Best Practices— Working From Home
We’re in this together. As most of us have spent the last month working from home, we’ve learned a lot about how to work and communicate effectively. Many of us have devised new ways to leverage our technology, some have figured out how to use familiar tools in new ways and all of us have had to adapt to be productive and efficient.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
Table of Contents
Section 01.
MS Teams 4
Section 02.
OneNote 14
Section 03.
Bluebeam 18
Section 04.
Revit 24
Section 05.
Other Software 26
Section 06.
Project Organization/Mockup Sets
28
Section 07.
Personal Organization/Work Habits
32
Section 08.
Communications 36
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Section 01.
Microsoft Teams ― 01
Using the chat feature Springboard spur-of-the-moment calls by clicking the phone icon to talk with everyone in the chat. Establish one-on-one chats for individual discussions and team chats for broader conversations. Meeting chat sessions remain active after the meeting has ended and can be used for follow-up conversations. Personal mentions (@lastname,firstname) in group chats will trigger notifications. Create new, named chats for specific topics:
New chat
Expand
Name the chat Invite people
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Best Practices for Working From Home
To save a message, hover over the chat and click here:
Saved chats will appear here:
Type "/saved" in the search box
Sending images and saving conversations Use the Snipping tool to communicate visually: paste images, markups, sketches. Save discussions you might want to reference later.
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― 02
Using the Planner app Planner training is on Platform 3.0. Add a Planner tab to any Team Channel using the '+' on the Channel ribbon. Pin Planner to the Apps bar (at left) for quick access to all your Planner sessions. Convey deadlines or other milestones to the entire team. Tasks can be assigned to team members or left unassigned for team members to volunteer when their schedule allows. Fill in 'Due Date' and 'Priority' to convey a task's urgency. Use the 'Notes' section to add instructions or other important information.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
In Posts, keep discussion threads together by responding using direct reply
― 03
Using Channels Save discussions you might want to reference later. Create new channels sparingly and only for topics that need dedicated discussion. Personal mentions (@lastname,firstname) in posts will trigger notifications. Use Posts to communicate with team members instead of sending e-mails: it reduces incoming e-mails; conversation is more fluid; allows personal mentions; and is visible to the entire team. Use the Snipping tool to communicate visually in Posts: paste images, markups, sketches.
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― 05
Meetings and calls Consider video for team check-ins, happy hours and more social events to keep the team connected and engaged. Video use for large meetings, or where bandwidth is limited, can cause connectivity issues, use carefully. Sharing individual programs, especially Revit and PowerPoint, can cause visibility issues, test before using in a public meeting. Send a quick Teams Message before starting an unscheduled call to give everyone a heads up. Consider holding “Virtual Office Hours,” setting aside an hour or two every day to field questions and discuss issues.
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There are many options for screen sharing. Sharing your desktop is often the most versatile and easiest to use, see the screenshot below for reference:
Best Practices for Working From Home
Use multi-functionality (audio, video, chat, screen sharing, whiteboard) for client meetings to expedite decision making and replace some e-mail traffic. Request control of the presenter's screen to sketch in Revit, Bluebeam, Snipping, etc. or mark up. The presenter can then save the sketch for distribution. Quickly poll attendees during Teams meetings by typing options into the Chat and asking team members to “thumbs up� their preferred option. Use the in-call Notes for recurring meetings. They stay in the Chat window and can be referenced from meeting-to-meeting.
HELPFUL HINT Polly is a poll building app offered by Microsoft Teams that allows you to create a questionnaire. Native polls and surveys reliably reach your team and provide valuable feedback.
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― 06
Sharing files All MS Office files uploaded to a Team can be worked on by multiple team members simultaneously. Snip photos and web images of material samples and arrange them in PowerPoint or Whiteboard to create digital materials boards. Add the Word drawings checklists (File > New > pwChecklists) to Teams for collaborative use by team members and to track progress.
