Tyler McKenzie - Prompt 2

When discussing this prompt with my mentor she was drawn to the question regarding change. Her answer to how you build a practice that is adaptable to change, was humility and a continual thirst for knowledge. Often times people's fear of change causes them to dig their heels down and refuse to adjust the way they work. Hand drafting vs CAD, and CAD vs BIM were a few example that came to mind. Architecture is not only a job, but rather a profession and all true professions require continual learning as innovations in the field are made. Successful architecture practices cannot afford to hamstring themselves by refusing to adapt to this change. Additionally, building sciences are also constantly advancing so a firm must be conscious and accepting of these changes as well. Obviously none of us will ever “know it all” (hence the humility) and while it may be frustrating, if we accept that and have eyes wide open about advances, trends, changes in codes, and so on they your practice will never be obsolete.

After discussing this topic with my mentor and thinking about my own practice one day I can think of a few things that I would do to make it adaptable to change. It all starts with the right people and in hiring architects to be apart of my firm I would ask them this same question that I discussed with my mentor. Their response and the enthusiasm they show for learning something new or solving a new problem would be a pretty good indicator of whether or not they would be a successful fit in my office. Also hiring people that have an diverse background would be key in my practice because this would most likely demonstrate their adaptability. Having lunch-n-learns regularly would also be a big part of my practice. Architects are known for how busy they are but it is crucial that they find time to learn about new technologies and practices and I have found that as an intern a lot of learning can happen during lunch. Lastly as my mentor pointed out to me I would approach every obstacle with a layer of humility and would expect my employees to do the same because you can never truly learn it all but you can always learn more.