is held in high acclaim within the built environment community for his work around diversity, inclusion and change.

In this thought leadership piece, Bola reflects on recent developments in the construction industry, such as the Building Safety Act and the emergence of AI and machine learning.

He expresses his concern that the industry has not adequately embraced change, digital skills, or cultural transformation, and questions what it will take to do so, emphasising the importance of prioritising people’s well-being and fostering diverse talent to achieve sustainable change.

As the Chief Excitement Officer of the Digital Twin Skills Academy – and with reference to my last piece written for DCW in November 2022 – my mantra and narrative has always been about ‘positive disruption’ aka change management.

Not one to seek permission but always, where necessary, asking for forgiveness; I’ve been told by many in my peer group that I’ve good reason to be bullish in 2023. Rather fortuitously for me, a couple of ‘major’ milestones, took place on the same day [17th October 2023] and as a consequence, I am keen to progress any solution focussed conversation(s), with fellow industry colleagues or members of the general public – who are willing and bold enough to challenge me.

You see, Dame Hackitt went on record [again!] for saying that the industry should anticipate ‘a fundamental cultural shift’ but what does she mean by this and what is she really asking, or even suggesting, to the UK construction industry?

Second is the recent inaugural Digital Twin Hub Dinner Event, held in celebration of the amazing milestone reached around this time last year [September 2022], when the Centre for Digital Built Britain ‘CDBB’ closed its doors for the last time. Visitors to the CDBB website will (today) candidly observe unfettered access to a repository of digital assets, produced prior to and during my 32-month sabbatical, which concluded last year March 2022.

On exiting the CDBB knowledge based ‘eco-system’, and having worked with up to 369 of the most amazing minds across Europe to develop the Digital Twin Toolkit [as part of the National Digital Twin Programme], my challenge back then to the Executive Team was “where are we on skills and how do we ensure that the average citizen, can integrate into and fully appreciate this amazing body of work?”.

I made the point then and still do today, that in many ways, both the adventure and ultimate achievements of Team CDBB, remain a best kept secret. That despite successfully demonstrating the relevance of the Gemini Principles and the core pillars of any successful digital twin solution, i.e. purpose, trust & function, the wider public still have no idea of the mindset required to co-exist in an eco-system of connected digital twins.

With the Building Safety Bill receiving Royal Assent back in April 2022, and the implementation phase of the Act, being earmarked for April 2023, I took the view that incorporating a new ‘not-for-profit’ entity in advance of the implementation, solely to ‘create social value’ and both serve and support public sector asset owners on their journey of ‘compliance’, would be a good thing.

But how wrong could I have been, just some six months later. As Digital Director at BIM Academy [now acting in a non-Exec capacity], along with the support of colleagues, the wider Ryder business and an amazing panel that included Gary Strong [RICS], Paul Nash [PPCIOB], Aman Sharma [Totus Digital] and Allan Binns [Ryder] held at the beginning of this year, we took over the London office and ‘banged the drum of change’ during what was the very first Building Safety Act ‘Breakfast Event’.

In front of an engaged audience of circa 100 industry professionals, we spoke passionately [and at times provocatively!] about the technical and procedural changes required, noting that the date for legal enforcement, was just months away.

We envisaged and anticipated an environment to be ‘both feared and respected’ citing that the 1st October 2023 would become a date that would foster ‘judgement day’ for any asset owner [or ‘Principal’ Accountable Person] with a higher risk residential building, that was occupied but not included on the Building Safety Register. But wow, the 1st of October has come and gone and after just seventeen days into this first month of enforcement, there is no panic, neither has there been any ‘wild restructuring’ of business as usual or BAU.

In short there has been no pent-up desire to ‘do the right thing’ and share best practice, let alone think about the new ‘digitally enabled’ skills landscape, a crisis that continues to remain the elephant in the room, alongside cultural incompetence. Given this and the backdrop of the fast emerging conversation on all things AI and machine learning, what I am seeing is a genuine fear of displacement; i.e. the role of humans being lost to, or displaced by machines.

This fear is somewhat misplaced, despite the fact that most of the AI-infused machines being created and unleashed on society, maintain a computational power that is capable of doubling every three to six months; so whilst we stand no competitive chance of winning against the power of AI; we still have a critical role to play.

Conversely, during the past twelve months, I have had everything from, “what’s the minimum that we can get away with?” to [just last week] being told by a relatively wealthy client, “we’ve handed it all over to our Consultant, and they’ll sort it out for us”.

The question that I still ask myself, is “have we learnt nothing during the last six, almost seven years, following Grenfell? Has the moral compass of the UK construction sector been completely destroyed by the events of 14th June 2017, never to return? Will Dame Judith Hackitt and her team have to find a scapegoat or worse still, will we have to endure yet another monumental disaster, before we change our approach to ‘doing the right thing’?”

Even my attendance at the recent BESA Conference, whilst observing the ever delightful Neil Hope-Collins from the HSE, not even Neil could inspire me to conjure up a positive outlook; the questioning that he received was defeatist and uninspiring. It spoke of a lack of clarity [with the legislation], huge uncertainty on interpretation [of the legislation], little if any leadership on the tough questions [arising from the legislation] and a general lack of industry consensus on next steps and the consequences of failure [in the presence of the new legislation].

Ever the optimist, it’s partly why I was invited by the British Embassy Washington and the Department for Business & Trade, to launch the Digital Twin Skills Academy, earlier this year in May 2023 – where I delivered something of ‘can-do’ statement – as to how I see the digital skills challenge being positively addressed by the sheer diversity of those active within the STEM space.

However, whilst it is clear to me that the North America market, whilst not perfect, has a patently difference approach to legislative compliance and digital transformation; there is something structurally devoid of the desired behaviours, that appear to be stifling similar progress in the UK.

My question to the industry is “what will it take to do the right thing” whilst mindful of the world renowned ‘triple bottom line’; not only in a highly fragmented inflationary environ, often delivered in a contentious day-to-day existence, but definitely not at the expense of people and their mental health and well-being.

As a ‘system of systems’ the built environment currently does not have [or produce] enough people, and with a disproportionately ageing workforce that lacks motivation to change and/or disrupt itself, we are still overlooking a cohort of ‘diverse’ talent who, if given unconditional access to ‘apply, shine and thrive’, could become a real and sustainable part of a much-needed scalable solution.

So, regarding BAU, I’ll ask the question again, “what will it take to transform our culture towards people and once and for all, disrupt many of our existing and defunct business models?”

Awarded an OBE in 2019 for his services to diversity and to young people in the construction industry, Bola is a friend of the show and a previous speaker. He has a string of accolades and achievements under his belt, the most recent being his appointment as Digital Director for BIM Academy.

As well as being the Executive Director at DiverseCity Surveyors, Bola is also an eminent Independent Management Consultant, Chartered Construction Manager, Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).