EntreArchitect Annual Meeting Recap

A I'm Evelyn Lee. And I'm Janine Chastain. We're collaborating on curated conversations to explore how the industry of architecture is changing.

B Together, we'll find ways to create new solutions to current challenges while elevating the value of architects. Welcome to Practice Disrupted. Hello, listeners. Hello, Janine.

A Hi, Evelyn. Hi, disruptors.

B Earlier this month, the 1st week in November, Janine and I had the wonderful opportunity to join our Gable host, Mark, at his first annual Entre Architects community annual meeting.

A We're recording this after just getting back from Austin, which is where the annual meeting was held, and it was a great experience. The conference was specifically geared toward small firm architects, and there were a 150 participants at the program.

B Right. And because it was all small farm architects, it was mostly the owners of the firms. There was definitely a handful, I would say more than a handful of sole proprietors there, but it was just so nice to finally meet some of the individuals I have been interacting with for years over on the Entree Architect Facebook community in person for the first time.

A Yeah. And I think an important thing to understand about this community is that small firms represent it's over 80% of the total number of architecture firms in the US in the industry, that they are a dominant group in the industry, but they're often frequently feeling underrepresented in conversations. And that's mainly because of the scale of their business that as a sole proprietor or a small firm practitioner, they're often juggling everything all at once, trying to keep their business going, getting their drawings done, getting projects through permitting. And I think that the scale of conversations sometimes doesn't really address their needs. And so the point of this event was to really focus on community building and bringing those leaders together and to specifically talk about the things that were top of their mind.

B And I think we should place an emphasis on community building. I obviously work at Slack Technologies, and one of the things that we often say is digital first means never in person. And it's events like these that bring people together that leave space for socialization that I feel kind of anchors communities and grows camaraderie between like minded individuals. And I felt that this was very successful in that manner. And, you know, Mark hopes that this is the first of many annual community meetings in the future, and it was also kind of interesting, right, that it wasn't called a conference. It was literally it's an annual community meeting.

A Yeah. And it was fun. I felt like there were a lot of like minded business nerds out there in the audience, and so I felt like you and I were able to connect with some like minded friends and also fellow podcasters. So we were actually invited to speak, and there was a huge lineup of speakers. Let's see, Mark LePage, obviously, he was hosting the event, and Jeff Echols was the emcee for the program. And there was a myriad of keynote speakers from architects to industry leaders to past guests on the show, including Bolanle Williams Ali, who works at Mancini Duffy.

B I actually had never seen her presentation about being bold, which runs parallel, obviously, to the message in her book. So we will drop a link to that episode in the show notes.

A We were up by Lake Travis, which is northwest of Austin at a resort, and it happened over 3 days. So we wanted to take you all on a recap experience similar to what we did for a 22 earlier in the year. In the next several minutes of the show, you're gonna hear clips from different conversations that we had, different people who were attending, and we want you to get an experience of what it was like to be at this event.

B Let's take a listen to what a few presenters, sponsors, and attendees had to say about the event.

A We're here at the Entre Architect Community Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. And Belan Ley is here. She was a speaker this morning and just got off the stage just a short while ago. So we thought we'd pull her to the side and ask her, why did you come to this conference and what were you interested in getting out of

C the experience? Sure. So I'm a huge fan of the Entree Architect community. 1, because it fosters networking, it creates environments for other architecture firms, leaders to just come together and learn. And so I was really excited to hear that we're having an in person conference. The reason why I wanted to be here in person was to just meet other peers, learn from other folks who are sharing great topics all across, you know, business development, talent, culture.

A So since our listeners didn't get to sit in on your keynote, can you just give us a high level recap of what you just talked about?

C For sure. So I talked about creating bold possibilities, empowering leaders to build bold firms, and I'm really passionate about firm leaders. 1, thinking about how can they be bold, how can they lead their people boldly. And then using the bold framework from my book, build boldly, how can you then take that and apply it across your people and your practice? One of

A the things that stood out to me was when you started talking about discipline and the role of the leader to really find discipline in their work day to day. And we kinda had a sidebar conversation when we were talking about the values for our companies. So can

C you tell our listeners a little bit more about those leadership values that you were talking about? Yeah. So I think every leader needs to dig deep and find, you know, that discipline to show up every day even when it is not fun. Right? So you have to show up for yourself. You have to show up for your people. You have to show up for your clients, and you have to show up for your firm. And so discipline, I think, is one strong benefit when it comes to leading. I also share it on curiosity. So I think leaders always have to stay curious because you're constantly thinking about ways in which you can, 1, improve yourself, improve things for your clients, better ways of working, better ways of improving your culture, and you can't do any of those things without being curious.

