Every one in six children with afro-textured hair are being ‘discriminated against at school, according to a report from the charity World Afro Day.
World Afro Day organisers are worried that some school hair policies can negatively affect children with afro-textured hair.
The investigation, led by De Montfort University Leicester, showed a 66% rise in negative hair policies towards Afro hair Additionally, 95% of adults surveyed said they would like to see the introduction of hair protection laws — similar to those introduced recently in New York — brought to the UK.
Researchers conducted a survey with 1,000 people, looking into attitudes, school policies and the experiences of children in partnership with the group World Afro Day.
Of the children responding, nearly half (46%) had issues with the hair policies, compared with just 27% of adults saying it was an issue when they were at school.
At present neither the Department for Education nor Ofsted monitor school uniform policies, which cover hair, so they don’t know how many schools are breaking UK equality laws. ‘This is a really important issue that needs to be highlighted,’ said Sarah Younie, Professor in Education Innovation at DMU. ‘Nobody should be discriminated against because of their natural appearance and we wanted to find evidence that this was happening in UK schools, because we had heard anecdotal stories that it was. ‘The education research team at DMU worked collaboratively to support World Afro Day by creating the survey and gathering a large sample in a short period of time.’
It’s because of school rules surrounding hair and how you wear it.
These rules can include how short students wear their hair or what styles they wear it in.
HAIR EQUALITY REPORT 2019 “More than just Hair”
This study is in response to the OFSTED Education Inspection Framework 2019. World Afro Day has conducted – The Hair Equality Report, including a survey of 1000 respondents with support from researchers at De Montfort University.
Aim of the study
The Hair Equality Report aims to provide evidence to quantify the problem of hair discrimination in schools. How pupils are affected by it and what can be done to change it? The aim is to provide robust evidence so that the problem is no longer hidden and creates a motivation and impetus for change. The report will look at how this area of inequality has changed over time by comparing the current generation of children’s experiences to previous generations. The report will make recommendations and call for changes to address this discrimination.
The Rationale
The report is needed because there is a lack of awareness about this problem within governing bodies, school authorities and the general public. Hair discrimination has gone unrecognised for decades and needs to be addressed. Evidence was needed to support the calls for change and to educate people about the problems. Afro hair bias has been a global topic, gaining momentum but some of the key flash points, have been discrimination against children.
So what do you think, should you be told how to have your hair at school? Has this been a problem for you?
The world is changing every day. As technology changes the way we live our day-to-day lives, it is fascinating to imagine what the immediate future will bring.
Never before in history have new innovations unfolded so quickly from global health to social justice to humanitarian aid, a slew of scientists, technologists, and activists have come together over the last year to create impactful solutions to some of our most pressing problems.
Below, we look at 20 initiatives that are set to make a real difference and positively impact people’s lives.
1. Safariseat
SafariSeat is the first project from Uji, a social enterprise company determined to make a difference
While Africa may be catching up in many respects, this is not the case for those who are unable to walk. Safariseat is a revolutionary low-cost, all-terrain wheelchair that gives people independence, unlocking access to education, employment and a life beyond the confines of their own home.
“There is great power in being able to see from each other’s perspective, to understand how one another feels and to have true empathy for those with backgrounds different to our own. Our beliefs, our habits, our unique abilities; diversity is life’s greatest asset, which makes inclusion one of our greatest design challenges” explains co-founder Cara O’Sullivan.
The seat is projected to start production in Kenya in the coming months. Safariseat is made of bicycle parts, and the device is propelled forward by hand levers and durable wheels.
“Open design is empowering, inclusive and ethically sound – it creates better products by crowdsourcing ideas and experience” explains Deeble.
SafariSeat is the first project from Uji, a social enterprise company determined to make a difference
2. The Shoe That Grows
The Shoe That Grows
The Shoe That Grows
The Shoe That Grows
One day while out walking with the kids, Kenton Lee noticed that the little girl in a white dress next to him had shoes that were way too small for her feet. Over 1.5 billion people suffer from soil-transmitted diseases worldwide. That led to a brilliant idea. With The Shoe That Grows, kids are more healthy, attend school more often, and are more confident. It took 5 years of hard work and experimentation, his idea had become reality. The shoe has 5x the impact of ordinary shoes because it expands 5 sizes and lasts for years.
The Shoe That Grows is making an impact in developing regions around the world where the nonprofit delivers donated shoes to children and families.
3. ‘The Life Saving Dot’ Social Good Campaign
Almost every Indian woman wears a bindi – a traditional symbol of beauty. But what if these tiny little dots could do more?
‘The Life Saving Dot’ Social Good Campaign
In rural India, millions of women suffer from Breast Cancer, Fibrocystic Breast Disease, and complications during pregnancy. Most of these cases are linked to an iodine deficiency.
The Life Saving Dot is an idea that transformed bindis into iodine patches. Every woman requires between 150 – 220 micrograms of iodine daily. The bindis deliver a wearer with the recommended daily amount of iodine and only costs 10 rupees — or 16 cents — for a packet of 30, fitting the budgets of women in rural India.
Previous attempts to reduce the deficiency with tablets had failed—Indian women just weren’t used to taking them. This is a great example of how a simple solution, aligned with everyday practice, can solve a fundamental problem.
4. NIFTY Cup
The NIFTY cup for newborns: when breastfeeding is not an option.
The NIFTY cup for newborns: when breastfeeding is not an option.
When an infant in a developing country is unable to nurse, they’re at risk of severe malnutrition — or even death. This PATH-designed cup provides an ingenious way for infants to sip with a spout that makes collected milk easy to drink by infants with cleft palates.
According to a article by PATH (the NIFTY cup designer) “several million babies born each year in Africa and South Asia can’t breastfeed due to prematurity or craniofacial anomalies like cleft lip or palate.”
The cup is reusable and only costs only $1 to create has already been credited with preventing starvation of infants in poor African communities.
Trish Colley, who is an expert in neonatal health technologies explained:
“Infants who are preterm can have problems sucking. Their sucking reflex has not developed enough for them to be able to breastfeed successfully. The NIFTY cup allows them to drink breast milk at a pace and flow that each individual infant establishes. This occurs because of the unique reservoir and flow channels that let infants lap the milk rather than have it poured down their throats.”
A collaboration with a nonprofit manufacturer is bringing it to market. It will soon be widely distributed in Africa.
5. Embrace Warmer
Embrace Warmer
Each year, 20 million premature and low-birth-weight babies are born. In developing countries, mortality for these infants is particularly high because incubators are extremely rare.The Embrace Nest is an easy-to-use, portable infant warmer that does not need a continuous power supply. Designed for hospitals and ambulances, it is used in NICUs and wards, and for transport, when skin-to-skin care (a part of Kangaroo Mother Care / KMC) is not possible.
6. Hippo Roller
The “Hippo Water Roller Project” was established in 1994 in response to the unique needs and constraints in terms of access to water of rural women and children across Africa. Hippo Roller makes it extremely easy to collect water in tough rural conditions – up to 5x more water than a single bucket, by simply rolling it along the ground.
Hippo Roller
Most benefits enjoyed are experienced immediately: The Hippo Roller improves health and hygiene and makes more water and time available for education, household tasks and food production.
7. Jet injections
Safely administering a vaccine in a developing nation can be difficult with the complexities of sterilization but are crucial in curbing the impacts of diseases and illnesses around the world.