― 07
Creating a Wiki Create a To-Do Wiki to communicate daily tasks to the team. Tag individual pages and tasks to team members with personal mentions. Create a Project Information Wiki in General with important project data.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 08
For more tips on using Teams, click here.
Using Whiteboard MS Whiteboard, can be added to a channel or meeting to sketch, paste images, and write in real time. This app is a great tool for virtual charette sessions, critiques, and collaborative efforts. To use Whiteboard during a meeting, click the "share" button on the tool bar under your headshot, and launch the app to the right. All call members should do the same to edit the board. A blank PowerPoint can be added to a channel for use as a collaborative whiteboard.
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― 09
On-call schedule Add an Excel spreadsheet to the channel for timeintensive projects to know when team members aren't actively working but are available.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 10
Available schedule Add an Excel spreadsheet to the channel to keep track of team members responsibilities on other projects. Allows team members to block out time to dedicate to other projects.
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Section 02.
OneNote ― 01
Creating a project notebook Set up a Project Notebook for each project that
Notebooks can be linked to MS Teams, but may
can include Sections for:
be read-only access which limits usefulness. Use the checkbox function, or even doublecheckbox, on lists to identify when items are in
‒ Project Information
progress and complete.
‒ Weekly Team Meeting ‒ Meeting Minutes ‒ Team Notes ‒ Schedule/Work Plan ‒ Deliverables List by Phase ‒ Project Directory ‒ Weekly To-Do Lists ‒ RFI/Submittal Hot List ‒ Applicable Code List ‒ Specifications TOC ‒ Materials Lists ‒ Pull Plan ‒ Owner Open Items ‒ Scope Split with AOR
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 02
Using templates You can't copy Section Groups from one Notebook to another, but you can copy individual sections. Create your own Project Notebook, then you can copy each Individual Section there. Set up a Meeting Minutes Tab using our built in Word templates as the default for all new pages. Follow these steps: 1.
1. Open the meeting minutes template in Word
See the next page for more steps!
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4.
5. 3.
6.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
2.
2. 'Select All' then Ctrl+C to copy 3. Create a “Meeting Minutes� section 4. Click on the Insert tab 5. Click on page templates 6. Paste copied text from Word template 7. Click set current page as a template 8. Name the template and save 9. Under 'always use a specific template,' use the dropdown to select which one
After the following steps, every time you 9.
Add Page in the section it will be prepopulated with the template information.
7.
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Section 03.
Bluebeam ― 01
Studio sessions Studio sessions are usable by multiple team members simultaneously, good for redline markups, QC reviews and picking up those comments. Submittals can be posted to Studio for simultaneous review by the Perkins and Will and consultant teams to expedite turn-around. Good for collaborative coordination sessions, both internally and with consultants.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
Studio can be used to do mockup (cartoon) set reviews in real time: Sheets cannot be added, deleted or moved in a Studio session, so the team will have to rely on markups to covey the addition, deletion or change in position. Include some blank sheets in a mockup set prior to the review so they can be used to identify new sheets.
There are 2 ways to assign items or comments to session attendees: Notifications send e-mails to attendees summarizing issues tagged to them; Alerts are sent and received real-time in the session.
HELPFUL HINT When presenting, “Set as Default” styles for your markup tools (pretest legibility and scale) in the Properties tab, so when team members “Take Control” there are no formatting or visibility issues.
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― 02
General notes Establish a markup color for each team member, both for making markups and for highlighting completion, so it is easy to see who has done what. Bluebeam can create bookmarks and page labels with sheet numbers and names. See this microKnowledge card. Use page labels to create hyperlinks between elevation/section/detail tags and the sheets upon which they appear. Watch this video to learn how. Share Bluebeam with clients via Teams to review and mark-up documents and expedite decision-making.
