Dealing with situations in construction

Dealing with situations in construction

Even in full working order, construction can be messy. No amount of process "innovation" seems to alter this basic reality. Owners today remain apprehensive about the risks of construction and the ability of designers and builders to reliably deliver. In what seems to be a nearly permanent state of demand for the next best thing, the marketplace is responding to calls for change of status quo project delivery paradigms. Project constituents never quite seem to catch up. Productivity suffers as the learning curve seems never-ending. However, when notice to proceed is given and schedule pressure takes hold, discussion of collaboration must give way to actual collaboration. One of the most valued collaborative skills for design professionals is expert proficiency in situational judgment. Situational judgment tells us how to go about solving the problem by first understanding what really constitutes the problem.

 What exactly constitutes a situation in construction? A situation usually means that a technical or process problem needs to be solved. It is a precarious moment that requires using proportional measures of delicate diplomacy and blunt talk.

 Construction situations demand that design professionals be part sleuth, part sage, part cool customer, and part improvisation list. This calls for a well-developed ability in areas of diagnostics, experience, mindset, and creativity. If diagnostic skill is all about analysis and discernment of what is relevant, then the foundation of that skill rests on our experience. Our experience is the repository of the knowledge that we use as a basis of comparison to identify with the elements of the situation. However, great diagnostic ability that is firmly rooted in solid experience is not enough. In the construction environment, problem solving is always under some form of duress. The "hurry up" mantra of schedule pressure, cost constraints, and expectations of quality all exert enormous influence on everything we do.  Under stressful conditions, our mindset is vital; it must promote action over paralysis.

 Lastly, we need to develop creative skills that synthesize solutions by using tools on hand, left to us by the situation. Emphasizing development in these four areas should be the goal of every professional involved in the construction process.