Tauhira Ali has been a leading voice in construction technology for years, and is working at the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) to drive innovation in the Electrical trades. This week, NECA is launching their Innovation Institute, a groundbreaking effort to support contractors as they evolve process, technology and human resources in today's rapidly digitizing industry.
Learn more about the NECA Innovation Institute here:
https://www.necanet.org/about-us/news/news-release-archive/news/2021/07/12/neca-innovation-institute-advances-the-next-generation-of-electrical-construction-leaders
Tauhira Ali
[00:00:00] Hugh Seaton: Welcome to Constructed Futures, I'm Hugh Seton. Today I'm here with Tauhira Ali executive director of industry innovation at the National Electrical Contractors Association or NECA. Tauhira, Welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:14] Tauhira Ali: Thank you so much. You it's so great to be here.
[00:00:17] Hugh Seaton: I want to start with what you do.
And that's actually almost a loaded question because there's a number of things that you do at NECA, and then at some other things that you've launched. So talk to us about what you do.
[00:00:29] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely you and you've, you've caught us on an exciting week where, we're about midway through all this stuff.
We're sitting here August 16th, 2021. And it's crazy to believe how fast the year has gone. Especially for me. I've been with NECA since January. So I've worked in and around this industry for about eight years. But this is My first year actually being on the NECA side of things. And what's really exciting to your question is that NECA, the natural National Electrical Contractors Association is really the voice of this electrical construction industry. So this $171 billion industry that brings power and light and communication technology, alternative forms of energy to buildings and communities across the US. And so we are incredibly excited this week, especially. One of the things that we're doing as we move to empower lives and communities within the construction industry is this week is the official kickoff of the inaugural class of the Innovation Institute.
So to back up a little bit. The mission of the industry innovation team at NECA is to really empower our contractors, to help them increase market share, and strategically apply industry trends and emerging technologies to continue to be innovative within their businesses. And so we focus on not just today, but also how we prepare for the future.
And the Innovation Institute is a great example because we're literally creating the small cohorts of pioneers, of curious leaders and explorers within different contracting companies. And we're giving them a place to work on strategic thinking and problem solving, form a peer group, and really dial in, how do they prepare to be innovators for the future of their business?
[00:02:28] Hugh Seaton: I love that. And there's a lot in there. I've worked with you and Josh on some, in conversations here and there. And I mean, some of what you're doing is events. Some is education, some is publishing. Some is forums for people to talk. You want to talk a little bit about some of those activities?
Like how do you guys view? It's like a portfolio of activity, right?
[00:02:51] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so the exciting thing about it, Hugh, is my background is very much rooted foundationally in things like artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics. That's where I first did a lot of my formal training and yet at the same time, everything that I've ever done in my career, be it in the automotive, the manufacturing, the aerospace, or the construction industry has been user focused.
So how do we help people where they're at and help them continue to grow and be stronger? And so that's, what's really exciting about being a part of NECA and a part of industry innovation is we kind of approach things with a multi-tiered approach really. So for example, when we look at innovation, we aren't just looking at new technology or new software, but we're truly looking at things like how do you be innovative with your people or your culture or your strategy, right? You can have the best tech in the world, but if you don't have a strategy to deploy it, you're, you're setting yourself up for weaknesses in your approach.
And so that's something that we really focus and dial-in on. Both Josh, with Electri and myself with NECA is making sure that we are holistically supporting our contractors.
[00:04:05] Hugh Seaton: I love that. And actually, I think you guys also sometimes represent beyond just electrical contractors, right? I mean, you sort of speak for the trade side of the industry, both in Washington, but more generally.
[00:04:19] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely. And so how that worked and what's really been exciting for me in this role at NECA is that I do a lot of work kind of on the contractor to contractor level, working specifically with companies. I also do a lot of work in the NECA community. How do we aggregate things and create bigger, stronger messages and services for our electrical contractors.
