Winning the Battle and Losing the War

It’s the rare client who has the foresight to truly master plan- rarer still the one who authorizes a capital project based on forecasted need instead of waiting until renovations/expansions are way past their due dates.  When everyone’s working conditions are obsolete and overcrowded, the very way work is done is affected.  The workplace becomes the war zone with erstwhile staff in the trenches every day just trying to keep things functioning.  No wonder it’s so hard to think differently about space.  In healthcare design, we can no longer afford to keep with the status quo “adapt and react” mentality when it comes to buildings.  This mindset brings about a shortsightedness that satisfies an immediate need at the expense of truly solving a problem.  I recently had an opportunity to hear a presentation from Debbie Gregory, Senior Clinical Consultant at SSR and Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design (NIHD) Board member.  Debbie also has a background in interior design, so she understands healthcare design from multiple viewpoints and I enjoyed listening to her insights regarding what healthcare clients are looking for from their architects.  Some thoughts from the battleground:

Avoid conflation
Sometimes an expansion is definitely in order.  Others, reorganization of space is the better option.  While healthcare facilities are getting bigger in part due to larger room sizes, more equipment and the need to have more adaptability built into units, there is also the tendency for clients to ask for (and get more ) of the same space they had before just 30% -40% bigger.  All the same work habits and processes are baked right into the new space. Right size based on criteria related to flexing acuities, innovative technologies and equipment or increases in volumes, not to accommodate inefficient processes that have arisen out of the current physical features of the space.

Beware of collateral damage
Just as teaching to the test leads to peril in the classroom, designing a delivery of care model around scoring enough HCAHPS points is disastrous.  The point of metrics is to measure performance, not how well you can game the system.  If you are providing the best care, you don’t need to worry about metrics, just as a great teacher never needs to worry about how her students will score.  Learn to recognize well-intentioned policies from infection control, facilities or the C-suite as intentions that may not apply to the unique needs of your particular situation and work with them to develop a solution that meets the “spirit” of the law, not just its “letter.”

Know your enemy
The biggest enemy of innovation is the routine.  It’s very hard to break out of the way you are used to doing things, or to question why you do some things at all.  One thing I think we fail to be taught as architects is how to help our clients re-frame the problem.  Sure, we know how to turn an idea on its head, but we may not be attuned to all of the issues related to care.  We also tend to spring these “breakthrough” concepts on our clients, often to mixed reception.  What we really need to be doing is to help them walk through the process and think about what they do and why every step of the way.  Don’t create tomorrow’s problem with today’s solution. Mockups, done at a conceptual phase of the project can help to right size an element like a patient room, which will drive overall program and square footage needs.  Debbie strongly recommends that you conduct the initial viewing of the mockup as a moderated discussion in order to keep department stakeholders focussed and make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, not just the squeaky wheels or department leadership. 

Break ranks
It’s not about keeping the building as we know it, but rather making the building into what we need it to be.  As conduit for healing- the healing environment has a big role to play in patient outcomes as well as staff satisfaction.  With greater emphasis on providing value being placed on today’s healthcare providers, we must think about how buildings contribute to that equation.  The value proposition should include links of design elements to measurable outcomes, such as reduced injuries, hospital acquired Infections or satisfaction scores; recommendations related to achieving the lowest life cycle costs, and agile planning and infrastructure solutions that will respond to emerging needs instead of requiring costly and constant additions.


None of these strategies are about adapting or reacting, they rely on a great offensive strategy where the patient doesn’t end up being the casualty of our planning effort.

Are you an Architectural Luddite?

Do you cling to the comfort of the way things are “supposed to be” as you compulsively align the objects on your desk?  Are you made uncomfortable when new practice paradigms are introduced, choosing first to disregard, then criticize them, only grudgingly adopting them when your clients say you have to?  On the innovation curve spectrum  you would rank as a laggard.  But you probably don’t see yourself that way.  You think that you are being smart by not jumping ahead as an early adopter of the latest trends.  You grouse about how the market is changing and everything is so much more competitive.  You really have no clue how to survive in this changing market, so you double down on the old way of doing things, you stay in your comfort zone and maybe feel really clever that you are making the same old presentations and decisions, but using digital technology.  Like the Luddites  resisting mechanization during the Industrial Revolution, you are futilely fighting change.  Is the new the predator of the old, or simply its evolution?  