A Yeah. And that ties into the last thing that I wanted to mention, which is the quote I wrote down for you, and I love it. It's something that resonates with me in my own work, but the idea that people are our most important asset. So as a financial expert, can you tell us why people tap into the financial part of the firm?

C Yeah. So, you know, when you think about the makeup of your organization, right, it is our people. Right? And our people are the ones working on projects. Projects are the ones that are then going to provide revenue that will then in turn turn into cash. But if you're not focused on your people, then you're not creating a work environment where they're bringing their best selves. You're not creating a work environment where they are working excellently on your projects. They are not tied into the long term firm vision to running profitable and successful firms. So if you're not focused on your people, you're going to see your bottom line suffer.

C When you focus on on your people, creating all these great work environment, great spaces for them to show up, you'll see that it translates into that bottom line. Your bottom line in the long term is going to improve because your projects are just doing better.

A I love it. Thank you so much. As always, it's so good to see you in in person.

D So I

B ran into Caitlin Parker from at bungalowroots. Right? That's your Instagram handle? Your every handle?

E Yes.

B And I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about why you came to the Andre Architect First Annual Community Meeting.

E Well, the community means a ton to me. I would not have a practice if it weren't for Mark and his podcast and then the community and all of the encouragement that this has given me. And I kinda made it a thing to go to a bunch of conferences this year, mostly because we've been trapped for the last 3 years in our houses. So this is honestly the best one

A I've been to, and it's felt like

E a lot of therapy. It's really good to meet all these people that I know by name or by voice or by random profile picture and be like, oh, I know you, but I don't know you yet. So it's really cool to actually meet people in person and, yeah. It's just been a really great experience.

B Is it the community aspect that makes it so special or is there any other standout moments that made you say this was the best conference you've been to?

E It's definitely the community aspect. It's also been, like, the usefulness of the material and just, like, the energy that you get from this group of people. Everyone is doing amazing things. I feel huge imposter syndrome. People will be like, oh, I know you. I'm like,

A yeah. Okay.

E I shrink away from it. I feel like Mark does too. It's so funny. But, yeah. It's it's the community. It really is the the people that make this such a great thing.

B Yeah. So this is the first of what, you know, Andre hopes to be an annual reoccurring thing. So what would you say to other people that are contemplating whether or not they should have this on their roster of conferences to attend for 2023?

E Oh, definitely. If you have to give up the AAA conference, don't tell them I said this. Give that up. Come here. Way better. So much more useful. And who needs health safety welfare? You can take boring online courses if you need to to get health safety welfare. Come for this.

E This is the best conference I've ever been

A to.

B Okay. I'm here with Jennifer Kreshmer, who you may all know from as an instructor of one of our courses on building a virtual practice with Leelah Sabir. And, Jennifer, I just wanted to ask you, you know, what have you loved about the conference so far?

F Wow. So just to try to say it real quickly, what I really love is that this conference was able to pack in so much content and very important to today's, you know, issues in just 2 days. And it has been amazing to connect with all the people we've been connecting with online, but I've never been in person with them. I'm just so happy to meet everybody, and this has been a very valuable event for me.

B Yeah. So when you say valuable, can you think of, like, 1 or 2 takeaways that you're going to go back and implement in your firm in the next month or so?

F Yes. Absolutely. Joyce talked about mindset and about mental health, and I have to admit, I've been struggling just like a lot of people. And but some of the content that she helped bring out about how to cope, how to work out, and and even where you are on that scale has helped me, like, look back at some of the issues that I am currently dealing with in my business, and I'm actually coming up with solutions to help me move past some of those challenges. That's been a wonderful session. We just had a session with a marketing guy who was so full of energy that I don't think anybody was on their phone or, you know, a device or laptop because they were so well engaged. And I think that's a good point to say that the speakers have all been very engaging in this event. Great.

B So this is hopefully going to be a recurring annual event. So people are kind of still on the fence of whether or not they should come, but the, you know, they're a part of Entre Architects community. What would you say to them?

F Oh, make every effort to come to the event next year. It's so wonderful to catch up with all these people who all over the United States. Right? And there's no better way to really connect in a short term than a in person conference. Just come. Just whatever you do, figure out how to come.

