Open Letter to Emerging (Design) Professionals

To start off, I would consider myself to be a part of this group with the only exception that I have been #emerging for quite some time now, decades even! Emerging is the same thing as growing, or becoming. I didn't read Michelle Obama's book with the same title but I suspect that it had to do with her lifelong journey of self-reflection and work toward transpiring into the leader and role model that she is. I consider myself a lifelong learner and even if I am an expert (imposter) in my field I've always felt and I know it in fact that there is so much more to discover and improve upon.

I didn't want to address this open letter to any group based on age, say if I addressed it to young professionals, because the number of years you've been alive is such an arbitrary trait in the context of any profession. It's almost irrelevant. I mean you can't operate an eighteen-wheeler when you're five, but can you be a world renowned chef at fifty or twenty sure. Age is a bit irrelevant.

Age also denotes some kind of generational schism which I think might come up. Millennials versus baby boomers. And this too would take away from some universal points I would like to make. It also shouldn't matter how long you have practiced in a certain field or how experienced you are although experience is the mother of all lessons. Simply because two people can be practicing the same thing for the same time and have completely different trajectories. Generally, you need some time in any

So after that disclaimer, back to emerging... I think a lot of people are in need of direction, advice and encouragement on their path to career success and personal growth. And this is not at all a criticism, but an effort to raise awareness and maybe have a deeper conversation. I've recently had one of these deep conversations with my own team at Plana Architects about things we could be doing to improve our process and level up as a team. Can you see a theme here? Here are some key points I would like share.

Communication. In addition to straight up talk, we all have emails, phones, texts, Viber, google meets, etc. Use them! As a team manager, I appreciate when my team reaches out to me with questions, even if these are small, random, incremental or even 'stupid'. Remember there are no 'stupid questions'! Same goes the other way around. I love it when my client and she does this so well, she responds immediately or within a few minutes to a text or email sometimes just confirming she got it. It means she is paying attention, she cares what's going on. And on top of it all she is so busy that you would think she wouldn't have the time of day to even grace us with a response. What it tells me is that if she can give communication this type of urgency and focus, so can anyone.

I urge you to also have those difficult conversations. Say what went wrong, what is missing, what could be better. I had another one of these with my production coordinator that I recently started to work with on our podcast Dope Designer Club. We had a glitch with the sound that basically wiped out the content of an entire episode. We ended up using a third source that picked up the sound incidentally to save the day. On one hand I had been upset about the loss of these assets, on another it realized that he felt dismissed after we last spoke. The conversation could have easily turned into an ugly argument, but with the right tone and careful consideration of the facts we were able to dissect the issue and come up with ways to prevent these mistakes from happening in the future. I really liked how he reached out to me after hours and had done his own research, even contacted an industry expert in trying to find a solution. I showed me that he cared. And I took some hints as to improve my own focus in our communication generally. When we care and are willing to change we become stronger as team. Somehow after that conversation we were able to make so many improvements to our process that the next time we filmed an episode it went smooth and the overall quality of the production jumped several notches.

Output. I don't know about you, but for me I need to see to believe it. For architects our deliverables revolve around producing presentations, drawings, renderings. Even though our industry is a service industry, it is these 'products' that help us provide that service. Instruments of service if you will. This content is both aesthetic and technical depending on the project and the phase of the project we are in, but in either case we have set pretty high standards in terms of the quality of these deliverables we produce. You can apply this to other industries such as sales and quality leads, or photography and the quality of the pictures.

But the bottom line is that we are productive, that things are churning out of whatever machine we're putting the raw materials in, and that there is stuff, lot of stuff. OK now that stuff doesn't need to be perfection, but in approaching perfection there needs to lots of it, typically speaking. I would like us all to agree that progress incremental but there needs to be effort and visible output to help promote it. Chatting, ideating, and me commenting and providing guidance won't cut it. There needs to be output, even if imperfect.

Roles and Responsibilities. We all play a role on a team. Like in soccer somebody is defense, someone is the goalie, someone is center. We can't all do the same thing. But we also, need to do what we can, what is our power when we get the ball. I love using sports as a metaphor because it clearly demonstrates the roles and responsibilities of team members while still considering the whole of a team.

One great lesson that works on both an architecture or soccer team is the lesson of initiative. Taking action. As a coach or manager, we can give our team members the tools to score a goal, to work on technique, to strategize formations that will result in a goal, to work on conditioning and stamina, etc. But it is up to the team members to go out there and hustle for the ball, dribble, and ultimately score. Same with architecture, we can provide examples, comments and direction but ultimately every team member needs to pick up the slack and perform.

I've noticed that sometimes with younger designers and architects there is this inherent fear of making mistakes, and if this is you, I would encourage you to make those mistakes! Make them, because you will learn and will save yourself time in the long run. I think that a lot of times, perhaps in more traditional architectural offices, younger designers and architects aren't necessarily given the freedom and responsibility to even think for themselves. They just get redmarks. Simple verbatim instructions on exactly what to do and how to do it. I think this is debilitating and counterproductive. I want more people to take charge, to tale ownership of whatever we're working on. When people buy into whatever they are doing, guaranteed you'll get a better end result.

Follow Up and Follow Through. With great freedom comes great responsibility as they say. By following up and following through, we make sure we are on the right track and we stay around until the job gets done. In any profession be it architecture or art or film or if you are making cars, things need to get done. Unless we follow through, meaning take all the little steps and the tediuos work to get us there, it just simply doesn't happen. So follow up, make the phone call, write the email, and then open the file, start drawing, or writing until it's done.

The design process involves intricate planning, collaboration, and attention to detail. To ensure the successful execution of projects, we as designers must constantly follow up with our team members, clients and consultants. A product rep forgets to send us the brochure, follow up. A building official doesn't respond to your application, follow up. A contractor doesn't send you pricing, follow up. It's tedious and can seem like overkill, still just do it.

Following through with your commitments is equally important to build trust and maintain your professional reputation. You should deliver what was discussed, meet goals and expectations, and address any concerns that come up. Don't get lost in weeds and lose focus. Get to that finish line whether it's a deliverable, a plan, etc. Sometimes dividing a big task into smaller ones can give you the same satisfaction and make you appreciate the small victories along the way.

So with these few tips I'm hoping to remind you and myself that to emerge, or become, or level up... we must stay productive, work together and do the legwork. And for the creepy bunny from the cover image, he too is leaping forward!

?#FollowThroughForSuccess #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork #ResponsibilityIsKey #QualityOverQuantity #EffectiveCommunicationMatters #ProactiveProfessionalism #DeliverOnPromises #CollaborationIsCrucial #ExceedExpectations #AccountabilityAlways.