October 2011
2 posts
Week 41: A team barometer
One of the team members on a core project we are working on has developed a stress curve for our project. Although “curve” is perhaps the wrong word. He posted the expected graph of the potential tensions on this very complex and yet very short project (an approximately $100 million project, to be programmed and designed in 5 weeks). Against this, we’ve been tracking the actual...
2 tags
Week 40: Intentional misalignment, misaligned...
We are into week 3 of a very intense focus to develop a design for a new multidisciplinary lab building in 5 weeks. The endpoint is a critical application to the state requesting a commitment of financial support to make the project feasible.
A primary ingredient of the week was therefore the continual testing, calibration and adjustment necessary to assure that the design program and the...
August 2011
1 post
1 tag
Weeknotes 34 – Failure to learn
I am moving back into weeknotes somewhat cautiously. I had expected that writing a weekly reflection based on some aspect of the experiences of the past week would be easy, and beneficial, to do. Instead, here I am, about 20 weeks overdue.
The catalyst for today’s note was an interview with Michael Raynor in Inc. magazine. The interview focused on Raynor’s claim that it might very...
March 2011
1 post
Weeknotes 12 – A week bracketed in disappointments... →
October 2010
2 posts
30 October 2010
This was a relatively quiet week for us, spent mostly in preparation and coordination for what have been lagging engagements. As with many of our opportunities these days, the state of the economy still has a direct influence on the commitments of clients. While in many cases there seems to be an urgent need for change, the ability to fund the change slows decisions and project commitments. In...
4 tags
Anticipating permanent change
Last week we had the pleasure of a request from a leading global real estate organization to participate with them in the development of a workplace trends report, looking both 20 years back to assess where design has gone, and 20 years forward, to assess how design of the workplace should respond to other changes we might anticipate in society, technology, culture and the workplace. These are...
August 2010
1 post
Back to school
Will Fall and renewed activity drive us back to the opportunities for reflection that weeknotes provide?
It has been a long, hot, slow summer so far. Now, however, maybe with that back-to-school anticipation and optimism that seems to be built into our genes and into our annual cadence, I expect that the discipline of these notes will return.
We are in a flurry of activity with new opportunities...
July 2010
2 posts
3 tags
July 16, 2010 – Customers...and clients
The iterations of business sustainability subjects as the recession grinds on for architects and designers seem to be reaching, finally, that point of difficult decisions. So many firms in our area, and firms I have been associated with in the past, seem now to be confronting the need to restructure. Large firms, especially large architecture + engineering firms, grew to handle big projects for...
July 9, 2010 – Sustainability, ethics, and the RFP
We’ve been after a major project for a while. We have now, however, entered that silent period that is usually the signal that there is negotiation taking place with a preferred or selected firm, and sometime soon we will receive the news that we were not selected.
I’ll be disappointed if this is the case, of course. My disappointment, however, will not come from the deflation of...
April 2010
1 post
Week 15 | Eastern tour
We spent the past couple of weeks in visits to several cities in the Northeast. Our objectives were to meet with some very interesting people doing great work in those places and to see how our work intersected with theirs.
We were impressed, despite the press reporting a turning in the economy, that everybody we spoke with was still greatly concerned and significantly affected by the...
March 2010
1 post
Week 10
I think we’ve seen it said in other places that this is more like month notes than weeknotes. It is interesting how the cadences of work and life, unless otherwise embedded in a weekly ritual of reflections, can end up more as a clutter of thoughts in the back of the mind. Now that Daylight Savings Time has arrived, maybe its appropriate to reset all of the other “clocks” of lif...
January 2010
3 posts
Week 4
DRAFT
We were interviewed as part of a global survey of people and organizations providing consulting services in that space between clients and architects and designers. In the context of other conversations we’ve had this week, I am impressed with what feels like a significant change taking place in the economy. Those who have been serving clients in cost cutting modes are losing ground....
Week 3
For a long time we’ve been interested in creative organizations and the role that the design of place plays in their success. With the increasing importance of innovation the corporate agenda, nurturing creative thinking has expanded the domains of our interests. This has, of course, increased the numbers of opportunities to explore concepts for nurturing the volume, pace, and success of...
7 tags
Week 2
“Sitting there waiting for the economy to get better” A bit out of context, this is a quote from Anna Wintour in reference, obliquely, to the sisters behind the Rodarte fashion label. We’re using it as a theme, of sorts, for the development of some thoughts about the state of “sitting there.”
Wintour was referring to some fashion houses who, currently sitting things...