A Okay. We just bumped into Randy Wilburn who has maybe the most podcasts that I've ever heard of an individual being connected to. He's working on several and helps support other firms who are interested in launching their podcasts. And so we wanted to ask you about your experience here at the conference and what you're hoping to get out of

G it. Well, thank you so much for having me. First of all, it's always good to talk about the design industry and about all of the facets that go into what a successful design firm looks like, what a successful design professional looks like. And I think the Entree Architect event is a kind of a proving ground, if you will, for how we become better as professionals, how we develop our skill set, how we connect with others and build relationships, right? Because the idea is that no man or woman is an island unto themselves, so there's all kinds of opportunities for you to connect with other people here, which is why there's such value in bringing people together like this. There's so many thought leaders in this room. There are so many design professionals doing a wide variety of work, and I think it's important for us to be able to kinda mingle together and learn from each other. And so that's why I see this Entre Architect event as being super successful from that vantage point. And if nothing else, everybody's gonna have a clear call to action when they get back to their offices about what they need to do next and, you know, that was this session was impactful for me or that session was impactful for me.

G And I think it's just important for the continuation of our stories as we evolve as design professionals in this space and as we continue to move forward and serve the needs of our clients and it's just exciting. So

A So you're gonna be talking tomorrow. I think you're, like, on stage around the same time we are. Can you give us a teaser of what you're gonna be talking about?

G Absolutely. I am speaking about the role of routine and the importance of creating good habits that allow you to be the best version of yourselves, period. The challenge that I see with design professionals and most professionals for that matter are that we burn the candle on both ends, and we don't take enough care of ourselves. Self care is not selfish. And I've I've heard that said. I don't own that quote, but it's important. It is a a very important reminder for design professionals to have to recognize that, you know, I said it earlier when we were talking, you guys laughed about it, but a dead architect or a dead engineer cannot do any projects. And so you have to take care of yourself.

G And I know that sounds a little morbid, but the reality is is that most design professionals don't do a good job in this area. So my call to action is simply to just have design professionals identify one habit or routine that they wanna develop, and I'm gonna encourage them over the next 90 days to do that. And then I'm gonna hopefully follow-up with some of them to find out how things go. I've done this before in other settings and had significant success, but, like, it's like a muscle. The only way that you're gonna build it is if you work it out.

B So I had one question because you were mentioning connection and, obviously, we're in person right now, but there's a lot of different ways to build connection. And you had obviously, you helped architects start up their own podcast, but you had kind of an internal view on how a podcast is good for the internal culture in a firm. Oh. Do you wanna can you share that?

G Absolutely. Thank you for asking that. Yeah. I believe that architects serve your brand externally to the world, but also internally to your team. I say that over and over again to anyone that will listen because one of the biggest challenges that design professionals have is that they don't get enough personal and professional development. And so I wanna stress that that as a design firm, one of your goals should be to develop your people. If you don't develop your people then essentially what you do is you create a backdoor that people can step out of when they don't feel fulfilled in their career because they're not getting stretched whether it's from the projects that they're working on or they're not being stretched mentally and emotionally from just the ability to engage them at a high level. And that's one of the challenges that we see in this industry is that, you know, we're so focused on client, client, client, work, work, work that we don't take time to take care of the individual that's responsible for all of that.

G And those are the baseline employees across the spectrum in every organization. So professional and personal development is huge. And if firms just spent a very small amount of time on that, engaging their employees where they are, helping them to connect the dots in their head, helping them to maybe bridge the gap with regard to some areas where they're not as strong in. Maybe it's communication, right, which is a big issue for design professionals. About most design professionals I talk to, they don't want to communicate. They if they never have to talk to anybody else ever again, they're happy with that. But the reality is, in order for us to build relationships in this industry, we have to communicate. And so I think simple way to start with a firm, start with communication.

G Take everybody in your organization through a communication program where you teach them just the fundamentals of having a talk, not being afraid to get up and talk in front of people, creating opportunities even within your project management teams to move around and give everybody a chance to communicate an idea, communicate an issue with regard to a project. Because over time, each of those individuals will start to build that communication muscle. And before you know it, you've got a bunch of people whose mouths you won't be able to close because now they'll be much more efficient communicators.

