Construcciones Yamaro: Driving technology adoption in construction

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Dr Gretchen Gagel outlines practical strategies for improving technology adoption within the construction industry, offering insights for individuals, teams and organisations alike.

By Dr Gretchen Gagel.

I remember visiting a construction project years ago and discussing technology use with the team. I heard things like, “Yes, we’re supposed to use this scheduling software, but it’s too complicated, so we manage the schedule with a spreadsheet,” and “Our team has this great new technology for identifying design clashes, but no one else in the organisation seems interested in using it.” Do these statements sound familiar? I believe they highlight two of the many challenges we face in adopting technology in the construction industry.

Dr Gretchen Gagel. (Image: Heidi Victoria)

In my previous Inside Construction editorials, I have explored advancements in construction technology, including areas like artificial intelligence (AI). In this piece, I focus on the specific steps you, your teams and your organisation can take to accelerate technology adoption. I believe that those who win the technology adoption race will gain a competitive advantage in the construction industry in the coming years.

For instance, imagine feeding three million pages of design documents for a high-rise into AI and then being able to ask “Gretchen” for the specification of the paint used in room H8 on Level 3 and receiving an instantaneous answer. That is exactly what Dr Sarah Buchner, founder of Trunk Tools, is achieving.

Here are some key elements to consider for enabling faster and more effective technology adoption within your construction teams and organisations:

1. Develop a technology strategic plan

I invited Ted Souder, a retired Google executive and one of the first 300 employees at the company, to appear as a guest on the Greatness Podcast after he stated on LinkedIn that any business strategy developed more than 10 years ago was obsolete. According to Ted, such plans fail to include a digital transformation strategy and are therefore doomed to fail.

I invited Ted to join me virtually for my keynote speech at the Construction User Roundtable (CURT) in Arizona earlier this year, where he shared a concrete five-step framework for developing a digital transformation strategy:

1. Embrace a digital mindset – aspire to be an industry leader in technology adoption;
2. Deputise a group of leaders – to audit the organisation and find friction;
3. Understand that you do not need to do it alone – leverage local technology incubators, for example;
4. Create full transparency for the technology adoption strategy – to everyone in the organisation; and
5. Develop a strategy and vision for the future – including how technology can enhance organisational performance.

These steps may sound simple, but adopting a systemic approach to developing your organisation’s comprehensive technology strategy is critical. This strategy must be integrated into your overall strategic plan to ensure that leaders understand its importance and are committed to its execution.

2. Dedicate resources

Too often, organisations either rely solely on their IT departments to explore technology solutions – despite these departments potentially lacking an understanding of the operational needs – or depend on grassroots technology exploration, which can lead to disjointed technology usage across the enterprise. Dedicating human and financial resources to the deliberate exploration of new technologies is critical, especially given the rapid pace of technological development in the construction industry.

As Ted stated, you do not have to do this alone; partnering with technology incubators and industry associations is a great way to broaden your understanding of emerging technologies in the construction sector.

3. Invest in enterprise-wide training

Once a technology solution is selected, consistent enterprise-wide adoption is achievable only if users are adequately trained. “On-the-job training” is often insufficient, and inadequate training can lead to underutilisation of the technology, resulting in unmet expectations. This can lead to comments like, “See, it didn’t work”, as well as frustration and under-investment in future technologies. Organisations need to celebrate effective technology implementations to build momentum for future deployments, and investing in training is a critical component of that success.

4. Adopt a zero-tolerance attitude

Years ago, the partners of the organisation where I was CEO decided to utilise a new travel expense tracking app to simplify the collection, coding and billing of clients for our travel expenses. Despite unanimous agreement, months later, one partner had still not started using the technology, and it was wreaking havoc on our client invoicing. As CEO, I asked nicely twice, and then I said, “If you don’t start using this technology, we will not reimburse your travel expenses.”

Allowing people to avoid adopting technology sends a message that we are not serious about adoption and creates inconsistent internal and externally facing systems and processes. As a leader, I believe it is okay to hold people accountable for technology adoption.

I believe these strategies are fundamental for effectively selecting and adopting technology solutions in a strategic way that contributes to the organisation’s bottom line.

5. Here are some additional tips

• Lead the way: Leaders set the tone. If you are the leader of an organisation, business unit or team and not utilising the technology being adopted, it sends a clear message that it is okay to not adopt the technology.
• Address people’s fears: Much of the reluctance to adopt new technology stems from fear. I have learned a lot about our brains from many people, including my friend Kristen Hansen, author of Traction: The Neuroscience of Leadership and Performance. In our brains, the social pain we feel during a failure to learn a new technology feels similar to the physical pain of breaking our leg. We need to realise that people may fear failure and may fear an inability to learn the new technology. Creating the psychological safety to talk about this fear will eliminate a barrier to technology adoption.
• Be patient: Technology adoption rarely creates wins overnight. We need to create the space and time for people to learn and implement the technology, which is challenging given the pace of the construction industry. When deadlines loom, people are not going to invest time in utilising a new technology if it initially takes longer to complete tasks. We need to create that breathing space to experiment, fail, learn and excel.
• Celebrate successes: We excel at tackling complex problems in our industry but sometimes overlook the importance of celebrating our successes. When a person or team successfully adopts a technology, take the time to publicly celebrate that win.

Envision the CEO of your organisation sharing these points during a company-wide meeting:

1. Each year, we dedicate resources to investigate technologies that, if implemented, would provide the greatest value to our organisation by enhancing efficiency, safety, competitiveness and owner/shareholder return;
2. This year we investigated 16 technologies and have selected these three for implementation over the next 12 months;
3. We are dedicating $600,000 to training and support efforts to ensure we achieve the consistent, enterprise-wide adoption of these three technologies;
4. We need each of you to be on board with this decision and committed to adopting these technologies in order to succeed; and
5. Twelve months from now, we will evaluate our technology adoption efforts and our return on investment, make any necessary adjustments, and share this information company-wide.

This type of conversation sets the tone from the top on technology adoption in construction.

Leaders must be strategic in choosing which technologies will have the greatest return for the organisation, commit adequate resources to training and implementation, and hold people accountable for adoption. Creating a clear vision of what digital transformation will accomplish for your organisation, setting the course and sticking with it is critical as a leader.

Dr Gretchen Gagel is chair of Brinkman Construction (US) and a member of the Global Risk Committee for GHD Engineering, the National Academy of Construction (US), the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (AUS), and the Associated General Contractor (AGC) of America National Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Gretchen is passionate about leading change in the construction industry and developing its future leaders. You can hear more from Gretchen on her Spotify podcast, “Greatness”.

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