Just do it!

Architects face many dilemmas. They dream of designing the ultimate project. They strive for perfection. They need to stay ahead of the curve, because everyone else passes them if they do not grow. They react by holding their cards close. They become afraid to take risks. They run risks in openly sharing their concepts and innovations. They fear for their intellectual property. With good reason, since society puts everything that they value on the line. When something goes wrong, their approach makes them an easy target. They have a lot to lose.

The complexity of the whole information modeling issue makes it easy for people to blow smoke. It makes it hard for good people to understand what is happening. I recently sat through a presentation by a firm that is supposedly a BIM Leader with 300 employees. A principal and the firm’s CIO gave the presentation. Between them, they made at least five glaring theoretical errors. Obviously, vendors had planted the message to further their position. They use the software, but that is all.

Today I read the letters to the editor resulting from a recent article in a major architectural journal. Almost all were application centric. Universally, they reinforced the – “since application x is not able to do it now, it is not possible. So, why are we raising everyone’s expectations?”

This stuff makes it hard for an owner to ask for what they want and need. It makes it even harder for an architect to figure out the best approach.

That is why people like you can step in and just do the right thing. You can make the benefits happen for your firm. You do not have to tell the world about it, you just have to do it. If you sell the benefits, forget the technology and just give your clients a great product, they will buy into it. They do not need to know why or how.

We have found that we have to risk selling an integrated process, without telling people how the technology works. When we tell them that they can see their project earlier; can make better decisions earlier and can be more certain about the outcomes, they buy in. They want the benefits; they do not care how we achieve them.

When we try to explain what BIM is, people’s eyes glaze over, because it is not important to them, yet. It is too complicated. Why waste energy explaining what it is? Just do it!