Architect's HandBook of Professional Practice: Objective 1.1

1.3

1.3 Design Beyond Ethics Victoria Beach, AIA As with safe food, many actors contribute to the ethical project of safe shelter: inspectors, engineers, and more. Rather than compete with them, architects, like chefs, should seek their niche with aesthetics—not in the narrow sense of beauty but in the broad sense of understanding and shaping how humans interact with their surroundings. INTRODUCTION: THE CHEF ARCHITECT Expecting an architect to design a safe structure is like expecting a chef to cook a safe meal: It is at once a high ethical requirement and a very low expectation. Food and shelter, the raw materials that chefs and architects work with, are absolutely essential to human survival. Because of this, their quality (or lack thereof) rises to an ethical concern that society takes seriously, creating a great umbrella involving testing, codes, inspectors, and the like to protect the public from getting sick or injured. Obvi- ously, anyone involved with things that can save or threaten lives is ethically mandated to uphold these protections. This mandate forms a foundation for professional ethics. American architects became subject to professional ethics fairly recently, when they formed a regulated profession in the twentieth century. A well-defined branch of applied moral philosophy, professional ethics pertains to all professionals, including doctors, lawyers, and engineers. But just as with chefs, the core, defining work of architects—the work that differ- entiates them from all the other contributors to the safety of the built environment— goes beyond ethics and into aesthetics. And just as there are many sources for a safe snack, many kinds of people (and even computers) can make a building firm, but it takes an architect to make one commodious and delightful. Currently the legal authority of architects rests with their licensure and their paral- lel commitment to professional ethics. But what if the raw, primal power of aesthetics could trump that of ethics? If so, aesthetics may be the key to unlocking the real author- ity of architects, and therefore of architecture, to shape society. Victoria Beach is the 2012 AIA National Ethics Council chair and was faculty fellow at the Center for Ethics at Harvard, where she taught design, history, theory, and ethics. An AIA Young Architect Award recipient, Beach is principal of her own practice and city council member for Carmel, California. We all experience architecture before we have even heard the word. —Peter Zumthor, Architect 1.3 Design Beyond Ethics 19 PART 1: THE PROFESSION Aesthetics is the mother of ethics. Joseph Brodsky, 1987 Nobel Laureate AESTHETICS "Aesthetics" is not what it used to be: the term has undergone some renovations. Around the mid-nineteenth century, the word became most closely associated with ideas of beauty or taste. But this recent definition constitutes a detour away from its more enduring and ancient foundations in basic notions of perception—with etymo- logical connotations of sensing as well as understanding: Greek: aesthethikos—pertaining to sense perception, from aistheta, perceptible things, from aisthenasthai / aesthesis, to perceive. Latin: percipere, to seize wholly, to see all the way through; per, thoroughly + capere, to seize. The philosopher Immanuel Kant saw the detour coming and railed against a cor- ruption of this word that would rob our language of a useful conceptual tool: At the foundation of this term lies the disappointed hope...of subjecting the criticism of the beautiful to principles of reason, and so of elevating its rules into a science.... It is advisable to give up the use of the term as designating the critique of taste, and to apply it solely to that doctrine, which is true science—the science of the laws of sensibility— and thus come nearer to the language and the sense of the ancients. The trendy definition may have had its run, but the concept of "sensory knowledge" is too helpful to architecture's current predicament to keep it buried. It's time to recon- nect the modern definition to the timeless one. Under its timeless definition, aesthetics is a most capacious term—encompassing the perception of all material things by all living senses: the earthy warmth of fresh milk and the repulsive acridness when it spoils. An aesthetic experience, then, is simply a perceptible one, just as a medical anesthetic renders us unable to perceive. To study or to master such a fundamentally human kind of knowledge is to connect to the essence of life in a way that ethics never can. Nobel Laureate in Literature Joseph Brodsky remarks, "The tender babe who cries and rejects the stranger...does so instinctively, making an aesthetic choice, not a moral one." In other words, aesthetic knowledge comes first, long before moral knowledge. An aesthetic instinct develops in man rather rapidly, for, even without fully realizing who he is and what he actually requires, a person instinctively knows what he doesn't like and what doesn't suit him. In an anthropological respect, let me reiterate, a human being is an aesthetic creature before he is an ethical one. Aesthetics describes the first contact with reality, whether at the beginning of each day or at the beginning of life itself. Morality, in contrast, evolves as part of the culture utilizing it. ETHICS AND MORALITY Under their largely uncontested definitions, ethics and morality are fairly circumscribed terms—dealing with the shared values and duties developed by and describing a par- ticular group of people, and etymologically connoting customs, manners, or habits: Latin: ethicus, Greek: ethikos—ethos, character; (pl.) manners. Latin: moralis, concerned with ethics, moral; mor-, mos, custom; (pl.) mores, habits, morals. Classical Latin moralis was formed by Cicero (De Fato ii. i) as a rendering of ancient Greek ethikos (mores being the accepted Latin equivalent of ethe). Whether a person's action is right or wrong, therefore, highly depends on what the ethos of that person's group requires. For example, it would be quite wrong for mem- bers of a local street gang to try to cut a person open with sharp knives, unless, of course, those same folks were the nurses and doctors on a surgical team. The societal group called doctors is defined by its devotion to medical ethics and the ethical goal of health; the