The emperor has no clothes

Skills are transferable, habits and routines are not.  A creative mind set free knows no limits.  So ask yourself, are new paradigms that challenge your comfort zone really bad, or are they threatening to expose your own fears that you aren’t creative enough to handle the change?

A small reward is better than none

Sure in a red-ocean, highly competitive environment, there are still winners and losers.  In fact that’s the point- to eliminate competition at all costs.  But that also diminishes you because it undercuts the overall value not just of an old paradigm, but of who you are and why a client should work with you at all.  The next time you feel the urge to smugly declare “winning,” just think of Charlie Sheen.

It’s the new normal

This mindset, now pervading our culture, is just pathetic.  To think that you have to settle for living up to less than your full potential (and by transference your work and the effect it has on others) shortchanges society as a whole.  It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of a future that doesn’t have to happen.  If you find yourself just settling, it’s time to start asking why you are holding on to processes and paradigms that are clearly not serving you.  No one can be innovative if they aren’t passionate and accepting a bleak fade into the abyss is hardly inspirational.

A great piece by Thomas Fridstein for Design Intelligence, “Adapting for Success in the New Practice Environment” exhorts us to embrace the opportunity that comes with change.  His tips for blowing up the old way we practice involve evaluating everything we do with fresh eyes:

1.      Look at the context of practice much as we would analyze the context of a project site

2.      Adapt for success by being, creative, client-focused, competent (and yes even with new technologies or design methods, Fridstein specifically mentions sustainability and BIM), cost-effective, collaborative and global.

3.      Design the design firm by looking at ways you can serve clients better while inspiring and nurturing your employees more.  Last century’s model with its pretext that you are lucky just to be working doesn’t cut it anymore (yes, he does bandy about the term “the new normal” to express the fact that change is here to stay.  I am choosing to forgive him for that because otherwise it’s an insightful piece).

As my friend, life coach Jane Scott Ashley once told me, “Life isn’t what’s happening while you cling for dear life to the trapeze you’re on.  It’s what happens when you let go so you can reach the next one.”

Getting Out There: Keys to Being Published

So you’re flipping through the latest copy of a design mag and you pause to look at a project and think- “I could do that. Actually, I DO do that.  How come I’m not in this magazine?”  Good question.  Talent is but one facet of fame.  Doing good work and hoping to be recognized via a “stumble-upon” strategy is therefore a very poor marketing strategy.  In case you don’t happen to live in New York, Chicago, Miami or LA, network with influential industry movers and shakers, and have exceptionally famous clients commissioning you for seminal projects, you will need some help getting discovered.  Save the spiel on how you don’t care about such shallow things as recognition- that’s archispeak for “I want to win awards and get published but I don’t know how.”  Do read on for some tips from my friends in the business of sourcing and writing about architecture:

Be a compelling source

Publication writers are always looking for a story that will resonate with their readers. Whether it’s a design issue, technology innovation or insight into the practice of architecture, how has something you are doing changed the equation?  Even something you have attempted and failed may be a more thought-provoking story  than the firm that plugged along successfully with the status quo.  Remember, being “good” is not the same as being “interesting.”

Be source-able

You don’t need a PR agent to tell your story.  Too many architects believe that they can be passive, letting some guru outsider observe their genius and turn that into a press release that gets actual press.  What they need to be doing (as I have advocated in many, many previous posts) is clarifying their vision and purpose as a firm and developing a mission statement for each project.  Not only will this help clients to be on board and the design team to stay aligned with the project goals, but it differentiates your firm- its product as well as processes.  Now you can write a press release, or social media blurb that really says something and that allows architecture and design media writers searching for a particular topic stream to notice you. You may even get attention from more unlikely sources that deal with very broad (say New York Times) or very niche (say green urban planning) markets.

