LEADERSHIP FORUM

Construction site tour

Our lunch discussion with Julie Snow was wide-ranging, covering multiple facets of architectural practice, design, and community engagement.  Her studio’s focus on great design is apparent in their work, and the values held by leadership certainly reinforce this strength.  The studio operates with a clear set of established practices including knowledge transfer among staff levels – “you will teach me and I will teach you” – vs. traditional one-way ‘mentorship’, openness and balance in staff management, and attention to metrics of both projects and people.  Evaluating successes based on these metrics allows everyone to maintain clarity and commitment to the studio’s values and direction.

Their self-defined ‘smart and humane’ staffing/project planning was of particular interest as this is often bypassed in architectural practice, in favor of a “work until it’s done” methodology.  Acknowledging that number of hours worked is not directly indicative of efficacy is key here, and studio staff are instead evaluated based on effectiveness, commitment, and work quality.

At the close of our conversation, we turned to specifics for emerging professionals and career guidance, and this series of questions has continued to resonate:

What are your interests and at what do you want to be good?  Think beyond a role or title.

Why are you here and an architect?  What do you want to accomplish?

How will you define your own trajectory for your career and personal goals?

For the second session of Leadership Forum 2017, Rhonda Angerio welcomed us to Smith Sinnett. Keith Weaver with The Alternative Board met with us to discuss how he uses DISC to help employers find the right fit for openings. DISC isnt a measure of intelligence, skill or ability but weighs the behaviors of the individual and helps provide insight into how they may react in a position. He opened the session with an activity he uses at meetings to help foster open and honest communication. Temenos comes from ancient Greece and means a safe place were warriors can remove their armor. At TAB, they have modified the word into Tabenos which has lead to ‘tap the nose’ which is done to signal that someone in the meeting is putting on their armor and is used to diffuse the situation and bring everyone back to the open conversation.

After a brief break, we spoke with Jay Sikes who works with Rhonda at Smith Sinnett. Jay told us he regularly reviews his coworkers DISC results to make sure they are having productive conversations and to reduce conflict. If an issue does arise, he will review again and that usually leads to a light bulb going off about why the problem is happening. Rhonda and Ann Collier of Oakley Collier met with us to talk about their use of DISC. They both keep copies of all their employees profiles for quick reference and will use DISC when hiring for strategic positions.

The first session of Leadership Forum 2017 was reminiscent of beautiful, lazy Sunday afternoons spent sipping lemonade on grandmother’s porch.  The community at Weinstein Friedlein Architect’s wonderfully designed Durham Central Park Cohousing project were our gracious hosts welcoming us into their “house”, showing us around, and letting our group occupy their front porch for a spell.  Quoting from Harwell Hamilton Harris’ 1955 UT Austin convocation speech, Ellen delivered a powerful message about the importance of being a natural leader where life, architecture and leadership meld together to create the authentic you.  Ellen urged participants to be proactive with this opportunity and not to treat it like an item on a leadership check list – this is not the year to set navigation to cruise control, but rather to spend the time realizing your strengths and utilizing them.  She emphasized that there are a wide range of leader types, get exposed to them and then ask, “What kind of leader will you be?”  Find out by looking through the lens.