The PharmaJet Stratis Needle-Free Injector delivers vaccines either intramuscularly or subcutaneously by means of a narrow, precise fluid stream that delivers the medicine or vaccine through the skin.
Jet injections
The single-use medical device uses up to 80 percent less vaccine than a traditional needle injection.
8. LifeStraw
Drinking contaminated water can lead to devastating disease and illness. It’s estimated that every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease. The LifeStraw is making contaminated water safe to drink.
LifeStraw
About 783 million people — or 11 percent of the world’s population — lack access to improved sources of drinking water. The LifeStraw is a water filter designed to be used by one person to filter water for drinking. It filters a maximum of 1000 litres of water, enough for one person for one year and removes almost all of waterborne bacteria and parasites.
The company not only provides straws to communities in need but also donates larger filtration systems to poor communities around the globe.
9. Lucky Iron Fish
When Canadian science graduate Christopher Charles visited Cambodia six years ago he discovered that anaemia was a huge public health problem. Pregnant women faced serious health complications before and after childbirth, such as hemorrhaging.
However, the standard solution – iron supplements or tablets to increase iron intake – isn’t working. The tablets are neither affordable nor widely available, and because of the side-effects, people don’t like taking them.
10. ‘Better than tablets’
Lucky Iron Fish
The Iron Fish is an object that families can place in a pot of boiling water prior to cooking to enrich vegetables with additional iron. The company works on a one-to-one donation scale, allowing individuals in developed nations to purchase their own fish while simultaneously donating one to a family in need.
“The gift of making a change in this world is not given to people like us, we are too small, too insignificant in the scheme of world events; BUT, if as a result of our actions we save but ONE LIFE, we have changed this world, albeit in a very small way, but we have changed it forever, and who can foretell the result of the saving of that one life”. David Dutson
10 Innovations That Could Change the Developing World
Are there any great inventions we missed? Please feel free to add to this wonderful list.
From vertical farms to living buildings, the city is on the cutting edge of environmentally sustainable urban solutions in the world.
Home to over 5.5 million, Singapore had no choice but to adopt high-density development because of its tight land constraints.
“We take steps to ensure our self-sufficiency,” says Yvonne Soh, general manager of the Singapore Green Buildings Council. “In Singapore, we have a lot of initiatives to promote sustainability.”
As Singapore expands, a novel approach preserves green space. New developments must include plant life, in the form of green roofs, cascading vertical gardens, and verdant walls mandatory since 2008. This has resulted in urban planners literally weaving nature throughout the entire city – visible from across the landscape. Innovative design has created the illusion of space using “green” and “blue” elements. This includes the creation of one of the largest freshwater city reservoirs in the world.
Much of that vision to keep Singapore both sustainable and livable stems from Cheong Koon Hean, the first woman to lead Singapore’s urban development agency (UDA). With a rising population and finite freshwater resources, some positive action was needed fast, so ministers set up a national water agency, PUB, which became the sole body responsible for the collection, production, distribution, and reclamation of water in the city.
The Gardens: look east for Eden, Singapore Style
Symbol of Singapore and its efforts to promote green space, these “Supertrees” belong to a display at the 250-acre Gardens by the Bay. The high-tech structures range from 80 to 160 feet and collect solar energy to power a nightly light show. They have a softer side too: their trunks are vertical gardens, laced with more than 150,000 living plants. PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCA LOCATELLI, INSTITUTE
Throughout the city, there are many green buildings such as the CapitaGreen office tower, the Park Royal on Pickering hotel and the Tree House condo near Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
“Singapore is an island about half the size of London which has managed to preserve its cultural—Chinese, Indian, and Malay—and architectural legacy through a heritage conservation program.”
The futuristic ‘Gardens by the Bay’ in central Singapore, is a revolutionary botanical garden spanning over 100 hectares of reclaimed land. It’s a beautiful asset to the city but may also offer a path to the health and happiness of its citizens.
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Garden of Eden is in Singapore!
Transport is another sector that has seen investment recently. On an island of 4.8 million people with limited space. After a series of smart card innovations, people have been able to use e-Symphony, an IBM-designed payment card that can be used to pay for road tolls, bus travel, taxis, the metro, and even shopping.
Have little ones with you? Take them to the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, where they’ll learn all about shrubs, plants, and all things green.
Up for a hike? Visit the MacRitchie Nature Trail & Reservoir Park. Complete the 11-kilometer-long nature trail and don’t miss the Treetop Walk, a 250-meter high suspension bridge that connects two of the park’s highest points.
History buffs can make a beeline for Fort Canning Park. Conveniently located in the heart of town, this site is home to numerous historical landmarks, such as Fort Gate, a remnant of a fortress that was built in the 19th century.
Singapore in 1965
When Singapore became independent in 1965, it was a city filled with slums, choked with congestion and a lack of jobs with limited land and no natural resources.
Singapore’s version of public housing is unique.
In 50 years, it has built a clean, modern metropolis with a diversified economy and reliable infrastructure and has transformed from a nation of squatters to a nation of homeowners with a 90% home-ownership rate, currently the highest in the world.
For vulnerable families who cannot afford a flat of their own, HDB helps them through its public rental program.
All these measures combine to make Singapore a smarter city.
“What we have done is to research and try to distill the principles for Singapore’s success in sustainable urban development – we call it a liveability framework,” says Khoo Teng Chye, executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities based in Singapore.
Back to Eden
The planet simply can’t sustain current levels of resource use and environmental degradation. It has not a choice; cities have to change.
Cities cover just 2% of the Earth’s surface yet consume about 75% of the world’s resources. By 2050, it is expected that 70% of the world population will live in urban areas. According to a 2014 study by the United Nations, rural living is in decline on a global scale. Whereas just 30% of the world’s population were urban dwellers in 1950, more than half (54%) are now housed in cities, therefore, it’s clear they are key to tackling climate change and reducing resource use.
However, quality of life, environmental sustainability, and competitive economics. These are the components that make cities liveable and there is very strong evidence to show that maintaining a connection to nature is good for our health;
“People are happiest when they’re most connected to nature,” says Chris Trott, Head of Sustainability at Foster and Partners, who believes setting schemes and legislation in this way can create awareness in the mind of both developers and the public.”
Fredi Devas, producer of the Cities episode of Planet Earth II says.
“Many studies show that hospital beds with a window onto greenery result in their patients recovering faster. Schools have better attendance and companies have better staff retention, if they have vegetation close at hand.”
Visitors to Singapore are often surprised by how green the island is considering how large a population it crams onto its small landmass. According to the latest Siemens’ Green City Index for Asia, Singapore is the best-performing city in the region when measured against a range of sustainability criteria.
Singapore stands as a model of sustainability and water management in the region and beyond and is the Eden garden city of the future.
Everyone wants to be a success. I have never met anyone who purposely set out to be a failure. Undoubtedly, this is why so much has been written on the topic “How to be a Success” and why these books are so popular.
However, The New Day daily newspaper closed just nine weeks after launching, Trinity Mirror confirms.
The New Day was a British compact daily newspaper published by Trinity Mirror, launched on 29 February 2016. It was aimed at a middle-aged female audience and was politically neutral. The editor, Alison Phillips, intended readers to get through the newspaper in under 30 minutes.
The new paper was initially available for 25p for two weeks, then rising to 50p. Two million copies of the New Day was given away on the first day, as the turquoise-branded upstart attempted to spark a revival in readership and gain ground against the mid-market Mail and Express offline.
