While writing a post about a former coworker, I paused to create a few diagrams explaining why others in his position often fail to make the switch to ArchiCAD and BIM. These three diagrams help illustrate what causes people to panic during their early adventures with a new way of working.

A note about the fail line. People who give up at this point typically keep spinning their wheels without making any progress. Rarely do people give up AND stop pretending to try at the same time. But with no effort and copious amounts of pessimism, the final outcome is no surprise: failure. Whether of their own volition or because their bosses or BIM Manager are telling them to keep going, many continue using BIM, masking their non-existent efforts behind a facade of ‘trying’. Every so often one of these unfortunates gets a second wind and breaks through the inertia of defeat and despair; there is something to be said about just showing up. Better to be proactive and help those around you. When you see a coworker’s excitement to use and learn BIM continue to free-fall, think about how you can help him re-ignite his efforts.

A note about the time axis. The fail point can be counted in hours, days, or weeks. Everyone reaches that moment of deepest frustration and anger at different points. What matters is not giving up, but pushing on through the darkness.

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