street gang has other goals. PART 1: THE PROFESSION 20 Ethics and Professional Practice Doctors, as we know, form a self-selected subset of a larger group called profession- als. People who devote themselves to professional ethical duties (shorthand: "pro" eth- ics) are, by definition, professionals. But professionals are also a self-selected subcategory of a larger social group of ordinary citizens with their own set of ordinary ethics (short- hand: "joe" ethics), things like being honest, kind, or fair. Even membership in this subgroup is elective, though. Folks who eschew these neighborly values, sticking to the bare legal minimums for behavior (shorthand: "schmoe" ethics) belong to an even larger group best defined, perhaps, as the unimprisoned. With all this talk of ethical options, it is interesting to note that deciding between being a pro, joe, or schmoe, or a member of any other identifying group actually requires an aesthetic choice. People choose to pursue the kind of life that appeals to them, the one that follows their aesthetic vision for themselves; nobody must grow up to be a doc- tor, after all. Only once that meta-choice is made must future ethical choices follow the value system of the group in order to ensure that the life pursued will actually be led. "Aesthetics is the mother of ethics," according to Brodsky, which of course makes ethics the offspring of aesthetics. Aesthetics deals with physical truths while ethics deals with social constructs dependent upon them. Sense follows sensibility. As architect Peter Zumthor states, "We all experience architecture before we have even heard the word." If so, then aesthetics provides the foundation to ethics, not the reverse. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS Though professional ethics may not fully describe the ultimate aesthetic obligations of architects, it's worth sorting through the complex web of obligations it does describe. All licensed professions share at least four common characteristics. They apply (i) tech- nical knowledge, nurtured by (ii) collegial organizations, to advance (iii) ethical public values, through (iv) client service. Each one of these four brings with it its own universe of moral duties to perform or moral virtues to cultivate. An ethical public value (iii) provides the primary defining justification for establish- ing a regulated profession. This goal, such as safety for engineers, health for doctors, or justice for lawyers must be so crucial to humanity's survival that it rises to the high level of an ethical value. And it follows that the highest ethical priority professionals have is to serve the public, above serving their discipline, colleagues, or even clients. The sociologist Talcott Parsons put it well in discussing lawyers: [Their] function in relation to clients is by no means only to "give them what they want" but often to resist their pressures and get them to realize...what the law will permit them to do. In this sense, then, the lawyer stands as a kind of buffer between the ille- gitimate desires of clients and the social interest. Here he "represents" the law rather than the client. And the public is not limited to the paying public. Medicine and law, in fact, require pro bono services to those who cannot pay, because to deny someone access to a hos- pital or a fair trial would be to deny someone a fundamental human right. Obviously, it requires the exercise of certain human virtues to maintain this principled stance: philanthropism, humanitas, Samaritanism, and transcendency, to name a few. Client service (iv) is one of the four cornerstones of a profession because profes- sionals achieve their general moral goals iteratively and incrementally, through many specific client cases. Theirs is an applied science: neither basic laboratory research nor overarching political policy. This endows the relationship between professionals and clients with the utmost societal importance and with crucial ethical dimensions. Fur- thermore, due to the imbalance of technical knowledge in the relationship, the situa- tion is ripe for exploitation and must be counterbalanced. Professionals, therefore, must cherish this special relationship and must always prefer their clients' interests above their own. In doing so, they may call on such moral virtues as selflessness, trust- worthiness, fidelity, and discretion. 1.3 Design Beyond Ethics 21 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 22 Ethics and Professional Practice It may seem strange to have ethical obligations toward a nonhuman abstraction. But professionals must respect technical knowledge (i) just as they might look after an important tool, like a sharp knife. If the tools do not perform, neither can the profes- sionals using them perform their obligatory societal role. In fact, states cede power to professions to self-govern because neither the state nor any other entity is more expert than the professionals themselves to evaluate their own standards. So, a profession that does not maintain high technical standards can simply decline until it disappears or until it becomes regulated by outsiders, as occurred with accountants in the wake of the Enron scandals. In a rapidly evolving global culture, everyone must continually expand the boundaries of their knowledge even to stay current—a minimum standard for pro- fessionals. Just to stay ahead of lay knowledge can, therefore, be a Herculean task, requiring access to virtues such as inquisitiveness, disinterestedness, rigor, and diligence. Stranger still, perhaps, are ethical obligations toward the self, which may initially appear selfish, a decidedly unvirtuous quality. But if the ethical goals of a profession are to thrive, so must the profession itself. A profession is therefore ethically obliged to ensure its own survival. In a strong collegial organization (ii), each member contrib- utes to the unified voice of the profession's ethos and must be respected and nurtured. This is especially true for those who are most vulnerable: the aspiring professionals who quite literally represent the future of any profession. This self-referential focus performs another important function in upholding professional ethics. For example, the unanimity with which doctors in California adhered to their own ethical code led to the indefinite postponement, in 2006, of the practice of lethal injection. If