BIM: We Practice How We Play

by Andy Brown

Former NBA All-Star Allen Iverson once famously said, “We talkin’ ‘bout practice, man!” He was defending his right to skip practice as a legitimate superstar, which is the exact opposite of what I’m writing about, but man, do I love taking quotes out of context! I am, however, “talking ‘bout practice, man,” so let’s get started.

You may recall from one of my previous blogs that Wood Harbinger is pursuing a firm goal of office-wide Revit (as a software) and BIM (as a practice and concept) adoption and competency. As the BIM Manager and full-time, in-house trainer, the most funstrating (at Wood Harbinger, we design more than just MEP systems, including new words. This gem is the efficient marriage of “fun” and “frustrating”) thing about my role has been taking a deep software, with intuitive-in-all-the-wrong-places functionality, and finding ways to integrate it into our workflow as are our primary design/engineering application. Wood Harbinger is filled with very, very smart people with different strengths and learning styles. I have faced some really, really interesting technical and social challenges in developing methods to help us walk the talk.

Try, Try Again

We have tried outside training, we have tried internal one-on-one meetings, we have tried classrooms sessions, and we have tried hypnotism. What to do? I’ve learned that in my own career, time and time again, that experience is the best teacher. This has led to our latest mind-blowing, earth-shattering revelation…why not learn Revit and BIM by practicing? LIGHT BULB!!! (Though hypnotism is still the best at getting you to cluck like a chicken when I say… well, I won’t give away my game just yet).

Practice How We Play

Wood Harbinger is on an exploratory journey to hone our BIM and Revit skills in the context of an actual project: scope, schedule, and design experience. Our multi-discipline skilled professionals will be learning through MEP system design, while we utilize some of our highly skilled Marketing staff and Project Assistants in the role of project architects. That’s right – our ENTIRE staff is going to practice like we play. I am genuinely excited to see how quickly our people pick up the nuances of the software and how fast this training concept changes the way we interact as a team members on projects, leading to a better product to our clients.

The Vision

But it doesn’t stop there! We don’t want to be training in a vacuum; we’re hoping this program creates opportunities to collaborate with our clients and industry colleagues to improve how we work together. The overarching vision quest guiding my initiatives is, “How can we create a more immersive project environment that enables all parties involved to deliver the best possible building, to those who have entrusted us to do so?”

This has been my “Real World”-style confessional leading into this new adventure. I hope you keep up with our ongoing updates (and I hope I make it out alive)!

Also…NUGGETS!

Shoot, maybe hypnotism doesn’t work in writing…