The greatest barrier to innovation in the construction industry today is not technology or cost, but mindset, argues Andrew Fettes-Brown of Rider Levett Bucknall
The built environment has never operated in isolation but today that truth feels sharper than ever. As an industry, we are being asked to decarbonise, digitise, deliver affordability and create places that genuinely serve communities. None of those challenges can be solved by looking inward.
Instead of narrowing the lens and relying on precedent, we need to widen it. While much focus has been put on technology and cost as barriers to solving construction’s challenges, what if the biggest problem standing in our way is mindset?
We launched RLB’s Curious Conversations podcast to ask this exact question. Talking to voices from the built environment, as well as beyond construction, including those from communications, fashion and entrepreneurship backgrounds, we explored whether curiosity and creativity empower innovation in today’s working world.
Linear learning leaves little time to explore, experiment and think differently
We are encouraged to be curious from a young age, with parents marvelling at children’s inquisitiveness and their joy of getting it wrong, to be able to learn from their mistakes. However, from secondary school onwards, we are often caught in the learning cycle of having to get it right, to pass exams and progress in a linear route that often doesn’t allow us to explore, experiment and think differently.
As we move into our professional lives, creativity is associated with roles such as designers, artists and possibly architects in the built environment. We don’t often recognise that creative thinking can be used by engineers, surveyors and other roles that traditionally have been seen as more black-and-white careers of choice through prototyping, testing, refining and in environments where leaders are brave enough to say, “We don’t have the answer yet. Let’s explore.”
Exploration is needed to meet our ambition
And explore we must. We know we have a big task ahead of us as a sector – including meeting our ambition of net zero emissions and decarbonisation of our existing stock, building the 1.5m new homes in England over this Parliament, and streamlining our planning processes to accelerate housing and infrastructure development.
The stakes are high and rising. And we need people to think differently, to innovate, to use curiosity to lead our organisations to deliver these ambitions.
If creativity is about thinking differently, we have to embrace diversity and equity in our workplaces. The built environment still only allows certification of roles if you have already held a relevant degree or qualification. Let’s be more open to recruiting those from different backgrounds and careers who have transferable skills and who might show curiosity in our industry and bring with them insights from other sectors that can help the built environment.
Skill gap must drive creative recruitment
Latest reports from the CIOB, Skills Gap Index highlighted skills gaps in modern professionalism: understanding and application of modern construction methods; green skills; digital and AI skills and quality; understanding contractors, codes and standards.
The UK construction sector is entering one of its most defining decades. More than half a million people are expected to retire over the next 10 years. Given these alarming statistics and our existing talent gap, every organisation is now in a fight for talent, and the winners will be those that genuinely understand people, not just productivity.
This means an evolution in leadership is needed, and different ways of thinking, of recruiting and of leading are needed.
For a sector that quite literally shapes spaces for others, an outward-looking approach is fundamental. By embracing perspectives beyond our own disciplines, we strengthen our ability to ask better questions and anticipate emerging needs. In a market defined by rapid change, the organisations that remain curious and create cultures where curiosity is safe will be the ones best equipped not just to survive, but to lead.
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