On competition

Wow- the February Vision session was awesome- competition and differentiation is such a huge topic for architects to deal with. 

I wanted to share this video about Derrick Coleman, a Seahawks player who is legally deaf.  His story illustrates moving past negativity and criticism (like unappreciative clients, or misperceptions about the value architects bring).  I also love that he focused on being his best and didn't worry about comparing himself to others and coming up lacking. 

At the root of competition is the desire to constantly concern ourselves with what others have or are doing so that we can assure ourselves that we are better, or plan a strategy to take away from their success.  It's a mindset of lack that we all are better off leaving behind.  Having vision (and VISION) is the antidote to the vicious cycle that competition creates, it fuels our passion to be OUR best.  Operating in our own zone of genius is the space from which we change the world.

Architecture & Advacacy_A path of many forks

Our recent AIA Session was very eye opening because of what we have been trained to think, Advacacy is only "political" - but it is not, it is so much more! This is where the struggles begin.

We are not all the "starcitects" of the likes of Gehry or Hadid, that produce awe inspiring public projects that are talked about, debated, and cratiqued for years. Do we have that in us? Yes, but the 98% majority deal with more privitized types of projects with limited scope and budget that go mainly unnoticed by the general public.

Which begs the following questions:

 - Has the profession of Architecture lost our voice because of the projects we have been working on?
 - Do we have it in us as a profession to adapt to modern times?
 - How do we leverage our facilitation skills to bring all of these modernized and / or speacilized offshoots of our profession back together?

In a recent article by Sam Jacob for "dezeen magazine", he kind of brings all of this together (you can find the article here http://www.dezeen.com/2014/01/16/opinion-sam-jacob-how-architecture-can-regain-social-significance/)

The answeres to the questions above could be simple stated as:

 - educate the client on what we can provide them, it is not just a building, but an enviorment, a culture - that is just good design

 - I truely believe that we are on the cusp of something great for the architectural profession because we are at the forfront of the battle for what we leave behind for our following generations. No other profession has this type of impact on civilization.

 - We are the only profession that has the holistic view of the built environment, no matter how specialized, compartenmentalized, or diced up the design projession gets, we are the only ones that have the knowhow to put the puzzle back together.

  Some might say that it still begs the question, how do we, as the focal point of design community, begin to step out of our traditional ways and to not be afraid of the "eyes and ears" of the general public?

The ansewer could be the most obvious one - "one step at a time". By starting small with how your personal passions align with your personal goals, you can start down the path of awarness and change. You might not think that one voice can make a difference, but that one voice can soon turn into a crowd, then into a movement - but not overnight, it will take time, but our inherent nature of persistance will prevaile in the end.