Arrogance about their own ability to rescue a situation can prevent leaders from changing course
The New Day had no leading articles, no website, and columnists and believed it could successfully drag readers back to print? The sad truth is that it did not attract enough attention and failed to create a daily newspaper that could co-exist in the digital age, especially as tabloids and broadsheets continue to suffer a significant circulation decline.
Shareholders at Trinity Mirror’s annual meeting called the failure “demoralising”. Analysts said it was “embarrassing”.
Assume for a moment that the leaders of The New Day had no idea about the changes swamping the print media as a result of the digital revolution, and carelessly decided to invest millions into the venture without undertaking a risk assessment and also decided to ignore every indication that the paper was failing. That would have been embarrassing and demoralising.
However, the leaders decided to fail quickly and shut down the project they started.
Abandonment is a rare, difficult and a valuable management skill. The natural instinct of most people is to persist, particularly when the project is a collective commitment, as most corporate ventures are, but then it becomes even harder to hit the red “stop” button.
The New Day’s editor, Alison Phillips, said in a statement posted on Facebook that the team “tried everything we could” but were unable to reach the figures needed to make it work financially.
We dread failure. We don’t like talking about it. Some of us will internalise and rethink our failures in our heads time and time again. Others will swipe them away, moving onto the next thing immediately. In the public, we prefer sweeping our failures under the rug, silently, while nobody is watching.
While this might save our feelings momentarily, this is not the way learn and innovate.
According to Albert Savoia – ex Googler and innovation expert, most project innovations will fail.
“Most New Things Will Fail – Even If They Are Flawlessly Executed.” – Albert Savoia – Ex Googler
Does this mean you should stay away from trying new things (and failing in the process)? Certainly not. It just means you need to accept failure will inevitably be a part of the process.
In most cases, however, a combination of arrogance about personal ability to rescue the situation and blindness to the lengthening odds of success stops leaders from changing course.
The natural lifespan of most projects is finite, and the rarities are companies that survive.
The Art of “strategic Quitting” Will Become More Important as Careers Fragment and Companies Exert More Discipline
So if an idea is doomed, organisations usually treat the person who pulled the plug early on as a hero right? Not exactly, it’s complicated.
Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism at City University London, wrote a report in The Guardian explaining how The New Day had failed. He pinpointed the error of marketing a newspaper to people who inherently despise newspapers, and the short period of time between the announcement and launch, leaving no time to advertise the product. It was also published early in the evening thus missing out on late-night breaking news such as Leicester City F.C.’s shock win of the Premier League.
“Nothing so powerfully concentrates a man’s mind on innovation as the knowledge that the present product or service will be abandoned in the foreseeable future.” – Peter Drucker
The first thing the Bible wants to say is that all of us have failed. None is without failure. If you think you haven’t failed, two things are true of you. One is you are blind to your failures and the other is you probably haven’t taken enough risks to try enough hard things so that you would be aware of your failures.
Peter Drucker’s influence on business management is legendary. Peter realised that “systematic abandonment” a regular, unsentimental spring-clean is critical to the fostering of new business ideas.
Conclusion, every organization needs to have a regular “rummage sale” to determine which products, services, and programs are worth keeping and which ones must be abandoned.
The Nigerian construction industry is mostly concerned with the development and provision of projects such as roads, bridges, railways, residential and commercial real estates, and the maintenance necessary for the socio-economic developments contributes immensely to the Nigerian economic growth (Bureau of Statistics, 2015). Butcher and demmers (2003) described projects as an idea which begins and ends by filling a need. However, a project fails when its idea ends without meeting the needs and expectations of its stakeholders.
Nigeria Has Become the World’s Junk – Yard of Abandoned and Failed Projects worth Billions of Naira!
Hanachor (2013), revealed that projects form part of the basis for assessing a country’s development. However, a damming report from the Abandoned Projects Audit Commission which was set up by the Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 revealed that 11,886 federal government projects were abandoned in the past 40 years across Nigerian (Abimbola, 2012). This confirmed the assertion by Osemenan (1987) “that Nigeria has become the world’s junk –yard of abandoned and failed projects worth billions of naira”.
Abandoned projects including building and other civil engineering infrastructure development projects now litter the whole of Nigeria.
Physical projects do not only provide the means of making life more meaningful for members of the community where the projects are located, successful projects also result in empowerment and collective action towards self improvement (Hanachor, 2013).
This Issue of Abandonment Has Been Left Without Adequate Attention for Too Long, and Is Now Having a Multiplier Effect on the Construction Industry in Particular and the Nigeria’s National Economy as a Whole. (Kotngora, 1993)
PROJECT FAILURE
Project Failure might mean a different thing to different stakeholders. A project that seemed successful to one stakeholder may be a total failure to another (Toor and Ogunlana, 2008). Some stakeholders, more especially the project users and some private owners, think of failed projects as a situation where a completed building project collapsed, a situation where by a completed dam project stopped working after few days of completion, or a completed road project that broke down after few months of completion. Other experienced stakeholders, such as engineers and architects conform to the iron triangle by Atkinson (1999) which states that the most strategically important measures of project failure are “time overrun”, “cost overrun”, and “poor quality”.
Turner (1993) noted that a project fails when the project specifications are not delivered within budget and on time;the project fails to achieve its stated business purpose; the project did not meet the pre-stated objectives; the project fails to satisfy the needs of the project team and supporters; and the project fails to satisfy the need of the users and other stakeholders. Lim and Mohamed (1999) cited in Toor and Ogunlana (2009) clarified that there are two possible view points to project failure namely; the macro-level and the micro-level. They further explained that the macro view point reviews if the original objectives and concepts of the project was met. Usually the end users and the project beneficiaries are the ones looking at the project failure from the macro view point, where as the project design team, the consultants, contractors, and suppliers review projects from a micro view point focusing on time of delivery, budget, and poor quality.
In the early 1990s, the failure as well as the success of any project was determined by the project duration, monetary cost, and the performance of the project (Idrus, Sodangi, and Husin, 2011). Belout and Gauvrean (2004), also confirmed that the project management triangle based on schedule, cost, and technical performance is the most useful in determining the failure of a project. Moreover, a project is considered as an achievement of specific objectives, which involves series of activities and tasks which consume resources, are completed within specifications, and have a definite start and end time (Muns and Bjeirmi 1996, cited in Toor and Ogunlana, 2009). Reiss (1993) in his suggestion stated that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale. Wright (1997) taking the view of clients, suggested that time and budget are the only two important parameters of a project which determines if a project is successful or failed. Nevertheless, many other writers such as Turner, Morris and Hough, wateridge, dewit, McCoy, Pinto and Slevin, saarinen and Ballantine all cited in Atkinson (1999), agreed that cost, time, and quality are all success as well as failure criteria of a project, and are not to be usedexclusively.
FACTORS OF PROJECT FAILURE
Cookie-Davies (2002) stated the difference between the success criteria and the failure factors. Hestated that failure factors are those which contributed towards the failure of a project while success criteria are the measures by which the failure of a project will be judged. The factors constituting the failure criteria are commonly referred to as the key performance indicators (KPIs).