But then I also do a lot of work with what we've been calling kind of the MEP Alliance. And so that involves myself. And then also, Sean Maguire From the MCAA, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America and Mark Terzigni from SMACNA, the sheet metal, association. And so really when we look at things like, how do we prepare for events or conferences or joint research, we're looking at things on that multifaceted approach, so that again, we are helping elevate our contractors today, but we're also looking at holistically, how can specialty contractors work together to provide a stronger product, to be more proactively coordinated, to ensure that, when they work with solutions providers, whether software or hardware, we're actually over driving the impact of what these solutions can do to be able to create a stronger tomorrow.
[00:05:44] Hugh Seaton: I love this idea of, of contractor groups thinking as, as teams or as a forum of different people with similar problems, even if the trade itself is different, figuring out how to work together is amazing.
So Tauhira, I want to switch gears and talk actually more on a tactical technical level. What do you view as innovation priorities? When you think about, about specific things that you're looking to see us learn more about and innovate? What, what catches your focus?
[00:06:18] Tauhira Ali: That's such a great question, Hugh, and I think when we look at innovation, it's so easy to fall into this fallacy, this trap of saying, oh, it's the latest and greatest technology, it's the latest and greatest software or robot or wearable, or, whatever it is that collects data. But again, you want to peel back the layers and really get into the why, what's motivating you to collect data. What's motivating you to invest in a specific type of software or hardware or process.
And so when we look at innovation, we actually have this, this framework. At NECA that is based on, what we call the pillars of innovation. And so these pillars are, there's six of them, there's people, culture awareness. So again, how do you learn and derive success internally? And how do you prepare for the future in that way. Strategy, which we discussed, strategic thinking is so paramount, technology, which leads into kind of that traditional piece of the R & D as you would, normally or traditionally think about innovation and then also productivity, right? You want to not just apply new solutions or shore up the processes you have today, but also measure your success, measure your KPIs, make sure that you have best practices and not just work efficiently, but also effectively.
[00:07:38] Hugh Seaton: Yeah, that's right. You can do the wrong thing really quickly. Can't you?
[00:07:42] Tauhira Ali: Exactly. And what's really great about these kind of these pillars, right? Is pillars, hold something up. And so the idea being that the pillars of innovation actually hold up the health and success of your business, whether it's your company or it's your team, or you're evaluating another company for potential partnerships.
It's so important because when you're firing on all cylinders, then that's where you truly hit success. But when you have growth, for example, in your strategy and your technology, but not so much in your people, in your culture, what happens is you have these cracks in your foundation. And so you have these areas where you're prone to weakness as a company or as a team.
And so what we do is we seek to really help our contractors, really help our partners learn and, evaluate where are they today on that scale? Are they investing across the board. Are there different players within their organization who can provide more value add in one area versus another.
So again it's how do you get to the point where you are truly achieving the most healthy and successful version of your business?
[00:08:47] Hugh Seaton: I love this, One of the great things about it… Being in any business, but construction especially is that a lot of great thinking has happened in the past that can help us to apply ideas like these pillars in a practical way without having to make it up.
A couple of years ago, I mean, I say that advisedly it’s more like 20. There's a thing that came out called the balanced scorecard. And it's the idea, a lot of what you're saying, but it's a way that people can take the work you're doing. And there are tools out there that are pretty easy to find where you're thinking about like six pillars sounds like a lot to keep track of, but there are tools out there that can help companies to do that. Where you've got tracking, you've got benchmarks, you've got all these other things that are a lot easier to do. In terms of management than they might sound. Now, the hard thinking about what you're actually doing.
Obviously there's a lot of depth there, but the balanced scorecard, it just I'm really struck by how, what you're doing works with that set of ideas so well. is that something you guys have come across?
[00:09:48] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely Hugh. And I think again, to your point, it's hard to wrap your mind around all of these pieces and how they how they play in tandem.
And that's where I encourage a lot of the leaders that we work with, not to think of this as this is just my responsibility, or I have to keep these things balanced, but really how do you empower pioneers within your company? How do you empower future innovative leaders. And how do you deploy subject matter experts.
