COURSES
Technical Coaching
One-to-one, weekly technical coaching. When learning on the job erodes profit and damages a company’s reputation.
Technical coaching closes this gap to provide weekly support, accountability, and continual reinforcement. Traditional training that focuses on the individual, needs the BMS company to facilitate or ‘force’ engineers and managers to change their workflow to incorporate newly learnt techniques or processes. This generally does not happen and engineers can easily fall back on bad habits.
One-to-one, weekly technical coaching
Our coaching program was created to support growing BMS companies that need one-to-one weekly support for an engineer or project manager assigned to an important project. Unlike training which focuses on the individual, our coaching program focuses on the success of the project and ultimately the growth and brand of the BMS company.
Coaching is specifically for companies that need to invest in an engineer to ultimately improve project profit or reduce project loss. Where learning on the job introduces too much financial risk and damage to the brand of the BMS company.
Technical coaching will also assist in situations where a BMS company has a high workload and does not have an experienced engineer available. Investing in coaching is a risk mitigation strategy.
Technical coaching is a way for BMS companies to support engineers when they need it most. When they are under pressure and perhaps out of their depth. Provide them with support before they burn out and leave.
You are only as good as your last project
Customers want consistency, they don’t want a great experience on one project and then a failure the next. We regularly see mechanical contractors, consultants, and building owners blacklist BMS companies due to poor performance. In many cases the BMS engineer or project manager did what they were trained to; they built a Building Management System.
Nowadays, just building a BMS is not good enough, you need to be a superhero to deliver a project without enough time, enough money, lack of resources, and product delivery issues.
Investing in coaching is the fastest way to reduce risk, deliver consistency, and become a BMS company of choice.
How it Works
The coaching program starts at whatever phase the project is in. If an engineer signs up at the start of their project, then the coaching starts at the beginning. If an engineer signs up during the design phase, then the coaching starts at the design phase.
At each weekly session, we will discuss what needs to be done at that phase in the project and resolve issues that came up in the past week.
A large part of coaching is accountability. Other than the engineer getting weekly support they are also held accountable to deliver what needs to be delivered to ultimately achieve a successful project.
Each session is half an hour of contact time. However, I will be allowing an hour to check my notes, prepare, and then follow up afterwards. E.g., with checklists, examples, or notes on which lessons to complete in the learning management system, relative to the current phase of the project.
The coaching program is not only focused on project delivery and risk but also covers technical aspects of the project. A quick sanity check of the engineer’s network architecture drawing, is the design fit for purpose? Are we over-designing? A discussion on the invoice schedule, has it been front-loaded, will it maintain a positive cash flow from month one, will the project make money?
Some engineers may get to a point where they burn out, and we may need to spend a couple of weeks working on how to deal with pressure, and what exactly can be done. Burnout and resignations affect projects, and project success is a KPI of the coaching program.
The investment made in coaching by the BMS company must translate into increased profit or reduced loss, it is not always going to be fun for the engineer. There will be satisfaction, but it will take effort. The coaching may increase their workload as the tasks that generally are not done, which result in project failure, will now need to be done.
“Preventing a couple of mistakes over a 6-12 month project will likely pay for the investment made in technical coaching. If a customer becomes a repeat customer as a result of having a good experience with your company, then the Return on Investment will be ten times. How much would you invest to become a company of choice?”
Outcome
Fewer consultant comments to technical submissions and therefore less design rework.
Fewer design mistakes and therefore less installation, engineering and commissioning rework.
Less margin slippage or at a minimum advanced warning of financial issues, which will then become the focus to resolve or mitigate.
Reduced scope creep.
Continuous professional development for an engineer or project manager, resulting in becoming a BMS company of choice.
You don’t know what you don’t know. Engineers and project managers do not know what questions to ask their managers. Weekly technical coaching teases out upcoming issues and risks. Preventing issues from happening through proactive design and project management.
Engineers and project managers do not always feel comfortable asking their managers questions. I will be asking most of the questions each week. “Have you done this yet? Why not? Can you do it before next week? Here is a template, and go listen to this lesson in the learning management system. Let’s run through it together next week”.
Hit your revenue forecast each month and maintain project margin. This does not happen on its own, it needs weekly focus. When I was a project manager, I delivered 33/33 projects over four years, each one on budget. At one stage, I generated over AU$ 90,000 of additional cash over and above the forecast margin of all my projects.
I will teach engineers and project managers how to play the game. How to manage the consultant and other stakeholders. Knowing how to technically build a BMS is not enough to deliver a successful project. BMS companies are generally not as good at manipulating or understanding the design and construct model, as the mechanical contractor and the builder.
What coaching is not
Coaching is not the same as training. Coaching fills in the ‘experience gaps’ that you don’t get from a training course. In many cases, I will provide a design or project management template to assist or direct engineers.
I will not be doing the work for them or providing quality assurance. It takes me about 8 hours to review the control strategy design for a 30-story premium-grade building. We will discuss the progress of their design, the overall quality of their design, and can discuss specific control systems or issues, but I will not review the design in detail.
Business-to-business consulting
Additional to technical coaching which focuses on the individual and the project, a BMS company may benefit from business consulting. We provide an independent analysis of a BMS company’s processes, designs, staff, customers, and other stakeholders to pinpoint a problem, provide options and a recommendation for improvement. Please see our BMS consulting website for more information.
Coaching details
30-minute, One-to-one virtual meeting per week (30-minute contact time, plus I will spend time preparing before the session and following up after the session).
Design and project management templates.
Technical support.
Mentoring.
Accountability.
Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10).
Limited places are available as the coaching is one-to-one with Bryce Anderson.
Pricing - AU $1,300 per month
(excluding GST) - Minimum three months initial sign-up, then cancel anytime.
Register for technical coaching
Technical coaching will likely be taken up by BMS companies and not individuals. If you are a BMS engineer or project manager, and this sounds valuable to you, then forward this webpage to your manager and check if this is appropriate before filling out the form below.
COURSE LEADER
Bryce Anderson
Bryce is an independent Building Automation Consultant with over 24 years of experience. The first 15 years working for BMS companies in South Africa, London, and Australia, before transitioning into BMS consulting in 2014.
Bryce is typically engaged by building owners, facility managers, builders, mechanical consultants, and Independent Commissioning agents (ICA) as a BMS specialist consultant. This exposure to the wider industry allows Bryce to provide customised training courses that do not just teach the technical side of BMS systems but also address current real-life issues and constraints in the Building Management System industry.
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