Jim Martin, CIO, Shepley Bulfinch

Interview Description

Like all of us, Shepley Bulfinch has been working virtually since March of 2020. Never ones to shy from a challenge, Jim Martin and the Shepley team have run multiple experiments over the last year to help the firm share lessons learned, improve knowledge flow, connect multiple offices, and engage employees while working in a virtual environment.

In this Deep Dive Webinar, Jim shared detailed examples, successes, and failures from Shepley’s experiments with sharing knowledge and connecting people when everyone is remote.

Speaker Bio

Jim Martin is Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Shepley Bulfinch, a national architecture firm known for design excellence in healthcare, education, and urban development. Drawing on over 25 years of Information Technology experience, Jim leads the development of strategies for technology tools that support and advance design, delivery, and collaboration. He has been particularly successful at creating an innovation center inside of Shepley Bulfinch's IT department, focusing on new technologies and how they affect the design process. Jim is a Six Sigma Green Belt and holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Roger Williams University.

Interview Summary

00:00 Experiments in Virtual Knowledge Sharing
00:02 Introduction: Jim Martin @ Shepley Bulfinch
01:25 Key Question: How do we connect people with knowledge?
01:41 About Shepley Bulfinch

02:43 “Back to the Future”, a Lessons Learned Program
03:13 Integrating Lessons Learned into the Design Process
03:55 Problem Identified: Collecting Lessons Learned
04:13 Initial Program
07:57 Evolution of the Program
10:07 The Reflection Period
10:54 Sharing Lessons Learned on Finch
12:06 Documenting the Process
13:00 Determining Participants
13:45 Post Templates
14:37 Participants + Moderators Pre-Work
15:42 Statistics + Feedback
19:31 Observations
22:04 Back to Future Part: Work From Home Revit Edition
23:50 Reporting Out
24:22 Measuring Success
26:21 Observations

27:49 Revit User Group Debates
28:30 Identifying when a ‘Best Practice’ is best
29:03 Moderators + Debaters
30:00 Preparing + Facilitating via Teams
31:07 Sharing out on Finch
33:01 Measuring Success
34:28 Observations

36:47 “Shepley Shoutouts”, a Digital Transformation
37:33 What is a Shepley Shoutout?
38:15 The Analog Process
40:23 The Digital Transformation
41:56 Measuring Success
44:59 Observations

47:59 Summary and Q+A
50:09 Was a Knowledge Cafe w/Breakout Rooms option considered?
50:47 How do you handle legal aspects of things you would do differently?
51:51 How do you get employee shoutouts on the employee profile page?
52:30 Are you surveying employee satisfaction and comparing it to shoutout usage statistics?
53:49 Are you still using Idea Flip, if not, then what now?
54:30 Did the shoutout recognition have a reward or compensation aspect to it?
54:5 4Will shoutouts remain all-digital in the future?