A Okay. So I'm here at Entre Architects' annual meeting with Robert from Monograph, who is a longtime friend of the show, and we're sitting here looking at the river front, the Travis Lake river front, I guess. It's kind of a lake, kind of a river. And we just step to the side to touch base and talk about your experience at the conference so far. Monograph is actually a sponsor for the event. So I was first curious to know why is Monograph invested in this conference.

H Love the library, but I think the really hot topic is, is it really a lake or a river? And now we've been thinking about that, like, this entire time.

A I, like, had to Google it because there's a lake, and then, technically, this is the Colorado River flowing into

H it. Okay.

A And it's making a shape like a river, but on different maps, it says different things. So I don't know, Austin. Where are we? Are we on a lake or are we on a river?

H We would love to hear back when people are listening to this part of the snake bit, and, like, let us know. Right? Like, I I really wanna know, is it is it really a lake or a river? But back to your original question, why are we interested in sponsoring if that's right? Well, Mark's been a dear friend of of monograph for a very, very long time. He's known monograph since the day that we've started, and the Entre architect community really symbolizes and represents the underserved community of architecture. They're primarily 80 to 90% really, really small firms.

D Mhmm.

H I think it's extraordinarily critical that monograph leads by by doing what's best and creating opportunities for all the small firms to come together. One of the best ways for us to do it is to to sponsor Mark LePage, Entre Architect, first ever in person conference.

A Yeah. And so there are a 150 practitioners here. I believe there's about a third of the audience. They're sole practitioners and then others that represent teams back at their office. But it's been really interesting. There's been a really good lineup of speakers, and I think that emphasis is really about small firm issues. And so I was curious from your perspective, what are some of the conversations happening at Monograph related to small firms?

H Well, Monograph started off and still is completely really focused on small firms. Our average customer size is somewhere between 6 to 10 person firms, with our smallest being solo practitioners. So it's extraordinarily critical every day at Monograph internally that we continue to talk about how do we serve the really small because they make up, like, as I said earlier, 80 to 90% of the entire industry. I think the topics are extraordinarily unique, and I think the topics are extraordinarily critical. And sometimes I don't, I kinda feel bad that we categorize small firms as small firms when really the small firms is a majority of architecture.

D Mhmm.

A Yeah. It's true. It makes up the majority of our industry.

H Which makes them really, really critical. Mhmm. Or, like, outside of the really large firms that do, for example, our universities or towers and, like, all of our large complex work, but your everyday experience of from homes, your local grocery store, your local merchants, your local, like, town squares and main streets are all done by local small architectural firms, and they make up a bulk of the architecture that we experience every single day.

D Mhmm.

A Absolutely. And what kinds of conversations have you been having with participants from the event?

H A lot of the conversations are just like, how do I continue to run my practice better? There's been a lot of dialogue in terms of, like, how many different ways to run a practice. Mhmm. So I've been shedding a lot of light in terms of, like, the complexity of work that monograph has to do in terms of synthesizing every different way you can run a practice Mhmm. And ideally distilling it down to the most beneficial and prescribed way of working. So it's been really highlighting for some of our customers who are attending this conference and those who are not in terms of, like, how does monograph work in terms of, like, building products, And what is our stance in terms of, like, what is the more optimal way of, like, running a practice?

A Yeah. Exactly. That's what I get excited about. We were talking offline before we recorded, and, basically, I think we're both just really invested in seeing positive transformation for the industry to help architects figure out how to run their businesses and not feel stressed and not be burned out and burdened by, you know, some of the operational challenges that a lot of firms are facing, especially small

H firms? In particular, small firms, because they're always lacking they're lacking people.

F People.

H Yeah. I like so, like, you're you're always trying to wear multiple hats throughout the day. You never have enough staff, and you always feel like you don't have enough time. Mhmm. So I think, like, Monograph empowered with her mission and vision to, like, really solve, at least lower the burden of that stress as much as we can. We're still a really young company, so, like, we're trying to be possible, and there's still a lot of work left. Mhmm. A lot of dialogue today was around how does monograph today already help a lot of our current customers that are here, giving us amazing praise in terms of, like, how far we've came.

H But also at the same time, how much more work we have to continue to do to fill all the gaps, continue to really, like, solve end to end all the workflow and operational problems. We still have a lot to do.

A Yeah. I know. Actually, our talk, which we just got done with about an I don't know, like, 30 minutes ago, we were basically trying to make the argument that the business model is flawed, and there's work to do to enhance the business model. And I think that's why I get excited about talking to you guys because I always feel like you're thinking about ways to educate architects on how business operations works and then teach them best practices on how to do it and then also challenge and try to think around the different ways that we could redesign things and make it better. So I think that's why we've been friends for so long.

