I wish to share something that I posted over the weekend to help other chapters review the changes we are all facing.
(1) Change is inevitable. You should have seen the old website - at least we can use this one on our phones now.
(2) Change is usually painful. Master Format/ Uni-Format / 16 divisions/ 50 divisions/ keynotes / specsintact, etc.
(3)
Learning to effectively communicate professionally across multiple
generations and construction related industries is tough for even the
best of us. We can have the absolute best new wizbang gadget with the
best sales force but if the audience can't find the value then it will
fail.
(4) Time is our most precious commodity. It is under
constant scrutiny and we have to decide what is important to us. We
cannot control others decisions we may influence them but it is still
their choice. Everyone's time is precious.
(5) Our Design
Industry (Architects, Engineers and Interior Designers) have a tendency
to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We let them sink or swim. In
order to develop quality people you have to be willing to invest time in
them. You have to teach, you have to mentor and many times you have to
lead. We complain about what they don't know but don't take the time at
work, and after work to fix it.
(6) CSI can not do it all. The
tools we offer are great at facilitating that but they have to be valued
by the professionals using them. The PEOPLE in CSI are some of the best
at helping others develop but CSI in and of itself cannot do that. It
cannot and was never intended to be the one stop fix all. You can not
make someone learn, they have to be shown and sometimes nurtured into
understanding that it's easier to pay a little now rather than later
with disaster looming because they were ignorant and unprepared.
(7)
Finally - All organizations have their share of problems - some we can
fix - some we can't. Is it worth the cost to fight the changes or adapt
and move on. We only have so much time that we can afford to waste. Me
not so much. Are we a pair a fleas arguing over the color of the hair
which is on the dog while we get wagged around? Figure it out, make your
decisions and move on. The past can't help, the future is unknown, all
we have is the present, make the most of it.
For the Good of the Region
John Murray, CSI, CDT, SCIP
GSR Editor
