During my research on the state of light-gauge steel framing usage in residential construction, I encountered an age-old problem in construction: fear of change.
I think it is especially prevalent in home building. There are a few reasons why. First, the margins in residential construction are much tighter. Most of the profit comes in land development as opposed to construction. That’s not the case in custom home building, of course, but for production builders executing tract housing, it’s definitely true. Keeping a tight control on construction costs is part of the DNA of any company. They are building homes to specific price points and while the construction may not be speculative, the planning, development and marketing are all on spec.
Commercial contractors have to watch construction costs as well, but they are selling to an individual or company, not a market, and it’s easier to convince one buyer of a need for an amenity or improvement than it is a market.
Another reason homebuilders tend to fear change more than commercial contractors is because of the emotional element. Homebuilders construct homes, the place where family gathers around the hearth. Homebuyers think with their hearts and are constrained by their wallets. Commercial contractors build for business people who are making financial calculations, not necessarily being driven by emotion. (Although, that pesky ego does tend to get in the way of decision making sometimes.)
Because of those reasons, homebuilders cling to what they know works. There’s little incentive to change because it would force them to re-evaluate entire processes and systems. In short, they would have to rework their entire companies, and they put at risk the performance of the homes they build.
Adding a new product or building with new techniques-such as switching from wood to steel framing-means the builder has to rework all his plans and models, devise new marketing techniques, and train or find new trade contractors. The benefits of the new adoption may be clear, but the risk still remains too great.
That tradeoff between benefit and risk is one of the biggest restrictions on innovation in the construction industry. Minor increases in benefit are not enough to offset increased risk. So, designers and contractors shy away from anything that won’t improve by a handsome margin. And that improvement needs to be a sure thing. There can’t be any risk in adopting new technologies.
In other industries, new technologies are all about risk. Yes, early adopters are sometimes punished, but seldom is the punishment debilitating. Contractors who take on new technologies and fail can see their brands plummet in value and lose their companies.
Fear of change in construction is a real thing. We’d all like to see faster adoption of new technologies, but the consequences are too high.
Last September, Scottish citizens went to the polls to vote on a referendum to pursue independence. The referendum failed, and the biggest reason for that failure was fear of change. While many Scots could see the benefit of independence-and their Gaelic hearts yearned for it-the fear of the unknown future pushed them to remain with the status quo. Except for true adventurers, we all prefer the safe path. In construction, that way is rewarded over and over again, while the adventurers often get punished.
I would like to see more risk taking in our industry, and more people push to adopt new technologies, but I also completely understand why we are slow to move.