Timeand Cost Overrun
The time factor of project failure cannot be discussed without mentioning cost. This is because the time spent on construction projects has a cost attached to it. Al-Khali and Al-Ghafly, (1999); Aibinu and Jagboro, (2002) confirmed that time overrun in construction projects do not only result in cost overrun and poor quality but also result in greater disputes, abandonment and protracted litigation by the project parties. Therefore, focus on reducing the Time overrun helps to reduce resource spent on heavy litigation processes in the construction industry (Phua and Rowlinson, 2003). Most times, the time overrun of a project does not allow resultant system and benefits of the project to be taking into consideration (Atkinson, 1999). Once a project exceeds the contract time, it does not matter anymore if the project was finally abandoned or completed at the same cost and quality specified on the original contract document, the project has failed. Furthermore, Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006) noted that time overrun means loss of owner’s revenue due to unavailability of the commercial facilities on time, and contractors may also suffers from higher over heads, material and labour costs.
Poor quality/Technical Performance
The word “Performance” has a different meaning which depends on the context it is being used and it can also be referred to as quality. Performance can be generally defined as effectiveness (doing the right thing), and efficiency (doing it right) (Idrus and Sodangi, 2010). Based on this definition of performance, at the project level, it simply means that a completed project meets fulfilled the stakeholder requirements in the business case.
CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURE
A lot of research studies have investigated the reasons for project failures, and why projects continue to be described as failing despite improved management. Odeh and Baltaineh, 2002; Arain andLaw, 2003; Abdul-Rahman et al., 2006; Sambasivan and Soon, 2007; all cited in Toor and Ogunlana, 2008, pointed out the major causes of project failures as Inadequate procurement method; poor funding and availability of resources; descripancies between design and construction; lack of project management practices; and communication lapses
The contract/procurement method
A result obtained from two construction projects which were done by the same contractor but using different procurement methods showed that rework, on the design part which occurs when the activities and materials order are different from those specified on the original contract document, makes it difficult for the project to finish on the expected time (Idrus, Sodangi, and Husin, 2011). This is as a result of non-collaboration and integration between the design team, contractor, and tier suppliers. The rework on the design portion has a huge impact on project failure leading to the time overrun. The traditional method of procurement has inadequate flexibility required to facilitate late changes to the project design once the design phase of the construction project has been concluded.
Nigerian most widely used procurement method is the traditional method of procurement (design-bid-construct) which has been confirmed to be less effective to successfully delivery of a construction project (Dim and Ezeabasili, 2015). And, the world bank country procurement assessment report (2000) cited in Anigbogu and Shwarka, (2011) reported that about 50% of projects in Nigeria are dead even before they commence because they were designed to fail.
The way the construction projects are contracted, in addition to the way the contracts are delivered, contributes to the causes of projects failure. Particularly, among the methods of project contracting is lump-sum or a fixed-price contracting method, in which the contractor agrees to deliver a construction project at a fixed price. The fixed-price contract can be low-bid or not however, once the contract cost has been agreed upon the contract award, it cannot be changed. And, contractors are expected to honor and deliver the contract agreement, failure to do so can result in a breach of contract which can result in the contractor being prosecuted.
Awarding a contract to an unqualified personnel also contributes to project failures. When a contractor places more emphasis on money and the mobilization fee after a construction project has been initiated instead of getting the right workforce and skilled professionals that will execute the project. Instead the workforce chosen will often not be base on competence and required skills rather it will be based on availability. Moreover, poor strategy and planning by contractors who have overloaded with work also contributed to one of the causes of project failure.
Poor funding/Budget Planning
A lot of public projects in the Nigerian construction industry failed as a result inadequate funding, and the difference between the national annual budget and the budget actual released. Most of the Nigerian public projects are signed even before the actual release of the national budget. The difference in budget of the contracted project and the actual budget release can get the contracted company stuck as a result of inflation of prices, scarcity of construction material at the time of the budget release and mobilization to site. Also un-planned scope of work which can be as a result of the contractor working on another contract when he is called back to mobilization to start work. Moreover, poor budget planning is a regular mistake made by some contractors by not undertaking feasibility assessments before starting the design. The construction project should be planned according to the available resources and not according to the unrealistic expectations a client has in mind.
Discrepancies Between the Design and Construction
Limited collaboration between the contractors, engineers, and the architect results in discrepancies between the project designs and construction on site, and further leads to rework. Changes on a project designs, and changing to the scope of work in the middle of construction processes on site can be dangerous, and can lead to time overrun, increase in cost, and most of all can lead to abandonment. Moreover, many cases have been seen where the designs from the architects are not buildable on site, whileIn some cases, most contractors are unable to adequately specify the scope of work for the construction processes on site. Therefore any default on the design by the architect can be an opportunity for the contractor to make more money which might cause the project duration to exceed the time specified on the contract document.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research starts with a general reasoning or theory which says that the major cases of project failure in the Nigerian construction industry are defined based on time overrun and cost overrun. The findings from the data analysis will help on the decision to accept the theory or not. The research data was collected from the progress report for the month ending of October, 2015 published by the Nigeria of Federal Ministry of works on thirty-nine on-going highway construction projects at the South-South geopolitical zone. The table 1 below shows the information on the data collected which comprises of the project title, contract Number, project description, the contractor that was awarded the projects, the date of project commencement, date of completion and the extended date if any. The scheduled time for each project was specified as follows: project commencement date labeled as “a”,project completion date labeled as “b”, and the extended date labeled as “c”.
Table 1: The analyzed data on the highway project at the South-South zone in Nigeria.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data analysis was done with the use of Microsoft excel. The analysis started by obtaining the number of days between the date of commencement of each project and the date of completion to show the duration of each highway project. And, the number of days between the project completion date and the extension date showed the time-overrun. The project duration and the extended days were obtained with the use of NETWORKDAYS function in Microsoft Excel which calculates the number of working days between two dates excluding weekends and any dates identified as holidays.
The standard deviation between the specified project duration for each highway projects and the extended days was calculated to obtain the extent to which each highway project contract failed on its time of delivery. This was denoted as the degree of failure. The table 1 above showed the projects ranking which was done based on the degree of failure of all the highway projects. The highway projects that were ranked from one to sixteen have low degree of failure and are represented with green color, while the rest are those with high degree of failure and are represented with red color.
FINDINGS
The findings made showed that the successfully completed highway projects have no extended days or time overrun, and the successful on-going highway projects are still on schedule and have no extended days unlike the on-going highway projects that have already failed as a result of the extended dates. Other projects have been abandoned because they have exceeded the delivery date as specified on the contract document, and have no extended date of completion. Thus, no work is going on.
Figure 1: Abundance of failed highway projects at south-south zone, Nigeria.
Figure 2: On-going failed highway projects
Figure 2 above showed that 14% of highway projects are still on-going projects because they have not exceeded the original date of completion as specified on the contract document. However, they are heading towards failure because they have been given an extended date of completion which can be as a result of some critical activities running behind schedule, causing delay on the critical path network of the projects. Moreover, the other 86% completely failed because they have exceeded their completion date specified on the contract document.
Figure 3: Successful on-going highway projects
The figure 3 above showed that 63% of the successful highway projects are still on-going because they have not exceed their completion dates, and they are not yet completed. However, those on-going highway projects might end up as failed projects as a result of poor funding, discrepancy between the design and the construction on site, and conflict between the construction parties or stakeholders.
“Say what you will do, and do what you said” or “Say as you will do it, and do it as you said”
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The idea of knowing what a failed project is, the factors and the causes is very important in project management. Success in project management can neither be achieved nor measured without the knowledge of project failure, its factors, and causes in the Nigerian construction industries. This work has shown that project failure is as a result of exceeded time of delivery, cost overrun, and poor quality. However, the analysis was only done based on exceeded time of project delivery because of the nature of the data collected.