HELPFUL HINT Sometimes Bluebeam changes text into rectangles. Fix it using the Reduce File Size tool in the Documents pulldown by following the steps on page 21-23.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
1. Go to Document, Reduce File Size 2. Click "Edit" in the window that appears below:
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3. Make sure all of the boxes in the
4. Make sure all of the boxes in the "files"
"images" tab are un-checked
tab are checked
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Best Practices for Working From Home
5. Make sure all of the boxes in the miscellaenous tab are un-checked
6. Click "OK" and "Save" when you return to the main window
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Section 04.
Revit ― 01
Opening Revit models Opening your teams Revit models is handled differently than most other file types. It is important to know how your project was setup and what type of Laptop you currently have. If you do not have an MSI laptop follow these steps to open your model using a Comp Node. If you do have an MSI Laptop, answer the questions in the following guide to minimize slowness: Is your team utilizing Autodesk BIM360Design? ‒ YES, open your Project’s Revit model from your laptop anywhere, any time. ‒ NOT SURE, talk to your local Digital Practice team member to find out. ‒ NO, talk to your local Digital Practice team member to move it onto the cloud.
If you are new to BIM 360, check out the BIM360 Quickstart
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 02 HELPFUL HINT
Be mindful
Are you having network issues? Try connecting to your router using a direct access ethernet cable. This will
BIM maintenance and clean-up tasks can be
allow for a stronger connection and faster syncing speed. Cables can be
done more easily and with less disruption to the
purchased on Amazon or found at
team if they are done later in the day when fewer
most electronic stores.
team members are in the model. Create nightly review sets with Clarity to allow quick reviews of recent work without having to open the model.
― 02
Over communicate Keep your team in mind when publishing and syncing, especially close to deadlines, these activities can seriously impact those with smaller bandwidth. Use Teams to communicate model Syncing. Share Revit tips / tricks / keyboard shortcuts with your team.
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Section 05.
Other Software ― 01
Snipping tool For Revit or other software that doesn’t permit hand sketching, use the “Snipping Tool” for screen capture and mark up, then post to Teams for team use.
― 02
On-site imaging Multivista and StructionSite create 360 views of the construction site that can be invaluable when site visits are limited, difficult or prohibited. Suggest this to our Contractor-partners or Owners, not a Perkins and Will responsibility, but one we can recommend.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 03
― 04
Outlook
Adobe Scan
Ask your team to update their Outlook
This is a free Adobe app that you can download
calendars with blocks of time that
on your phone. It replaces the office scanner, is
say ‘working’ or ‘off work’ (or similar)
easy to use and great when you have multiple
so everyone knows when you are
sketches or documents to share with your team.
available.
Adobe Scan will cut out the process of sending files to your computer and binding them, etc.
The "FindTime Meeting Poll" is an Outlook plug-in that allows you to send a poll to all meeting attendees. It can automatically set up the meeting
― 05
once everyone has voted or you can
Skype/Zoom
turn off that function and set up the meeting yourself. It is integrated with Outlook, so it is easy to use and
If clients schedule remote meetings, find out what
eliminates a lot of calls/emails to
platform will be used in advance and make sure
bring a team together. Instructions for
you and your team are up to speed on how it
instillation and use are here.
works. Could be Skype, Zoom, GoTo Meeting, etc.
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Section 06.
Project Organization and Mockups ― 01
Team meetings Daily:
Weekly:
nj Schedule early AM meetings to give the
nj Includes more participants than the daily
team very clear direction for the day, set
meetings: practice leaders, principals.
expectations, identify obstacles to progress
nj Department meeting to review staffing, what’s
and keep everyone on task.
new, deadlines; leave time for people to speak
nj Keep meetings under 30 minutes.
freely, ask questions, share stories, make comments.
nj Quick meetings can replace many e-mails
nj Short consultant meeting to discuss schedules,
and chats to resolve issues or convey needs.
deadlines, expectations. Deeper conversations
nj If daily meetings run on too long, make
are scheduled separately.
attendance optional but ask team members to be available during the meeting time and to join if needed. Request attendance via MS Teams chat. nj Provides social connection to keep team
HELPFUL HINT
morale up and combat isolation.
