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Technology has the power to transform construction management, but only if it’s in the right hands and used with consistency. In a field traditionally resistant to change, adoption requires blending today’s wealth of technical solutions with the change management strategies that institutionalize new approaches for efficiencies and risk mitigation.

It’s a matter of seizing the power of technology while also cultivating leadership qualities that win hearts and minds of people on the jobsite. This article explores the barriers to technology adoption, the keys to maximizing today’s software platforms and a two-part change mangement action plan for leading team members along the journey.

Hands-on Power: Overcoming Tech Obstacles

Across the construction realm, design teams, project owners and contractors have learned the advantages of applying technology to their tasks. In large part, their adoption of technology has been enabled by mobile phones and tablets — portable machines that put all the tech tools they need in their hands.

However, adoption in the field has been lagging. Traditionally, field teams have their hands full with bigger items, as they drive machines, frame walls, pour concrete and install mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The hands-on necessity of field work hasn’t changed, but moden life has made mobile devices indispensable. 

Workers onsite have become so accustomed to using their phones for everything that it opens the opportunity to demonstrate the power of technology to augment jobsite practices. With a phone in their hands, they can sneak a peek at BIM updates while the concrete they just poured is drying.

The key to accelerating the pace of adoption, then, is twofold: Tech-minded site leaders need to make construction apps function like the consumer apps that have become indispensable to life outside the jobsite, while nudging team members to grasp their inherent power to make work function more smoothly and efficiently.

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Step 1: Line up the technology.

Construction management software and platforms elevate project management in several key technical areas, such as root causing, risk management, assessing lead indicators, communications and trend analysis. 

Successfully implementing those elements depends on strategy, starting with discovery of the organization’s goals. The process includes these steps:

1. Ask questions.

   Start by asking questions about the most recent piece of software the company installed. How challenging was it? Who was involved? In what ways did it succeed ± and fail? The results form a baseline picture of the organization’s capacity for change.

2. Find pain points.

   Uncover three key pain points. Put the people involved on an imaginary desert island and force them to name the one thing that the company must fix. Then, have them pick the second and third items that demand solutions.

3. Combine and organize findings.

   Combine the two sets of findings to spool out technological solutions aligned with the pain points and the organization’s capacity for change. If previous attempts to adopt software have floundered, introduce change judiciously, in small, manageable bites that, over time, transform into standard operating procedures.

Step 2: Win over the people.

Cloud-based tools offer PMs and other project leaders the efficiencies of running jobsites remotely, communicating directly without the time needed to travel. However, virtual management only works when the other side of the equation — the people in the field — are utilizing the same tools. Teams need to see the same vision that the PM sees.

This is where two-sided change management enters the picture. People are the second half of the technology adoption puzzle. Consider these streps at the personnel — and personal — level:

1. Build trust first.

   Do the pre-work to build relationships and trust. Be humans together. Take a break, and don’t talk about work. Get to know the strengths that each team member can contribute.

2. Strive for shared success.

   Craft a compelling “why,” and build understanding of how each change will benefit them, the organization and you.

3. Balance and leverage relationships.

   Recognize that some people simply won’t change, but leverage those who — even with decades of experience — understand that there’s always a better way to do something.

Learning is doing. Create champions by using technology to solve the thorniest problems confronting team members daily. When they see the impact, they will seek out more.

Be conscientious and strategic about end-user training and rollout. Measure and optimize the benefits and drawbacks of change as they materialize. Make continuous tweaks that address stumbling blocks.

Sometimes, a company’s existing processes transfer easily to technology. Sometimes, the processes themselves must change, because the platform doesn’t accommodate them.

In both cases, successful implementation hinges on providing technical solutions and empowering people to utilize them. Strategically blending change management for processes and people can transform jobsites into powerhouses of efficiency, risk mitigation and project optimization.

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