Be a source that’s sorted

Take some time to compile a list of all the publications that cater to what you do.  These can be local and regional publications, or national broad-based and niche magazines.  Get a copy of their editorial calendar.  If, for example, you know that Architect is planning to feature healthcare in its October issue, time your press release about your paradigm-shifting ED to coincide with their schedule so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle or tragically just miss the cutoff for that year.  Tailor any press releases to align with the individual flavor of a publication.  Consider different angles like highlighting building materials, design process, client management, or technology in order to be relevant to them.  It also helps to be aware of what has been featured previously.  If your project or topic is too similar to one that was published in the last two years, it’s not likely to garner much interest; but if you can build on the theme and present a new twist, or can tap into the overall goals of the publication itself, you might just get some traction.  A lot more traction than a generic broadcast of a press release.

Please share your publishing experiences: what worked, what didn’t and what you’re about to try next.  Here’s to seeing all of you in print soon!

How Agile is Your Space?

There’s a Lowe’s commercial that depicts a woman dashing around and adapting her space to various life stages just by ripping away one surface, rolling up another and (my favorite) sliding back a wall to reveal new French doors.  While it would be beyond cool to have buildings adapt to change that easily, the commercial did get me thinking about all of the ways we can design for adaptability and flexibility that we either shy away from like emerging technology, or don’t pay enough heed to such as good planning strategies. Especially when designing a building that will continue to grow as well as adapt in use over time, like a hospital, agility is a crucial feature.  But you already know that.  The next step is to actually make that a priority in your next project:

Build yourself a cushion: Design to provide pocket shell space surrounding key growth areas to allow departments to expand without major renovation having to take place. There’s nothing worse than the unfortunate addition of ten thousand square feet or so on a single story to accommodate the urgent growth of a department.  That bump on the side of your building will just create roadblocks to future, master planned (ahem) expansions.  Also look at ways to organize the department to expand capacity through utilization and operational changes before you have to consider more built space.

Balance the peaks: Speaking of organizational strategies, it’s already common within a department to have flexible space, such as surgery bays that can be used for either prep or recovery.  But what if you thought about departments less as silos and more as all part of the same set of resources? Those same perioperative bays could become an observation unit or ED overflow after surgery volumes dwindle down in the late afternoon. 

Cluster for conversion: placing related functions together can allow spaces such as an interventional room to be converted to an OR easily in the future if volumes change.  Again, this challenges prevailing notions of department and silos and requires thinking more about properties of a space and patient flows.

Modularize the Master Plan: Think beyond today’s project, even if you are just dealing with the need to expand one department right now.  Immovable, difficult or expensive to relocate items such as structure, vertical circulation, shafts, stacked IT, Data and electrical rooms should be kept to the perimeter to allow maximum flexibility within the floor plate for reconfiguration.  Also think about circulation as part of a master plan- expansion should extend the route, not distort it or create dead ends that are confusing to navigate.  Modularized construction allows technology and infrastructure to be plug ‘n play, easily extendable and expandable. 

Recalibrate your metrics: Too many organizations measure performance and outcomes by department, reinforcing competitiveness and policies that make one department’s numbers look good at the expense of another’s.  Unless your goal is to have competition within the facility equal to or greater than the one you have with other facilities, this is a problem. Foster a more team-based, collaborative approach by setting institutional goals, not department based ones and challenge staff to determine ways they can work together to achieve them. 

What does this have to do with design?  Well, maybe one day soon, architects won’t be designing emergency departments, surgery departments and interventional departments, but instead patient intake areas that will route patients through a series of procedures leading to either their admission or discharge.  Maybe one day there will only need to be one access point for patients where they can access all services conveniently.  Maybe form can follow flow, not just a presumed set of functions.

Emanate to Innovate

Top-down, bottom up, there are all kinds of theories out there on innovation and how to cultivate it.  Most focus on creating a collaborative work environment where everyone feels empowered and where leaders are selfless mentors who walk the walk and set the tone.  Sign me up to work there and find some more companies like this to be my clients! 

The truth is that often neither the worker bees or management gets it, and those that do don’t get it right all the time.   I stumbled across this fun little site a while back called wecreate and read a fabulous post called The Key to Sustainable Growth that focuses on what research has shown to be the biggest innovation firestarter- company culture.  While the article offers quite a few handy tips on how to mean what you say and walk the talk, what I found most interesting was the idea that a culture should emanate from each worker. 

