I’ve been asked a couple of times recently about my writing process and I responded that my process is what I would call “raw data dump”. Usually when I apply this process, I have a singular thought I want to express and most of the words that spew forth hone in on that topic. This time I have a few ideas swirling around in my head and I am going to let all of my creative juices to just flow, and hope that I can come out of the other end with something that makes some sort of sense. Buckle up; it could be a bumpy ride .

I’m just back from the MCAA Tech Conference that was held in Tampa. This particular event is one of my favorites because of the way that it facilitates that word Ric Kahn taught me, coopetition. This two-plus day event houses over two hundred members of scores of mechanical contractors as they share best practices, new technologies, lessons learned, and “artful uses” of tools.

These are the kinds of places we Construction Dorks can really come together and challenge each other and ourselves. We can look at what other companies are doing, ask questions, figure the why’s if not the how’s, and then translate that back to new things to try back in our offices. Sean McGuire puts on an excellent event and you can see in the posts being shared around that there are several examples where competitors are sitting around a table trying to solve problems together.

Great last day of the #MCAATech this year. One of my favorite sessions today was working through the VDC process with contractors trying to identify the pain points and challenges. Thanks to all of our speakers, attendees and staff that helped out this year. pic.twitter.com/7X9r7h7B1G
— Sean McGuire (@MCAAGeek) February 1, 2019

It’s also a place where we can talk about where we think things may be going. I had the incredible of honor of presenting alongside of Brett Young and we covered some lines of thought that might be considered a little out there and maybe even controversial as it points at what could be very disruptive to players in the market since, in disruption, someone always loses. Stay tuned on LinkedIn as Brett releases out the presentation in a 6 part series of articles.

AEC Innovation, Disruption & Productivity - Part 1

Much is often made, including by me, about the conversations that happen around these events. The sessions always, of course, have incredible value, but I also always enjoy getting to socialize with people who are trying to push the boundaries of things while being added by, shall we say, social lubricants?

Two main thoughts came to me through these conversations. The first was that we need to work harder to get more of our employees exposed to these technology events. Much to our credit and benefit, Mechanical, Inc. is often very well represented at these types of events. We had a total of seven people at the event and challenged ourselves to bring some different people. More often than not, the people in the VDC department are sent to the technology event as they are the ones most directly using tech in their jobs. This time we brought along someone from business development as well as a project manager.

I won’t say that their minds were blown, but I will say that they were opened. Construction Technologist are often facing the challenge of selling tech adoption internally to people who are unable to envision the usage or how it can help them in their role. Having these other job types see sessions outlining how technologies can be used on projects really opens their eyes to what’s possible. It turns them into advocates who will also begin to ask what else might be possible with some technology sprinkled in or if we connect certain bits of data together. I am excited to see where this can lead within Mechanical, Inc. and what other doors it can open to me as the resident Dork to aide my company.

The second thought that I can’t get out of my head is one put there by Jonathan Marsh. We were discussing the struggles I occasionally have in being the Mad Scientist that sees the shiny object, gathers and connects up the tech or data or what have you, then has to see it through to full adoption and implementation. Admittedly, there are times that I will outright fail at the last step because I might already be on to baking up the next batch of cool tech cookies to try out so I am not as focused on making sure the last batch has been vetted, cooled, and consumed.

Jonathan calls this being a 60%er. I can take an idea to a certain level, but then I rely on a subject matter expert or a process champion to really take it home. If you recall on a previous article also inspired by Jonathan, I outlined the types of Dorks. I feel like I am a Connector on the Dork Personality scale. I think this makes me pretty decent in connecting both ideas as well as people and hopefully the end result is an improved process or better data insights that allow that expert to then, with some input once more, bring it to scale through their job, department, or the company.

I really like this image. It allows me to remain on that bleeding edge and keep trying new things, but it does leave me with needing to learn a new skill. I need to learn how to better challenge and inspire these champions of the tech or process and then help them have their wins in bringing forth the implementation.

I believe having colleagues in other roles attend these events can be a big part of that. It gets back again to them learning what is possible and asking what else can we do. Looking for these ins and then cultivating and helping them be hero who brings the idea to full realization should hopefully bring more early adopters out asking more questions.

I will say this is a place where I might challenge the status quo of what I see in construction. Again, remember that I am fairly new to construction so I am not viewing the whole industry through a full lens of experience, but there is always this push to make sure as much of any employee’s time is directly chargeable to a job. I get it. Our companies make money based off of executing jobs paid for by customers, so anything not charged to a job is overhead which can ultimately come right off of the profitability of the company .

I do feel like there needs to be a shift here. Not so much maybe in actual execution, but at least in mindset. We need to think more about how adding a small fraction to overhead might actually benefit ALL jobs and make them all more profitable. We get too short sighted and only see the hit to overhead.

We also don’t often allow ourselves time to just take a step back, take a breath, survey the situation, and then drive forward. For our part, we’re doing a better job at Mechanical with post job reviews, lessons learned, building out knowledge sharing, etc, but I think this is something that can always be improved. If we’re not moving forward, we’re going backwards, right? If we don’t stop to think before we act, we’re doomed to make the same mistakes.

I’ll close this rambling mess out with one final statement that will hopefully tie it together. Doubt the default (via Nathan Wood from Adam Grant). We need to continually challenge ourselves and our perceptions. We need to get those around us to challenge theirs, to get THEM to challenge OURS, and to ask why . I feel like we’ve been ticking our way up on a roller coaster in construction and construction tech over the last few years and we’re about to hit that tipping point where we’ll be in for a wild ride. It’s going to be exciting and we need to be open-minded enough and asking the right questions so we’re not thrown into the crowd below.