…
Just to get it straight in everyone鈥檚 heads, I鈥檓 sat writing this on my MS Surface tablet! And I have a smartphone!
I do have to admit some deficiency, though. On LinkedIn, just today, I鈥檝e had to ask what 鈥溾�� and 鈥溾�� actually mean! I have my suspicions!
My guess is that they are just fancy words, made up by academics, to cover making sure that any work is done to a decent standard and that bits of paper are filed away so they can be found in the future.
Anyone care to contradict me?
Now I鈥檝e Blogged before about construction Complexity, Uniqueness and Uncertainty. It is!
But we must like that or we鈥檇 get out into something else to earn our livings!
During an Interview for a project turnaround role I鈥檇 be given a long, boring break-down of where the project had got to and asked what I鈥檇 do about it. My reply was
鈥淪uck it and see, then make it up as I go along.鈥�
If they couldn鈥檛 understand that was just plain English for
鈥渂ring transferable senior management skills and experience to analysing the issues before synthesising solution strategies鈥�
then I wasn鈥檛 interested in working for them!
I like the KISS Principle 鈥� 鈥淜eep it simple, stupid!鈥�
Right! On that theme there are a couple of expressions used in construction projects, usually in Meetings, which seriously annoy me! They are 鈥淐hallenging Issues鈥� and 鈥淐omplicated Issues鈥�!
Well, some people might look at them like that, but they are probably in the wrong job or are at a construction management level they weren鈥檛 ready for!
We should be used to dealing with complexity, uniqueness and uncertainty as a part of our daily routine!
Now, in that context, if something is 鈥淐hallenging鈥� or 鈥淐omplicated鈥� I reckon it should be considered to be something outside our daily routine, which can become a bit boring to us, even if it would drive Operational Managers crazy.
On that basis I reckon these 鈥淚ssues鈥� should be re-labelled:-
鈥淚nteresting Bits鈥�!
Are you a fan of the interesting bits within Construction?