Being empowered doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t understand what you are empowered to do.  This idea that making people accountable will lead to innovation is a fallacy.  Accountability makes people retreat inside themselves and take the safest and surest route since they are implicitly going to be blamed if something goes wrong.  Empowerment is a whole different beast.  When someone is empowered, they are able to shape the process and terms for which they will later be held accountable and agree to those terms not just stand there holding the bag at the end.

Understanding what you are empowered to do isn’t helpful if you are not inspired by the mission.  Does your company have a mission statement?  Do you even know what it is?  How about your clients?  Long, vague statements are irrelevant.  A short sentence that captures the essence of who you are and why you do what you do means something and serves as a guiding principle to staff at every decision point along the way.  This mission will either resonate with employees and cause them to radiate the company culture, or it won’t.  Those who aren’t inspired will leave or soon emerge as ripe for the chopping block.

No mission can be undertaken fully if it doesn’t have the proper resources behind it.  By resources, I am not necessarily talking about money.  I am talking about good processes, and good ability to obtain and share knowledge.  A mission is just words if it isn’t backed up by tools and expertise as well as a willingness to share it freely with others.

So how do you create a culture of innovation for yourself and your clients? How do you have it emanate from each and every employee, every project?  Its not top down or bottom up but in between, across and through that matters.  Please share your innovation experiences- I’d love to hear what worked and didn’t for you!

Expansion Through Contraction

It’s a dilemma that all firms face: grow at any cost and lose sight of your purpose, or be more selective, but risk being more vulnerable. We face it as individuals as well. Do we specialize in a certain aspect of practice (design or construction management) or a project type (education or healthcare) or do we try and have a full complement of experience and skills? Either way, we are limiting ourselves. Diversity can lead to dilution and distraction of our creative spirit, while specialization and focus can cultivate expertise, but narrow our options.
So which to choose?  Both and neither.  It all depends.  On you.  Only you know what combination of skills allow you to be your best creative self and continue to grow and add value as an architect.  Only when you and those who work for you are growing and inspired by the work you do willl you see a profound change in your business.  I’ve been reading a lot lately about a prevailing wisdom in the social media world to have fewer but more relevant and loyal followers. The point: It’s not a popularity contest and you don’t gain much by following/friending/connecting with anything that moves. Social media only works if it’s opening up a conduit between you and people who either provide you with information of value or who will value the information you produce. I think that this is a good way to look at our practice of architecture as well. Unless the only point for you is making money, you want to know that the work you did made a difference. You might want to feel that people’s lives were improved by your design. The inverse of this is also true, you want to have a client base that values creativity and innovation and will seek out your talents rather than one that views you as a commodity and just wants the lowest fee.

The key is selectivity. You don’t necessarily have to specialize, but you do need to clearly define what you do and then do it exceptionally well. This may mean turning down work, or leaving a firm if you feel that your ability to learn, grow and be excellent at the things you most value about being an architect are compromised. You can think I’m crazy, pull out a list of bills you have to pay and tell yourself that you have to suck it up. Or you can be really brave and follow your passion. Which option do you think will take you where you really want to go? Clients respond to your passion. They seek out consultants who they feel have an approach to design compatible with their goals for not just the end result but the process of design.

We want so badly to be seen as both hero and artist, some mythical construct (pun intended) of what an architect is, or rather could be. This seemingly principled stance actually puts us in the predicament of undervaluing our servicess in favor of what we believe to be the opportunity.  This anything to get a job, that job, mentality is bad business.  As this recent piece by Mike Michalowicz for the Wall Street Journal  shows, you really do get a positive response when you choose to value yourself and stop being hesitant about the services you have to offer. It's clarity of purpose that leads you down your chosen career path, not playing the game by someone else's rules.