H We we we align on, like the end goal is to always help the industry. Yeah. The end goals are always to help our friends, our colleagues, architects, practitioners, designers. The goal is always to help, and we know that, like, there's, generally speaking, a ton of problems with the business model, but we can take really small steps, one step at a time, and make massive impacts over time.

A Right.

H We don't have to do all the changes all up front. And I think it was just continue to reiterate that message that, like, it's okay to acknowledge that a system is flawed, but it's more important to take a small step forward and make small changes along the way. You don't have to be that risky and say, like, I wanna completely flip things upside down. Small changes compounded over time makes massive amount of changes when you zoom out and look at the grand scheme of

D things.

A Yeah. I agree. And I'm sure you felt this way as a sole practitioner at one point when you guys were you were more like startup mode. So there was a few of you, but still We're

H still startup mode.

A Bootstrap bootstrapping it. I think the juggling as a sole practitioner and the, like, always feeling like there's more to do keeps you in this, like, perpetual state of stress. And I think it can be really hard for sole proprietors to, a, recognize the challenge because if they can't see it, it's a blind spot, then they don't know that they can do anything to fix it. And then, b, give yourself permission when you're that stressed out and you're trying to make sure you're fixing all the issues to slow down and to actually take that first step for a small change.

H I think it's really important. If one can do it consistently, it will remove a lot of the anxiety to have the ability to step away and really just kind of think about, well, where is the problem and can we make small tweaks? And if we can make enough small tweaks, we will solve the problem over time. So I think, like, being a little bit more calm, stepping away will reduce anxiety a ton. There was really interesting conversations today and yesterday around, like, synthesizing a massive, let's say, business model problem. But at the end of the day, you can kind of come to a conclusion that it's a cash flow problem. If you're not collecting cash flow consistently, you run the risk of being extraordinarily anxious because you still have to make payroll. And you still have to spend. You have to spend money on your rent.

H You have to spend money on your subscription services. You have to spend money left and right every single month.

E Mhmm.

H And if your method of collecting money isn't aligned, then you have a lot of anxiety. Yeah. But that's fairly easy to diagnose, and it's fairly easy to start to fix. So, like, well, you should try to figure out what's the right appropriate business model for you where you collect revenue monthly. As long as you're collecting money monthly, then you can start to really calibrate how do you spend, and that will reduce a lot of anxiety around money.

A Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely.

H And I would love to know if Mark's thinking about doing this again. I love flying into Texas. This is only the 2nd time I've been to Texas. And I really miss in person. So, like, I hope I hope to see you at other conferences. I hope there's more as we get out of like the quote unquote COVID years. And I think that's where a lot of the learning and impactful, like, long term relationships actually get formed. Yeah.

H So I'm actually really excited about the future.

A Yeah. Me too. I'm so glad to be back in person.

H Thank you again for for having me speak a little bit about the conference, and hope to see you see you soon.

A Yeah. If you guys are going to an event and you see Robert or the monograph team, go say

H hi. Love that.

D You get a little nervous because there's people around. You forget the worries that you wrote down when you're trying to make a sound, but then then you're at this conference with some strangers around. You just gotta let your mind flow like a little kid and make the sound

I This event was the fulfillment of a dream. You know, when I launched Entre Architect on December 12, 2012, my plan was to build a platform for small firms, small firm architects to support them, to provide resources, to build a community for small firm entrepreneur architects who are just like me. And since that time in December 2012, the platform has grown. And throughout the past 10 years, the community has grown to 1,000, maybe even tens of 1,000. And as we emerged from our collective Zoom empowered lockdowns, I knew that we needed a place and a time for this community to come together, to gather, to celebrate one another, to learn with and from one another. So the Entre Architect Community Annual Meeting, the first one ever in Austin, was everything I ever dreamed of and and so much more. It is way beyond what I ever imagined that it could or would have been. So Evelyn and Janine, thank you both for not only joining us in Austin, but for sharing your knowledge from the stage.

I And thank you for documenting the experience here on practice disrupted. I can't wait to listen to this episode to hear what you've created and to share what you've documented. And we're already planning for the Entre Architects community annual meeting for 2023. I'm so excited about what we're thinking about and what we're doing. So stay tuned for some big announcements coming soon, and thank you for sharing the Entre Architect community annual meeting with your listeners.

