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O P I N I O N
With the vaccine rolling out and workers trickling back into offices, we need to determine what innovations we will carry forward and how we will continue to evolve. Through the digital looking glass
I n 2017, the article “Imagining Construction’s Digital Future” by McKinsey & Company listed the AEC sector among the least digitized, ranking just above agriculture. However, the past year has proven that our industry has the ability to rank much higher and that we are in fact incredibly agile and adaptable when it comes to our technological future.
Alexandra Pollock
This pandemic has pushed our industry into the technological future that we were already working toward, but accelerated the trajectory out of necessity. COVID-19 transformed how we work, from huddles over trace paper and conversations over cups of coffee, to an alternate reality defined by digital interaction, screens, and Zoom conferences. In this alternate world, the pandemic has tested our resiliency and shown us that the AEC industry is able to embrace and thrive in a primarily digital world, which will be a major component of our future. With the vaccine rolling out and workers trickling back into offices, we now need to determine what lessons we take with us as an industry, what innovations we will carry forward, and how we will continue to evolve. ADAPT AND INNOVATE – QUICKLY. Like many firms, FXCollaborative immediately embraced and
adopted the necessary digital collaboration tools in the weeks following the initial outbreak, a process that likely would have taken months, if not years, to accomplish with our industry’s traditionally slow pace. But the pandemic took away that choice, and everyone rose to the challenge. From virtual meeting and chat platforms, to collaborative PDFs, pin-up boards, and project notes, we’ve gained fluency in the digital facsimiles of our standard tools. That quick implementation has been a collective effort, and we saw an amazing reverse-mentoring occur organically with many emerging professionals – digital natives trained primarily through the use of technology – helping other colleagues learn and adapt. We also saw increased collaboration with our consultants, shortening the review cycle by
See ALEXANDRA POLLOCK, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 19, 2021, ISSUE 1388
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