I had an opportunity to do this early on in my career.  Graduating in the midst of the last recession meant jobs were scare for entry level architects and I ended up going to graduate school.  Having completed by BARCH degree, I had no prerequisites and could spend the year getting my Master's degree pursuing any aspect of architecture that interested me.  I drew on what I loved most about my undergraduate experience- sociocultural issues.  That gave me a lot of clarity about why I am an architect, but initially pointed me down a road of urban planning.  However, life shifts and somehow I ended up doing healthcare.  I had to stop and reassess how or even whether this type of work fit with my architectural identity.  It did, but then I found that my identity as a healthcare architect did not fit with the approach to healthcare design of the firm that employed me. One of the greatest gifts I received in the past year was being laid off from said soul-killing job. Sure I knew I needed to leave. I was even looking for other opportunities. But I wanted to play it safe and stay until I found that perfect next move. Being laid off gave me time and space to think about what I wanted to do and how I hoped to accomplish that.  This blog is the perfect example. I got the idea about a year ago and finally managed to get started in May of 2010. My initial few middling posts were made in between everything else that was going on and I didn’t really promote them because they weren’t at the level that I wanted them to be. Being laid off allowed me to really research how to write effective posts and how to promote them. It also allowed me a chance to discover a whole data stream available to me just by adjusting some filters on my twitter account. My blog has gotten me a speaking engagement as well as helped me get the consulting job I have today. It is my vehicle to promote who I am and what I believe about being an architect. Having gotten to that point of clarity, my brand if you will, I can market myself for the things I am both expert in and passionate about. You can agree with me or not, but you know where I stand. It’s out there in front of me and not up for debate. What about you? When was the last time you took your career’s temperature? Are you distracted by trying to do a little bit of everything competently or are you focusing on doing the things you love really, really well for clients that will appreciate them?

Contagious: The Role of Infection Control in Design

At first glance, this seems like a REALLY dry topic. The overly-technical kind you gloss over when reading a magazine or skip out on attending at a conference. But, before you give up on reading this post, consider: who wants to see their hard work in design ruined by the unsightly application of hand sanitizer dispensers, or the failure to really think about the visual clutter that hand washing sinks bring? 

Compliance with their infection control policies are no laughing matter. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will no longer pay for charges to treat patients for hospital acquired infections (HAI). Additionally, The Joint Commission, who accredits many hospitals and ambulatory care facilities, looks for compliance with infection control standards during their facility inspections. Can good infection control practice be supported through design decisions?
It can if you work with staff, including the infection control director and materials management folks instead of leaving decisions up to the facility to figure out post-construction. Employ evidence-based design strategies and don’t forget to follow-up post-occupancy to see how they are working:


1. Out of sight is out of mind- sinks that are not conveniently located in the main path of travel into and out of patient rooms, exam and procedure rooms or treatment/recovery bays are not likely to be utilized. Study the flow of staff in their existing space and talk about the steps they take before entering and leaving the patient zone. 

2. Create visual cues to help remind staff to use the sink- use floor patterns, ceiling treatments, lighting or contrasts in finishes to call attention to the sink area. Positioning the sink in the patient’s line of sight can also keep the patient aware that the proper measures are being followed by their caregiver.

3. Don’t forget about the accessories. At every sink, is a dispenser for paper towels, and soap, trash disposal and possible space for a sharps container or glove boxes. Place these to avoid creating visual clutter- but don’t get too clever. Over-designed custom casework that doesn’t consider the process of caregiving often goes unused. For example, cabinets for glove boxes are abandoned in favor of boxes placed right on the counter the first time someone needs gloves and can’t find them instantly. Also, materials management often negotiates contracts with paper towel or soap companies and the ugly plastic dispensers are often part of the deal. Work closely with the hospital to develop a policy for these items or you may find a soap dispenser on the wall right above the countertop mounted one you designed. Give it a couple of years, and there will be a different plastic dispenser made all the more resplendent by the holes in the wall left by the previous one’s removal. 

4. And then there’s waste disposal. Staff usually loves a big open container for regular and/or red bag trash because it doesn’t need to be emptied too frequently and is easy to access without contaminating a countertop or cabinet surface. As these do not contribute to providing a patient-centered design environment, work with department staff and housekeeping to explore alternatives for containing and stowing waste. Options can include using smaller containers, or ones purchased based upon their ability to blend in aesthetically with the design. In some cases, where large volumes of trash are not likely to be generated, it may be possible to use containers that can slide under a counter or pull out from a cabinet like a drawer.

The patient experience and outcomes are affected by things we often fail to truly design. Far from being boring, thinking about infection control issues may be the most important decisions we make.