a single doctor had broken this collegial bond, the profession would have remained ineffectual on this matter. To come together, sometimes against corrosive exterior forces, may involve ethical virtues such as empathy, nurturing, kinship, and protectiveness. ETHICS OF AESTHETICS Though complicated and with competing duties that often seem impossible to balance, professional ethics is not particularly controversial; there is widespread agreement on the specifics of its four cornerstones and on the general notion that professions entail ethics in the first place. In contrast, there is very little agreement on the general ques- tion of whether aesthetics entails ethics or on the specifics of how that might work. And since architecture derives its identity through the artistic treatment of the medium of shelter, it is worth exploring whether this component of the work involves ethics. Over the millennia, many philosophers have investigated the moral purpose of art in search of an ethical justification for all the aesthetic activities (visual, musical, culinary) that humans just cannot seem to resist. Here is a brief sampling of the mixed results. Human beings require an expressive outlet, goes one argument. As sports provide physical release for our animal energies, without the emotive outlet of the arts, our species descends into instability. This theory seeks moral authority for the arts based on its role in maintaining a civilized society, but many, including Plato himself, take issue with whether self-indulgent expression rechannels or actually cultivates depravity. Many argue that art's moral purpose is to edify. Art improves us, they claim, makes us more morally virtuous—often through the empathy we feel with artists or their subjects. But counterclaims point out that interpretations of artistic works vary uncon- trollably from person to person. In fact, lessons that are intentionally planned and obvious to anyone verge on the pedantic or the doctrinaire—hardly the province of art. The Mithraditic approach to art's moral purpose may be among the most creative. King Mithradates VI ruled Pontus (modern-day Turkey) in the first century bc and took small doses of poison starting in childhood so that he could not be secretly poi- soned by his enemies. Art, by analogy, provides life experience by proxy—protecting us, in small, harmless doses, from the otherwise overwhelming dimensions of life. This might provide a moral justification for art, though it does not take into account life's unusual twists and turns. In fact, the king's plan hit a major snag when, under threat of capture by Rome, he could not commit suicide by the usual, more gentle means of poison and had to command his servant to stab him to death. Problems seem inherent to every known attempt to justify art in moral terms. Some maintain, therefore, that it is the very resistance to, or transcendence of, morality that defines the artistic endeavor. In other words, they see art as a meta-ethical thing: beyond or outside ethical consideration, ethically inert like a potato or a pebble. This would imply that art can be neither moral nor immoral. It can neither uphold nor subvert any particular morality. Under this theory art is amoral: simply nonmoral. This is the theory that Henry Cobb, the world-renowned architect and regrettably less-renowned ethicist, espoused in a 1995 essay: How do principles of human duty relate or apply to works of art? We can go a long way toward answering this question by referring to an aphorism of the poet-philosopher Paul Valéry, who wrote: "We recognize a work of art by the fact that no idea it inspires in us, no mode of behavior it suggests we adopt, could exhaust or dispose of it." This statement seems to me precisely correct. And though its eloquence be sacrificed, I think its meaning is not lost when we rephrase it as follows: a work of art always transcends those principles of human duty which it may embody or to which it refer. Thus the work of art is alone among human productions in being privileged, indeed obligated, to escape the rule of human duty. Hence we can say that the only absolute duty imposed on a work of art is that of being undutiful. The duty to have no duty, though a contradiction of logic, is an evocative descrip- tion of the amorality of art and could certainly apply to the aesthetic aspect of what architects do. ETHICS OF ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETICS Though most moral philosophers investigate aesthetics through the general cate- gory of the fine arts, occasionally someone tackles the particular aesthetic case of architecture head-on. In a 2000 essay, philosopher and planner Nigel Taylor explores a few possibilities for understanding the aesthetic content of buildings through ethical means. He takes on three familiar historical arguments that ascribed moral imperatives to design choices: arguments for "honesty," for a certain superior style, and for following the "spirit of the age." He finds each one lacking ethical force. Modernists and Gothicists alike argued for aesthetic honesty, for revealing struc- ture, for being true to materials, and so on. But Taylor finds that this theory's own proponents espoused so many exceptions to their ethos that it falls apart into incoher- ence. Moreover, he points out, sometimes we prefer the aesthetic deceit, the elaborate ceiling shape that accommodates the old ductwork, such that ethical honesty would actually be the lesser choice. Proponents of architectural styles often assert their moral superiority. For the Gothicists, the argument was both religious and moral, an ethical responsibility to mimic the glory of Nature. The evocation of Mother Nature was meant to add finality to the discussion. Taylor sees, however, that even the original choice to elevate nature is actually not a moral one as claimed but an aesthetic one, a fact that he says becomes clear as soon as anyone forms a similar attraction to a straight line or right angle. The spirit of the age or Zeitgeist argument, favored by Modernists, disintegrates as well, according to Taylor. He questions the premise that we can ever successfully identify a distinctive technology or culture that characterizes a particular historical period. Then he questions the conclusion that we should necessarily design to express that distinctive technology or culture should we find it. If, for example, in our rapidly changing multicultural world, Nazi culture were somehow to become completely per- vasive, it should obviously be resisted, he explains. Taylor thus obliterates many of the best architects' attempts to bring ethics into their aesthetic choices. He also points out that buildings themselves are ultimately amoral, ethically inert artifacts, and that only people can be said to be moral or immoral. 