This work suggested a few approaches to help reduce the number of failed projects in the Nigerian construction industry if properly implemented. Firstly, Having good collaboration between the project stakeholders involved in a construction project at the early stage of project conception is most important in order to accomplish the project objectives, and deliver the project on time, within budget, and quality specified on the original contract document (Othman, 2006).
Secondly, Adopting the ISO 9000 technique which is used for quality management will also help in achieving a successful project delivery. This technique states “ say what you will do, and do what you said” or “say as you will do it, and do it as you said”. This technique is not an indication of high quality but it promotes control and consistency which leads to specialization, and improved productivity and quality. Also, adopting the principles of lean construction will help to reduce waste within the construction and stream-line activities in order to improve the on-time delivery of projects.
Thirdly, Learning from the precedent failed projects, how those projects failed, and the reason for their failures. This will help the project manager to plan and mitigate the risks of project failures in the future. And, finally, more seminars and workshops will help to educate and enlighten clients (the federal government representatives), users, contractors, engineers, and architects on what is project failure, the factors that contributes to abundant failed projects, and their causes.
REFERENCE
Abimbola, A. (Novermber 24, 2012). About 12,000 Federal Projects Abandoned across Nigeria. Premium times (November 16, 2015). Retrieved from www. Premium timesng.com/news/108450-about-12000-federal-projects-abandoned-across-nigeria.html.
Al-Khali, M.I and Al-Ghafly, M.A. (1999). Important Causes of Delays in Public Utility Projects in Saudi Arabia. Construction management and Economics, 17, 647-655
Aibinu, A.A and Jagboro, G.O. (2002). The Effects of Construction Delays on Project Delivery in Nigeria Construction Industry. International journal of Project management, 20(8), 593- 599.
Anigbogu, N. and Shwarka, M. (2011). Evaluation of Impact of the Public Procurement Reform Program on Combating Corruption Practices in Public Building Project Delivery in Nigeria. EnvirontechJournal, 1(2). 43-51.
Assaf, S. and Al-Hajji, S. (2006). Causes of Delays in large Construction Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24, 349-357.
Atkinson , R. (1999). Project management: Cost, time, and quality, two best guesses and a Phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of project Management, 17(6), 337-342.
Belout, A and Gauvrean, C. (2004). Factors Influencing the Project Success: The impact of human resource management. International Journal of project Management, 22, Pp. 1-11.
Butcher, N. and Demmers, L. (2003). Cost Estiumating Simplified. Retrieved from www.librisdesign.org.
Cookie-Davies, T. (2002). The Real Success Factors on Projects. International Journal of Project management, 20(3), 185-190.
Dim, N.U. and Ezeabasili, A.C.C (2015). Strategic Supply Chain Framework as an Effective Approach to Procurement of Public Construction Projects in Nigeria. International Journal of Management and Susutainability, 4(7), 163-172.
Hanachor, M. E. (2012). Community Development Projects Abandonment in Nigeria: Causes and Effects. Journal of Education and Practice, 3(6), 33-36.
Idrus, A., Sodangi, M., and Husin, M., H. (2011). Prioritizing project performance criteria within client perspective. Research Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology, 3(10), 1142-1151.
Idrus, A. and Sodangi, M. (2010). Framework for evaluating quality performance of contractors in Nigeria. International Journal of Civil Environment and Engineering. 10(1), 34-39.
National Bureau of Statistics (January, 2015). Nigerian Construction Sector Summary Report: 2010-2012.
Kotangora, O. O. (1993). Project abandonment, Nigerian Tribune.
Osemenan, I. (1987). Project Abandonment. New Watch Magazine, Vol. 1, pp. 15.
Phua, F.T.T and Rowlinson, S. (2003). Cultural Differences as an Explanatory Variable for Adversarial Attitude in the Construction Industry: The case of HongKong. Construction Management and Economics, 21, 777-785.
Reiss, B. (1993). Project Management Demystified. London: E and FN Spon Publishers.
Toor, S. R. and Ogunlana, S. O. (2008).Problems causing Delay in Major Construction Projects in Thailand. Construction management and Economics, 26, 395-408.
Toor, S. R. and Ogunlana, S. O. (2008). Critical COMs of Success in Large-Scale Construction Projects: Evidence from Thailand constructuction industry. International Journal of Project management, 26(4), 420-430.
Toor, S. R. and Ogunlana, S. O. (2009).Beyound the “Iron Triangle”: Stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (KPIs) for large-scale public sector development projects. International Journal of Project management, doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005.
Toor, R. and Ogunlana, S. (2009). Construction Innovation: Information, process, management. 9(2), PP. 149-167.
Turner, J. R. (1993). The Handbook of project-Based Management: Improving the process for achieving strategic objective. London, McGraw-Hill.
Wright, J., N. (1997). Time and Budget: The twin imperatives of a project Sponsor. International Journal of Project Management, 15(3), 181-186.
Small projects often embody more innovation than larger more costly or high profile ones.
Innovation is a wide concept that includes improvements in processes, products and services. It involves incorporating new ideas which generate changes that help solve the needs of a company and so increase its competitiveness. That’s hardly big news. But what may be surprising to some is that innovation has itself, well, innovated and it isn’t what it used to be.
New materials and energy, design approaches, as well as advances in digital technology and big data, are creating a wave of innovation within the construction industry. These new ideas are increasingly often tested and proven on smaller and agiler projects. Investing time and money is well spent on these ideas and technical improvements can then be used on large-scale developments.
Here are three exciting small projects:
Vanke Pavilion – Milan Expo 2015 / Daniel Libeskind
Vanke Pavilion – Milan Expo 2015 / Daniel Libeskind
VANKE PAVILION Milan, Italy
1. Vanke Pavilion – Milan Expo 2015
The corporate pavilion for Vanke China explores key issues related to the theme of the Expo Milano 2015, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.
Situated on the southeast edge of the Lake Arena, the 800-square meter pavilion appears to rise from the east, forming a dynamic, vertical landscape.
The original tiling pattern would have resulted in thousands of ceramic tiles of different sizes and shapes. The resulting complexity and lack of repetition could have led to high costs and a longer erection time.
Working with Architects Studio Libeskind, Format Engineers (Engineering Designers with backgrounds in structural engineering, coding, mathematics, and architecture) changed the pattern from thousands of different tiles to less than a dozen and simplified the backing structure generating huge cost savings. Format Engineers also proposed ‘slicing’ of the building and then fabrication of the primary structure of steel ribs using low tech flat steel plate elements. These were then used in a series of long span portalised frames reminiscent of the ribs and spars in traditional boat building resulting in a column-free area for the display of Chinese Cultural Heritage.
The frame was built to a budget and without difficulty ahead of the neighboring Expo buildings.
Building Size
12 meters high
740 mq gross floor area (exhibition, service & VIP levels)
130 mq roof terrace
Architect: Studio Libeskind
Engineer: Format Engineers
Oxford Brookes Rain Pavilion
Oxford Brookes Rain Pavilion
Oxford Brookes Rain Pavilion
2. Oxford Brookes Rain Pavilion
The Rain Pavilion is an urban forest sculpture forming the front entrance to Oxford Brookes University’s Architecture Faculty.
“Rain Pavilion artwork is a sensory experience for the community.”
