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Recently I decided to seek work in another part of the country.
I have been working with several executive search agencies (or
headhunters, as they're commonly known) that found out about me
after I posted my resumé on the AIA jobs board (http://careercenter.aia.org). One of them
asked me for five questions that I considered most important to ask
when hiring an architect, in order of significance. I wasn’t
expecting this and had no prepared answer, but I responded with
what I thought to be the most important factors if I were
hiring.
The exercise made me wonder: In any firm, would all the principals
agree on the same five questions? What would the
“correct” answers be? Would large and small firms have
the same answers? Would the style or structure of the firm affect
the questions thought to be most important? I have asked and
answered my choice of questions below—and could not resist
adding a sixth. (One more aspect of practice seemed worthy of
mention: relationship management. This covers marketing, government
relations, and even spousal relations. I can’t pretend to be
excellent at the last, but I believe I am competent at the
former.)
What would your questions and answers be? Write to me at spp@aia.org and
let me know. If you agree with the questions but disagree with the
answers, let me know that, too. We might have an enlightening
discussion.
1. What are your values relative to the operation of an
architecture firm?
Operating an architecture firm is a three-dimensional balancing
act. The art, science, and business of architecture must all blend
and interact to allow for growth, technical quality, and,
ultimately, sufficient profitability to continue the business.
Keeping all of these going requires a focus on the necessary
resources, and all depend on one particular resource: staff. So
keeping the staff coordinated, compensated, inspired, and
technically competent is the core element of the business’s
success. If these things are managed well, the art, the quality,
and the profit will result. This is true in idea firms, production
firms, and service firms, although the method of balancing will
differ. Therefore, any firm that wants a continuing business with
success among its clients must carefully maintain its staff
resources.
2. How do you respond when unforeseen problems
occur?
Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy, had it right with his famous catchphrase, "Don't
Panic." When I have conducted construction administration, I have
had dozers cut through unmarked 500 pair phone cables on my
project. (Fortunately they had been abandoned long before.) I have
also had undocumented landfill sites turn up on a site (eventually
moved to a proper landfill, paid for by the owner because the
owner’s forces had created the site). The most important part
of my response was not to panic. Rather, I collected information
and thought through the issue as a design problem: What is the
scope and nature of the problem? What urgently must be done? Who
can do it? What else must be done? Who is responsible for paying
for what? How can it be expedited? Who else is affected? What
resources exist to direct toward the problem? What other questions
do we need to ask? By responding to an unforeseen condition in this
manner, the stakeholders can move together toward a timely
resolution.
3. What is your ability to work in a team?
Everyone talks about the need for teamwork. I have
learned, though, that team management requires two essential
elements. First, the team leader must recognize that the team is
stronger as a group than any one star individual. Consequently it
is important to listen to the opinions of all team members. If a
team member must be educated or corrected, the leader should do so
carefully and promptly. The team is only as strong as its weakest
member, so strengthening each member is of paramount importance. If
the lowest-paid person makes a mistake, the highest-paid person is
also responsible for that mistake. Second, the team leader must
recognize that people’s perceptions are their reality. Team
members might need perspective and context in order to pursue the
common vision and understand how it is to be achieved. This makes
the entire team more effective. Far from being a waste of time, it
gives purpose and lends quality to efforts beyond the level of
specific instruction. Quality improves when the lowest-paid person
can find an error that a higher-paid person missed.
4. What is your familiarity with the technologies used for
production?
The most important technology for creating and documenting
a building is still a pen or pencil in the hand and a roll of
trace. Yes, I am familiar with the 3D modeling programs as well as
2D CAD programs and building information modeling programs. I have
even taught several of them (Vectorworks, AutoCAD, and
Microstation). All of them are enhanced by a quick outline of how
to structure the work and how to solve a detail issue. The pen and
pencil is not the primary way to generate the set. It is the key to
quality in allowing team members to talk about how to address a
problem and to clarify the intent and result with each other.
Sketches may be tested on a computer. However, the idea is the
essence of the solution. The combination of visual and verbal
communication is the essential technology for creating
architecture. Most of the time, we don't build. We are in the
business of information. We gather it, corral it, massage it, grow
it, restructure it, and then pass it along to those who need to use
it to create the building we have dreamed in our technical dream.
If we do it well, we awake refreshed to new possibilities for our
world. If we do it poorly, we create a waking nightmare for all
involved.
5. What is your familiarity with building
technology?
I have more familiarity with the problems that building technology
is supposed to solve. The greatest of these is water management.
More products seem to be generated in this area than any other, as
well they should be. As architects, we come up with new
configurations of construction to match some ideal. We then scale
back the ideal to fit the available technology or suffer the
resulting leaks and problems that result from misplaced moisture.
Consequently, in my technology research, I have noted that you must
always keep evaluating. Technology changes every day. The target is
never still. I have also decided that the most important thing to
know about any material is how it fails and what results. If you
know how it fails, you can better understand its proper use and
prevent its failure. For a building to be technologically sound,
everything—even redundant systems—must work.
6. What is your ability to manage clients and other
relationships outside the firm?
Effective client management follows the same principles as
relationships inside the firm. Listen. Provide as much information
as you can. Don't provide so much information that the client's
expectations become unmanageable. Listen. Be honest. Make sure
things are seen in context. Speak carefully. Remember that the
other person has official and unofficial needs and requirements.
Address those constraints. Listen. The mastery of these simple
principles is an ongoing task. It is simple but not easy.
Proficiency comes from practice and humility. Success comes from
persistence and constant vigilance. Listen.
All the answers to these questions are manifested in my
participation in the American Institute of Architects. I have been
president of my local Huron Valley Chapter, which required a
three-year service commitment for an unstaffed component. Nothing
builds leadership like getting things done with volunteers. In the
last two years I have been serving on the national level on the
Advisory Group of the Small Project Practitioners Knowledge
Community. I am slated to be chair of the group in 2007. The
resources of the AIA are significant. Surely among the most
important are the hundreds of volunteers across the country who,
like me, are reshaping and reinventing the profession. I invite you
to extend this conversation beyond those currently enrolled as AIA
and extend to them an offer to join those of us dedicated to
reinvention.
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