A So, Evelyn, I thought we could also talk a little bit about why we were in Austin and what we presented about and maybe tease out a few of the ideas from our presentation.

B So a few podcasts from the Gable Media Network were invited to present. I feel like it's mostly the ones that were focused on practice, so that's why practice disrupted was there. So Evan Troxell from TRXL was there as well, so it was good to spend some time with Evan. Janine and I were, as you can probably imagine, if you are regular listeners to the podcast, we're there to really present on 4 different topics, culture, next gen leaders, building great teams, and workplace trends and tools.

A And this is all behind the premise of transforming the practice of architecture, which we are advocating for every week on the show in different ways. But we wanted to zoom in on these four ideas as we keep hearing about them in 2022 and talk about some of the specific ways that we can be addressing some of these conversations.

B Yeah. So I think culture has been a big undercurrent. It's definitely risen to the surface as we've gone through this great resignation period, you know, where employees are kind of voting with their feet and going to firms that are offering them more meaningful ways to engage and more meaningful ways to participate, not only within their practice, but also finding firms that align better with their values. We just kinda talked about the history of why culture has become such a big topic this year with all the headlines that shop was making at the end of last year, with the elephant in the well designed room research study that was released by the AIA at the end of last year, the talk of unionization that has been going on, and also the culture in schools like SCI Arc and Bartlett that were making headlines locally as well. So the premise for us has always been that the culture of architecture, studio, and architecture firms as long nights, overworked, undervalued, lack of trust, poor communication, disengaged employees, unhealthy competition, and scope creep. And frankly, I've been there. I have sat in conversations where I've talked about how many days I didn't sleep before a final crit. But I think we really need to change how we think about culture in practice.

B And piggybacking off of our last episode, right, we are licensed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people that occupy our buildings. We also need to protect the health, safety, and welfare, including the mental welfare of employees in our firm. So, you know, really, when we talk about architecture, hopefully, the conversation is about values based organizations built on trust that are open and transparent that drives agility and can adapt to whatever the world throws at us, including a pandemic that forces us all out of our offices, where wins are celebrated and where employees are empowered, where there's relatively low turnover because of all the things we said before, and everyone's able to set healthy boundaries. So that was just kind of a recap of culture and how to get there, but, really, it all comes to not only defining your firm values, but living into them and then being authentic by living into them every single day. And that authenticity, it should show up in how you communicate with one another, how you communicate with your clients. We mentioned building the psychological safety in your firm so that everyone feels safe to have those conversations and to be open and transparent about what they need to be happy at the firm.

A And this was the point where I interrupted you on stage and said, hey. Can you give an example

B excellent example.

A Well, let's recap it here. So I think that the most obvious one that comes to mind is when you're working in an office and you have a drawing set that you know is incorrect and you know you've got to get your team to make revisions. It's either drawn incorrectly or, god forbid, the regulatory agency came back and said that it's, you know, gotta be revised because they're not gonna approve it, you know you've gotta ask somebody in your office to fix it. And how you handle your stress in that moment and talk to the person that you've gotta hand this off to is imperative. And it's in those micro moments of when you walk up to someone and ask them to pick up red lines, and you're either stressed out, disengaged, projecting your stress onto them, or even being abrasive. There's a lot of ways that that comes up for people. That's where the damage happens, I think, and that's an example of where you can erode trust over time. And so, you know, trying to learn how to manage yourself in those situations to hand off things, to create environments where people feel trusted and supported and that, you know, that they can pick up those deadlines without feeling like they are nervous around you or afraid of you.

B Yeah. I mean, it's really simple. I literally think about my literally, my daughter came storming into the office this morning, and she's like, I'm hungry, mom. And I, like, turned around and said, Kenley, there's a nicer way to ask that. And she's like, mom, can you please get me something to eat? And I mean, it's it's a very simple lesson that I think we are often teaching our children that sometimes you just need a reminder to apply those same principles to work. So moving beyond the culture conversation, I think, Janine, you had a lot of great things to share, especially for the small firm leaders that are looking to hire around what is the next gen want, and, especially, how do you build the next generation into leaders in their own right?

