I must admit to being underwhelmed when I first saw the Revit Technology Conference organisers had selected, self described, Clinical Psychologist, Author and Wearer of Socks Nigel Latta as the keynote speaker.
I haven’t seen much of his TV work but was once rather surprised how much credence he gave the New Zealand show “Sensing Murder”.
It was a ‘reality’ show where Psychics supposedly help with long unsolved murders (with little or no actual success).
The episode is covered in detail at www.sillybeliefs.com. I thought “Sensing Murder” was a cynical and appalling exploitative abuse of families who had already suffered terrible loss.
Given that, I was wrong to prejudge as Nigel’s presentation, about change, was both relevant and entertaining. Although not about BIM it covered many aspects a change like BIM’plementation can bring to a business, process and team.
Nigel gave some insight to the evolutionary physical, social and neurological factors which cause Human creatures to behave the way we do. He also shared techniques for recognizing and dealing with resistance to change, fear & anxiety, stubbornness and difficult people. This was done with a variety of anecdotes from his private and professional life shared with zeal and passion.
Perhaps one of his best bits of advice before setting out on any project (from BIM implementation to a simple family) was to do a pe-mortem:
- Think about what you'll do
- Imagine it's all gone horribly wrong
- Work out how to fix it and you'll avoid that outcome
It was diverse interesting entertaining presentation and a great way to kick off the event.
