Learning Curves on Progress Road

Everyone's in this together. As a company we all have to take any changes that the industry throws at us in stride, from Building Codes and Zoning Requirements to Calendar Software and CAD. It's a part of growing and necessary to stay competitive.

Recently AEDA instituted a major change in our CAD software, introducing Autodesk Revit to production staff. In order to continue making progress as a company this change made sense and is starting to produce some exciting results. In the office there's still some excitement regarding the software, but there can be resistance...the learning curve is dangerous and claims many victims.

As a company, the introduction to new software is a tenuous time. The transition between programs takes time and can hurt production and ultimately the bottom line. The expenditure for the new software, training, and hardware upgrades can be expensive as well. In all, the losses can initially outweigh the benefits. Some employees may find it easier to stay in the comfort zone of the older software because they do not easily grasp the new, or because deadlines for projects make using the older software seem like a better choice. This is understandable and often supported by the decision makers. Slowing down at the curve is safe.

Meanwhile, other staff members are making strides and pulling ahead utilizing the full capabilities of their new tool and mastering the various aspects of it. They find shortcuts and better ways of doing things, they learn new skills and discover other tools that help them become more productive. Suddenly they prefer not to utilize older tools and they begin to forget old ways. Around the curve it's difficult to see the road behind you. 

At a certain point the new and old ways become distant and communication becomes more difficult. The longer it takes for everyone to transition the harder it becomes. This can lead to many problems; compatibility, communication, direction and goals. In addition, it may become necessary for some staff to retrain those other staff members and guide them once the transition must be made. This creates addition slow downs and production issues. 

AEDA is making progress and we're confident in our decision to embrace the changes. Revit is the future of Architecture and we feel confident in our ability to produce excellence by using it. Already our construction documents and renderings are getting compliments and we know that we can only improve. There will always be bumps in the road, but once the learning curve is behind you the road ahead is usually straight...until the next curve.

To illustrate our progress, here's a sample of a current project. You can compare it to the image from our blog post "Welcome to the future...We'll train you for that." on 12/08/15. Keep working to get around that curve, it's pretty on the other end.
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Tourville Residence