Spec Finish

Black Box Thinking – not a book review! IAIN MCILWEE Chief executive Finishes and Interiors Sector Voice of the Industry S ometimes you read something that makes you change the way you think about everything and for me, Black Box Thinking is that book. In the Competency Working Groups established in response to the Hackitt Review, FIS has been very vocal about the mnemonic SAKE (Skills, Attitude, Knowledge and Experience). Skills, knowledge and experience are the easy bits. We can give these to people. They are about training and time. The attitude is not so easy. We cannot give someone an attitude, we can only create a positive culture. This is why Dame Judith in her review highlights that we cannot wait and rely on regulation, because all that does is set the rules, how we adopt and adapt is down to us and frankly we already know what good looks like, we just don’t always set the supply chain up to succeed. The good news is that the future is coming, the Working Groups are all reporting in and we are expecting the next stage of consultation over the summer, but change is already happening. I was pulled up by a Tier 1 contractor last week for talking about subcontractors. “We don’t use that term here anymore. It doesn’t describe the relationship, it is not about master, servant, we have works partners”. This is how cultural change starts. I also attended the Get It Right Initiative AGM in London and listened to voices across the room talking about how they are working to improve quality in their companies. The FISWorking Groups too are on the c ase, they are the embodiment of Bl ack Box Thinking. We are, through these groups, exploring and sharing reasons for failure, looking for ways to reduce error (and eliminate waste), interrogating the elements of FIS Quality Framework (Product Process People) in the context of the various parts of the interiors sector and looking to create new standards, advice and support. Dame Judith very much makes it clear in her roadmap and Syed draws the same conclusion in his book, that open groups like these are intrinsic to driving positive change, we can all make changes in our own world and if these are consistent and we work together, together we really can change the world. 6 www.thefis.org i LET’S LEAVE ‘CON RACTORS’ IN THE PAST E VERY other o versation I have s ems to stray int the transformation of construction, creat g a new culture buil on quality, s fety and fair ess. It is en o raging, but at the same time, as we e ge owar s the ‘new ormal’, there seems to be a lot f the ‘old n rmal’ pi ng back in. Contracts that s anned COVID are startin t reach comple ion and, w th this, disputes and haggling (often he polite term for bullying) b gin . Th Conflict A oidance Proc ss has been encour ged by the Co struction Leadership Council, but it is disappointing to see how few f he main contractors have signed and embrac d he prin ipl s ther in. Don’t let that put you off though, we are u ging everyone in our sector to use it and start embedding the recommended clauses to your co trac s – let’s l ad by example (all he det ils you ne d in the Contractual and Legal T olkit in the knowledge section of the FIS website www.thefis.org/knowledge-hub/ c ntractual-and-legal) Pre-pandemic it was stimated that 1.6% of c nstr tion turnover was sp nt on legal fees ( highest of any sector and double the norm). The worrying part is tha this is just legal fees, if we g nuin ly cos ed i the time (and sleep loss!) spent on disputes, stress and lost opportunities, the figure w ll be far higher. Forcing risk through the upply chain It still takes some getting y ur hea round the ‘old normal’ – e emain only industry that utilises retention (allegedly to manage quality), an industry that relies on terms like ‘practical’ completion, an industry where 90% of construction projects experience some level of delay greater than 10% beyond the planned schedule (with punitive clauses meaning the cost of delays is often absorbed by subcontractors) an industry quick to lawyer or QS up! We know this is inefficient, it drives us insane, yet we carry on. Ninety years ago, our grandfathers predicted this and agreed the fairest way to share risk and manage complex relationships was carefully crafted standard contracts, developed by committees that represent all parts of the supply chain – JCT was born. We then set a process in place where these fair contracts are routinely amended to distort this balance, force risk through the supply chain and use patronising phrases like ‘well if you don’t like it, don’t take the work’ to justify. This becomes the norm and normal is no longer fair and we become slaves to the contract. The contract has become almost more significant than the process of building, it has become central to who we are. Instead of calling ourselves builders or constructors, we have even bound ourselves tighter in the contractual chains by calling ourselves ‘contractors’. What we do is majestic, we construct homes, hospitals, schools, universities, offices, factories – we build shelter, recreate landscapes, transform skylines, turn derelict areas into functional, beautiful spaces – yet we decided to identify ourselves by the ‘contract’ that shackles us, not by the buildings that inspire us. W might as well have called ourselve ‘conflicters’! Collaboration Transformation is ‘a marked change in form, nature, or appearance’. Language is key to our culture and to change our nature we need to look at language. For the ‘new normal’ to be anything other than a regression to old ways we need to respect and encourage businesses and expertise in our supply chain. Talk of pipeline can’t just be about divvying out a batch of main contracts to main contractors, it is about using the time and continuity of relationship to appoint a supply chain that works across many projects so that there is time in the project to learn, to avoid (and not repeat) problems, time to get it right first time, time to utilise the knowledge and practical expertise through the supply chain to enhance (not just drive down the price) of the project and to plan so as to avoid waste, and support investment in businesses and processes to support efficiency and modernisation. It is about genuinely collaborating and moving away from beating each other up with contracts. So, for me, a key to the transformation of construction is the metamorphosis of the caterpillar contractor to the magnificent butterfly builder – the new era of the specialist constructor. IAIN MCILWEE Chief executive Finishes and Interiors Sector