It is January 6, 2008 and the last day of the Christian Christmas season marked by the day when the three wise men arrived at the manger to behold the new born king. As I look around my family room I catch my reflection in the window, or I should say windows, being that I have grown rather portly over the past few months. I realize at that moment that, unlike the last day of Christmas, there is no wise man here; just a wise guy. With my eyes closed and my arms stretched back behind my head, I begin to reflect on the year just past.
If one thing was for sure, the year 2007 had been a challenging and trying one. It started with my decision to abandon my efforts at building up a Southwestern Ontario arm of an architectural firm, which was leveraging my strength and knowledge of the local environment and my expertise in the use of Autodesk® Revit® to make headway in a very competitive market. My partners, as you may recall from my past articles, were extremely hesitant to use Revit and, as a result, we were at loggerheads over my partner’s two other offices not using Revit and my office developing everything in Revit.
The problems that had existed in my two-year partnership dance came to a sudden halt when my desire to fight the fight waned and the energy it took to maintain Revit in my partnership exhausted me both physically and mentally. So as I wondered what to do, I took a page out of my past articles and made the decision to let go of those who were holding my Revit advancement down. You are either committed to change or you are simply a prisoner of the status quo. Revit users have proven to embrace change for they truly see the power of building information modeling (BIM) and are willing to sacrifice short-term pain for very long-term gain.
As the following days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, my newly resurrected architectural company, Paul F. Loreto Architect Incorporated, had faced several changes. No longer were we shackled to the defeatist attitudes of the legacy software loyalists. We now became the BIM specialists that we knew we were and we went about freely offering our services to serious architectural companies without hesitation
With every month came new projects; with every project came new clients who became believers of building information modeling. As they transformed, we watched in amusement how our ability to convey our ideas to our client through the use of Revit reached their cerebral levels in ways that they had never been reached before. For the first time in their careers, our clients were seeing their dreams and vision coming alive right in front of them.
Our use of Revit had resulted in PFLANC’s first 10 months in business developing projects well below budget, leaving us in a very solid financial position. And with the profits of our company, we did what every smart business should do: invest in updated technology within the company. In doing so, we went from three people in February 2007 to nine people in December of the same year. We expanded our technology by introducing two new Macintosh computers into our corral of seven existing PCs. We were now techno-savvy.
New hires at PFLAINC family knew nothing about Revit and, as their experience with PFLAINC grew, so did their knowledge and expertise in Revit. Our mandate to “go totally Revit” was actually happening and today, staff members pride themselves in belonging to one of the few companies in Canada, if not the world, that uses Revit solely to carry out its business.
In our company, no one uses legacy software unless, of course, they are looking for a quick way to be terminated. We are focused on being progressive and not becoming regressive.
As the year continued on and the company grew, we were not without the pains associated with staff additions. Each person who joined our company brought a refreshing and exciting outlook on the world of architecture. Their value to our company was equally matched with our commitment to providing them with a comprehensive Revit training session.
In no time at all, young designers became enthralled with the ability to see their work immediately while senior technologists became thankful that they were given a model by which the designers had to take the construction of their building into consideration. The staff worked together on the same file and as their project developed, they became more than just co-workers, they became brothers and sisters in arms. They became building information modelers, the “new breed of architectural professionals.” And with this new-found lease on their architectural life, staff members became committed to our game plan, our path into the future: Go Revit or Go Home.
It appeared that with the excitement within our office and the positive attitude each member of our staff brought to the office, our company was on its way to becoming the company that I had always envisioned. Or at least we thought so. As I had stated earlier, as the company became larger, growing pains were just around the corner and the growing pains arrived at our office door in the form of Pinky and the Brain (not his real name, of course). Pinky was the typical experienced worker who comes knocking on your door looking for work, promoting himself as a team player and motivator of people.
As Pinky made his way through the job interview, his knowledge of construction was obvious and his perceived enthusiasm towards learning new technologies sold us on him being the perfect fit for our company. It only took us eight months to realize that Pinky was in fact not the brain he promoted himself as nor was he the team player he believed himself to be. Not only did Pinky’s need to be superior to everyone in the office, including myself, quickly began to isolate him from the team, his inability to embrace change became increasingly evident. With his arrogance pointing the finger of blame towards everyone in the office besides him, the moral of the staff began to change. It seemed that we had a very bad apple in our bushel of fun.