1.3 Design Beyond Ethics 23 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 24 Ethics and Professional Practice We may find, for example, that an ancient Greek temple seems morally depraved if we discover that it hosted human sacrifice, but that would be misdirecting the blame from the people to the place, and probably would not prevent us from finding it aesthetically excellent anyway. AESTHETIC ATTENTIVENESS Though buildings may not embody the ethical principles of their creators or occupants, Taylor concludes that we can still detect something significant in these built artifacts: thoughtful design work, or what he calls "aesthetic attentiveness." He asks us to Imagine a building, which we find aesthetically displeasing, and where this displeasure arises in large part because all kinds of features and details in the building appear to have been thrown together carelessly, without any thought or sensitivity. Imagine, too, that part of our displeasure arises because the building as a whole appears as if it has just been "plonked" down on its site without any apparent consideration of how it fits on the site or relates to its surroundings. Such a building might literally offend us aesthetically, but, more than that, part of our offence might be ethical. Thus we might reasonably be angered or outraged, not just by the look of the thing, but also by the visible evidence that the person who designed it didn't show sufficient care about the aesthetic impact of his building. And this moral objection would be supported by the fact that buildings, unlike (say) paintings or books, are things we are compelled to look at, for architecture (unlike painting and literature) is necessarily a public art. Consequently, any lack of care given to the design of a building is also, in effect, a lack of care shown to the public. Architecture serves, then, as a fossil of sorts, preserving in stone, wood, and steel, if not ethics generally, at least a work ethic. The designer's work ethic, Taylor implies, must take into account how the dimensions of architecture cut across so many scales of aesthetic human experience: affecting our individual senses at the personal scale of the detail as well as our social senses at the public scale of the city. John Ruskin also seems to have wished that design at least demonstrate some effort: [T]here is not a building that I know of, lately raised, wherein it is not sufficiently evi- dent that neither the architect nor builder has done his best.... Ours has constantly the look of money's worth, of a stopping short wherever and whenever we can, of a lazy compliance with low conditions.... And so does Peter Zumthor offer a similar complaint about how little is required of his design efforts and a belief that he must transcend those low demands: Our clients are of the opinion that the careful way in which we treat our materials, the way we develop the joints and transitions from one element of the building to the other, and the precision of detail to which we aspire are all too elaborate. They want us to use more common components and constructions, they do not want us to make such high demands on the craftsmen and technicians who are collaborating with us: they want us to build more cheaply.... When I think of the air of quality that the building could eventually emanate on its appointed site in five years or five decades, when I consider that to the people who will encounter it, the only thing that will count is what they see, that which was finally constructed, I do not find it so hard to put up a resistance to our clients' wishes. Moreover, according to Leon Batista Alberti, when architects put aesthetics first, it ensures the longevity and influence of their structures long after the designing is done: Thus I might be so bold as to state: No other means is as effective in protecting a work from damage and human injury as is dignity and grace of form. All care, all diligence, all financial consideration must be directed to ensuring that what is built is useful, com- modious, yes—but also embellished and wholly graceful, so that anyone seeing it would not feel that the expense might have been invested better elsewhere. Yet all these pleas for aesthetic excellence in the art of architecture in no way diminish ethical responsibilities to the underlying science of safe shelter. Confusing the two, however, has presented obstacles to the practice of architecture. ART VS. SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE Good building involves engineering and therefore relies on the science of physics, just as law relies on logic and medicine relies on biology. But the art of building, like the art of cuisine, brings so much more to the table than science that it is not quite parallel to those engineering, legal, and medical counterparts. Since modern professions are scientifically based, the professionalization of architecture does not fully encompass or describe the practice of architecture. Not so long ago, many of the finest minds in architecture made this argument in an attempt to actually prevent architecture from becoming a regulated profession. During the late nineteenth century, a group of prominent British architects led by Richard Norman Shaw fought desperately against professional regulation, predicting that it would "kill" architecture. They observed that because the science of shelter is different from the art of architecture, the former can therefore be regulated and the latter cannot. The Brits never disputed that the scientific aspects of building (sanitation, safety, durability) could be professionalized, because those things can be taught, tested, and objectively evaluated. They believed that building inspectors, engineers, and codes (increasingly, we can include software) do and should take charge of these technical issues. But regulation of architecture as a whole, they claimed, would imply that its subjec- tive, artistic aspects are as objective as its scientific