The Traffic Jam minshift

Lucas Graves writes in the February 2008 issue of Wired Magazine that if you are an average commuter you'll spend 40 hours in traffic in 2008. Happy New Year!

So what does this have to do with a mindshift? Let's consider the common cause of this kind of gridlock and waste.

"...most jams aren't the result of an accident or a breakdown; they have no clear cause at all."

What - no cause for slow downs and traffic jams, nothing to point to and fix! No wonder they are so maddening. But wait - Mr. Graves has found a source that explains the traffic jam conundrum and just possibly offers some insight on larger issues like the waste, delays and conflict in the commercial construction world.

"One Japanese scientist found that in moderate traffic, a single erratic vehicle can trigger feedback effects that push the entire system into a new equilibrium: a standstill."

This is not just someone who slams on their breaks. It is not the slow driver chugging steadily down the road. This is a SINGLE ERRATIC driver. The implication is that traffic behaves like a system. When every driver is moving steadily and predictably traffic flows without interruption.

The Construction Institute reports that up to 57% of commercial construction is tied up in waste.

Here is a quote from their site: “Legacy Systems” reflect structural fragmentation. Owners, designers, material suppliers, equipment rentals, and contractors operate in “silos. Decisions are made in one’s best interest - not project gain."

When decisions are made in "one's best interest" (the single erratic driver) - then the result is congestion and waste in the entire system. It gums up everything. We have all experienced this domino effect on projects.

Predictable smooth flow is the goal of a well working system. Lean Construction and Integrated Project Delivery are two tools that mindshift is experimenting with that work to that end.

Mr. Graves raises some interesting Untended Negative Consequences with our mindset to traffic congestion. Because we do not have a "whole system" mindset - we react to the congestion and immediately turn to building more roads as a solution. New roads lead to new development which leads to more people driving and we're back to where we started from - even worse.

I love his quote: "highways create suburbs, not the other way around."

We do similar things in our projects. When the system jams and the schedule and cost escalate we turn to predictable solutions; we find a party to blame and promise not to use then next time. We throw more people onto the project to make up for lost time OR we remove quality to reduce cost. We never look at the system dynamics. We get to do this all over again on the next project but this time the problem shifts to some other area and fools us once again - we think we've found the culprit - when all along it is the flow of the system.

If flow and predictability represent a key Virtue for systems to function smoothly - then Integration has to be the key strategy and recognizing the larger system the key mindshift.