The article discusses understanding the balance and prioritization of tasks as a CAD manager, using personal experiences to outline the importance of focusing on deadlines and managing workflow rather than becoming overly involved in the specifics of the tools used. It highlights the significance of keeping production on track, the importance of tying tasks to specific deadlines, and the value of focusing on the aspects that require improvement rather than what is already functioning well.
Key Insights
- The article emphasizes that CAD managers should prioritize keeping production on track and ensuring that work is completed on time, as these are the expectations from senior management.
- Every task undertaken should be tied to a deadline, with a clear understanding of the task's impact on that deadline. This approach allows CAD managers to focus on the right tasks at the right time, thereby improving efficiency and productivity.
- The author suggests that good management involves focusing on aspects of the operation that aren't functioning optimally, rather than meddling with aspects that are already working well. This approach allows for constant improvement and growth within the organization.
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For me, how it started as a CAD manager was, I worked way too many hours, and I walked around the floor responding to users, and every time I walked past somebody's cube, they literally almost reached out and grabbed me and said, hey, come in here and look at this problem. At the end of the day, 10 hours later, I didn't think I had accomplished anything more than when I walked in that morning. I just fought fires all day.
I was not in control of my workload. I simply didn’t understand what was coming my way. I didn't know how to prioritize it, and all I did was spin my wheels.
So I don't know if anyone here has had that experience as well, but it seems to be something that a lot of us experience. What it came down to for me was to understand that I don't manage CAD—I manage deadlines. Don't believe me? Do this.
Leave your CAD environment completely alone—don’t touch the software for five years. Have every project go out on time and see how many times your senior management yells at you.
They won't. They don't care about the CAD. Be extremely technically aggressive about programming, customizing, and integrating your software—but miss a deadline, and what do you hear? Lots of complaints, and rightly so, because you're missing a customer commitment.
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So really, at the end of the day, they expect me to manage the deadline process. They expect for the work to go out on time. Keeping production on track is number one, and it always will be, and it should be, because that's why the company's in business.
If you work for a multidisciplinary architecture firm, you’re not in business to implement Revit; you’re in business to design buildings. Revit just happens to be the tool you use to do it. So don’t get overly involved in thinking about the tools.
It's managing the tools and the process that's really the job. Therefore, every task I work on has to be tied to a deadline. I have to understand what the impact of that task is on my deadline.
Early in my career, I had a project manager pull me into the room and say, 'You know that project we have going out next week?' I said, 'Yeah, the one with the 60-drawing package, full discipline, full submittal.' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Yeah, what about it? We're on track for that project.'
He said, 'Well, when are we gonna get the MicroStation translated files for that?' And who had ever told me about that? Nobody had. So what task went to number one on my task list right then and there? That one. I may not always like the surprises I get, but I have to make sure that every task I work on is tied to the next deadline in front of me.
The way I do this is by keeping a task list. I don’t know how many of you keep a piece of paper with you as you walk around the floor and people ask you things. The advantage I found to a piece of paper is that the battery never dies.
It boots quickly, and I can kind of keep track of things. I carry a spiral-bound notebook so it remains chronological—I can flip back and see what happened over the last few days. And I just write everything down.
When I get back to my desk, I’ll put it in a spreadsheet and sort, filter, and prioritize it, but the main thing is just keeping track. This methodology of keeping track of tasks and tying it to deadlines allowed me to work on the right stuff at the right time. Now, when somebody comes up to me and says, 'Hey, we want you to work on a Revit orientation class for our senior managers, ' I can say, 'Okay, fine.'
What job is that tied to? When does it really need to occur? Oh, it’s just something we need to get done in the next few months or whatever. Well, okay, that goes on the list, but it’s not what I’m working on tomorrow. I wish somebody had told me this when I first started being a CAD manager, because once I figured this out and started prioritizing things, things went a whole lot better.
I also came to understand the two crucial rules of good managers. Here they are:
You manage the things that aren’t working.
You don’t manage the things that are.
You say, well, that sounds simple and it's certainly not rocket science. What does he mean by that? As technologists, we're kind of guilty of going in and fiddling around with the software a lot, because it's what interests us.
It's what we do. So I’m over here customizing something, really drilling way down into this program, or minutely focusing on some detail of a nut or bolt in an Inventor assembly, when really the core problem is that this project that goes out next week has a technical fly in it or is way behind. What should I be working on? That project, not necessarily the software thing that I want to work on.
Focus your attention on the things that are broken. Look at good managers around you, and you’ll see that’s what they do. I want to have a sidebar conversation real quick.
When I go into a room full of CAD managers, I frequently ask, 'How many of you would say that your senior management does not understand what you do?' It’s really interesting how many hands go up. Let’s go ahead and do that here in the room. I apologize to the people streaming out there.
We got a very good response in the room to that question.
