VISHNU — PROMPT 2

Monday, November 27 2017:

We're at 81 Nassau St. to meet some consultants to talk about elevating the existing structure and changing the roof pitch.

"Let's talk about your prompts until they arrive!", Luke says to Katie and me. "You should also join the conversation, Jonathan," he says addressing our colleague. For my discussion, I had picked the question: How do you build a practice that is focused on people? Katie had picked community.

Since Luke spoke to both Katie and me at the same time, please refer to Katie's post to know more about what he said. The End.

(Not really, haha.)

Luke says that they operate on a people-centric model that focuses on training architects and helping them reach their goals. Being a small firm that is just starting to make their presence felt in the city, they'd rather hire young architects that "want to go somewhere", than hire people that are too experienced. The firm works with people to identify their unique goals and supports them in whatever way possible — whether it be paying for their exams, or hiring a visa attorney to help give international workers a chance to pursue licensure. The employee's goals get incorporated into the firm's larger goals.

Luke mentions his efforts to mentor and support fellow architects in training. He had mentored nineteen people in less than ten years (!), and Katie and I would be #20 and #21. He had even been mentoring one his mentees as early as when she was in high school, and proudly announces that she would be coming back to work for them this winter, affirming his commitment to people.

"We want our employees to feel that they are working with us and not for us."

Luke compares their attitude towards people to good relationships. "There's no lying to our people, and there's no making someone feel like they need to lie to us to be successful," he says. He wants people to be very open and direct with the firm and let them know immediately if something isn't working out ideally. He understands that working in a fast paced world means that there's always going to be change, and that tomorrow will never look like today, so it is important to be flexible and adapt to people's needs.

I ask if being more people focused is easier in a small firm than in a larger firm. "Not neccessarily," Luke answers. He says that ideally the culture would be a scalable model. He compares his people to a forest. "Right now it's two trees and some saplings," he says, alluding to the partners and the others. "Some trees may mature and fall, but new trees take their place. What I do for Jonathan today, I can expect him to do for our future employees, once he gets licensed."

"What makes Charleston great?", Luke asks us, moving on to the topic of community. "The people," we answer. "That's right! We need to design for the 97% and not just the 3%. We need to get our workforce people back into the city." Walking over to the other side of the street, he shows us an excellent example of how he's trying to do that through the Foundry Alley project that incorporates workforce housing and a pedestrian-friendly urban shortcut. With that he wraps up the conversation leaving us feeling inspired about the future.

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How do you set up a practice that is built on, and actively promotes, a strong sense trust?

Thinking about how this conversation would affect my future practice, I imagine what needs to be at the core of a people-friendly firm and how it would be set up. I am reminded of the "family culture" that Art Gensler talks about in his Principles of Art. At the core of the firm there needs to be the guiding value of trust, starting from the level of the partners, to amongst their employees, and in their relations with their clients and the community. Here's an extract from the book on the importance of trust:

I think that promoting trust is crucial to the happiness of the firm's biggest asset, their people. There are a number ways in which you can do this, but the most effective way is to build a positive and fun atmosphere, have an emotional connection with your people, support their goals and ambitions, let them feel a sense of ownership over their projects, and make them feel like they are family. With clients, we need to be responsible and build a reputation of consistently delivering on their expectations. I will build my future practice with trust as one of the foundational values, and I will actively try to promote a "family culture" that can be scaled to every level within the firm. ■

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Written in response to the prompt:

Discuss ONE of the following questions with your mentor.  Select the question that best reflects your values for future practice:

How do you build a practice that is focused on people?

How do you build a practice that engages community?

How do you build a practice that is adaptable to change?

Use your discussion with your mentor as the basis for developing your unique response to the question.  How will YOU build a practice that ___________?