How does digital innovation drive culture change within an organization? Sometimes culture change can take a long time to grow—too long to wait for the benefits of digital innovation in construction safety. So, how can digital solutions be applied effectively while boosting positive culture change in a meaningful, efficient way? In our last post, we discussed why digital innovation must be based on a people-centered approach. By helping frontline workers at all levels of a construction firm become part of bringing new solutions online, you can keep workers safe and boost a strong culture of safety. Now, let’s discuss how leaders can help their workers successfully implement digital innovation and drive culture change.
Construction Firms Must Innovate
Innovation is another word for “change”. For many people, change is scary and inconvenient. Innovation challenges processes we are comfortable with. When we stretch beyond the comfortable, we discover how much better things can be.
Digital innovation centers on using advanced technology to improve processes, making them safer, easier and more efficient. At some point, everyone, from decision makers and supervisors to the newest frontline worker, needs to be able to see how refusing to implement innovation can actually lead to more harm than good. On the flip side, everyone must see how innovation can make the work environment better, safer and more competitive.
Drive Culture Change in Construction
Culture change can seem like a slow, gradual process, but it’s amazing how quickly it can happen when the right technological solution comes along. Consider just how quickly the world changed when smartphones were introduced. Suddenly, things like folding paper road maps and leafing through huge paper phone books were archaic. The technology vastly improved efficiency and ease. So, don’t let the difficulty of culture change become an excuse to stay in the past when something better is on the horizon.
In fact, the recent Future-Ready Index report provides some key insight to building a culture that readily embraces new ideas, better ways of working, fresher processes that reduce waste of time and resources, and most importantly, more effective ways to keep workers safe. The best way to really encourage culture change is to work with the up-and-coming generation of workers who have already grown up in the environment of digital innovation in their daily lives, provide clear training on the goals of the new solutions, and encourage them to be innovators in their own right.
Of course, there are risks that come with innovation. Fortunately, you can reduce risks, manage processes and maximize improvement. Recognize that in a competitive environment like construction, not encouraging culture change and challenging your firm to innovate is, perhaps, the biggest risk of all.
7 Success Factors Driving Culture Change in Construction
The Future-Ready Index survey discovered some key factors present in construction companies that successfully adopt digital innovation and positive culture change:
- Construction companies that integrated digital project management reporting tools were ahead of the competition by 69 percent.
- Successful companies have made creativity and digital innovation a cultural touchstone within their organizations.
- They also had dedicated leadership teams to guide the process that included frontline workers.
- Future-minded companies didn’t speed headlong into change; they took small, deliberate steps to change on a daily basis, and they involved everyone at all levels in the process.
- Successful companies took time to chart a course with their technology vision. They outlined their needs for improvement and looked for solutions that brought them closer to their vision.
- With that clear vision, they were able to discover tools that fit their needs to move into the future.
- Most of all, the leadership involved frontline workers in the process from the beginning, which helped change the culture from the inside out and made adopting new solutions more successful.
Note that the survey also discovered that the bottom 20 percent of construction industry leaders usually went for a top-down approach that paid very little attention to their frontline workers, diversity or the need for organizational change. As the study found, a people-first approach is a major driving factor in successful culture change and digital innovation adoption.
Anvl Makes Digital Innovation Easier for Construction
Companies that bring problem solvers in from the outside can often find even more innovative and successful ways to spur change. Fresh perspectives can help leaders and workers see solutions they might not otherwise have discovered because they were too close to the situation. Anvl is dedicated to helping you bring the benefits of digital innovation to your construction firm, and enabling you to adopt the kinds of positive culture changes that the very top construction firms have already incorporated into their organizations. Our solution empowers workers to adopt a fresh digital innovation mindset and gives them tools and training to incorporate new technology into their everyday processes, while developing wide-ranging culture change. Get our free demo and contact our experts today to get started.
