Warning – X rated post – This post contains scenes of gruesome violence . If you’re squeamish you may not like it, nor the conclusions I come to. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you’re faint hearted and not prepared for the trials ahead….move gently on your way and be at peace. :o)
Live long and prosper as they say on Vulcan!
Act 1
Emergency Room
The victim lies on the ER table. Blood and gore cover the floor.
“Clear!”. The doctor holds the paddles in the air. The team move back. The monitors flatline and go beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
The dead body convulses with a gazillion volts. All the monitor alarms go off. The body lies still.
“Charging!”
“Clear!”
Again. No change. The team have been working for hours on this one. A terminal case. It seems like a lifetime.
The alarms are silenced. The monitors disconnected.
Time of death – Indeterminate – Somewhere between 2011 – 2016.
Name of victim – The UK Construction Industry.
Act 2
Dining Room/Galley of the Nostromo. Somewhere in space.
Kane (John Hurt) sits at the table chomping his way through synthetic bacon and eggs. (You all know what’s coming). He keels over with intense pain. His shipmates lie him down on the table and his pain and screams get worse.
With its’ several sets of extremely sharp teeth, the alien creature bites its way out, roars in triumph and scurries off into the bowels of the ship, to feed, grow, and multiply, and eventually take over.
Interlude
Do leopards change their spots?
Can old dogs really learn new tricks, or do they just get fed up, tired out and get in the way?
Time passes.
And so…
Act nD
Somewhere. Somewhen.
Character P – “It took a while didn’t it?”
Character Q – “Yes, in fact to really sink in, it was a generation.”
P – ” Yes , in the end the old guard just couldn’t hack it. They had to take on too much change. The old ways were really hardwired in for them. It was just too much.”
Q – “Agreed. In fact in reality, we just to had to work on, be patient, bide our time, whilst we were among them, and just like the rising tide the end result was absolutely inevitable. They became extinct. In the end, they couldn’t even breathe in the world we created beneath their feet, and around them.”
P – “Funny isn’t it, at the time they said they had no warning, but the messages were there, and we’d been going on about it long enough, but they didn’t listen, or perhaps they just didn’t want to.”
Q – ” Yeah, looking back, when it was too late, they realised the game was up, and there was no time to adapt and change quickly enough.They wanted to listen then alright. But by then it was game over.”
P – “Yeah. Sad but inevitable. See you at the Cavespace later for the update.”
Q – “Sure”.
Act 3
London
#Disrupt / / Construct
At the event last week at Wayra, sponsored by the guys at Basestone, it was a thought provoking experience. Several presentations by cutting edge doers and thinkers on all sorts of topics ranging from social media, to innovation to big data, to virtual environments, the big picture, the wrong questions and much more.
There was no mistaking the passion, commitment , enthusiasm, sheer chutzpah of everyone involved.
Game changing stuff.
And it really hit me in the gut. Of the large number of people there I was one of the oldest if not the oldest. Average age of attendees was probably under 35, 30 even?
These were the people building a digital industry inside the shell of what passes for our industry right now. The Gen Ys, the Gen Zs.
A while ago a young professional emailed me about his frustration with his bosses. They weren’t listening. Not listening to his ideas about the future of the industry and how it will change. So he had decided to leave for pastures new to a more helpful environment, that would support his ideas.
As much as we need conflict and opposition to create tension, and traction, sometimes we need to be surrounded by those going in a similar direction, to get some energy, some positivism. Flogging ourselves into a headwind all the time just drains the soul.
Anyone with a brain should be able to see that great changes are coming to our industry from within and without, and the changes are as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow. However even now there they are in the way blocking the road ahead, demanding ROI , case studies, business cases and the like – anything to just put off making the decision to actually do something. Like we all have plenty of time. Right?
Can our industry change? Yes.
Will it? Definitely.
What will it be like? Nothing like it is now.
Who will be the leaders? None of the established figures that we have now.
The industry as we have known it is dead.
We are in the final throes of a tired old beast on the operating table.
In our midst are the vanguards of the new way.They live it, they breathe it, they can taste the new ways of working and how it will be. No fear, and oodles of enthusiasm. They are making the new AECO industry all around us and beneath our feet.
We are in good hands……trust me I’m an Architect!
Cheers! :o)
JOHN.