A So the big idea on this section was that we have 4 generations working in practice, each with different needs, wants, experiences, and certainly different perspectives on how work should happen. And so we talked a lot about the matter of fact is that each of those generations communicate differently and are thinking about different things. And so there is communication gaps happening, and it's really important that we talk about those and try to find ways to bridge those gaps versus to, I think, keep staying in our silos and not understanding each other's perspective. And so we talked about the fact that people are the most important part of any design studio, and that's because they produce the work. We often focus so much on the architecture itself, but the architecture is the product of the people who work on it. It's their ideas. It's their ability to problem solve and to actually execute the work. And so that is why it's really imperative that you're investing and thinking about the people that make up your team and your studio.

A And I think a big transition that workplace culture is going through is the shift away from the way we used to do work, which is, you know, throwing people into the deep end and asking them to just figure it out and to learn on the job, to keep your head down and and get the work done in pursuit of deadlines into a world that talent development requires us to kinda invest a little bit more into our people, and it's not always specific to production on the job. Sometimes it means stepping away from those deadlines and trying to come up with solutions that are not immediately related to billable work in the context of an architecture firm. But it's really about trying to get everybody's skill set forward and trying to raise the bar across the firm for everyone. And that might look different for different people, and people need different things. And so it's all about kind of understanding what each person on your team needs and where they're at and helping them in their professional development. So I think the argument that I'm trying to make is that when we fail to invest in our teams, it actually negatively impacts our projects and our profit and the outcomes that we're trying to achieve. And it's like a short term failure that has long term consequences, basically. And by flipping that and trying to think about investing in our people as a long term strategy that has immediate results, There's several things at risk when we fail to really address the people component of our firm operations.

A And from a project standpoint, if you're really concerned about the design, it could be the underperformance in the quality of the project delivery. It could be getting a detail wrong. From a people standpoint, it could be a dip in staff retention due to lack of engagement or, like, we talked about last week, burnout. From a profit standpoint, and this is for the project managers out there, it could be you are eroding your profit margins and losing money. But where Evelyn and I focus a lot of our energy is really thinking about the industry as a whole and thinking about how we, as an industry, are unintentionally sinking our own ship. When we neglect our people, they're at risk of leaving. They are at risk of not helping us continue to create the great firms that we hope our will continue to have in the long run. And I think, essentially, there's an inherent risk of decreasing the value of our work and our what we do as an industry to our clients.

A And in the grand scheme of things, like having a lesser impact on the built environment, which is the opposite effect that we all aspire to. We wanna be shaping our cities. We want to be advancing the possibility of how architecture can shape people's lives. But I do think that when we spend so much time focused on the architecture and not the people, we basically are coming up short in a lot of ways that have pretty damaging consequences.

B Yes. And I think that all goes back to the culture conversation and saying that people are our biggest assets. So how do we build a culture that includes learning and development of individuals within the profession to keep the profession relevant and to keep new graduates coming out of school engaged and in our pipeline.

A And it was interesting today, Evelyn, because I found another podcast episode that I was listening to that was talking about how the US surgeon general has just issued a framework for workplace related to mental health and well-being. And that's new in 2022, but it totally dips into a lot of the things that we talk about. We talked about on our last episode related to mental health and the health safety welfare argument that we've made around protecting the HSW of your staff. But they came up with 5 areas of the framework, and that includes protection from harm, connection and community, work life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunities for growth. And I just think that it's amazing that in the same way that we're being encouraged not to smoke for health

B Right.

A There's a clear understanding that we're being encouraged to think about the stress that work is putting on our mental health and well-being. And so that's why I think if you dig further into this article, they talk about the importance of mentoring. And I think there's a huge opportunity to reposition mentoring as a metric for measuring the health of a studio culture in architecture.

B Yeah. And I think, you know, so much more focus has been placed on mental health throughout the pandemic and rightfully so, this is something that has been inherent in our profession for a very long time. But the one thing that has grown out of the pandemic to help combat this, I would say, is tools that help us work and collaborate better remotely. And that was kind of the last section that we rolled everything up to with workplace trends and tools. So, you know, some of the things that I presented were new findings from the latest poll survey that came out at future forum and was also just released earlier this month. So if you haven't seen the latest survey, please check it out. It talks about the increase of burnout now from the executive suite, which they hadn't actually seen before. But some of it was the focus on how you can build connections, not only through physical space, but how community is also digital now.