When possible, turn video on to
nj Set clear expectations about which team members are required to attend and which are optional. Senior team members attend when available.
maintain personal connections.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 02
Information and file organization Copy regularly-used project files to OneNote and drawings to Bluebeam Studio so that server/ internal network outages do not lock the team out of important files. Always have an updated schedule for easy access to the entire team. If files are duplicated between collaborative platforms and the P:/ drive, clearly convey which version is for reference and which is live.
― 03
― 04
Team communication
Management
Use MS Teams chat when the whole team needs to be
Update invoicing to account for added
in on a question or conversation. This helps to reduce
work, and changes in CA services
a lot of extra e-mail. Tends to work well for short
resulting from site visit changes.
messages. Alert the team to attachments so they don't get lost in the message thread. Use e-mail when you have a longer message or want to link/attach several things. 29
― 05
Mockup sets: Bluebeam Studio Note that sheets cannot be added, deleted or moved in a Studio session, so the team will have to rely on markups to covey the addition, deletion or change in position. Include some blank sheets in a mockup set prior to the review so they can be used to identify new sheets. Markup notes can be used in the Studio session to record the 'conversations' that occur during the review session. Bluebeam can create bookmarks and page labels with sheet numbers and names. See this microKnowledge card. PowerPoint presentations can be exported from Bluebeam and used in conjunction with Teams to review and markup a cartoon set. Note that .pdf files exported from Bluebeam to PowerPoint have all of the graphic elements converted to editable elements, so large .pdf files can cause crashes. Share an Excel sheet list before jumping into the drawings to talk about the structure of the drawing set.
Use the slider on the bottom right to enlarge the size of the thumbnails and then stretch the window if you want to get an overall view of the set. 30
Best Practices for Working From Home
― 06
Mockup sets: PowerPoint PowerPoint presentations can be exported from Bluebeam and used in conjunction with Teams to review and markup a cartoon set. Note that .pdf files exported from Bluebeam to PowerPoint have all of the graphic elements converted to editable elements, so large .pdf files can cause crashes.
― 07
Mockup sets: General Share an Excel sheet list before jumping into the drawings to talk about the structure of the drawing set.
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Section 07.
Personal Organization and Work Habits ― 01
Workspace Have a “workstation” setup as close to the studio
Customize your work space if you can to feel
as possible, including working habits. If you listen
more peaceful or energized whichever is more
to headphones in the studio, do that at home too.
appropriate ― pictures, plants, music, lighting.
When possible use a separate space to minimize
If you don't use headphones, consider borrowing
distractions.
a Jabra speaker from the office instead of using the laptop speaker/mic. Check with local IT.
Adustable-height, tabletop desk can be used to create a stand-up workstation. Available for
Try to find a quiet space, with a door, for
purchase and delivery on Amazon.
conference calls.
Try to set up a work area that you use only for
If you have a treadmill or exercise bike, consider
work ― if you can’t try to come up with a way
using it as an occasional exercise workstation.
to transition your space between work time and
Alert your family/housemates when bandwidth
home time.
is critical (client meetings or presentations) to
Pay attention to ergonomics ― even if you
make sure they don't download PS4 games at the
have to “McGyver“ some things. Hand position,
moment you need to share an image.
keyboard, chair and lighting are important to health and well being.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 02
Routine Set the alarm clock to stay on schedule. Keep work habits as consistent as possible, starting and ending as you typically would if we were in the office; dressing for the office; set limits on work hours and be productive during those times. Keep a 'lunch hour' just as you would if you were in the studio. Create a 'Start to work' ritual to transition to work mode – helps prepare your mind for change in focus. Perhaps breakfast, coffee, 5 minutes of news and then start. Schedule breaks and make sure to take them. As much as possible, work a consistent schedule so that colleagues know when they can reach you. (Short) occasional breaks: to “reset” thinking on tasks that are dragging. Working from home brings fewer spontaneous interactions that tend to keep thinking fresh and reduces “bogging down” on a given task.