aspects. Licensure would confuse and deceive an unwitting public, a lay public, into equating licensed "architects" with legitimate architects. The result, they predicted, would be an inadvertent degradation of the built environment. In the hundred years that followed, of course, the opposite view seems to have prevailed. At its founding in 1857, the American Institute of Architects, just like their British colleagues, did recognize and promote a distinct field they called "architectural science." Moreover, the language of state regulations falls (as it must) squarely in the sciences, relying on the "health, safety, and welfare" justification for protecting monop- oly privileges to practice. However, when their campaign for professional regulation began, somehow that important semantic clarification got lost, and it is "architecture" generally, rather than "architectural science" specifically, that states now regulate. The first American state to regulate architecture was Illinois in 1897; the last states were quite recent—Vermont and Wyoming in 1951—well within the lifetimes of many cur- rent practitioners. This long-fought regulatory victory has coincided with some mixed trends. The science of building has advanced. Net zero-energy facilities, the Burj Dubai, and better protection than ever from natural disasters testify to remarkable innovations. Yet the art of building has retreated, in the sense that since architectural regulation the built environment has not seen a corresponding aesthetic improvement—quite the contrary, perhaps. The fact that clients are hiring "architects" and not always getting architecture out of them could indeed, as the Brits predicted, point to some confusion about what architects add to a project beyond safe construction. CONCLUSION: THE CHEF ARCHITECT In contrast, there does not seem to be much confusion about the role of chefs in society. Nobody chooses a restaurant, or even just a recipe, based on whether the meal will be safe. Fortunately, in modern societies, science and ethics make food safety virtually a given. This allows chefs to move beyond the science, beyond the merely ethical and the merely edible, and on to the aesthetically engaging. 1.3 Design Beyond Ethics 25 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 26 Ethics and Professional Practice Similarly, no chef would try to attract diners by drawing attention to the safety of their meals. Even though the issue is crucial—life and death—to dwell on it is to high- light the danger and not the joy: to court business with fear rather than with aromas from the kitchen. Scaring customers about the hazards of cuisine also runs the risk of scaring off customers altogether, sending them scrambling for their own kitchens and backyard vegetable gardens. A fear-based approach also runs the risk of perpetuating a lie about what chefs do. If diners thought that all chefs do is help prevent food poisoning, why would customers value or pay for their other talents? While government regulators have an ethical obli- gation to make sure that chefs produce cuisine as safe as a Twinkie, if chefs had to deliver cuisine for the same price as a Twinkie, they just might start to feel overworked and undervalued. And legally forcing the public into hiring a chef, when all they need is a factory-sealed pastry, is surely a recipe for dissatisfaction. However, with safety issues ethically handled back in the pantry, chefs are liberated to unleash their creativity out in the kitchen. They celebrate the aesthetic essence of what they do, the exploration of all the senses that are involved with eating. At their best, they study and understand what we humans can perceive with our taste buds, and they use that knowledge to help us experience an enhanced existence, so that when we sit down at the table, the food that we need to sustain our bodies does that plus much more: It helps us live our lives better than we knew we could. As with safe food, there are many actors that contribute to the ethical project of building safe shelter: building officials, licensing agencies, examiners, materials testers, engineers, contractors, lawyers, and the like. Rather than argue that architects have something unusually valuable to contribute in this arena, architects, like chefs, should seek their niche with aesthetics—in the timeless sense not merely of beauty but also of profoundly understanding how humans interact with their surroundings. Ironically it is in this completely ungovernable, amoral arena of pure design, where nobody else is legally kept out, that they should find almost no competition for what they do best. Aesthetics is the value architects add, better than anyone else, to safe shelter. If architects could just channel their inner chefs, they could better celebrate and promote the essence of their work: going beyond just the science of shelter to the art of inhabitation. Where ethics is transactional, aesthetics is sensory; and where ethics involves obligation, aesthetics involves instinct. Architecture, therefore, as the mother art, with a scale larger than most any other art, has the raw, instinctual power to move people, to direct culture and society more than any moral code ever could—to inspire rather than regulate us toward lives better lived. Architects need only honestly and unabashedly embrace design and devote their efforts to aesthetic attentiveness to assume their natural authority.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE CODE OF ETHICS AND ETHICAL PRACTICE Architecture in built form is exclusively predicated on the universal constant of gravity. This is true regardless of location, weather, material, building or client type, codes and regulations, aesthetic, or other variable. Architecture as a practice is equally based on a moral foundation of professionalism, with responsibilities to the general public, our respective clients, to the profession itself, our colleagues, and to the shared environment Michael L. Prifti is managing principal of BLT Architects, a firm headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prifti has played an instrumental role in promoting professional practice, serving for two terms on the National Ethics Council and speaking at numerous AIA National Conven- tions on related topics such as "The Role of Ethics in Sustaining the Profession." 