Key Players only
Make sure that your team has the key players involved and no fluff. Finding out who these people are may be a challenge. Since the CAD Standard will be a document for the end users, select the people on your team from the end user pool.
Talk to the users in the offices to see who should be involved. Ask them who they go to for answers. Ask them how the ones they go to were selected. Ask about their interactions with them. Are these people willing to help? Or do they begrudgingly help? Are they easy to get along with? Do they listen to the ideas and comments of others?
You are looking for someone who knows CAD inside out. You are looking for someone who knows the firm and the designs they create and the processes they use to create them. You are looking for someone that is not afraid to speak their mind, but always keeps it professional. Someone that is willing to listen to others and look at differing perspectives. You are looking for those that care about CAD.
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A Team of Individuals
You may not have total control over who is part of the team
This can happen easily as some teams are defined by those that either get on it by the nature of their title or the nature of the politics in the office. This is a hard one to work around. The office politics may be thick and heavy, and challenging someone’s seat at the table can give you some heartache. Try to work with those who have been given to you first before you try to change the mix on your team.
If you can define the team yourself, select wisely. Here are some tips for getting the right team together.
Representatives
Select representatives from each office, studio, location, division or whatever way your firm is divided up. Having someone from each location allows you to include every part of the firm. You do not want to leave any area out. If they are left out and do not have a representative, they will not follow the guideline you will create.
Independent Voices
People want to have a representative, but your team needs to know that the representative needs to have an independent mind. They are a rep for their group back at the office, but they need to have individual voices. This means that they cannot just keep silent and check in with others before adding an opinion. They will check what the group is deciding against the input from their office, but they need to have their own voices adding input as you move forward.
Creating your team from scratch
When it comes time to set aside a group of people from your firm to help define and review a CAD Standard you will need to think long and hard about who should be on the team.
Size
Creative teams are usually 3-5 persons in size. Your team will need to be bigger than this, but you need to keep in mind that smaller teams can move quicker and create things from nothing faster than larger teams because of the smaller scale of input and opinions.
Review teams are usually 7-12 persons in size. This provides a broader level of perspectives needed to fully think through the concerns and impacts of a CAD Standard. This is the size of the team you want. Smaller teams for smaller firms are fine, but if you have over 100 or so persons that interact with CAD, then you will need a larger team.
Teams that are over 15 persons or so can be hard to work with and also may not generate consistency. Many will check in and out of the process and you will soon find that a dedicated number will be fully vested in the process. This will naturally happen as you move through the early to mid stages of the process. So even if you start with a team this big, it will winnow its way down as you proceed.
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Gathering the team that actually is involved with generating the input and holding the discussions about CAD Standards is critical to the success of your efforts. Don’t just let the team develop itself.
You have to work at creating a positive team. There are two kinds of teams that you may work with. Created and Inherited. Created teams come about because you develop them. Inherited teams are there when you start the process. They are given to you. I have worked in both of these situations.
Some may inherit a team if they join a firm or get promoted into a position that takes over the process. If you inherit a team, then you have to work with what you have.
Inherited Team Issues
There are several issues that come into play when working with an inherited team. You have to work through these as you prepare and make progress with standards. The team may have been together for some time and now you have to work with them.
Hidden Agendas
Teams have tides that flow under the surface that may take some time to understand. If unspoken agendas get in the way of your progress, you will be soon going head to head with the influences of these agendas.
Existing Alliances
You will need to find out who is connected to who. These alliances will be used to influence the outcome of discussions as the unions work together and vote together. Watch to see who is hanging out together and who the friends are in the group. Watch for subtle indications that these friendships are working counter to your efforts. When they surface make sure that they are not teaming up against you. If they do that, then talk to them individually after the meeting. Splitting them up will allow you to find out what each one feels individually.
Existing Pecking Order
There may be existing structure of who is connected to who and also who can voice their opinions, who can speak to what topics, who can overrule whom and who must agree on what issues before it can become a final decision. These may be in place and fairly hard-coded into the group.
Existing Ground Rules
We have discussed ground rules in a previous post. Existing teams may have unwritten ground rules that they understand, but you may be walking into a mine field. Teams have ways of settling into certain ways of doing things. The team may interact in ways that you do not understand. You may try to work in a way that the team does not understand. All of this can make progress harder.
If you inherit a team, it will take more time to get them to work with you and in a manner that you are comfortable with. It can be successful, but it takes work.
Next time… Creating a team
When you start thinking of creating or reviewing your CAD standards, it has to be done through teams. Not many firms will just let one person define the standard without talking to anyone. Even if the group is small, it still needs to be defined.
If you have a small firm, you can keep things fairly informal. The bigger the team, the more formal the structure will need to be.
If you are a small shop, you will have a small team. There may not even be one person designated as the CAD Manager. You can just talk amongst yourselves while you are working each topic out over lunch or even while you work. Someone should write down what you are deciding and take notes. Keeping it informal allows it to move at a good pace.
A mid-size firm may have a CAD Manager who is tasked with developing the Standard. They may set the topics and pace for discussions. It may be a little more formal and have scheduled meetings.
For very large firm you will need a small, 2 to 3 person steering committee. This small group will steer and coordinate the process. They will define the topics and make sure that the team stays on task. They should get together to define what the plan is for developing the standard. The reason for a steering committee is so that no one person is charged with making the standard for a large firm. Politically having one person responsible for such a large impacting process is tough unless the CAD Manager has a high level of influence within the firm.
