The annual NOVA Awards ceremony - the Nobel Prize for the construction industry - celebrates innovations that have had positive, important effects on the construction industry to improve quality and reduce costs.

This year as in the past, the award has gone to individuals or companies that find a better way to do things like make a concrete road, or use recycled plastic in creative ways.

At the April 24 NOVA Awards held in Dearborn, Edwin Hill, international president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, suggested that successful innovations don't only arise from the world of high-tech processes or plastics. He suggested that individuals taking responsibility for their work is an old concept that should be reconsidered as a new innovation.

"Sometimes the most innovative thing you can do is to take a fresh look at your core principles," Hill told attendees in the keynote address at the annual banquet. "Sometimes the biggest and most important change comes not from new concepts, but in re-dedication to old ideas.

"What we are trying to do in the IBEW can be summed up in one word that I think includes all of our principles - responsibility.

"It's a tremendously powerful word - responsibility. Just to mention the term has a way of cutting through the jargon, the clutter and the small stuff. Responsibility demands that we take an honest look at where we stand and what we could be doing better. And it is a stark reminder that success is not guaranteed, and failure does have consequences."

Hill said there is no need to "throw away" the tactics and principles that have served unions well for more than a century. "But in some circumstances," he said, "there is a need to apply them differently, acting in ways that people might not expect a trade union to act."

For example, he said when the IBEW was planning its annual construction conference last year, planners decided to invite owners of companies that hire contractors to the event. They are, he said, "the most important people in our industry and our reason for being. We must never lose site of that."

Hill said "we somehow took for granted" that owners knew about the quality of union training and the union commitment to skilled workforce training - "but when talking to them many of them know no such thing."

He said the owners mingled with union reps and indicated a willingness to learn more. The head of construction for Johnson and Johnson, who also leads the nationwide Construction Users Roundtable, addressed the IBEW delegates this year, "and we're determined to keep the lines of communication open," Hill said.

"And all this happened," Hill added, " because we rediscovered the principle that even the hot dog vendor knows by heart - you've got to take care of your customers and show them that you can give them what they want and need - without caving in to their every whim or demand. I guess we can ask ourselves - what took us so long to figure that out?"

In too many markets, Hill said, union relationships with customers were being damaged by disputes and unauthorized actions. Unions demand respect and fight for good wages and benefits - but he said in some areas, "a lack of professionalism" was hurting the IBEW

"We took a hard look at ourselves, from the international office to the local job site," Hill said. "Were we living up to our commitments to quality? Were we being the best in the market? In too many places, the answer was 'no.'"

To combat the problem, International Union leaders "started spreading the word in our speeches and our columns in our publication and on our web site that responsibility is also a core union value," Hill said.

"The best news is that our words seem to have had an effect. Our reports from the field are much more encouraging. And I think it is a tribute to our members and our contractor partners that they have listened to a tough message and responded with professionalism."

Hill said, "Telling our members to live up to their responsibility is not always easy. Yet it is part of my own responsibility as International president of the IBEW to deliver that message. I have done so and will continue to do so whenever necessary.

"We are living in a time when any decline in market share has severe repercussions throughout our sector of the industry. As I have indicated many times, I am trying to get our members to see the big picture and understand that meeting the needs of our customers is the best path to a prosperous future."

IBEW GENERAL PRESIDENT Edwin Hill, right, is presented with a proclamation from the State of Michigan by State Rep. Gene DeRossett. At left is Construction Innovation Forum Chairman Roger Lane.