This is the second of 2 blogposts from my last blog. It was originally published in June of 2021.
I've spent the past 5 years assisting a variety of design firms with Revit and other BIM-related topics. Before that, I spent 10 years working at an architecture firm. I've noticed a few things that are pretty universal, which makes me feel better (oh, it wasn't just my firm) but also worse (why are these such systemic problems?!) and one of those is the lack of people asking (and taking the time to answer) questions.
Why do architects in general feel the need to always figure things out on their own? Is it because that's what's taught to us in architecture school, that we need to suffer to create good work and part of that is finding our own way through everything? Is this the same in the other AEC fields?
When I was in architecture school, we did have a good mix of group and individual projects, but at least at my school, even the group projects were still mostly individual, with the group working together on common themes but then each person mostly creating their own thing. I think that it set up an unrealistic expectation that architects work on their own, when in fact reality is the complete opposite. This seemed to create a culture of "just figuring out everything yourself," no matter how long it took.
I think that my personality is just such that I am a questioner. I always want to have all the information about something before I start. I want to make sure that whatever I'm doing fits in with the plan for the overall project. I have always been conscious of how whatever I do affects the larger plan of a project. This has always been the case with architecture but even more so when you're working in a BIM-aiding software such as Revit. Collaboration requires questioning as you need questions to have understanding. I tell all of my students that Revit requires more communication, not less, which is not a bad thing.
More often than not, when a client asks me to help them figure out a workflow or create something for them, I start by asking questions. I need to understand holistically what they REALLY need, not what they just need right now to get their work done and go home. I ask them all sorts of questions about what it specifically needs to do to right then but what it also might need to do in the future. I really want to UNDERSTAND what they are asking so that I give them what they really need, not what they think that they want. If they can't explain it to me then 1. how will they convey it properly on the drawings, and 2. how will I make it?
I'm always so flabbergasted when I hear of someone just opening up a Revit model that they've never been in before and starting to work without talking to the model manager, or at least someone who is working on the project currently. I've started adding a note in BIG RED letters to the startup page of all my templates "Before working in this model talk with XXXXX" (I didn't think of this, I saw it in a template I was reviewing and I thought it was such a fantastic idea that I'm paying it forward).
The other hand of this is also being willing to answer questions. Maybe those who don't ask also don't answer? I have worked with plenty of people who don't take the time to properly teach something or answer questions and then get mad or annoyed when it's not done properly, or they want to do something in a less efficient way because they don't want to teach someone the way that may be more complicated because it takes their time to teach it. It's bad practices like this that give Revit a bad name when 99.5% of the time issues are due to user error, not software error.
Some of it might be that people think that they look "dumb" or that they aren't really an "expert" (see my last post) if they ask questions. Asking questions shows that you care and that you are really paying attention (well at least if they are real questions and not lazy ones) and on the flip side, taking the time to answer questions and teach someone something shows that you value them as part of the team and want to help them to get better.
To me, it's like a kid yelling at their parents when they get mad at them, "You don't love me!!!" Well, if they weren't loved, why would the parent waste their time getting mad? You take the time precisely BECAUSE you care.
In the end, you will always save time and heartache if you both ask and answer questions. It's always better to have information and not need it than to need it and not have it (like what I tell my kids about taking a sweatshirt to school!).
Think about this from a selfish perspective - if you teach someone how to do something, now you don't have to do that thing, so it's really a win-win situation. You are lifting that person up and in the process moving up the mean skill level of your entire organization, which in the end saves time and money.
The moral of my story - ask and answer questions, you'll get a better outcome, and you might even save some money in the process!
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