In, Out, Shake it all about!
My very first opportunity to vote, at the tender age of 18, was in a ‘one person, one vote’ referendum as to whether we should join the EU. My grandmother had been a labour party agent for a former government minister, my mother was a labour councillor, school governor and activist. Labour party meetings were held in our house. I was left in no doubt as to where my loyalties lay in that particular vote - and for all time. Oddly enough I lived in the Sedgefield constituency (later Tony Blair’s constituency) in those days. Even as a young man I looked at the evidence available to and voted accordingly, but as a young student it seemed to me that party politics (ambition) stood in the way of real progress.
My most recent opportunity to vote was this week in the recent UK election. My mother and Grandmother would have been proud, I voted for Lindsey Hoyle, a progressive labour party member. However, as the new speaker of the house he was standing unopposed.
Now the country has spoken, and the UK has a new government whose programme is only partially developed. Experience tells us that with any new government uncertainty is in our future. But then again the future is sculpted from uncertainty and always will be.
What we can expect is dramatic change in the UK and in Europe. Partially as a result of this UK vote and partially due to political instability inside and outside of Europe. The future will bring contention, argument and disagreement between those who are fighting for the best outcome for their people, or themselves. However, all of those caught up in the maelstrom of political and geographic change will soon recognise that an achievable plan must be drawn up if they are to have any hope of achieving acceptable results.
The fact that politicians agree that we must have a workable plan to follow, is a step in the right direction whoever we support.
Constructing the Plan, Constructing to the Plan.
Those of us in the construction industry, and wherever else major projects are conceived, developed and executed, are well versed with uncertainty. But we believe that we can manage the risk that comes with uncertainty, as long as we have sufficient certainty in our plan.
The professional and detailed planning of projects by those with experience has been a hallmark of the construction and engineering industries for decades. Schedulers plan the legal, political, financial, aesthetic and time sensitive elements of every major project with as much precision as possible.They plan to succeed, we cannot leave our success to chance.
Today in Madrid representatives from governments around the world are planning to cut and then eliminate CO2 emissions, and thus slow/halt the effects of climate change. They will be developing these plans for many years to come and implementing them for many more. For the sake of us all, and our posterity, we hope that they will do so with the same tenacity, resilience, experience and professionalism I have seen applied by planners, schedulers, quantity surveyors, project managers and all other participants in our industry, on major construction projects.
Restate where Reinvention is Unnecessary.
We live in a world that is in a constant state of flux, as are we as individuals, society itself can (and does) change, and so reinvention is both necessary and wise. However, some core principles can simply be resurrected and restated because they still work as well as they ever did.
For example, many years ago, the RIBA, a body of architects often maligned for being too concerned with project aesthetics and not concerned enough with project execution, set out an agenda for construction that is still broadly followed today. That agenda was comprehensively revisited in 2013 with the RIBA Plan of Work and its principles are still valid today.
Most of my major projects have been executed overseas and most were well outside the remit of the RIBA, but I genuinely believe that the Plan of Work is capable of adaptation for use around the globe and for most construction and engineering projects, whether or not an architect is employed.
The RIBA plan is as much a codified statement of intent as it is a suggestion of how to proceed. You may say it states the obvious, it does, but whilst these key points are still embedded in our collective psyche, do all projects follow the sound principles stated therein? I think not. If I was to give a simplified precis of the Plan of Work it may read:
- Identify needs, where do we want to be.
- Develop Objectives around those needs.
- Decide what actions are required.
- Design an executable methodology/plan of action.
- Begin construction/ execution.
- Complete the project and handover.
- Use the completed structure.
We need to innovate, be brave and sometime we are expected to create new paths to achievement, but in most cases if we follow this well-worn path, we can navigate an ever changing political and environmental landscape and still build a successful project.
Hopefully, governments will to follow a similar path to ensure that people everywhere are given opportunities to thrive in an ever-changing world. I hope that they are as successful in their pursuit of their political goals as the construction industry has been in achieving the goal of so many remarkable projects around the world.
Never forget how successful this industry has been in creating a built environment which has helped bring whole populations greater prosperity, peace and the inspiration to change the world. If only politicians could say the same.
Jeff Whitfield is a Testifying Expert Witness in Quantum and Delay, author of Conflict in Construction and Assessing Loss and Expense, and a part time lecturer/public speaker. He works for Project CDR and Novus Resolve, both based in London.