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Developing a Learning Strategy for BIM
Gordon McGlathery outlines 8 key components to developing an effective learning strategy for building information modeling (BIM): 1) Develop a multi-level approach that trains employees at all levels, 2) Clearly define desired skills for different roles, 3) Analyze current skills to identify gaps, 4) Understand different learning styles, 5) Provide high-quality training, 6) Use alternative learning methods like mentoring, 7) Implement an eLearning platform, and 8) Commit to ongoing learning and improvement. The strategy should be given equal importance as the technology and process strategies for successful BIM adoption.
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Developing a Learning Strategy for BIM
- 1. Developing a Learning Strategy forBIM Gordon McGlathery Head of Training, Cadassist Ltd
- 2. Profile. Gordon McGlathery, Headof Training – Cadassist Ltd • 13 Years at Cadassist • Responsible for all aspects of Cadassist's training business, including strategic planning, account management, trainer development, and training consultancy. • Led Cadassist to the position of #1 Autodesk Authorised Training Centre site in the Northern Europe (2014/2015) in number of delegates trained, and #1 in the UK for "overall customer experience" out of the top 20 UK ATCs, based on Autodesk customer feedback. • Works directly with both SMEs and major accounts, designing company-wide training programmes that deliver real business change. • Previously President of The MicroCAD Institute, Cambridge, MA (16 years)
- 4. Why a LearningStrategy? Process Technology People True BIM ????????? EIR BEP PIM AIM CDE PAS 1192 PAS 55 ISO 55000 DPoW
- 5. Component #1: Developa multi-level approach Understand your entire organisation needs to skill up Not just the technical team! Directors, partners and senior managers Project managers and IT managers Technical Operational Strategic
- 6. Component #2: Clearlydefine your outcomes Different skills for different roles • Develop a skills map • Involve directors, senior managers, supervisors, lead users, HR • Not just the design team – skills required for project managers, engineers, sales team • Link ideal skills set to each job function
- 7. Skills for BecomingBIM Enabled First draft: 528 Separate Skills! Now 32 capabilities Definition of BIM from a learning perspective http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/ education-and-training/
- 8. Mind the Gap! •The benefits of skills analysis • Reduce risk – avoid hiring the wrong person or giving the right person the wrong training • Lower costs – just the right amount of training to get the job done • Higher quality – focused on business needs • Know your ROI Component #3: Know your starting point
- 9. “Our problem iswe don’t know what we don’t know” • Focused Training – solving real business issues • Recruitment • Analyse training effectiveness • Intelligently deploy staff Skills Analysis Group A: 6 lead Revit users Results by topic
- 10. In developing yourlearning strategy to training, you should understand . . . • Learning Styles: Auditory, Visual, Kinaesthetic, Reading / Writing. • Learner Types: Theorists, Reflectors, Activists, Pragmatists. • Communication Skills. Component #4: Understand there are different learning styles
- 11. “The development ofnews skills is the critical enabler for the transition to more effective working practices enabled by BIM. Investment in high quality training (for clients, suppliers and students) is key to achieving success.” - Richard Lane, Programme Manager at EU BIM Task Group, UK BIM Task Group Component #5: Have a great training function
- 12. What does highquality training look like? • An expert with the software (or process) • The ability to share that expertise effectively, • The industry knowledge to advise you on how to overcome the problems you encounter on a daily basis, • The willingness to tailor the training to meet your needs. When it comes to training delivery, you need . . .
