In this discussion, Laura and Christopher Parsons describe Lionakis's innovative practice‑based training model that blends short, pre‑recorded video lessons with live, interactive breakout‑room exercises. The pilot cartooning bootcamp featured four 4‑6 minute videos created by an external consultant and an internal architect, followed by mixed‑experience breakout sessions where junior staff led inquiry‑based learning. The format generated strong positive feedback, with participants reporting high knowledge gains in a single hour. The team also began producing on‑demand answer videos to support self‑paced learning. The initiative prompted the practice side to formalize "the Lionakis way"—defining who should teach, what content to deliver, and how to standardize it across the firm—thereby empowering younger staff to shape training delivery. Challenges around getting instructors comfortable with recording short videos were mitigated by providing editing assistance and reducing post‑production burdens, leading instructors to prefer short videos over traditional 45‑minute presentations. The conversation outlines the logistical flow (main Teams room for video listening, breakout rooms for exercises, return to main room for additional content) and highlights plans for three more large‑scale bootcamps in 2026.
Chapters
We've just been getting rave reviews from the folks on our DT bootcamp, our visualization bootcamp, but especially I would say because it's more new, the way we're delivering practice bootcamp. And in fact, somebody even said yesterday, I learned more in that 1 hour about cartooning, which was our first one, than I've ever known in my career. And it was 1 hour, 4 videos. We had an outside person do videos for us, an outside consultant. And so we were able to draw on our best resources in short snippets. And I think for me, again, being a learn-by-doing advocate, the exercise piece that put us into breakout rooms that were mixed by, by position, by experience, by how vocal they are in a room, was really enlightening for how engaged people were in the exercise at all levels, how they let the younger staff kind of drive and ask questions and learn by inquiry, and in a much more comfortable setting than if we had brought the whole firm together for a training where if you wanted to ask a question, you had to speak up in the room, the big virtual room, or do something in the chat and hope you got recognized. So I think one down so far for 2026, but it's been so successful. And I think having Tess drove it in DT where the people are selected, the group is much smaller. Christina's been able to really set us up on the practice side as well.
So to help me kind of follow along, so it sounds like you put people into a big Teams call of some sort. They're all in the like main room. That's where they do the listening party, watch the prerecorded videos that are 4 or 6 minutes long on a couple topics. Then you put them in breakout rooms.
Yeah.
To do the exercises, bring 'em back to the main room if there's more on-demand content, and then back out to breakout rooms again. That's kind of the format of how to keep things moving.
That's what we did in the cartooning practice. And it was again, really enlightening. We learned a lot, right? Like how much time do you have to put into the exercises? Do we need to be able to give the answers? Right? So we're in the process of recording answer videos. So when people take it on demand, they can get those answers and see how well they did on their exercises. But I also think and this is probably pretty typical of AEC firms, it solidified for us on the practice side what is our message we're teaching here. So we have the Lionakis way, but even in that there's interpretation, there's a way, way I did is kind of like that, right? And this forced us, the practice side folks, to come together and say, we're teaching this course to everybody and it's going to be on demand. Do we all agree that this is the right person to teach it, the right messenger, if you will, but also the right approach to this? Because it's being codified, if you will, in how the firm delivers this practice-based training. So that part, I think, also cleared a lot of path because it empowers our younger staff to say, knock, knock, that's not how we're teaching that on the, you know, in the Lionakis way.
Yeah, that's not how you cartoon a site plan.
Right, exactly. I learned this and in the Lionakis way. And so, you know, it's been, like I said, one down, but we've got three other big ones planned for this year and we're going to keep learning with each one.
I'm curious about the experience kind of from the, both the learner perspective, but then also the people that were instructing and, you know, previously they would've taught it very differently. And was it hard to get them to do prerecorded videos? Like what's that been like?
I think so. Laura mentioned an outside consultant that recorded some videos. That was just because of that topic, because we were already working with them on that topic. We also had one of our architects record videos for the cartooning course. And I think there's always that new factor. It's like, what do you want? What? Okay. I'll, I'll go in a room and talk to myself on this video and I need to keep it to how long?
And.
So that, you know, the new factor, it's a little bit different, but once they dove in, they, they were a natural at it. So we were lucky there. We have a really good first example for those that create content after this. But he, he recorded a couple videos and we had somebody help edit them. So we took away some of that burden of having to do the post-production and show them how to do it and everything. Which they appreciated a lot. We even had some, that same person help them put together their slides from a few bullet points that they, he was, he joked how he was cartooning his cartooning presentation for them. Once they got to the, once he got to actually recording, I think that was a little uncomfortable, I would say. But once it was done and they saw that the outcome was really great, now when he talks about it and we're in studio meetings and people are giving feedback, he said many times that he loved doing a few short videos over preparing a 45-minute presentation.
So, and this person is not a natural public speaker.
Mm-hmm.
He's a natural leader in what he's teaching. And I think getting it right on a video ultimately felt more comfortable to him than being facing the faces right in a room. And so this is back to those different ways people learn. I think there's different ways people teach. Too, and this fit really well for him. And we do, you know, we've often brought outside consultants, our mechanical engineers, our electrical engineers, in to talk about a new code cycle or sustainability. I see this as another great opportunity to memorialize some of that material so that everybody's getting that and doing it in a way that they can stay in their office Right, record a couple minutes for us and then join the live, uh,