As time went on, Pinky’s resistance to embrace technology grew. Revit was not in the cards for Pinky and the brain and he made it known to everyone. Despite his inability to align himself with the team, he began alienating himself from everyone around him. His disposition began to affect our company like a flesh-eating disease. For me, being that I am a portly person, I had more flesh than the disease could feast upon and I had had just about enough of the discomfort caused by Pinky. Again, if he was not going to subscribe to our future and growth, and if he was not going to commit to our use of technology, it became suddenly evident that Pinky was not going to be part of our growth movement. And as it happened, all of the above came true.
Pinky’s unwillingness or inability to look in the mirror and take accountability for his actions forced him into running out of options and in doing so, Pinky put himself in the same position as my old partners had positioned themselves. There was no future for Pinky in PFLAINC, so Pinky and his brain were let go. The only unfortunate thing about Pinky’s employment with our company was that his short-sightedness prevented him from gaining a valuable and highly sought-after specialty, for after eight months of employment with our company Pinky took away no more than he brought with him. He missed the Revit express and as November slowly passed and my staff began showing up to a Pinkyless environment, their spirits lifted and the jovial nature of our office quickly returned. As for me, I still had a lot more flesh to lose.
As November turned into December and Autodesk University came and went, my annual renewal of Revit enthusiasm occurred. One only has to attend an Autodesk University to witness the power of how Revit is sweeping the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industry. As Autodesk University came and went, and all of the attendees left with a fulfillment of Revit knowledge, I returned to my office rejuvenated and ready to take on the world.
The year 2007 faced 2008 with the same enthusiasm as our company faced the use of Revit. As Christmas quickly approached, it appeared that Santa decided to send a gift our way a little earlier that usual. The gift came in the form of our company being awarded a large-scale condominium high-rise complex as a result of a presentation we gave to a developer. In the presentation we simply created a BIM model of a stereotypical building that was part of the developer’s portfolio to show him how our use of BIM can provide him with a service he has yet to witness in his company’s 20 years in business..
Twenty minutes into the presentation the developer’s jaw dropped and the words that we longed to hear came out of his mouth: “You have shown me more in the last 20 minutes than my current design team has shown me in the past 20 years!” We knew at that point we had him at “hola.” As a result of our efforts and knowledge of BIM, we have not only secured one high-rise project, we were also given a second project and the chance to form a new long-term relationship with the company.
Christmas came and went as our company enjoyed a nice one-week holiday. The team members went their separate ways over Christmas to renew their energy to face the new year ahead, and as we began to leave for the holiday, one team member quipped that since he has been with our company, he still is amazed at how fun it is to use Revit on a day-to-day basis, but even more so over why more architectural firms have not subscribed to using it. I looked at him and said: “Shackles, my friend, shackles. If you are afraid of change, change will bind you down. What makes it special here is that we all have embraced change and the change itself has made all of us better at what we do.”
And for that I thank my lucky stars. For like the wise men who were smart enough to seek out the new born king and the promise of a better way of life, we too were wise enough to seek out better ways to carry out our business and the promises this commitment will bring. Fear aside and faith in hand, we look eagerly towards what the year 2008 shall bring and will embrace everything both positive and negative that comes our way.
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Submitted by Paul F. Loreto, President of Loreto Design Consulting, an Autodesk Authorized Contractor Revit Consulting Company and Director of Paul F. Loreto Architect, Inc, a 7–person, full–service architectural firm in London, Ontario, Canada. Paul has been an Autodesk Authorized Contractor since 2002 and has provided 40 Autodesk Revit training, implementation, and mentoring sessions throughout North America independently and on behalf of Autodesk Inc. Paul taught Revit classes at Autodesk University in 2003, 2004, and 2006 and is currently providing Revit consultation through his company, Loreto Design Consultants. You can contact him at pfloreto@pflainc.com and visit his website at www.pflainc.com
