Achieving Change in Construction Is a Matter of Mental Models
August 29th, 2004 by HalIn the summer of 2003 three authors presented their thoughts on the nature of the breakdown delivering projects in the construction industry. Lauri Koskela took the lead writing with Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell. The authors analyze the current situation for making change, present the conventional solutions, propose a systemic approach, and outline a four-part approach to change. You can find their paper Achieving Change in Construction along with the other IGLC conference papers introduced on this site.
People throughout the construction industry acknowledge that projects are routinely late, over budget, fail to satisfy the customer in some significant way, create strains on project team members, and injure and kill workers along the way. News of any of these circumstances no longer surprises, nor are we moved to action. The authors characterize the situation with the question, "Do we need a problem-solving approach or systemic change?" After examining the changes underway they conclude:
"The limited impact of structural, behavioral and IT related initiatives to date points to the same limit to change — the current mental model of production."
So the mental model(s?) are to blame. That on one hand seems to be on the mark, but what are the prevailing models and what might we change to?
The prevailing model of construction projects has been well-described as transformation of information and material, a.k.a the input-process-output (IPO) model. Activities are identified in a reductionist fashion breaking down milestones into activities and activities into tasks. Tasks are assigned to tiers of experts individually contracted and left to manage their work by themselves.
And the new mental model(s)? The authors fail to offer proposals saying instead,
"(T)he switch from the transformation model (of production) to the flow model is just one, even if important, part of the paradigm shift needed…new distinct elements of the theoretical foundation have been progressively found…and we anticipate a quest for unification of theory of production and production management."
My friends conclude the dilemma of construction is an issue of the unification of production theory. I do believe they see the limitations of current mental models. However, in this paper they limited their view on what mental models are in question. They may be making a starting-out error by characterizing construction first as production rather than as project. This leaves out of the quest a look at the examination of project management, communication theory, approaches to design and engineering, and education, just to name a few intersecting mental models.
Lauri, Glenn, and Greg suggest there are two complementary approaches for achieving change. The first has to do with producing economic value. They argue that people will adopt an approach that produces higher value. They couple this with a high involvement high learning organizational approach. High involvement will bring about the change. Yet they finish this wonderful paper with,
"(T)he sluggishness of change in construction is due to limited understanding of change needed and resulting confusion regarding means of change."
Can we make the change to new mental models? Certainly our current mental models have tremendous inertia reinforced by computer systems, contracting practices, the organization of the industry, and our education systems. But change we must. I think the authors are right. Change is limited to understanding of the current situation. Read Achieving Change in Construction to learn from three of the best minds on the subject.
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