The complex form required extensive wind modeling and comprehensive structural analysis within a generative 3d model. This was allied with Format Engineers in-house code for the self-organization of voids and their subsequent redistribution.
.At each stage of the design process different modeling and analysis techniques were used to exploit the form and to optimise the structure. The considerable challenges posed by the slenderness of the structure and its dynamic behavior under wind were resolved by combining Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) (a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows) with a generative design environment. Conceptual design introduced the ideas of tubular stems and folded steel canopies, both of which were perforated by circular holes arranged to allow the interplay of light and water through the structure. The voids were generated using a self-organizing process.
Grasshopper (a graphical algorithm computer 3-D modeling tool) was used to produce a mesh that could include the voids in both the stems and the petals.
The Rain Pavilion is designed to celebrate the sound of rain, and the noise of water interacting with different sections of the installation is part of the experience of passing through it. The structure has a design life of five years and can be transported to other locations.
Architect: Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK
Engineer: Format Engineers
KREOD Pavilion
KREOD Pavilion
KREOD Pavilion
3. KREOD Pavilion
The KREOD pavilions were first erected on the London Greenwich Olympic site in 2012. Easily rearranged, three pod-like pavilions were formed with a wooden structural framework comprised of an open hexagonal composition.
Standing three meters tall, each double-curved wooden shell enclosed a footprint of 20 square meters, totaling 60 square meters. A waterproof tensile membrane sealed the interior from the elements fully portable with demountable joints, the individual components can be stacked for efficient transportation.
Chun Qing Li the architect required a temporary exhibition or function space that could be erected and demounted mostly by hand and by untrained staff. The quality of finish needed to echo that of handmade furniture and had to be low cost and quick to erect. The continuously changing double curved form of the enclosure meant that in theory, every nodal connection was different. A conventional bolted solution would have cost hundreds of pounds per fixing. Format Engineers suggestion of a ‘reciprocal’ jointed timber grid shell required standard bolts which equated to a fraction of the normal cost. It also allowed the structure to be built from simple and light flat timber elements.
The structure used Kebony timber throughout, a sustainable alternative to tropical hardwood. As this material had not previously been used in a structural context Format Engineers undertook load testing of the material and the connections at the University of Cambridge. The timber was fabricated using CNC routing (a computer controlled cutting machine) allowing a highly accurate fit between members and basic erection on site.
A well crafted quote, very much like good storytelling and can elucidate fuzzy concepts. For example, creativity” and “innovation” are not the first two words that come to mind when talking about procurement. However, According to Deloitte’s paper Charting the Course, this is where procurement’s destiny lies.
By transforming beyond today’s definition of “procurement as the sourcing of raw materials, and goods and services,” procurement can reach new heights.
Here are 10 quotes to help you find motivation and inspiration to make a positive change.
All models are wrong but some of them are useful – George Box (Statistician)
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel – Maya Angelou (Writer)
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them – Albert Einstein
Opportunity arises for the prepared mind – Louis Pasteur (chemist and microbiologist)
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Lao Tzu (Philosopher)
What gets measured, gets managed – Peter Drucker
Leonardo da Vinci’s Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – Dale Dauten
Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength – Corrie ten Boom
The best way to predict the future is to invent it – Alan Kay
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value – Albert Einstein
What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes? Share in the comments
The term ‘Modern Methods of Construction’ (MMC) embraces a range of technologies involving various forms of prefabrication and off-site assembly.
MMC is increasingly regarded as a realistic means of improving quality, reducing time spent on-site, improving on-site safety and addressing skills shortages in the construction of UK housing.
Bridge Crossing Modern Design
The variety of systems now available potentially allows the designer enough choice to sidestep problems deriving from constraints posed by the use of any one method. MMC systems, from closed-panel timber framed systems to bathroom pods are a palette from which designers can make choices. They are not necessarily stand-alone solutions that anticipate all the needs of an individual site and can be mixed and matched as appropriate.
These limitations are not obstacles to achieving the good design in MMC-based schemes, but may hinder the incorporation of more complex and innovative types of MMC from which greater overall benefits may be obtained which are considered under the following headings:
1. COST UNCERTAINTY
There is no doubt that, given products of comparable performance the key issue in purchases of MMC construction systems is the price. At present not enough is known about the potential costs of using volumetric and closed panel systems to enable confident specification at an early date. This inhibits designers from exploring the full potential of MMC systems. This is particularly true of the less repetitive, small, one-off scheme, where a smaller margin of benefits is gained from using MMC. The principal barrier to the uptake of MMC, therefore, seems to be the perception of cost uncertainty with respect to using more complex systems. Without doing substantial project-specific research, consultants and their clients simply do not know with enough degree of certainty how much the volumetric or closed panel systems are likely to cost, and what would be the savings to overall project costs produced by potential speed gains to offset against increased capital expenditure.
This is due to the complexity of assessing the ratio of cost of repetitive elements where pricing is relatively straightforward to the cost of adjusting elements or building in another method for the abnormal condition. Decisions to use innovative systems are likely to be made once designs are well progressed to enable teams to be more certain of costs. This can increase the potential for change or result in design compromise as the designer attempts to incorporate the specific limitations of a particular system in their design.
In an attempt to improve this situation, the MMC consultant and or clients could pull together a directory of MMC expanded to include cost comparison data. The huge range of variables involved inevitably makes this difficult, but a database of current construction cost information would be an invaluable resource.
Contemporary Building Facade
2. PLANNING PROCESS AND EARLY COMMITMENT TO A SYSTEM
The time it can take to obtain planning permission has obvious implications both for project cost but also, in some circumstances, for architectural design innovation.
Most of the more complex types of MMC have an impact on dimensioning, the choice of external finish and detailing may have some effect on the buildings mass. Therefore, the construction system should be chosen prior to a planning application to avoid abortive work, redesign or amendment, or even resubmission for planning permission.
However, developers whose money is at risk, frequently hold off deciding on the construction technique until the last practicable moment, in order to get any advantage from fluctuations in material or component pricing.
Given the potential for lengthy duration of planning applications, this means that there is little incentive to prepare initial designs for planning with a prior decision to incorporate MMC firmly embedded. In cases where the developer has a financial or business link with the supplier, this is less likely to be the case. As the majority of commercial or residential developments involve some kind of arrangement with a developer, agreement on construction systems is often left to the stage after planning.
3. TIME INVESTMENT
Another very significant factor is the time investment required at the early stages of projects. This is needed to develop the design when the project is still at risk. There is a direct relationship between the scale and complexity of MMC component and the amount of time required to develop a design at an early stage.
The introduction of advanced or complex MMC techniques into the design process is potentially costly to the design team. A significant amount of research is needed to explore alternative systems, to obtain verification of suppliers’credentials, investigate mortgage and insurance issues, visit previous sites, talk to system suppliers, obtain technical performance guidelines, understand junctions and interfaces, coordinate other consultants, obtain building control input and so on.
For a consultant, the only way of investing in this research is either through timely payment of increased fees by a visionary understanding client or through the anticipation of increased future productivity through repetition when a project is phased, or large enough, or likely to be followed by another similar project.
The potential of learning a system and then being able to repeat lessons learned efficiently is a powerful incentive for both client and consultant. By contrast, HTA’ s project at Basingstoke is an example of a phased project with a three to four-year duration allowed the design team to repeat various elements of the design, and the manufacturer to develop improved solutions to technical and supply problems.
