The BIM Manager's Handbook, Part 2

Change Management

Dominik Holzer

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118987797
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Ingénierie de la construction et de l'architecture

ePart 2 Change Management: A BIM Manager might be hired for their technical skills, but their success relies heavily on their ability to be an agent of change within their organisation, facilitating transition to BIM processes and mentoring staff through the cultural and procedural shifts. This ePart outlines strategies to manage an organisation's transition to BIM successfully and to master supporting its continuous evolution. Based on accounts from top practitioners, it highlights how the BIM manager might approach interfacing with their organisation's leadership by successfully lobbying and leading on BIM from the inside, while overcoming change-resistance and managing teams' expectations. It concludes with a 'Tips and Tricks' section that provides in-depth advice for running BIM audits and for setting up in-house BIM workshops, which are instrumental for any BIM Manager seeking a better understanding of their organisational context and to raise the level of awareness of the BIM knowledge of key decision-makers. Obook ISBN: 9781119092308; ePub ISBN: 9781118987797; ePDF ISBN: 9781119092292; published April 2015

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

---

When thinking about BIM we immediately refer to technology as the key factor for BIM Managers to consider. On an organizational level though, it is not technology skills alone that make a competent BIM Manager, but her or his ability to guide and manage change effectively. The change-facilitator role of BIM Managers is immensely important and this Part 2 will point out how they get it right.

Imagine the following scenario: Sitting in a room with a group of BIM Managers who are discussing their respective roles. Peers from different professional backgrounds engage in informal chit-chat about their day-to-day duties and they might point out some new development they have been following. Without a doubt, at some point the discussion will converge toward the difficulties they face within their organization explaining what it is they do, why so much money is spent on technology, about the overheads they are responsible for, and how hard it is for them to get the BIM message across to upper management and team leaders. In the past, this has been the classic BIM Manager's dilemma: positioning and justifying what they do within their organizations. In some instances this issue still persists. It is not a problem related to the BIM Manager as such, but an issue that reflects on the implications of introducing innovation and change to an industry that is more often than not set in its traditional ways. The problem is that BIM Managers tend to overlook that by managing BIM, they are actually tasked with managing change.

Part 1 of this publication, Best Practice BIM, established a set of criteria that assist BIM Managers in benchmarking BIM implementation as it occurs in practice. Part 2 follows from a key argument introduced in Part 1: Proper Change Management is a critical factor for the successful and sustained proliferation of BIM into any organization. Change Management as discussed here is an essential process within any organization undergoing substantial transformation in a short period of time. Its purpose is to minimize resistance to change within the organization and assist those affected in coping with the personal impact of change.

Part 2 first discusses the effects of technology on an organization in terms of innovation and change. Requirements for Change Management will be presented as integral to the wider ramifications of facilitating change when implementing BIM. It then proceeds to raise and discuss the main cultural issues associated with Change Management and suggests specific actions that help smooth the often “bumpy ride” that BIM Managers encounter in their role as facilitators of change. Based on accounts from top practitioners, a number of approaches will be explained that help BIM Managers to overcome change resistance by their colleagues. Finally, this part will offer tips and tricks that form useful instruments for BIM Managers to complement their Change Management efforts.

The advice given here will allow BIM Managers to apply a structured approach in communicating the effects of change to other stakeholders. It will assist BIM Managers in developing and benchmarking BIM implementation strategies and communication regimes. The information provided in this section will not only benefit those who are in the early stages of introducing BIM to an organization; it will offer useful insights to those who are well advanced on the path of implementing BIM within their organization in order to master supporting its continuous evolution.

---

Technology as a Driver for Innovation and Change

Over the past 20 to 30 years the work environment in architecture, engineering, and construction practices has become ever more information-rich, allowing for novel approaches to conceiving and delivering the projects we undertake. Speaking about BIM at the 2005 AIA Convention in Las Vegas, Thom Mayne, head of the renown U.S. architecture firm Morphosis, predicted: “You need to prepare yourself for a profession that you're not going to recognize a decade from now, that the next generation is going to occupy.” Mayne adds to this by highlighting the potential of the use of information and communication technology to enrich design and construction processes: “There exists a new medium, a continuity, a flow of thinking, a design methodology which is more cohesive from the first generative idea, through construction, coordinating millions of bits of discrete data.”¹

New technology and associated tools possess a transformative character that impacts on the entire supply chain and the business models of how major stakeholders interact on construction projects. Digital Innovation promotes organizational change in design practice as well as across construction and procurement.² The management of information and communication technology (ICT) has therefore become an ever more relevant aspect of contemporary practice. Some argue that there is a direct relationship between the progressing specialization in the construction industry, the increased application of technology, and the complexity of contemporary construction projects.³

Since the introduction of CAD to mainstream practice, management of ICT was predominantly handled by an organization's Information Technology (IT) expert or department. A separation between IT and design/engineering activities within an organization was the norm and the IT department remained in a supporting role. The IT expert would set up and maintain an organization's hardware and network infrastructure, the software environment for communication and design/engineering/documentation. The increasing application of BIM comes with a new distribution of responsibilities: The veracity inherent in the changes triggered by BIM stem from the disruptive nature associated with its core concept. BIM addresses whole-of-life of building projects. Its use opens up channels for communicating and exchanging building information across a group of stakeholders who previously adhered to a predominantly one-directional process of passing on information throughout the supply chain. Apart from a few exceptions, these stakeholders focused on their own piece of the puzzle without much thought to integrating lifecycle considerations into their planning.

The technology surrounding BIM is changing that view. Increased interoperability facilitates increased potential for exchanging information across a broader group of stakeholders. In the second decade of this century we increasingly analyze and respond to how to work our way backwards through the supply chain from Operation and Maintenance (O&M), to Construction, Engineering, Design, Feasibility, and Building Component Manufacturing (eventually closing the loop with the operational side). On a project level, information inherent in these processes requires management and the modeling and coordination processes require strong guidance from those who provide the most direct interface between the technology and organizational culture. This change in process signifies a major cultural shift in the way humans interact on projects both across organizations as well as within their own team. On a multidisciplinary project level such interaction increasingly gets regulated by BIM Execution Plans and other guidelines. One key challenge emerges if conflicts surface due to tensions between the team's goals and the legal framework by which they are bound. Within individual organizations tensions arise due to varying levels of engagement of staff with technology, the associated range of skills, and varying levels of resistance to accommodating change to well-established workflows. In addition, an organization's leadership is not always aware o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Chapter 2: Change Management
• EULA