How do we draw up guidelines for identifying core competencies in home performance/energy efficiency/building science/green building across the many segments and sectors of the home construction and renovation industry?
The other week I posted a down and dirty graphic showing most of the players and the top-level relationships. That chart could use some refinement, but it gives the basic picture.
Holy complexity, Batman!
Each segment or arm of the whole diagram has it’s own list of core competencies, revolving around clusters of skillsets that could be broken out into top level categories such as Leadership, Teamwork, Change Management, Performance, Communications, Problem Solving, Technical Expertise.
There are broad divisions in terms of technical and non-technical segments. Drilling down further, within any organization, those divisions travel down through job groups and to individuals within any organization. In each case, all players have a pertinent role to play in improving the industry capacity to build, renovate, buy, sell, insure, appraise, finance the houses that will be standing and in use over the next 50, 100, 150 years.
That’s a long time…and really, once a house is built, changing it becomes an exercise in 3-dimensional haiku: there is a limited structure to work within, change and innovation are possible, but the bones are there and that’s what you’ve got to work with.
Technical training in building science and energy efficiency is there for those who are in college and trades programs, or in associations or licensing programs that require skills upgrading or continuing education. But it’s missing for large swaths of labourers, for example, who in many areas, are the people who carry out insulation or air sealing work.
Non-technical training is missing in many segments, and massive gaps have been identified even within organizations that sell products, equipment and even energy efficient housing – internal sales, customer support, marketing are three critical areas where an understanding of building science is missing.
Who needs what delivered when?
Holy headache, Batman!
