Got BAD CAD? Tell us about it. Many things cause BAD CAD. How much do you have? How often? Who fixes it?
Share the impact of BAD CAD in your firm.
The triple whammy – away from work, not billable, and it cost money. This has always been a sore spot for firms that are thinking of earning and saving money (and who isn’t). Since you have to dedicate the time to training it take you away from being productive and contributing to the project (on the short term). You also are not billable when you are in training since you are not contributing to the project deliverable. And finally it cost money to send you to training. If the trainer is an in-house employee, you are paying their salary. If they are on the outside, you pay for their time of a flat fee per student.
So how do you minimize the Whammy?
Carve it out in small chunks.
Keep the classes short and sweet. Lunch ant learns during the mid day break. Two hour sessions or four hour sessions allow people to contribute to project work. These short sessions also break learning into more palatable portions. No one is trying to learn too much at one time.
Keep it focused
Shorter classes mean better focus on one topic. By staying on topic the learning is drilled into the learner. No confusion related to multiple concepts or tasks.
Make it valuable
Give them handouts. Something to take with them. Do it hands on if possible. Follow up after the class to see if people are using what they learned.
Make it stick
Training sticks if you make it stick. By constantly reminding people of the new methods and tools you stand a chance of making progress. If you just train them, push them through class and never reinforce what they have learned, you most likely will not see advances made.
Let’s talk about Training…
Training budgets are difficult to get passed. Training time is difficult to justify. Training material is hard to develop. We will discuss all of these areas and give you practical tips for getting past your roadblocks. We will also discuss an option for getting your people trained by turning what is typically downtime into productive focused training time.
Training Budgets:
1. Always include training with every purchase. When you talk to management about an upgrade, make sure you mention training at the same time. Upgrades require training. New software requires training. Asking for money is always tough but don’t stop at the purchase price. Training needs to be included.
2. Always over-budget for training. Since training budgets always get cut – keep them high. Make sure you have some room to cut without cutting it out completely.
3. Always cut another area to save your training budget. Sacrificing training is like cutting off a finger. You pay the price when you try to throw your fast ball. Keeping high levels of productivity is the goal of training. Without it, speed goes down.
I wish the price of software included training time. I can justify the cost of buying software. If it included online tutorials, webinars, training vouchers or more – that would be great.
David Harrington – Technical Editor of AUGI World Magazine (among many other things) has started a blog.
In his words… “Most of what I will post will be personal/professional in nature but also will include information about Autodesk products including AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and Revit Structure.”
He calls it “CADDHelp” – take a look
The inaugural issue of the NIBS and NBIMS Journal of Building Information Modeling has been published on the web.
You can see a PDF version here.
See the full website http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/
Check this out… It is the touch screen interface from the AU Exhibit hall.
Here is another one I posted on YouTube
The big party was last night. An expansive hall filled with food, fun and friends. After thanking the AUGI Volunteers, I wandered into the “80’s”. It was a celebration of 1982 when Autodesk got it’s start. There were classic video games and pool tables and pictures with 80’s celebrity look-a-likes.
Then I found out that there was another gigantic room with a band and stage acts. Comedians, jugglers, Lynn Allen in 80’s gear and a band for dancing (to 80’s music – of course). What an event.
Today is the final day of classes. A good portion of those are three and a half hour marathon presentations. The event closes at 12 noon and most people are leaving town. We have an AUGI Board of Directors meeting later today to do a debrief on our events and improvements for next year.
So AU 2007 comes to a close and AU 2008 – at the Venetian – Dec. 2-5 – mark your calendar now – you need to be here.
Another long day. Up early to make my class on “CAD Leadership“. I presented this class twice as requested by the AU staff.
The AUGI booth was busy and many were signing up to join AUGI.
For more pictures of the event, check out Shaan Hurley’s photo album on Flickr. My smiling face even shows up there. I ran into Shaan in the hallway.
A long day for me at AU 2007.
It started off with a “Writer’s Breakfast” that AUGI put on for the writers of Hot News, AUGI World and BLAUGI. A large group of writers were in attendance and we discussed the future of publication in differing languages. Next it was on to a Board of Directors meeting with Kelly Rupp – part of the Autodesk worldwide marketing group.
Then on to my class presentation on BAD CAD. Tale a look at the link that offers part of the class outline.
Lunch was spent in the AUGI Booth talking to members and signing up new ones.
I ran into Shaan Hurley on my way to my next class. He asked if I was blogging at the show – OF COURSE! The next class I presented was “Preventative CAD Management”.
Tonight is the AUGI International Reception – “Do you speak English?” will be my most used question to others.
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