In order to make change happen sometimes, instead of driving it, we simply need to be vulnerable, modelling it for others to follow. This is the action of a leader.
Today I was witness to an act of generous leadership by architect Stephen Collier, speaking about his struggle with mental health issues. He stood in front of a “virtual” room of architects and publicly shared these challenges for the first time. It was moving, powerful and incredibly insightful. I learnt more in those 15 minutes than I had from numerous articles I’d read and impersonal talks I’d heard.
It took an act of great vulnerability to do this. He has lead example, and in doing so encouraged others to also share, giving them implied permission to follow. He’s made it…
If you’re not taking the time to ask hard questions of your practice and answering them, you’re probably not advancing your practice.
One of the hard unspoken and neglected parts of architectural practice is challenging the way we do things and the assumptions that accompany this disregard. This happens for a number of reasons. It might be that if the practice is going well there may be no need to challenge your practice. Practice success may be due to luck, hiding unchallenged thinking, or indeed you might have a well honed practice. The thing is, how do you know whether your practice is lucky or well designed unless you ask questions and identify areas that might need to be rethought? Is your…
No matter what anyone tells you, book covers and first impressions matter. We can nevertheless reframe their importance.
Last week I wrote a blog post I had titled What architects can learn from super heroes. It’s a reasonable post, perhaps not my best but certainly not my worst. Very few people read it. That wasn’t because it wasn’t good and they didn’t like it, it was because they didn’t even visit the post’s page in the first place. It’s likely that there are some people that had read previous posts of mine and simply aren’t interested in what I have to say and that’s fine. The issue is that those that might normally read what I have to…
Our identities are often tied up with our way of thinking. By rethinking our identities we begin to overcome habitual thinking that might be holding us back.
“Our ways of thinking become habits that can weigh us down, and we don’t question them until it’s too late.” — Adam Grant
Our ways of thinking are tied up with how we perceive ourselves and what we do. They’re part of our identity. It’s uncomfortable discarding one part or other of your identity, your way of thinking. It might challenge what you do, why and how you do it. You might ask, what fills the void left by shedding a part of your thinking? …
Change can be gradual or sudden. It is inevitable. So there’s a choice for architectural practice, be forced to change by the context in which you practice or choose to change into the practice you’d like to be.
There’s an old saying that change happens when the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying the same. I think that’s true, I also think that it’s not the only reason change happens. It can be motivated by ambition, a desire to be better or do better.
Change might relieve pain points or be driven by ambition. It’s aspirin v aspiration and a choice to be reactive or proactive.
Architects are paid to think in the service of others — creatively, critically, analytically, systemically, strategically, etc. I’m curious why they often don’t take enough time to think…
Without questions there can be no answers. Yet we’re often reluctant to ask questions because answering, or the answers, can be scary.
As the regular reader of my blog may have observed, I’m keen on questions.
I’m also as scared of a hard question as anyone too, whilst mindful of an old proverb,
“Better to ask a question than to remain ignorant.”
What’s worse ignorance or a scary answer? For those that want to get better at their work, make change happen or uncover new and helpful insights, ignorance is not an option.
“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.” Shannon L. Alder
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Architectural practice is hard. The challenges are never ending and often for diminishing reward. It’s also the best job ever when it all works. So when practice isn’t working the way we’d like, how might we [re]start our architectural practice?
Whether just starting out on your practice journey or well into it, it is always worthwhile to take time to stop and evaluate how it’s going. What’s working? What’s not working? What could be better? What’s the general feeling?
It’s too rare for architects to do this. They might be too busy to make the time. Some might not think to ask questions of their practice. For others the sense that all is going well (or well enough) might mean they don’t feel it’s necessary. And more often than not there’s potential for the answers to be a little too…
Architect’s voices are often too quiet to be heard despite having a lot to offer conversations on the common good. How might they rethink what that means and what they can do about it?
“We need a seat at the table!”
It’s oft heard amongst architects.
My first thought in response is usually to question. Where is this “table”? Who’s also at the table? What’s the conversation they’re having? Do architects really want a seat there? Any reasonable answers to these questions might give clues as to why architects are missing, how they might go about finding said seat, or indeed whether it’s a table worth sitting around. It’s also not really the question they’re asking.
I typically translate this question to,
“Why don’t architects have more power?” …
If we’re to believe architects, the practice of architecture has a marketing problem. Their contention is that they’re not being heard, valued or acknowledged to the degree they might expect.
I’m not sure architects are entirely right. For the purposes of the exercise, I’m going to assume they are and explore where they might start to set things to rights.
Starting with a quote ,
“Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve, and we do it by understanding the irrational forces that drive each of us.”
Seth Godin
The thing I like about this quote is there’s two parts. The first part is about making change. The second part is about (cognitive) empathy.
Starting with the change architects seek to make on behalf of…
If we were to consider architectural practice from first principles. Might we see new ways to frame practice?
First principles thinking was brought to greater public consciousness by Elon Musk. It’s been around since the Ancient Greeks. Such thinking helps in breaking down complicated problems or systems to their fundamental parts or foundational truths. This is done with the objective to generate new ideas or outcomes from these fundamental parts.
This type of thinking allows for new, innovative solutions to come out of something that might otherwise only be recognised as either fixed or only suitable for incremental change. …
Michael Lewarne
| Not inclined to stay inside the | lines.