2 PART 1: THE PROFESSION that surrounds all of us. For members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the concise language of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is both guide and measuring stick for professional behavior. HISTORY OF THE AIA CODE OF ETHICS In 1909, the AIA first adopted a formal set of rules governing the conduct of architects. The rules were published as "A Circular of Advice Relative to Principles of Profes- sional Practice and the Canons of Ethics." According to the National Council of Archi- tectural Registration Boards (NCARB), only four states (Illinois, New Jersey, California, and Colorado) had by that time adopted laws regulating the practice of architecture. As a result, the AIA's rules served to set standards for practice in much of the country. The AIA periodically revised its ethical code in mostly limited ways during the ensuing 60 years. Limitations Imposed by Antitrust Law Unlike the NCARB member registration boards, each of which is a part of a state or other government entity, the AIA is a nongovernmental organization. State govern- ments and their agencies enjoy various powers and privileges that do not extend to other types of organizations or to individuals. As a result, both the scope of professional rules adopted by the AIA and the manner of their enforcement by the AIA necessarily differ from what registration boards may do. Antitrust law imposes significant restrictions on what conduct the AIA can mandate or prohibit in a code of ethics for its members. Although antitrust law is complex, its general purpose is to foster economic competition. One way that antitrust law accom- plishes this goal is to prevent competitors in a given market from acting together to unreasonably restrain competition. Because the members of the AIA are competitors of each other, AIA activities cannot be carried out with the purpose or effect of reduc- ing competition in ways that courts have found to be unreasonable, that is, without having an offsetting precompetitive effect. In the 1970s, in various legal proceedings, the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts established new understandings of antitrust law as applied to professional membership associations, including their codes of ethics. As a direct result, the AIA's own code of ethics was repealed in 1980, temporarily replaced by unenforceable "Ethical Principles," then completely revised and reinstituted as a new enforceable Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in 1987. The structure and much of the content adopted in 1987 continue to be reflected in the current version of the AIA's code of ethics. Prior Provisions No Longer in the Code Some subjects were covered in pre-1980 versions of the AIA's code of ethics but are no longer covered, mostly as a result of restrictions imposed by antitrust law. Prominent in a list of such subjects is any restriction pertaining to fees or compensation for ser- vices. In a 1978 appeal by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the U.S. Supreme Court specifically held that a professional association's ethical code may not prohibit competitive bidding—despite the argument that such a regulation would fur- ther public health, welfare, and safety. The absence of ethical provisions regarding fees has a broader effect than just competitive bidding or minimum fee amounts, however. There is no ethical restriction on providing free services whether or not part of marketing; providing services at no charge is, of course, simply charging a fee of zero. Similarly, there are no ethical restric- tions specifically pertaining to design competitions, which amount to providing ser- vices for no fee or a very small fee. 1.1 The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 3 PART 1: THE PROFESSION THE SIX CANONS OF THE AIA CODE OF ETHICS CANON I: GENERAL OBLIGATIONS Members should maintain and advance their knowledge of the art and science of architecture, respect the body of architectural accomplishment, contribute to its growth, thoughtfully consider the social and environmental impact of their professional activities, and exercise learned and uncompromised professional judgment. CANON II: OBLIGATIONS TO THE PUBLIC Members should embrace the spirit and letter of the law governing their professional affairs and should promote and serve the public interest in their personal and professional activities. CANON III: OBLIGATIONS TO THE CLIENT Members should serve their clients competently and in a professional manner, and should exercise unprejudiced and unbiased judgment when performing all professional services. CANON IV: OBLIGATIONS TO THE PROFESSION Members should uphold the integrity and dignity of the profession. CANON V: OBLIGATIONS TO COLLEAGUES Members should respect the rights and acknowledge the professional aspirations and contributions of their colleagues. CANON VI: OBLIGATIONS TO THE ENVIRONMENT Members should promote sustainable design and development principles in their professional activities. Other subjects no longer prohibited by the AIA code of ethics include: • Supplanting or replacing another architect on a project. Historically, it was considered unprofessional to have any business contact with another architect's client. The AIA code of ethics does not prohibit such conduct. • Advertising. The AIA's code does not prohibit advertising of professional services. The code does contain provisions that could be violated in the context of advertis- ing, however, such as making false statements or failing to properly credit other participants in a project. • Contracting to do construction. The 1909 code prohibited engaging in any of the "building trades" or guaranteeing any estimate. These restrictions, which are incom- patible with design-build, disappeared by the 1970s. • Determinations of law. Prior versions of the code did not shy away from provisions that required legal analysis. For example, prior to 1997 the code made explicit refer- ence to copyright. Currently, however, in order for any legal or regulatory violation to be taken into account in application of the AIA's code of ethics, the legal or regu- latory determination must have been made by an appropriate authority. STRUCTURE OF THE CODE The code is arranged in three tiers of statements: Canons, Ethical Standards, and Rules of Conduct. • Canonsarebroadprinciplesofconduct.Thecodeofeth- ics primarily addresses