HTA’ s project at Basingstoke
4. INSUFFICIENT COMMUNICATION
Improved dialogue at the outset of the project is vital if design quality is to be maximised. Constraints and opportunities implicit within a particular system are more easily incorporated into design if partners communicate pre-planning. Increased early communication can be fostered through improved long-term partnering relationships.
Clients should also partner with a range of suppliers and architects so that choice and flexibility is not restricted.
5. INEXPERIENCE
Generally, the inexperienced client or design team will have to do more research, with the result that there is likely to be significant design development without a specific system being incorporated.
This is a disincentive to using a more complex system involving a higher proportion of MMC, where early decision making and knowledge of a system’ s capabilities have a decisive influence on the nature of the architecture. However, encouraging the take up of MMC through the use of a dedicated funding mechanism may assist clients in finding time for research into suitable MMC techniques.
Dome Construction Berlin
6. SUPPLIER’S ROLE
Site capacity studies and early stage pre-planning design studies could be undertaken directly by system suppliers on behalf of clients, cutting out the usual procedure of commissioning design work by independent consultants.
7. ASSUMPTIONS
There are a number of assumptions that are generally held about certain types of MMC that may have been valid at one time but are no longer true today. There is a need for reliable and up to date information comparing system criteria, performance data, timescales, lead in times, capacity, construction time, sequencing issues, limitations, and benefits.
Therefore it would be helpful if a forum for discussion and experience exchange was set up.
8. DEMONSTRATING THE BENEFITS OF MMC
There is still a large amount of skepticism about the need to go very far down the line with MMC. This is reflected in the acceptance of the desirability of maintaining or indeed enhancing the pool of traditional craft skills throughout the UK.
A balanced view is that there is a demonstrable need for the wider use of MMC which is recognized by both industry and government. The best way for clients and the public generally to become more confident and knowledgeable about the quality of design achievable through MMC is to see it demonstrated.
9. FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
There is no doubt that spreading the burden of investment through the life of a project helps to ensure a higher standard of specification and hence quality. In the Netherlands, a ‘ Green Financing’system has been developed by the Dutch government that provides favorable loan finance when certain sustainable standards are reached. In the UK, the Gallions HA has pioneered a study of this, based on a scheme in Thamesmead, ‘ the Ecopark project’.
Eco Park is an eco-friendly business park built on the False Bay coast. This business park is at the cutting-edge of sustainable design and offers a unique working environment in a secure, well-managed facility.
Change management is an approach to transition individuals, teams, and organisations to a desired future state. For over three decades, academics, managers, and consultants, realising that transforming organisations is difficult, have avoided the subject.
My Way or the Highway
Major organisational change is profoundly difficult because the structure, culture, and routines of companies often reflect’s persistent and difficult-to-remove ways of working, which are resistant to radical change even as the environment of organisations change.
What started out as a financial buzzword in the early nineties has become fundamental business practice, with executives recognising the need to keep abreast with the competition in a rapidly developing corporate new world.
Navigating change
Globalisation and the constant innovation of technology result in a constantly evolving business environment. There is an ever-increasing need for Change Management Lead’s / Senior Managers who can help organisations successfully navigate change in today’s business environments. The focus of this movement to date has been on how to partner with organisations to define education, training and communication platforms that help to support the change initiatives and concerns of company employees. The critical aspect is a company’s ability to win the buy-in of their organisation’s employees on the change initiative.
While a project team is important for success, a senior level advisor is invaluable and can work with an organisations leadership team to avoid common pitfalls that change management projects often fall into. There are four key areas where an Advisor should act as this resource as follows:
1. Defining A Strategy
Executives should start by asking themselves what exactly needs changing and why? Organisational change directly affects all departments from entry level employees to senior management and must be aligned to a companies strategy. Too many programs are heavy on the jargon and light on the substance. Executives are often sold on an idea only to realise as the change initiative begins that they need a different outcome, tool or process to be successful.
In this situation the strategy for change needs to be re-aligned with the organisation and its goals.
An outside senior advisor with a unique perspective of the organisation will play an important role in helping an executive to explore and shape the strategy they are defining and highlight whether it will truly create the outcomes they desire. This upfront partnership can save money on the back end of a project, by avoiding costly re-scoping of initiatives.This relationship between senior advisor and executive should therefore begin as early as possible in the process.
2. Coalition Building
Its important to give people multiple opportunities to share concerns, ask questions, and offer ideas and to make following up with answers and updates a top priority. Executives must reach out across their functional work streams to build a large cohesive team to support the project once the correct strategy has been set and the urgency for the project has been established. A good senior advisor will be able to guide an executive though these interactions.
As a senior change management professional, it is important that you help leaders of the organisation craft the correct message. While leaders often know what it is they want and see the urgency for themselves, the outside view that a coach provides can support the development of a team around the initiative and help to navigate the strategic and political interests in linking the change to the interest of multiple team members.
The more people are involved in the process, the fewer will be acting as internal saboteurs.
Communication Is Key to Successful Change Management
3. Communication
Don’t confuse process visioning, planning and endless powerpoint presentations with communication.
Change is uncomfortable, and adapting to change is messy. A Gantt chart can not capture the hard side of change management. Why? Because tasks are easy to list, but behaviour and long-held habits are not easy to change. Gather outside information, solicit perspectives, and adapt the approaches for your organisation and group.
The importance of communication within an organisation around the change cannot be underestimated. Executives often fall short on communication in two main areas, not communicating the right message and not communicating it frequently enough across an organisation. It is often thought that everyone else in the organisation is on board and understands the change, however, the reality for an executive is not the reality for another worker who may have lost a job because of a well intended change initiative. A senior advisor can apply consistent pressure to the leader of the change around the need for communication and its messaging.
Quantity Is Fine, but Quality and Consistency Are Crucial
4. Share Relevant Information Quickly
Most CEOs and managers are quoted as saying, “You can’t communicate too much,” Part of the communication will be the support the urgency in messaging. “My way or the highway” is often used, but is not an effective communication strategy. Senior Advisors can work with executives to tailor their message to each area of the organisation in order to define content that is important to them.
A study by Towers Watson shows that “only two-thirds (68%) of senior managers say they are getting the message about the reasons behind major organisational decisions. Below the senior management level, the message dwindles further to (53%) of middle managers and 40% of first-line supervisors understanding reasons behind major organisational change.
The forwarding and cascading of information does not work as consistent communication around the change will be necessary at all levels of the organisation using a variety of communication pathways and vehicles.As a trusted advisor it is important to encourage executives to lead by example in both their messaging and communication of the change agenda.
Only 25% of Change Management Initiatives Are Successful over the Long Term
Maintaining The Change
Many leaders and managers underestimate the length of time required by a change cycle. It is paramount that as the change effort reaches its completion that leaders of the change recognise that the process does not end there. The role of a Senior Advisor will be to guide them to the idea that work must be undertaken to maintain the change over time. Maintaining change does not mean that an executive must own the initiative forever, just that they take the necessary steps to ensure that change has a lasting impact by integrating the change into the corporate culture and measuring the benefits and highlighting areas for future improvements.
The outside unbiased view is that a Change Management Lead is crucial to the success of a change management program.
This article provides food for thought rather than counsel specifically designed to meet the needs of your organisation or situation. Please use it mindfully.
The world of Procurement is seemingly full of impassioned people absolutely certain about what procurement is all about. Like other great lies, many of these half-truths and misleading ideas sound agreeable to the ears and comepackaged as good advice from influential people.
