Taking Pride in the Trades

How vital do you consider training to be? How about relationship-building on the job? Join host Todd and guest Rebecca Lewis as they discuss misconceptions around “blue collar” and “white collar” jobs, the strange competition between trade schools and colleges, the best way to defend tech adoption to naysayers, and the biggest hurdles that currently face the industry. Rebecca Lewis is an Electrical Revit & CAD Design Engineer at Allison-Smith Company LLC in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

Before I share my Todd Takes, I wanted to give a shout out to a past guest Walker Lockard of DADO for setting up the introduction with Rebecca. I hope you enjoyed hearing her perspective as much as I did. Personally, I walked away with so many points to think about it was difficult to narrow it down to just 3 takes.

 

TODD-TAKES

1. To Rebecca’s point on taking pride in your work, we as tech providers need to communicate better how technology actually enables field workers to regain pride in their work they feel may be threatened. It starts by taking the time to listen, engage and truly empathize. Then take the needed action to meet them where they are and make it easy to use.
2. Training that resonates is a critical component as well. By making it more of a hands-on job simulation you increase the likelihood of retention. Take time to explain the why behind the what you are doing. Intentionality will always rule the day with everything from a new tool to leveraging BIM. Get everyone on the same page from the start.
3. Construction is a relationship business. Do not discount any relationship along your path. The simple fact is that you have to get along with people in order to get any results.