Developing Leadership Insight
The world is always looking for someone with insight. We pay high dollars to listen to those who are deemed pundits. We seek out bookworms, intellectuals, philosophers, and eggheads who might help us see through the avalanche of information and make sense of it all. We look for ideas on how to apply all of the data and features in software tools in a special way that eliminates our problems and exponentially energizes our design efforts. We look not only for understanding, but also for wisdom about how these perspectives might help us adapt, adopt, and achieve when others might not be able.
Insight as a CAD leader is needed, also. As a leader in a technology area, you will be called on to provide insight, vision, and planning for the future. Sometimes ideas just pop into your head. You do not know where they came from, but they transform the way you approach your use of CAD and BIM tools. You are viewed as an innovator and you enjoy the spotlight. But then you rack your brain for the next great insight and idea. The longer it takes, the more you feel like you are not ever going to find another insightful idea again.
So where do you go when the well runs dry? What do you do to uncover the next great concept that transforms your company’s processes and invigorates the staff? How are you going to “make” an idea pop into your head?
As I was preparing this article for AUGIWORLD, an article I read in Harvard Business Review called “Where to Look for Insight” by Mohanbir Sawhney and Sanjay Khosla (Harvard Business Review magazine, November 2014) gave some context to my thinking. It reinforced many of the concepts I have written and spoken on over the years. The authors pull it all together with seven areas where insight might be gleaned. With a tip of the hat to Sawhney and Khosla, I discuss their list with a focus on the CAD environment.
First, they define insight as: “an imaginative understanding of an internal or external opportunity that can be tapped to improve efficiency, generate revenue, or boost engagement.” Taking that into a CAD environment, I have come up with the following under their seven headings (unless noted).
Anomalies
Look for unique events or incidents that display improvements in process that might be used to generate wider advancements. You should be keenly aware of small items that make you think, “Huh, that’s funny… not sure why that worked better.” It might be that you notice one team that comes in with early deliveries on CAD efforts every time. You ask a few questions and find that they have created a Wiki to store tips, tricks, and areas of improvement. Other teams, while being just as good with technology, do not have this. These one-off situations can open the door to new ways of thinking and approaches that might change your efforts. Don’t ignore them. Make a note to investigate and then go back and read that note.
Confluence
Like two rivers blending together to make a combined dynamic flow, confluences can appear at any point in your workflow. For example, it might be how design brought in the BIM Leader earlier in the process than before. It might be how you found some time to generate CAD template files during some down time prior to the full project kickoff. By looking at intersecting events, teams, workflows, stakeholders, and management efforts, you may see a new project approach in the making.
Frustrations
An easy method for gaining insight is to look at the areas that frustrate people. Listen to what users or managers regularly complain about. Is plotting too slow? Does it take too long to get a project started? Do users have trouble finding the correct project families/components/blocks? Many times just addressing each item and asking how bad it is can release a great torrent of concerns that should lead to innovative process changes.
An example of this from way back is when one of the firms I worked with had a user who complained about the lack of space for laying out hardcopy contract drawings for reference. He created a half-size printed set and used that. Others started doing the same thing and soon everyone was using half-size sets to the point where the contractor and client started asking for half-size sets. This new approach saved time, money, and eliminated a space constraint.
Orthodoxies
These are the things that have become the standard practice that no one challenges any longer. “That is the way we have always done it” is often heard. When something presents that level of historic use, it is either a great process or one that is just never thought about. In CAD it would be like the firm that created standard table layouts using a 4’ x 4’ square block. Everything was great until they needed a table layout using another size, based on client request. What they did was adjust the X or Y scale to make a 2’ x 4’ rectangle. That was just to get them through the first client request. When the new table size became a standard offering, they never went back and created a new block. They just kept on scaling the old one.
Extremities
Your standards are not fully embraced by your teams at all times. Some standards are always followed and others are not. There are users who have pushed into new areas that are not covered by standards and then there are laggards who refuse to embrace any standard at all. Rather than write them off, ask them why. What are they doing that others might employ? What areas are defined in your standard that just really do not matter? Insightful thinkers will make adjustments as needed to reflect what is really needed and determine how to get everyone on board.
Voyages
Sawhney and Khosla encourage you to talk to customers, clients, and suppliers. In the CAD world, there may be barriers to interacting with clients directly. Ask if you can sit in on a design review meeting. Not necessarily to interact, but to listen. I once sat in a meeting with a client just to hear the owner complain that the team spelled his name wrong on every file. It was a reference file and impacted every drawing. The PM was furious and justifiably so. We instituted a checklist for CAD quality that satisfied this client and many others. I suggest that you sit in with your subcontractors who provide portions of the CAD effort to see what their concerns are.
Analogies
Talk to and interact with others from differing firms (like at Autodesk University). Interact with those in different markets. Ask a ship builder how they use CAD. Talk to a manufacturing staffer about their process in CAD. Chat with an architect about creating buildings in BIM. Take their ideas, mold them into your environment, and define something new.
Conclusion
By listening, watching, thinking, and acting, you can address these observations insightfully by making changes prior to problems. What sets aside someone with insight from someone who is just cleaning up a mess is that the insightful person is proactive in using the insights they uncover in a preemptive way. They can revolutionize your approach to CAD and move your firm forward.