So define first if there is a need for a steering committee or not.
The poll posted for April involves the discussion topic that I have been blogging on for the past several posts.
Some may think that their standard is the best, some may think it is okay and others may take the perspective that it needs work – a lot of work.
So let us all know what you are thinking…
Rate your CAD Standard – 10 being best
Liaison with the Management Team
Talking to the managers at your firm takes another level of conversation. These discussions will be one on one at most times, since getting a group of higher level employees in one place at one time is tough. If it is an overhead or non client billable time –it will be even tougher.
So these talks need to happen off the cuff, on short durations and be focused. Do not trouble managers with unclear issues. If you have to talk with them make sure that you know the short version of your side of the conversation. Lay it out for them in short order. Get to the point. Get their input and end the meeting.
If you need to communicate via a written process, do not expect that they have read and understood what you have discussed. These people are busy and may not have the time to read your documents. Give them executive summaries at the beginning of long documents. This will let them know if they need to read the rest.
Expect them to come to a decision quickly. Slow them down if you think that they did not give it enough time. If they do not have the time now, then revisit the conversation later. Breaking up long topics is okay as long as you engage them consistently. Don’t let time lag in between – they may not recall the prior conversation without a recap.
What Topics do I discuss with management?
You might ask… what do I need to be talking to them about. Here is my quick catagories. Things that cost money, impact project delivery and impact time.
Cost Impacts – these are the things that will cost money to get done or will take money away from other areas. These may be software purchases, hardware issues, licensing maintenance, outside assistance and consultants and delays in software purchases.
Project Impacts – these are the things that will impact the project and the deliverables. CAD Standards have impacts on project as they seek to comply with the standard and get the job out the door. When you change the CAD Standard – it impacts projects. When you create something new – it impacts projects. Check in with the managers to see what they think.
Time Impacts – CAD Standards impact time to be in compliance. A Standard improved interoffice productivity, but managers may sometimes feel that they get in the way. Striking a balance between making the Standard work and getting the project out the door should be a time for talking to the manager.
Keep these conversations flowing. Go talk to them before they come complaining to you.
Define the process of discussion and approval
You will be working with many people to create and maintain a CAD Standard. Some of these will be done in teams. Teams need guidelines.
One thing that needs to be done is for you to define the process of how things are discusses and approved. Do not assume that people know how discussions will flow and how approvals will be completed.
Make sure that everyone knows the discussion boundaries. Write them down. Give them to every member of any team you will be working with. It is a good idea to present them formally at the first meeting and review them from time to time.
Here are some ideas. Adjust them to fit your environment.
Discussion ground rules
Discussions should remain professional at all times. Some heated discussions may come about in the talks about standards. People get passionate about some of these topics. These passions may become dynamic topics. Keep them professional and dignified. You may have to referee these discussions.
Keep them on topic. There is such a wide range of things that could be discussed. Make sure that the topic on the table is the one being discussed. Don’t let it drift around. Call people back to the topic by making summary statements like “I am hearing (this and that). Is that correct?”
Everyone has an equal access and opinion. Expressing opinions is encouraged and welcomed. Every team member should speak their mind. Every opinion will be weighed and measured and discussed. The team will decide collectively on the value of an opinion, perspective, idea or suggestion.
Not every team member has the same level of authority. All ideas are equal, but not all have the same authority. Authority is defined by the team, not by the individual. The CAD Manager will have the greatest authority in the team, but will use this authority to govern the team, not through their weight around. Some may come to the team with higher level of corporate title. That applies outside the team, but not inside the team. Just because someone is of higher rank in the firm, does not make their opinions any higher. Leave rank at the door. This is where office politics comes into play. You have to work at keep office politics out of CAD Standard creation.
Everyone has an equal voice. Everyone participates.Make sure that every person is included in conversations. No one should dominate the discussion. Some may shrink back from a topic based on politics, personality or priority. Make sure that when a topic nears conclusion that every person has spoken to it. Do not let someone be silent. Get verbal agreement. Silence may mean agreement or disagreement. Make every person state their agreement. Sometimes this is verbal vote by going around the table.
Begin and end on time. This is tough, but make sure that you watch the clock. People are busy and need to know that a commitment to the process will not overly impact their other tasks. Be flexible at the end of your meeting time if a discussion is lively. If the end time approaches and you are not done, tell everyone you will go over and how long that will be. Don’t go over your end time too often.
Everything that is said here stays here. You are not in Las Vegas, but if things are still in progress, the topic should stay with the team. Team members should not rally outsiders to their perspective. When a topic is “in process” – keep it inside the team until you have enough defined to get approval from the team.
No side conversations during the meeting. Keep everyone on point and focused. Don’t let people verbally wander off. It is annoying and you are not able to track multiple conversations. Side conversation can happen before and after the meeting also. Try to keep track of those. Keep your ears open for indications of smaller groups from the team getting together to push one issue. Sometimes you may have to insert yourself into these outside conversations to make sure they are following the rules, find out if their conversations are coming up with a good idea or if they are just complaining. Outside conversations will happen and they are a good thing, if they are constructive and team focused.
By discussing the ground rules first, you can avoid difficult meetings, discussions and outcomes.
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