And so that's what's so critical is that innovation in, in the most basic sense is not the responsibility of the leader of the company. It's the responsibility of everyone in the company. And that's where you, you seek to create this culture that elevates different practitioners of different pieces that are all able to work in Alliance.
And so to your, to your point of how do you wrap your arms around it, or how do you evaluate where you are? NECA has actually produced an assessment. So it's a health assessment for your team. Whether you take it as a team or you take it as an entire corporation, it gives you the ability to essentially do a personality survey or personality assessment of your organization. And so it lets you see what does it look like in terms of your company's approach to strategy or productivity or how do you do technology and R and D and it allows you to kind of get this report that helps you understand not just where you're strong, but also opportunities where you can continue to overdrive or really put some focus on some investment.
[00:11:19] Hugh Seaton: I love that idea. So how long do these things normally take for someone to do.
[00:11:24] Tauhira Ali: So the survey itself is pretty quick. It usually takes about 10 minutes or so plus, or minus. And again, what we found is it's invaluable. Not just whether or not the answer to certain questions, but also what questions do you not know the answer to?
For example, the path of succession within your organization and, how you can grow and change within your company. That's one thing, but if your company doesn't have that path of succession or it's not clearly laid out or it exists, but maybe you don't know about it. All of those things tell us different pieces of the story.
So it's just as much about what you're aware of and what exists as it is about maybe what you're not aware of. And that's where it kind of comes full circle because the Innovation Institute is this really exciting opportunity to allow these burgeoning leaders, whether they're already in the CFO or CEO, or CIO kind of C-suite roles, or whether they are in their first roles of leadership within their organization, it gives them a chance to evaluate not just from the lens of the very top of the company, but evaluate along the way, how is my company doing and what can I do to help be part of the solution and be a part of strengthening who we are.
[00:12:40] Hugh Seaton: And so doing this it's completely secure, it's their tool for them to use. And the data might the metadata and all that might get used by, by NECA, but it doesn't get shared so they can feel comfortable putting honest information in this, in this tool and getting back from it.
I mean, if you think about it before work, while you're having your morning coffee, you can get that done. Or after work, when you're kind of winding down, you can get that done and it's safe, it's easy, it's secure and it gives companies or leaders, the ability to just ask questions.
They maybe don't have time to ask or don't have a partner they can ask that with, so they can do their own assessment and again, while they're having a coffee or winding down at the end of the day, Probably not a beer. Cause you just want to be clear, clear with your answers, but I'm just trying to make it as practical for people as possible because I've seen the outcome of this sort of exercise and it's often really helpful.
It's just another way of looking at your business, in asking questions you might not have thought to ask, in a pretty light, pretty user-friendly ways.
[00:13:45] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely Hugh and what's exciting too is, as, because we've been friends for many years, a big part of my career was designing heavy duty, power tools and equipment, and you don't get into that position thinking that you're designing products and solutions for yourself, right? You have to understand and take a little bit of humility and realize that your ego and your user needs as it were, are not, are not priority in that situation. And so a big part of my career has always been that user feedback, that ethnographic research, building an understanding of who is going to receive that information. And so the, the entire survey, the entire idea of these pillars is based on it's based on, on, on NECA and our team and our industry innovation department, focusing on how do we tell this message?
But when I came to NECA in the first three months or so I met about 130 contractors and every single one of them, we had phone calls, we met in person one of when we were able, and we talked about how do you prepare for the future? How do you look at what's out there? What are the things that keep you up at night? And so that's what kind of generated this idea of these pillars.
And that's what kind of generated. Not everyone has the time or the bandwidth, although I'll always make the bandwidth, but not everyone has that to be able to sit down and think about these things and draw out the conclusion. So how can we help them kind of get there, like you said, in the space that makes sense for them.