B Right? And that organizations who leverage technology well have higher scores for productivity, sense of belonging, and overall satisfaction. And some of the things that were called out earlier on the episode with Future Forum that which we can drop in our show notes was the fact that 70% of people are dissatisfied with their current level of flexibility, and flexibility ranks second only in terms of compensation to job satisfaction. And for me, the return to office conversations, not only in architecture, but more broadly have been really interesting because when people talk about flexibility, 80% of people want flexibility in where they work, but 94% in when they work. And when is really important. Right? Because if you're telling people that they need to be on the office Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9 to 5, it really takes away from the wind of that equation. And this is especially true if you are trying to support caregivers who may need to be taking care of other humans throughout the the day and and are balancing what is going on with home with what has been going on in the workforce. So we talked about the importance of creating core working hours, you know, 2 to 3 hours a day. We've mentioned that in the mother's episode.

B It's it's for those of you who are avid listeners to the podcast. I'm sorry if this is a bit of a review, but I feel like these things can't be said enough. And then we brought up this concept of brainstorming versus brain writing, which has been a really been a favorite of mine. I've actually been doing this a lot lately with my own team, but it's taking this idea of the charrette, right, and doing it in a way where you're using MURAL or MURO or whatever brainstorming app you want to get everyone's ideas out there before you come together. And then you are actually working with a bigger pool of ideas than you would have had if you kind of try to generate those in person on your own. Because especially for the introverts in your office, generating ideas actively together sometimes often leads to group think and sometimes the introverts. And I I can attest to that. Our ideas just never make it to the board because I've historically had a hard time speaking up in groups of certain sizes.

B Right? And then, really, we just closed with the fact again that trust is the number one thing you need to build a culture of innovation and all of those things that come with trust. So being transparent and open and thorough with your communications, but also back to the kind of the performance and professional development of individuals and feeling like they're gonna be taken care of while they are at your firm.

A So, Evelyn, we probably could have filled a whole another 20 minutes on this episode and certainly on stage. But for the sake of this episode and wrapping up, I kinda wanted to hear your thoughts about what you took away from the conference as a whole. What stood out to you?

B My takeaway, I think, is is, again, you know, digital first doesn't mean never in person. It's kind of a a thing that we commonly say, and this conference really proves that out. I think there is a need to bring people together in intentional ways to allow for not only professional growth, but personal growth and connections and relationships. And, overall, I think that's what made this such a successful conference. It was kind of a single track conference. Right? And it was a really intimate group, and, you know, it spent a lot of time moving from one track to another and passing people in the hallways as you are going to different sessions. Kind of everyone is in the same session listening to the same thing all at once.

A Yeah. I think it was really cool that I mean, this group is, like, basically operating on Facebook in a community. And so a lot of them were commenting that it was the first time that they had ever met some of the people in person. And it was so interesting, you know, certainly having met people through the pandemic and having never met them until I went to a couple conferences earlier this year. It had that same energy of just bringing the community together, and people were, again, so appreciative to be in person. But it has left me thinking about what are the challenges that small firm architects are facing? I know we get hung up on scale a lot, small, medium, large, extra large sized firms, but I think that the issues are very similar. The scale is different, but, certainly, I think a lot of the underlying issues are similar. And I just feel like I do wanna find ways to support the small practitioners who are who having met this community, to to continue to think about ways that we can address and talk about what their most urgent challenges are date today.

B For those of you who are listening and aren't aware of the Andre Architect community on Facebook, I primarily use Facebooks for communities only these days, Consider joining. We will drop a link in the show notes. It doesn't matter if you're a sole practitioner, a small, medium, or large firm, owner, or employee. You will find a group that is really willing to have your back and respond. You know, there's definitely sole practitioners and even firm leaders that drop in construction questions in there, and they get responses sometimes maybe faster than they would in their firm, or they just actually don't have anyone else to to ask, and it's nice to run it by a community. And there's definitely people who go in there after having tough conversations with clients just to get a gut check and to get support saying, you know, it's okay. I've been there. I've had those type of clients too.

B Awesome. And then, hopefully, we will see you all at the next Andre Architect Annual Community Meeting, wherever that may be.

A Hi, disruptors. If you like the content from today's show, you can find all of our past episodes over on practice of architecture.com/podcast.

B Be a part of the conversation by joining us, our speakers, and others in our community at practiceofarchitecture.com/community. Our social media handle is at practice of arch. That's at practice of a r c h. We love to hear from you. Drop us a note to say hello.

A This show is part of Gable Media. You can learn more about other podcasts and video channels in our community by visiting gablmedia dotcom.

B Thank you for joining us on Practice Disrupted, a podcast by Practice of Architecture. Tune in next week for a new conversation on change in the profession.