Ring the changes

I write this having read Karen Fletcher’s valedictory editorial in last month’s BSj. I’m sorry to see her go. We don’t have many women engaged with our calling and she was one of the more unlikely. If an unreliable memory serves, she was a classicist at school and prior to BSj was editor of Marketing and Marketing Direct. Hardly the grounding you’d have expected seeing so few of us do much by direct mail – and marketing is still something of a novelty within the industry and tends only to be done well by firms newly arrived on our shores. But Karen brought a fresh pair of eyes to what we do and, I think, she was alternately horrified and amazed by construction.

And Karen, after all, gave me my big break – providing a grumpy old man with an outlet. I can confide now that it happened over a boozy lunch, where, in the ephemeral companionship of drunks, she confided “Youshe know Paddy you’re a bruddy intereshting bloke – you ought to write an opinion column in BShhJ.” “Yessh Karen,“ I replied, “I’ll do jus that.” A deal was stuck that, I’m sure, she must have regretted. I too have my regrets. Having a voice has made me bumptious, a dangerous accompaniment to grumpiness and something best avoided if you rely on selling professional services where joy can be as important as skill.

Karen leaves at a pretty interesting time for us. The next year or so will see a lot of change and presages more to come. A new regulatory regime will flow from the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, new Building Regulations Parts F and L, the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive and the Code for Sustainable Buildings, with policy pointers showing more to follow. Some important industry guidelines are also due for revision – for example the BCO Best Practice Specification. There’s a lot that BSj can help us get to grips with.

But regulatory change is only the tip of the iceberg. Business is going through change – with outsourcing and lean practices. In society work-life desires, demographics, skills migration, travel intolerance and rapid technological advances are all combining to force a rethink of traditional lifestyles and values. Add to this the threats of urban terrorism and a wilder natural world and what used to constitute a ‘good idea’ is really up for question.

Policy now lags behind the sentiment of the likes of the little old lady from Hayes.

I think there is also a kind of subliminal change happening. I listened to a ‘call in’ today. An old woman from Hayes, addressing the tsunami, got confused with global warming and was slapped down by the presenter. However, before her plug was pulled, she expressed simple amazement that the political world was still so incoherent about global issues. She questioned how affairs could be so vague that a disaster could roll-out over several hours across a third of the world with none but a handful of its impending victims being alerted. She wasn’t looking for someone to blame – she was looking for someone to make sure it never happened again. She was one of millions of good global-citizens that, having donated, still needed to help by demanding that things actually change.

Vox pop seems to me a potentially massive driver of change. I’m sure we are entering a time when policy-makers alone should not be assumed to define all that the future will bring – because policy now lags behind the sentiment of the likes of the little old lady from Hayes who, like Karen, looked at issues with fresh eyes and tell us that they expect better.

Perhaps the wise men that fill our learned committees and discuss matters so esoteric as to be incomprehensible in any other forum, might spend their time more usefully on the WI circuit, then they too could contribute to building this new constituency.