[00:15:20] Hugh Seaton: Yeah, that's great because you hear over and over again. People say, I wish I had the time. I wish I had the bandwidth to really do strategic reflection, and think about what's going on. And I promise I'm going to do it after the next job, but at the next, by that by the time you're done with the current job, you're you really need to get your teams onto the next thing.
And I hear it over and over again, that people don't have time. So making a tool like this, that automates and makes sort of, into an easy process, some of what leaders already want to do, I think is just a great service to the industry. That's cool.
[00:15:54] Tauhira Ali: Yeah. We're I mean, we're pretty excited about it.
Everyone who's, who's taking the survey so far has gotten a really engaged in it. Right. It's more of a, it's almost like catharsis a little bit. what we've seen is when people are done, they're a little disappointed, cause they're like, oh this, these questions all made me think they're, they're different than I, than I normally would have thought, but it's also, it's all part and parcel, right?
Like we, one of the things that we're really focused on within industry innovation at NECA is helping people again with their strategic thinking process. So it's not just about how do you get to a solution or how do you pick the most robust again, insert here, right? Technology, wearable tool, a process, but it's also, how do you understand who's going to be affected by these decisions who are the internal and external players, how do you drive impact?
How do you prioritize and actually enable a plan with trackable results and how do you, again, go back to the constituents who are going to be influenced or affected from these changes from decisions that you make. And so again you think holistically about not just, I want to do this thing or my company needs that thing, but also what are the effects of the application of this or that thing?
[00:17:11] Hugh Seaton: And what's funny is, is I find that often busy people who are running businesses and seeing the whole thing and the kind of ongoing flow of it, and when, when they start to take a survey like the one you've, or their tool that you've put together there, they realize all this stuff's been in their head as sort of half formed thoughts, like observations and trends that they see.
And they sort of think about sometimes early in the morning, but it gives them a tool and an, a focal point to pull it all together, which I think is, again, that's one of the great things about, about some of what you're up to.
[00:17:46] Tauhira Ali: I totally agree Hugh. And it's one of those things that I'm a big fan of Peter Drucker follower in terms of some of his thoughts and philosophies and it's the whole idea that you cannot improve that with which you are not measuring, right.
If you're not measuring something, you can't improve it. And so the first step, right, is being consciously aware that there may be something, whether it's a hypothesis or a feeling in the back of your mind, there's something out there that you want to make sure you put some attention towards, but then intentionally putting that attention so that you can, again, essentially put it to a scorecard and tell yourself.
Not this is, this is something I want to blast to the world, but here's where I'm at today. I'm strong in these areas personally. And also as an organization, how do I continue to grow and make sure that I'm keeping balanced across kind of all of these metrics are all of these things.
[00:18:43] Hugh Seaton: Love it. So how does, how does NECA think about benchmarking across different contractors?
Because people do different things, right? So, so providing, or, or having people think about benchmarking it takes a little bit of nuance. It takes a little bit of thought. If someone's doing a lot of low voltage, they're going to have different numbers and results than someone who's doing more traditional, electrical work.
How is that something you guys think about.
[00:19:11] Tauhira Ali: That's a really great question here. And I think what's so powerful about this and I've through my career. I've seen this in many different industries and many different companies, , there's this fallacy, this idea that innovation or R & D is only for the companies that can afford a chief innovator or construction technologists or someone with this title, when in reality, Smaller contractors, smaller to mid-size contractors are still innovative.
They're still using technology. They're just using it in different ways, right. They might be using QuickBooks instead of creating their own custom software for integrating financial systems or they might be using busy, busy for people management instead of using a larger platform.
So again, it's, what are the smaller things? But they are doing whether it's recruitment... we talked to a lot of, smaller contractors who their goal is not to outbid, but their goal is instead to, to offer a unique value proposition, to be the specialty contractor over EV charging stations or stadium lights or over transportation, whether it's highway or subway, transportation infrastructure. So again, it's even some of our more successful contractors, on the small and medium size, they go after things like diversity grants. So, or small business grants. So again, it's so powerful to not just look at contractors from this perspective of, well, across the board, this is what's great, and this is what's not, and this is where we need to improve, but instead, truly understand the demographics of the situation that you're walking into.