- 13. Lots of unstructuredlearning happening • Mentoring • Support • Encourage knowledge sharing • Lunch and learn, CPD, user groups • The B1M & on line resources • Webinars • Project kick-off workshops / collaboration workshop • BIM Level 3 – learning strategy for supply chain? • Independent review – get a second opinion! Component #6: Use alternative forms of learning
- 14. LMS = LearningManagement System • Lots of Options • Some purpose-built for BIM • Bentley Learn • CAD Learning • 46,000 video library . . . 3,400 hours of video instruction • Global eTraining • 1 million courses to learners in 139 countries • Self-paced and live guided learning • Anytime, anywhere learning • Personalised, build your own course • Robust reporting, Software plug-ins Component #7: Get a Learning Platform
- 15. • Personalised Learning Just in time Just enough Just for me • Access to hundreds of courses / 1000s of hours instruction • 2-day course or 10-minute lesson? • 3-day course = 270 learning modules; limited attention span • Blended learning -- flipping the classroom • Software Plugin – embedded in the software • will remember what you’ve watched • learning at the exact point of need Get a Learning Platform “The old classroom model simply doesn’t fit our changing needs. It’s a fundamentally passive way of learning, while the world requires more and more active processing of information.” -- Salman Khan, “The One World Schoolhouse”
- 16. Commit to ongoinglearning • Budget for it! Needs to be more than 1 course every 2 years • Make it modular -- bite size, just-in-time • Learning linked to project needs and schedule • Users will return to the next learning session with pertinent questions. • Kaizen – Philosophy of continual improvement Component 8: Learn, apply . . . and learn some more
- 17. Give your BIMLearning Strategy Equal Time • BIM Technology Strategy • BIM Process Strategy • BIM Learning Strategy BIMLearningStrategy 1. Multi-level approach 2. Clearly defined outcomes 3. Skills analysis 4. Different learning styles 5. Great training 6. Multiple tools and formats 7. eLearning & LMS 8. Continual learning and improvement
- 18. What is theRisk / Reward of your Learning Strategy? What if we train them, and they leave? What if we don’t train them, and they stay?
- 19.
Editor's Notes
- #3 My name is Gordon McGlathery. I am the Head of Training at Cadassist Ltd. For the past 13 years, I have been organising training solutions for our customers and running our training business. The majority of my time over the past 7-8 years has been spent helping 100s of organisations make the transition to BIM, across all branches of the construction industry – clients, contractors, architects, civil / structural, building services, manufacturers. So I have sat on both sides of the table, providing guidance, training and support. We train about 1500 people per year and are consistently at the top of the league table for Autodesk training centres for overall customer satisfaction. We are serious about training
- #4 I think all of us need to be serious about training. As we move to BIM Level 3 and are asked to work in a smarter, faster, more efficient, more data-rich, more interconnected way, as we grapple with new processes, new deliverables, new ways of partnering and sharing data, it goes without saying that we will need to learn and adopt news skills in order to respond to these challenges. In order to cope with this change, we need a Learning strategy
- #5 A good way of looking at it is by having a look at this diagram that many of us are familiar with. It is a definition of BIM, describing it as equal parts technology, process and people. Certainly we have all spend a lot of time on our technology strategy. And no doubt on the process side of things too. But what about the people side of things? If we are to believe this premise that True BIM in the convergence of Technology and Process and People, shouldn’t we be spending time on our People Strategy? You may say, well, we don’t need a strategy for the people side of things. We just find the best people we can find and put them in the right place. I would like to suggest that you need much more than that.
- #6 The first part of that strategy is a recognition that BIM affects all levels of your organisation, and all levels of your organisation need to learn about BIM and their place in this new way of working. It’s not just about the software. Without the right skills at the operational and strategic level as well, your move to BIM will be a difficult one. You need to adopt a multi-level approach for this multi-level change.
- #7 The second part of your Learning Strategy is all about knowing you outcomes. What are the skills you need within your organisation to make this transition? Are their different BIM roles within your organisation? Absolutely. Not just the design team, but at all levels. What do we want our sales team to know about BIM? What skills should our surveyors have? Our asset managers? Our engineers? Our IT Managers. Our directors. Take the time to develop a BIM skills map for your organisation. It will help drive the decisions you make about recruitment, promotions within your company, project management, and most certainly training. At a technical level, you will have a lot of that information already – it should be easy enough for you to identify your lead users, and define their skills set. These are users who have figured out how BIM should work at that level in your organisation. The challenge is then getting those ideal skills out to a wider audience. A skills map will help.