responsibilities that architects and other AIA members have to others. Except for Canon I, General Obligations, the canons reflect the categories of those to whom duties are owed: the public, clients, the architectural and related professions, col- leagues (as individuals), and the environment. • Ethical Standards are more specific goals toward which members should aspire in professional performance and behavior. • Rules of Conduct are mandatory. Violation of a Rule of Conduct is grounds for disciplinary action by the Insti- tute. Rules of Conduct, in some instances, implement more than one Canon or Ethical Standard. Commentary is provided for some of the Rules of Conduct. That commentary is meant to clarify or elabo- rate the intent of the rule. The commentary is not part of the code, however. Enforcement is determined by applica- tion of the Rules of Conduct alone. The commentary is intended to assist those who are seeking to conform their conduct to the code as well as those who are charged with its enforcement. NATIONAL ETHICS COUNCIL The bylaws of the AIA establish the processes under which the ethical code is adopted, amended, and enforced. The bylaws provide for the establishment of a National Ethics Council, which has the authority to interpret the Code of Ethics. Individual members, officers, directors, employees, and officers and staff of state and local components of the AIA do not have this authority. 4 Ethics and Professional Practice PART 1: THE PROFESSION The National Ethics Council is the body charged by the bylaws to enforce ethical matters in the practice of architecture, in accordance with current, pub- lished editions of the Code of Ethics and Rules of Procedure. It does so through the process of complaint and response, measuring ethical behavior as defined by the code. The Council also considers proposed changes to the code for adoption by the Board of Directors or membership of the Institute, and may itself propose revisions. The Council amends its Rules of Procedure when appropriate, with any such changes requiring approval of the Board of Directors. As part of its educa- tional mission, the Council conducts programs at the annual National Convention and at other component events. Occasionally, members of the Council publish articles on ethics. The Council operates with operational support provided by the Institute's Office of General Counsel. The Council publishes on the Institute's website all of its publicly available information. This information can also be obtained by contacting the Office of General Counsel. Composition of and Appointments to the Council As established by the AIA's bylaws, the National Ethics Council consists of up to 12 architect members of the Institute, appointed by the Board of Directors to stag- gered three-year terms. Typically, the Council operates with seven members, each of whom generally is reappointed to a second three-year term. Individual terms are staggered to enhance institutional memory since Council members are not permit- ted to serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. Nominations for new appointments to the Council are made by the Institute's president with the advice of the Council. The Council's chairperson is also appointed annually by the Board of Directors following recommendation of the Council and nomination by the Institute's president. Promulgation of the Code of Ethics The National Ethics Council's page on the AIA website contains the current Code of Ethics, supporting documentation, and all necessary forms. In addition to violation notices published upon the conclusion of a case, decisions of the Council are also pub- lished in redacted form, that is, with names, places, and other identifying information removed. Prospective ethical matters may also be addressed through published advi- sory opinions issued by the Council upon request. Redacted Decisions Decisions of the Council in redacted form are published on the National Ethics Council's page of the AIA's website. These decisions are analogous to case law in a legal system and provide examples of how the National Ethics Council has applied various Rules of Conduct in contested cases. It should be noted, however, that prior decisions do not have binding authority on the Council in applying the Code of Eth- ics in any particular case that comes before it. Summaries of two such decisions are included here. Advisory Opinions The National Ethics Council offers the opportunity to AIA members to request advi- sory opinions be issued that apply the Code of Ethics to particular factual situations. Unlike complaints, which the Council always accepts in keeping with its current Rules of Procedure, granting a request for an advisory opinion is at the discretion of the Council. Decisions issued at the conclusion of a contested complaint have the benefit of the fact-gathering hearing process and usually input from both a complainant and a respondent. Advisory opinions, by comparison, ordinarily would be based on the single point of view of the member making the request. 1.1 The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 5 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 6 Ethics and Professional Practice Changes in the Code of Ethics and Complaint Process How the Code Itself Is Modified The AIA's bylaws provide two means for amending the Code of Ethics. The Institute's Board of Directors is empowered to adopt amendments at any time. In addition, the members as a whole, through a vote of their delegates at an annual meeting, may adopt amendments. Typically, amendments have been made by the Board. How the Rules of Procedure Are Modified The National Ethics Council is given authority by the AIA's bylaws to adopt the rules under which it operates, subject to specific requirements set by the bylaws themselves. Under the Council's Rules of Procedure, notice is given to the Board of Directors annually of any amendments adopted by the Council. The rules under which appeals are taken are established by the bylaws and the Board of Directors. COMPLAINT PROCESS Confidentiality The AIA's bylaws require that the complaints filed with the National Ethics Council and the complaint processes that follow are maintained in confidence. Limited excep- tions to the confidentiality requirement apply, as, for example, when a member is found to have committed a violation and a nonconfidential