[00:20:53] Hugh Seaton: Now I want to shift real quick to one of your other pillars of culture and, and people. I don't know where the line goes between the two, but how do you, how do you think about culture as a way that you can support the industry.
[00:21:07] Tauhira Ali: So culture is a really interesting one and I've been very blessed in my own career and that I've worked for some companies with incredible cultures and I've worked for some companies with, incredibly challenging cultures.
And so what's really interesting there is that again, it's, it's so critical that it, culture, that mission, that vision, that clarity of purpose, doesn't just come from the top, but it's something that is emulated throughout an organization, right? It's about how do you be impactful? How do you empower again, the idea of these innovators at all levels, right?
Your innovation shouldn't just rest on the shoulders of your executive team, but it should be something that everyone from the intern to the prefab manager, Is looking at, but then also things that have come up in, in more recent years, things like diversity, equity and inclusion, or, how do you represent your brand?
These things are so important because they not only represent the culture, which allows people to thrive within a given corporation or given environment, but it's also, how do you set the stage so that people feel comfortable, supported, and want to be innovative, want to invest in the future, want to seek out new ideas at all levels.
And so, again, there's, there's basic principles like. You want to champion diversity because ethically it's the right thing to do, but also it helps you strategically with different types of grants. It helps you have different perspectives. So when you're going after certain customers, you have a more robust hypothesis of your approach when you're sitting down at the table.
But then it's also something like how do you again, create the space and where people are comfortable and invested in supporting and being curious and bringing, bringing together future ideas for your organization.
[00:22:58] Hugh Seaton: And the industry is famously... the trades are famously facing skilled labor shortages.
Now you can't just hire somebody and, bang you've got your problem solved. You've got a pipeline where people not only have to be attracted into the industry, but also, , they have to enjoy being there enough that they, that they stick it out while they learn what they need to learn. Do you feel that culture and a focus on people really... is that one of the reasons you're doing it is to help the industry to grow its talent pool.
[00:23:29] Tauhira Ali: Absolutely. Absolutely. And when you're innovative with your culture, when you're innovative with your, your people practice, that's so critical, right? Because you're looking at things like, how do you not just attract, but how do you elevate and upskill the talent in your company and your community.
And this has to do with things like, not just your recruitment and your retention, but how do you train, how do you motivate? How do you help people to come in and get excited and really dig into things. But then also, how do you plan for succession? How do you create these opportunities for, community peer groups within your company and also throughout the industry? Local to you or across the country. And again, that was a big part for us of creating the Innovation Institute was we kept hearing again, I had all of these conversations with contractors and leaders at all levels, and we kept hearing my, my executive team gets it, my leadership team, we understand it, but how do we get some of the leaders we already have in our company? How do we get them up to speed? How do we make sure that they are truly positioned in a way that they are empowered, that they are able to be innovative. And so, again, it's little things. It's things like, for example, what is your web presence?
What does it look like when someone comes across you on LinkedIn or social media or do they see nothing or do they see a website that hasn't been updated since the nineties, or do they see your board of directors and everyone on that page is the same gender, the same age, the same ethnicity.
And they don't necessarily see themselves within what you are representing. So it's all about how you communicate, not just internally, but externally to create these avenues, to create these, these, not just pipelines, but lifelines for your organization.
[00:25:23] Hugh Seaton: it's interesting as we talk in the software world about productivity a lot, but study after study shows that that employee engagement is by far the best way to make a difference in productivity.
Cause yeah, I mean, it makes sense, right? The tool doesn't pick itself up. Someone has to actually want to do the work and want to stick it out at the eighth hour of an, of an eight hour shift.
[00:25:45] Tauhira Ali: That's such a great point. And I, one time, early in my career, when I was more primarily focused on just the technology side, just the ins and outs of the robotics.
