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The vital behaviours for BIM Level 1
John T Roberts • March 10, 2014
I've just finished reading a 'management' book! All the way through!
In the past I've found these tend to peter out after the first third, once the authors have set out their big idea, but I kept with this one to the end. It was "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything" and I think Anne Kemp has forgotten I borrowed it about 9 months ago. But it became my Christmas reading because I have just been asked to 'Sponsor' the BIM Level 1 roll-out in Atkins’ Design and Engineering team here in the UK.
So how can I influence a thousand of you to 'live' BIM Level 1? I think just telling you to read our new Information Management standard and PAS 1192-2 is not going to persuade you - great though they are! The book tells us we should focus on 'vital behaviours' - behaviours that create a cascade of change. What would we see if we were all, every one of us, doing BIM Level 1 as business as usual every day? How would we be managing ALL our information?
So how can I influence a thousand of you to 'live' BIM Level 1? I think just telling you to read our new Information Management standard and PAS 1192-2 is not going to persuade you - great though they are!
The book tells us we should focus on 'vital behaviours' - behaviours that create a cascade of change. What would we see if we were all, every one of us, doing BIM Level 1 as business as usual every day? How would we be managing ALL our information?
It would look like this........
- Teams that create and follow BIM Execution Plans (BEPs) together.
- Using WIP, Shared, Published and Archived data storage areas in a Common Data Environment (CDE).
- Correctly named data with a defined purpose and status.
- Only properly checked data getting Shared and Published.
- Delivering the defined Level of Detail for Stages Zero to 7.
Deceptively simple - and not a 3D model in sight. But what we need is for ALL of us to do this ALL the of time. Not just models and drawings! Reports, calculations - everything. Once we behave this way we can collaborate in confidence. Until we consistently do these things anyone who thinks they are approaching Level 2 is just mucking around with Revit and kidding themselves. Many people get distracted by the rising line on the BIM maturity 'wedge' diagram. That's where the new technology is, new machines that go ping - and we all like shopping.
The key step is Level 0 to 1. That is about personal and organisational change. Not doing things. Sharing. Doing the same thing every time. Trusting. All these are less comfortable things to talk about than what software you want to buy for BIM. And they don't sound much fun. But if you don't fully implement Level 1 any new technology is just adding new complexity to the old information chaos. Who would want to collaborate with that?
You are going to hear me banging on (sorry, 'influencing' you) about these five headings constantly for the next few months.
You can have your book back now Anne!
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