Easy to get started
We started to work with leading manufacturer Donaldson Timber Frame when they were searching for a better way to teach their customers how to adopt sustainable building methods using timber frame.
Our first priority was to understand what Donaldson Timber Systems wanted to achieve for their own business and for their customers’ benefit. Then we worked to find out more about those who would be learning from site operatives to our managers and a host of employees at all levels both in offices and on sites. It was important to be able to reach everyone and make it easy to learn as part of the day job.
We recognised the lack of understanding and sometimes confidence among senior leaders in construction businesses when introducing Modern Methods of Construction, specifically timber frame construction.
Creating the right learning modules
The opportunity through learning was to instill knowledge and competence that would support growth. This was crucial at a time when Government had announced an ambition to build 1.5m new homes across the UK while also embedding sustainability targets for the construction sector to achieve.
The primary opportunity was to teach their customers employees how to plan, design, appraise and adopt timber frame at scale.
We then worked with Donaldson Timber Systems teams to gain insights to their knowledge and expertise, and we used that expertise to develop programmes for each construction discipline. Each programme consisted of a series of modules and lessons making learning easy in as little as 10 minutes a day.
Encourage learning
To encourage learning we varied the type of lessons. From Donaldson experts delivering individual lessons to video, animation and AI, the variety of formats made it easier to listen, watch and learn.
We knew that a success factor would be teams desire to use the learning during their working day - in the flow so our Coach in your pocket made it easy to refer to checklists, saved favourites and summaries to implement learning.
This was helpful to site teams who have less office time but need specific support when changing how they build.
The sum of ongoing regular learning is its ability to change behaviours that in turn will reduce errors by enabling better decision making, reduce rework and encourage a 'right first time' approach.