And I went to this contractor and I spent three days there and we talked about prefab and we talked about lean and we talked about, robots, and we talked about software. And we spent days going over the nuances of how they had improved their business. And at the end of it, he took me into the office building kind of like where his office was and where a lot of the staff was.
And he walked me over to an org chart and he started pointing it at people's names. We hired her straight out of college. We got him through his dad. We got this person from a job fair. And they said, this person is my star. This person, she came in through the office as a receptionist, and now she's one of our best estimators. This person over here, he had stories about all of them and he told me, he said, and again, this is something very commonly known and, and most business arenas, but he said, culture eats strategy for breakfast.
What do we want to be? Yeah, when we want to be successful, we intentionally double down on creating a strong and robust culture, because again, none, none of this matters if we aren't looking. And again, you don't want you, you want to have a great culture. You also want to be innovative in your mindset, but they're part and parcel.
[00:27:12] Hugh Seaton: So as we kind of come to the end here, I'd love to look towards the future.
I mean, you you've just created something amazing and I'm sure there was a lot, while you said there was a lot of thinking that went into it. Where are you seeing the industry going through the lens of NECA or more broadly.
[00:27:28] Tauhira Ali: I think that again, we are seeing a shift. We're seeing really the companies that are able to differentiate themselves.
The companies that are able to kind of have themselves positioned, whether they're large or small, but, but really actually seek out a new methodology, a new strategy on how to be as strong, as robust, as refined as possible. That's really where we're seeing a lot of future success. And so, again, it's about, like we talked about it's partnerships across the industry.
It's about digging in deep in certain areas, but also making sure that holistically your approaching these different perspectives. And then it's also, again, above all investing in your people. And so there's people, story is one we can't get away from, but it's how do we motivate people with technology, with processes, with new ideas and ways to be effective that allows us to truly, truly hit our stride when it comes to industry innovation.
[00:28:25] Hugh Seaton: That's fantastic. And in terms of the companies that you're seeing at the front edge of it, what are they doing?
[00:28:32] Tauhira Ali: A lot of them, it's being curious, right? It's supporting their people. It's having a strategy taking the time to be strategic in your thinking. And so, again, it's the sort of thing where it's not just about what…where am I today and where do I want to get to, but it's creating that journey and empowering your leaders, empowering your pioneers, empowering your innovators so that they are mobilized.
So that it's not just the burden at the top of the company or it's the burden for the next generation, but it truly is something you're working on together.
[00:29:05] Hugh Seaton: And I see companies…That's sometimes by doing events or hackathons or design thinking exercises. I mean, every contractor has to watch that the amount of time people aren't out doing billable work, but sometimes a little bit of this can really make that billable work a lot more productive and ultimately really help with relationships, right.
[00:29:27] Tauhira Ali: absolutely.
[00:29:28] Hugh Seaton: So one last thing, and one of the you can't talk about construction without, well you can, but it's a better idea to keep the word risk in there somewhere. So as people think about trying new things, when they think about innovating, how do you encourage them to, to think about risks?
So it doesn't become a showstopper. It just becomes a factor to be managed.
[00:29:50] Tauhira Ali: That's a great question, Hugh, and I think the way to approach it is not to be risk averse, but risk aware, right? You have to understand eyes open. And again, that goes back to the awareness pillar, right? You want to know, and you want to be able to say that you've done your due diligence and you've considered those ramifications.
And to your point, these are things where you need to get your whole company together for a retreat every six weeks. This is something where you, it's a mindset. It's a way of thinking. And if you empower and you train, , subtly or directly. Train your people so that they are thinking about the future and they're thinking about potential risks.
It gives you the opportunity to where it almost becomes inherent. It's a part of what they would consider. So every new idea comes with here are the ramifications internally or externally if we do it. And also if we don't.
[00:30:39] Hugh Seaton: That's fantastic. Yeah. That's great. Well, congratulations on the launch of the Innovation Institute and thank you so much for being on the podcast.
[00:30:47] Tauhira Ali: Thank you so much Hugh. This is always a fun.