- #8 A good starter for 10 is the BIM Task Group’s Learning Outcomes framework. When this was first published, there were 528 separate learning items. Slightly overwhelming. Thankfully it makes for much better reading now as that has been reduced to 38. But this is a definition of BIM from a learning perspective.
- #9 The third component: Know your starting point! Once you have developed that skills map for your organisation, you then need a way to determine how your people are aligned to that map. I am often surprised at how many organisations do not have something like this in place. it begs the question how can you manage what you can’t measure? How can you chart a course if you don’t know where you are starting? Early on in a BIM implementation, this is key. The odds are that you don’t know what you don’t know. And that is a very risky position to be in. Having a tool to identify skills eliminates this risk. It also lowers the risk when you are adding new people to your team.
- #10 Here is a sample output from one of these assessments. You can see how this report on the assessment results – topic by topic – allows you to pinpoint your training issues and design training accordingly.
- #11 Understand there are different types of learners If you are responsible or partly responsible for your BIM strategy, and therefore your BIM Learning Strategy, it’s critical that you understand this fact: Different people learn in different ways. Should your approach to learning BIM and developing a strategy needs to incorporate different approaches for different learners.
- #12 The next component is having a great learning function. “The development of news skills is the critical enabler for the transition to more effective working practices enabled by BIM. Investment in high quality training (for clients, suppliers and students) is key to achieving success.” Richard Lane, a member of the UK government’s BIM Task Group and the Programme Manager at the EU BIM Task Group. Richard is correct. New skills are the critical enabler. And acquiring those skills through high quality training will be key.
- #13 But what does high quality training look like? I believe there are 4 components. An expert with the software (or process) The ability to share that expertise effectively, The industry knowledge to advise you on how to overcome the problems you encounter on a daily basis The willingness to tailor the training to meet your needs.
- #14 The next thing you need to recognise is that the learning is only beginning once the training ends. I believe the two next most important components of your learning strategy are mentoring and support. Once someone is in a position where they are applying what they have learned, they need mentoring to put their learning into context. There is a lot of learning that takes place outside the classroom. And of course the most important questions don’t come up during training, they come up on that first project. There are all sorts of unstructured learning that is going on. People watching videos on You Tube, people leaning over to the desk next to them asking, “how do I do this?” . . . it’s all learning. Some of the most important learning that takes place is when you have an independent review of your technical or operational skills – either through a review of one of your building models or a review of your BIM protocols. The learning that takes place after one of those reviews will advance your BIM effectiveness and allow you to raise your game.
- #15 Moving forward, a critical component for a successful BIM strategy is creating or installing a learning management system. An LMS allows you to adopt highly effective, bite sized, just-in-time approach learning BIM skills. There are several out there. I mention Moodle as it is an open source learning management systems and many of you that have graduated from university in the last 10 years or so will have used it – it is very popular in higher education. If you don’t have the time to build your own LMS, I have mentioned some others here that have thousands of hours of learning content that is available off the shelf. Most of them allow you to create your own content and upload it to the LMS. So for example, if you want to communicate your BIM standards to your organisation and upload a webinar recording or video, these allow you to do that. Anytime, anywhere learning. Allowing you to adopt an approach to learning that will keep pace with the rapid change in our industry.
- #17 Finally, you need to adopt an approach to ongoing learning. Make it modular. Give your teams an opportunity to apply their skills and return to training on a regular basis to move forward. The technology by itself no longer gives you a competitive advantage. It will be the skills you have in applying processes and the technology that will make the difference.
- #18 So in summary, please give your Learning Strategy equal attention as your Technology and Process Strategy. Think of it as a three-legged chair. Your Learning Strategy will support your journey to BIM Level 3 as much as the other two.
- #19 And finally, fast forwarding to you presenting your Learning Strategy for investment approval, no doubt you will be asked about the risk / reward for this investment. And you may get asked this question: what if we train them and they leave. And your answer . . . . what if we do not train them, and they say?