Design in the Age of the Prosumer

Ah, the good old days...it seems like there was once a time when clients trusted their architect implicitly and accepted their design and recommendations with little pushback.  It it just you imagination, or have things changed?   If you feel like only a necessary evil on your projects, you're not alone and you're not paranoid either.  Access to information has led to the rise of what has been called prosumerism, a term first introduced by futurist Alvin Toffler that implies that consumers are well informed, experienced and confident enough to challenge the producer of what they consume.  There are many variations on the origins of this word, from professional consumer to producer-consumer.  I like to think of it as proactive consumer,  This merger of professional and consumer roles leads to marginalization of the corporate producer (in our world the architect) and threatens to reduce our services from value-added to commodities. Some prosumer trends that have arisen and thoughts on how to use them to the project's design advantage:

1. Hiring of in-house professionals like registered architects and engineers to oversee and manage the work of the contracted design team for a project.  The in-house professionals often complete smaller projects without seeking to hire outside help.   

TIP: The insider is your friend.  They understand your point of view. Work with them and collaborate on strategies and they will be a trusted advocate at your next meeting with the rest of the team.  Remember, part of their job is to make sure that you are doing yours, so including them in the process allows them to report back favorably while shutting them out leads to critical comments when they review the set at the end of a design phase.

2.  Development of standards for room design and finish types/colors/materials.  These prototypes are the result of considerable time and effort on the part of the owner and changing them is not usually welcomed.

TIP: There is no such thing as one size fits all and every prototype has some capacity for adjustment to project-specific needs.  Having in-depth discussions on the rationale for each element in the prototype or standards can go a long way towards understanding where a proposed change makes sense and where it doesn't. Standards can help a client to establish a brand identity and level of quality without having to go through the process of reinventing the wheel for every project.  Additionally, it can take certain sticky design issues off of the table with user groups.  This is a case where the spirit of the law will trump the letter of the law, so do your homework before presenting different approaches and work within the framework.

3. Requirements that certain criteria or standards be incorporated into the design (like sustainabiity measures) in a defacto manner without acknowledging impacts on schedule, budget or fees.

TIP: For the most part, it's exciting not to have to sell a client on adopting a good practice, but boy are you both about to get some sticker shock if the right approach isn't followed.  You are designing a building, not baking a layer cake.  Before the first design meeting, maybe even in your proposal or the interview, you need to make it clear to your client that the old rules of project management and approach are out the window.  The square peg will not fit in the round hole.  Show them your true level of expertise by discussing precisely why these requirements will lead you to approach the project in a way that is smarter and better.

4. Rise of alternative project delivery methods to get things built faster.

TIP: Many architects bristle at the introduction of more chefs in the kitchen, from the Owner's Representative, to the Design Builder, to the increased legal implications. What actually happens, if you allow the process to work, is that we are making other parties more accountable, which takes some pressure off of us to spell out every little thing on drawings and develop painstaking details for every joint and drain.  Have you ever looked at a set of drawings from 40 years ago and been surprised by how thin the set was?  Go back 80 years and there is even less detailing of the functional stuff.  Those old drawings showed design intent, not how to fasten screws. Means and methods is something that should be the contractor's problem.  We had ourselves painted into a corner of over-detailing to avoid liability.  See this as a liberation.

I think designers can welcome the emerging prosumer in their clients because we can also show them that their patients/users/customers are prosumers too.  Everybody can use some good design to get a competitive edge.

Why Bother?

I was recently asked why this blog was not more focused on "real" design issues, did not include many images and kept talking about all kinds of business stuff.  My answer is that you don't need all that to be inspired.  Inspiration is rooted in knowing yourself, believing in your ideas and sharing them with others.  In the design world, there are plenty of print and digital publications covering who's who and what's cool, but none of them address how to effectively structure projects and communicate with clients.  In other words, how to inspire them with your ideas.  

So many architects I know have become "corporatized" and somewhat despondent because they feel that in order to please their client that they can't challenge them.  They stop being creative and lose their spirit.  At the same time, the client is afraid to take risks because they don't understand how a different point of view can work.  This creates a vicious cycle of projects that follow all the rules, but lack true innovation. 

In the Catholic church, patron saints are protectors, guardians and guides.  It is my hope that by sharing ideas about how to approach, manage and communicate design ideas that I can help others to realize that great design is always possible no matter what the project size or type. 