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― 03
Task management We have a 2-person CA team, we assigned one person to all even-numbered RFI’s/submittals and the other person to the odds. This makes clear who is responsible for each without any further delegation. Communicated to contractors, it allows them to know exactly who to call for updates and discussions (and to whose home to ship samples.) Set aside working time that is call-free and put it in your calendar. Calls and check-ins can consume most of the day if not managed. Set daily personal goals and deadlines, complete prior to ending work for the day.
― 04
Meetings Planning meetings and creating agendas is more important that ever, organize meetings to be productive and advance/resolve issues rather than just chat sessions. Plan virtual social events with teams, clients and colleagues to maintain personal relationships. Be careful if you are working on a P:/ drive file during a online meeting ― saving / accessing large files can interrupt your network connection and leave you dead in the water during a meeting.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 05
Construction administration Communicate needs and expectations to the entire project team (Owner, Perkins and Will team, consultants, Contractor) for CCA tasks that require onsite presence and those that can be done virtually. Some CCA tasks require on-site presence: Walk-throughs with regulatory or governing agencies; Inspections as identified in our contract; Observation of work critical to life safety and code compliance; Observation of work that will be permanently concealed.
― 06
Project delivery We have the ability to take advantage of some of our firm's experts during WFH downtime. Senior people who are typically busy travelling or marketing may have time for QC reviews or to troubleshoot issues.
― 07
Design Start material selections with digital finish boards, narrow down the selections before ordering anything physically.
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Section 08.
Communications ― 01
General If a written exchange seems like it is going on too long, it probably is. Don't be hesitant to convert a MS Teams chat into a call to expedite resolution. Individual MS Teams Chat, e-mail or a phone call is an important opportunity to check in on personal mental/physical health without making that part of a team conversation. Try a weekly check in with people who you don’t work with directly and see how things are going with them. Keep your status and status message up-to-date in MS Teams and your status and location up-to-date in Skype, so colleagues know when you are available. Use video when possible, but be aware of potential bandwith issues. Written and remote communication requires more attention to brevity and simplicity. If an idea, task or concept is too complex to convey via e-mail or chat, video call and employ live sketches/ whiteboard. Emphasize staying on schedule for meetings and scheduled calls, virtual talks can easily run over time. Don’t forget to reach out to other people for help when you need it, especially in situations where you’d just walk over to someone's desk. At home it feels a bit different, but it doesn’t need to be, just message and find time to go over the questions.
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Best Practices for Working From Home
― 02
Team Check in with your team mates – allow for some small talk/non work talk to help keep people feeling connected. It’s easy to feel isolated and it’s valuable to connect on a human level. Sharing your screen showing something you just e-mailed can help make communicating faster and more efficient. Set aside sufficient time to walk junior staff through tasks they may not have done before or concepts they may not have encountered. This process is likely to take longer remotely than it would in person.
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― 03
Virtual interviews
Client
Assume a slower pace through presentations and
Schedule regular check-ins with
images to account for internet lag.
clients and potential clients so those connections don't get lost
Anticipate more meetings to practice and get
in the shuffle of more-frequent
organized as a team. No one is used to this yet, so
virtual meetings.
it takes more time and investment to perfect the final product.
For best practices on virtual interviews and meetings, click here.
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Don't forget! Platform 3.0 Don't foget to check Platform 3.0 regularly for more Work-FromHome updates. See a list of tips for setting up a home office, checking your Direct Access Connection, using Teams, and more. We are here to support you during this transition!
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Best Practices for Working From Home
These tips and tricks have been crowdsourced directly from our project teams based on their Work-From-Home experiences. We hope you’ve found them helpful. We’d love to continue the dialogue—if you have any additional items that would benefit the rest of the Firm please connect with us.
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