Rambunctious and Reality often go hand in hand. Rambunctious refers to the energy and enthusiasm the new, inexperienced, staff has. Reality is what happens later… Reality is when you start seeing the ripple effects of the choices made when the model was created. Your new user has been trained, is enthusiastic, and maybe a little overconfident with the software. Eager to use what was learned, they are ready to start a new project.
When teaching new Architects and Engineers, I try to emphasize that the choices they make early in the project have ripple effects later. Inexperienced staff can get a little over-enthusiastic in their modeling when learning new software. This is easy to do with a program like Revit. There is so much you can do that it is easy to get carried away with making things look a certain way (remember LOD from my earlier Blog…). Or maybe proper workflows were not followed to get a task done. When it's crunch time, and a deadline is approaching, staff often default to shortcuts and workarounds instead of following the established workflows.
Unfortunately, the Reality of these choices may not show themselves until later in the project. Once well into their first project, the staff starts noticing things. The model starts to slow down; the project does not open as quickly, moving around is jumpy, etc..… Recently, I have been having issues with staff understanding the Reality of Phasing. Everything is "fine" for a while, then phased views need to be set, and things don't display correctly.
I find there isn't much you can do about this except get them through their issues and let them learn from the Reality of the experience. As the Instructor or BIM Coordinator of the project, evaluate the project after a submission. Have a lesson-learned session with the team to show them where they could adjust their workflow and improve the design. Give the team examples: "If you did this, then it would make this easier." When talking about this in my training classes, I often say, "Pay me now or Pay me later". The reality is that shortcuts and over-modeling don't save much time because you have to go back and fix things.
Lucky for me, I'm at the point in my firm where the users that I trained 5, 10, and 15 years ago are now BIM Coordinators, Project Leads, and Managers. We have been working together the whole time, helping them refine their skills and workflows. Many of them are now doing regular coordination meetings and lesson-learned sessions on their own.
It's been a real pleasure working with some of them for as long as I have. I have watched them advance in the software and their careers.
Do you have any situations where Reality struck in your office? How have you managed similar situations in your own training experiences? Let me know in the comments!
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