Is Your Ocean Red or Blue?

Have you ever thought about how architecture is practiced?  Why so many architects are just not very collegial with one another and our professional organizations serve more as a source for legal documents, status, and continuing education instead of as a true collaborative resource?  Maybe you just naturally assume that you have to compete, after all work pays the bills.  Our profession has accepted the premise of a business strategy called Red Ocean (think blood in the water),  that assumes at its core that we can only win if everyone else loses.  Our work becomes a product or commodity and offering more of it for less is the only way to stay ahead of the game (sound familiar to how we undercut our fees and lose money on jobs to keep or get a client?) 

A more recent strategy to emerge turns that premise on its head.  Called the Blue Ocean strategy, it asks us to rethink the idea of beating the competition and instead examine that for which we are actually competing.  In other words, is the prize really worth it?  Are we decimating ourselves just to win?

By looking at who we really are and what we really want to do; we can, according to Blue Ocean thinking, define a new market that we can serve with the full force of our individual talent and passion.  It seems almost too good to be true.  I am transported back to my days as an idealistic student full of dreams and ambition, not the soul-crushing professional environment that awaits said student ideologues.  

Of course, there is a catch: you have to actually be innovative (and not too risk-adverse either). In a Blue Ocean paradigm, the focus is on the value of what we have to offer and finding a market that is actually seeking that value.  No building industry, creating niche markets requiring hyper-specialization is not the point, it's about innovation.  Innovation that also takes into account utility, price and cost in an attempt to make competition irrelevant.  That's something that we have a hard time with, because we want to keep designing buildings, and so do all the other architects. Also,blue ocean is an ideal that may not prove lasting. Mohammad Jamil of the Change Management Community is his article "Red and Blue Ocean Strategy" argues that the two strategies are in fact interdependent and cyclical, with blue oceans driving innovation, which in turn drives the red ocean competition that will eventually spawn more innovation.  I think that what matters most is that we realize that we are not constrained by the "way things are" and instead start asking a lot more critical questions:

1. What are you really trying to achieve and why?
2. To whom will it matter?
3. Can you abandon old habits and dependencies?

Stop swimming with the sharks and chart a course to peaceful waters.  When survival isn't the primary issue, it's amazing what you can achieve.

The Design and Construction Game: Whose side are you on?

The built environment has many factions- team Design, team Owner and team Construction.  Recent trends in sustainable design and evidence based design require buy-in from all sides and a cooperative effort to carry concepts through into completion and operation. The rise in popularity of design-build and integrated project delivery attempts to balance responsibility and risk more evenly.  

Can we really transition successfully from an "us vs. them" mentality?  Or are we hardwired to struggle between achieving design goals, achieving profitability goals and achieving operational goals?  We are living through a paradigm shift that is both neutralizing our individual silos and adding responsibility to our effort.  But with this come a greater opportunity to stop competing and start collaborating.  Can we all be on the same team and realize that these goals are mutually dependent, not mutually exclusive? 

Hopefully the real winners are team End Users.

Feel the Passion

Does your attitude need an adjustment?  When you feel demoralized and cranky about design opportunity (or lack thereof) in your current project, or the client or co-workers on your team, try feeling- passion.  When you truly love what you do and are excited about it, that excitement creates a whole different energy- one that is about creativity, possibility and opportunity. To find the love, start seeing the glass as has full:

1. Know who you are and what you stand for as an architect.  When you know your strengths are are excited to share them with others, that inspires them  to draw on their strengths too.
2. Every job is an opportunity.  You can win an award for designing a bus stop that truly enriches the lives of those who use it and pass by it every day, or you can complete projects with price tags in the hundreds of millions and hate what you do.  It's all in how you frame the design problem and whether you are excited to make a difference.
3. Keep your cool.  We all know the meaning of pressure- last minute changes, under-performing consultants, problems that don't seem get resolved smoothly.  Don't take it personally, and don't let your stress make you that person that everyone is afraid will bring a gun to the office one day.  As long as you work quickly and proactively to identify what is going wrong and create a plan of corrective action, you will be the  hero that  calmly led the troops.  
4. Be impeccable.  Pretend that someone is videotaping you and will send a copy of the tape to all of your clients and co-workers.  Actions taken out of expediency often lead to regrets later.  Make the best possible decisions you can with the information available to you at the time, and you will always be respected and able to defend your actions. 
5. Keep a constructive outlook.  There are no bad ideas or bad people, just less optimal solutions.   Every idea has some merit and deserves to be talked through.  You may find a germ of usefulness in even the most off-base  suggestions.  Being receptive to ideas informs you of how others are thinking and the process of how they work.

