Construction has been and continues to be an industry that is generally slow to innovate and evolve. Productivities lag and investment in research and innovation is low compared to some other industries. Tight budgets and schedules lead to high levels of stress and strain to achieve personal and contractual goals. For industry, the bottom line is the bottom line. People and projects that perform the best against the competition and industry struggles can be win awards. These are often prestigious and can represent a career of top notch work or a unique project where all team members came together to build something better than the rest. Most all do not offer immediate or direct bottom line or back pockets impacts in a positive manner. Some of the many construction project and individual awards are listed below:
While these awards are given to great projects, teams and individuals, they most often are awarded for past action and don't include a financial incentive. To drive innovation and help our industry take quantum leaps forward with new processes, tools, materials, sustainable building practices and more, a financial incentive - a PRIZE - might be what's needed to get construction pros to think about and accomplish big things. Prizes have been used to incentivize huge leaps forward in other industries so if we can apply what we learned there to construction we might be on to something. When determining how to provide prize initiatives to support innovation in construction we should focus on how we could systematically measure the impact of a prize and what are the problems that would most benefit from a prize driven solution.
Construction pros will always be a hard working and motivated bunch but with a little incentive or prize money to finance past, present and future investments in the right innovations, our hard work can better benefit the whole world.
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