Change is Coming

 

  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