Above all, believe in yourself and what you do.  If you still find yourself being dragged into a cesspool of negativity- then its time to use that passion in yet another positive way, by walking away- gracefully.

Tricks in the Trade

For anyone out there who wants to hang out their own shingle and not have to answer to anyone else's ideas or lack thereof regarding design and management of projects,  you'll want guard against becoming like the company you just left.  Psychology Today had a great article recently http://www.psychologytoday.com/em/45382 that focussed on exactly how our visionary spirit can get us into trouble.  Recognize anyone?

Taming the Many-Headed Monster

Let's face it as designers, we often get no respect.  Organizations already have their own standards and teams in place to address more parts of the project than you probably knew needed that close of a look.  Instead of being demoralized by the many headed monster that most corporate machine clients have become, try introducing some innovative management strategies to engage an organization's many project stakeholders in an integrated and productive way, allowing disparate concerns to be addressed without compromising sustainable goals or good design.

Get comfortable with the fact that there are multiple masters to serve with healthcare organizations and other large insitutional clients, each with their own set of design priorities for a particular project. From construction departments trying to enforce the bottom line to physicians concerned about cutting edge technology, infection control directors, facilities managers, security offices, CEO's concerned about market drivers and patient satisfaction, and perhaps even a sustainability officer struggling to be heard over all of the other voices. While there may be a desire to have an innovative or sustainable project, simply setting an executive level directive won't lead to the desired outcome. Reaching design goals depends you taking a leadersip role with an approach to design that integrates all of the voices influencing design priorities into a framework of sustainable design and operation:

1. Discuss specific ways to organize a project, map out sustainable goals that factor in divergent needs and cut through the red tape of complex projects to realize your green goals.
2. Establish deep and integrated sustainable approaches across the entire project team that create the buy-in and ownership necessary for true innovation.
3. Identify everyone who will be a stakeholder and engage them early. Be a conduit to foster communication among competing interests on a construction project.
4. Define sustainable project strategies that the entire team will buy into and work to develop
5. Learn how to look at cost in a multi-dimensional manner to avoid value engineering away your most economical and innovative sustainable components
6. Assess the organization's mission and goals and learn how they can relate to specific sustainable strategies that resonate with the entire staff.

Are you being sabotaged by your talents?

An interesting employee assessment tool I read about called the Hogan Development Survey http://www.hoganassessments.com/assessments-hogan-development-survey provided some insight into how sometimes we can be our own wost enemies when we think that we are actually exhibiting leadership, creative thinking, and being a good team player.  What is ironic is the number of times employers or even clients actually encourage or expect us to embody one or more of these traits, then turn it around and criticize the trait's negative aspects.  Here is a list of what Hogan identifies as derailers, or the dark side of being both creative and corporate:

1. Excitable: moody, easily annoyed, hard to please, and emotionally volatile
2.  Skeptical: distrustful, cynical, sensitive to criticism, and focused on the negative
3. Cautious: unassertive, resistant to change, risk-averse, and slow to make decisions
4. Reserved: aloof, indifferent to the feelings of others, and uncommunicative
5. Leisurely: overtly cooperative, but privately irritable, stubborn, and uncooperative
6. Bold: overly self-confident, arrogant, with inflated feelings of self-worth
7. Mischievous ( I would call this "willing to challenge status quo", something we are often called upon as archietcts to do): charming, risk-taking, limit-testing and excitement-seeking
8. Colorful: dramatic, attention-seeking, interruptive, and poor listening skills
9. Imaginative: creative, but thinking and acting in unusual or eccentric ways
10. Diligent: meticulous, precise, hard to please, and tends to micromanage
11. Dutiful: eager to please and reluctant to act independently or against popular opinion