How many of these popular lies have you fallen victim to?
1. Procurement should have a seat at the C-table
It’s not so much an outright lie as an irritating half-truth – but the damage comes with what Procurement people do with it. The thought behind this is well-intended: Procurement people should be able to speak the language of senior executives as easily as they can talk about FIDIC or demand forecasting. Terms such as EBITDA, ROIC, and economic profit should be part of their everyday parlance. Procurement issues are often the least understood by the board and the CEO and must be explained in their language.
What on earth could be wrong with that?Nothing – if the Procurement people have full cognisance of their own tools and language – and can be persuasive to senior people of the value of Procurement.
Now, that’s where we have, what is kindly referred to, as a skills gap.
In reality, for Procurement with no reputation (outside of that pesky metric of cost) and few business-aligned projects to call upon, it can be incredibly hard to try and catch senior people’s ear – never mind a C-seat (see what I did there?).
2. You must carry out a competitive tender to obtain value for money
I’m trying to distance myself from the public sector here (noting I did co-author the CIPS book on contracting in the public sector) but even in the private sector there’s a desperate need to get three quotes.
Why three quotes?
Not five, not 11?‘Cos the rules say three; that’s why.
And the rules of Procurement policy and procedures, well, they can’t be broken because the CFO or the head of internal audit (all very commercial animals?) will be down on Procurement like a ton of bricks.
When the three quotes are received the following conversation occurs – the highest price is rejected – ‘they’re ripping us off’ followed by – and I love this one about the lowest price quotation – ‘the price is too low, they must have got the specification wrong’ – and the contract is awarded to the middle-priced one”¦.surely there’s a better way to deliver value for money?
Perhaps starting with actually defining it!
3. Procurement is the only source of governance for 3rd party spend
Being the only source would suggest a 100%, right?
I’d be amazed – and delighted – if Procurement governed half of all the 3rd party spend.Words such as ‘influencing’ are sometimes bandied about to shore up this lie. What a surprise that sales people are either trained, or very quickly learn ways, to actually bypass Procurement when selling.
And the reason?
Obviously marketing, IT, auditors fees, construction/property, recruitment (I could go on) is completely different, say the senior people in those departments – echoing the views of the oh so helpful sales people.And Procurement just never gets near, as they can’t articulate (deliver?) the value they can add.
I await the avalanche of people commenting on this telling me I’m wrong.Please be assured you are exceptional in Procurement.
4. Procurement welcome innovation and strategic relationships and anything other than lower price
Few businesses view Procurement as a strategic process. Most often, Procurement staff report to the CFO. This astonishing trend indicates that Procurement is still viewed as a financial / accounting activity and not an operational strategic activity that directly impacts the bottom line.
Suppliers; if you have an innovative product or service, recognise that Procurement’s ‘raison d’être’ is to deliver cost savings.That’s what they are measured on, that’s what the research with CPOs and the C-suite say is the #1 priority.There’s oodles of other priorities such as local sourcing, sustainability, innovation, partnering, risk management – I could go on and on and on.But that’s the one they get measured on. Think that through, next time you’re pitching.
The take-away
Perspectives on Procurement need to change, mature and grow up. Lies like these need to be re-evaluated and abandoned. Procurement needs to change the way they engage and manage suppliers and their internal stakeholders; ‘adding value’ (a dreadful phrase!) means so much more than asking for a discount.
Stephen Ashcroft BEng MSc MCIPS (speaking here, very much in a personal capacity!) is Associate Director, Procurement and Commercial Advisory at AECOM, a Fortune 500 company. He’s a procurement learner stuck in the body of a procurement veteran, and with over 20 years’ experience still sees the glass as half full. Working with leading organisations across diverse industry sectors, Steve helps clients reimagine procurement to drive improved performance. A recognised advisor, speaker, lecturer, and author; the ever-hopeful Kopite shares his bright-eyed/world-weary views on Twitter @ThinkProcure, LinkedIn and his blog.
A good idea is great. A good idea that’s executed perfectly can change the world. But a simple idea alone is useless.
A Good Idea That’s Executed Perfectly Can Change the World
There’s an idea that flops and an idea that becomes the next biggest thing. It’s all about how it’s executed. If it doesn’t come with a plan, or if it appears too difficult to introduce, someone else will do it, leaving you with a has-been idea that can no longer be implemented. This is why every ‘brainwave’ ‘eureka’ moment idea needs to be teamed together with a worthy execution”¦if not, don’t expect much.
Pushing an innovative idea forward into something else remains one of our biggest challenges. Admittedly, it can be a super exhausting process, which is why it’s always a great idea to invite the crowd to not only come up with the wonderful ideas, but to also help develop them as well.
There are a few key stages that need to be followed when it comes to getting your crowd in on the idea decision-making and development game.
1. Create a Unique Team
Almost anyone can research and refine new innovative ideas. However, you can take it a step further and invite the crowd to join in the fun and be a part of your team. This will give your idea more validation. It will also decrease any potential risk, and at the same time it could be a huge timesaver when it comes to marketing and finances.
In short, each and every idea should be unique enough to sway people to join a team that supports the idea.
2. Fine Tune that Idea
They say that behind every great idea catapulted onto the market, there was an equally great plan. Every idea requires some sort of plan. It could be just a basic one that briefly outlines the various possibilities connected to it, or it could be a more complex plan that delves into the intricacies of it.
A good plan should include a business plan. This might seem like a given, but you’d be surprised as to how many people don’t have a good business plan to back up their ideas. Plans should also include target audiences, marketing ideas and much more.
You need to approach every idea in a methodical way. You’ll need a unique set of criteria that pertains to one idea – it’s not a case of one-size fits all. You’ll need to answer any question that arises, and until this is done, you can’t move forward and successfully turn your idea into reality.
Use and involve your crowd. Ask them to research various aspects of the idea, and then have them report back and share their ideas and findings with the rest of the group.
3. Don’t Stand for Mediocre
There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of okay ideas. There are even hundreds of great ideas. But, an average or good idea is not enough, which is why it’s absolutely essential to select only the best of the best ideas. It doesn’t matter if it’s only one mind-blowing idea because as the old adage goes, quality is better than quantity.
Quality Is Better than Quantity
The good and even the great ideas might struggle. Such ideas are difficult to get funding for, and it’s more challenging to prototype and deliver them. If you want to make your idea come alive, you need to have defined criteria, which allows for choosing the best idea to follow up on. After the criteria has been established, it’s time to use the crowd again aka Christian community. Ask them to respond accordingly and honestly – does the idea meet all the listed criteria?
If yes, that’s great, you’re moving towards success. If not, it’s back to the drawing board to get it right.
You need to act now and remember this: it’s okay to simply start by putting just one outreach idea into action.
What kinds of challenges do you and your team face when trying to develop your ideas further?
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCA LOCATELLI, INSTITUTE
Throughout the city, there are many green buildings such as the CapitaGreen office tower, the Park Royal on Pickering hotel and the Tree House condo near Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
The futuristic ‘Gardens by the Bay’ in central Singapore, is a revolutionary botanical garden spanning over 100 hectares of reclaimed land. It’s a beautiful asset to the city but may also offer a path to the health and happiness of its citizens.
Transport is another sector that has seen investment recently. On an island of 4.8 million people with limited space. After a series of smart card innovations, people have been able to use e-Symphony, an IBM-designed payment card that can be used to pay for road tolls, bus travel, taxis, the metro, and even shopping.