penalty is imposed. The confiden- tiality requirement does not prevent the complainant or respondent from contacting persons who already have knowledge of the circumstances described in the complaint and who are therefore potential witnesses. Maintaining confidentiality prevents an ethics complaint from becoming a subject of discussion beyond those who are already involved in the circumstances. In some instances, of course, no violation is ultimately found or only a confidential penalty is imposed for a minor infraction. In those instances, confidentiality ensures that the respondent does not suffer from publicity about the ethics complaint. Filing of Complaints and Circumstances of Dismissal Anyone who is directly aggrieved by the conduct of a member of the Institute may lodge a formal complaint against the member. This must be done in accordance with the Council's Rules of Procedure. A time limit of one year is imposed for filing a com- plaint after the alleged violation unless good cause for delay is shown. Complaints are filed with the chairperson of the Council by sending them to the Institute's Office of General Counsel, which provides staff support for the Council. The format for complaints is established by the Council's Rules of Procedure, and a form is provided for this purpose. Once staff has determined that a complaint meets the formal requirements of the Rules of Procedure, the complaint will be reviewed by the Council chairperson, who may dismiss or defer the complaint, or determine that the case should proceed. The chairperson is authorized to dismiss a complaint when the matter is trivial, when filing was delayed beyond the one year time limit without good cause, or if the matter would not result in an ethical violation, even if the facts alleged were proven to be true. The latter reason is analogous to the "motion to dismiss" standard in legal proceedings, but the Council does not follow any procedure analogous to "summary judgment." The chairperson typically will defer a case if the parties are involved in litigation, arbitration, or another dispute resolution process, including a proceeding before a licensing board. In that instance, both parties will be notified of the deferral and a copy of the complaint will be sent to the respondent. Deferral due to another proceeding is not uncommon. About half of the complaints filed with the Council are deferred either upon initial filing or later if another dispute resolution proceeding is initiated. In nearly all other instances, however, the Chair will determine that the initially filed complaint should proceed, and the Council forwards it to the respondent for response. As with a complaint, the form for the respondent's response is established by the Rules of Procedure, and a form is provided for this purpose. In the event that a respondent does not file a response after being notified, the complaint process will nevertheless proceed. Even if a respondent remains uncommunicative while the ethics case is proceeding, the Council sends notices of all opportunities for the parties to participate. The Hearing Officer Unless information received from the respondent would support dismissal or deferral of the ethics case under the same standards that apply to review of the complaint itself, the chairperson assigns the case to one of the other members of the Council who will serve as the hearing officer. This selection is predicated on an absence of previous knowledge of the matter and existence of significant ties to the complainant, the respondent, or any of the likely witnesses. To help meet these standards and to avoid other possible conflicts, the Council member selected to serve as a hearing officer is often located geographically distant from parties to the case. Notice of the hearing officer's appointment is sent to both the complainant and respondent to allow them to challenge the appointment by reason of alleged bias, prejudice, or conflict of interest. The hearing officer serves in a capacity similar to an arbitrator. One major differ- ence, however, is that a Council member serving as hearing officer is not the decision maker in the case but runs the process during the pre-hearing and hearing phases. The hearing officer's responsibilities for a case largely end with submission of a report and recommendation as described below. After receiving the case file, the hearing officer will review the complaint, response, and accompanying documentation in order to independently confirm whether the case should proceed based on the same standards under which the complaint was initially reviewed by the chairperson. Dismissal or deferral by the hearing officer is subject to concurrence by the chairperson. The complaint process does not provide for counterclaims, even in circumstances when the complainant is a member of the AIA. Upon occasion, a respondent has filed a separate complaint against an original complainant while the original complaint is pending. Although the Council formally treats the two cases separately, in the past the same Council member has been appointed to serve as hearing officer in both cases in the interest of efficiency. Before the Hearing The AIA's ethics complaint process is streamlined and does not include features of more formalized dispute resolution methods. Discovery of the opposing party's infor- mation through depositions and document production, which are common to litigation and arbitration, is not a part of the Council's procedures. As a nongovernmental orga- nization, the AIA does not have governmental powers and has little means, if any, by which to enforce directives to complainants, respondents, or third parties to produce information that may be relevant to a case. With limited exceptions, a complainant and a respondent both come to a hearing primarily with the information they have in their own possession. One essential step in preparing for an ethics hearing is for the hearing officer to conduct a pre-hearing conference, which is akin to a pretrial conference conducted by a judge in a court case. The conference, which is typically by telephone, ordinarily includes introductions, brief statements by the parties regarding their views of the case, and reference to the possibility of settlement between the parties. The parties are permitted to have their counsel or their designated non-attorney advisers participate in this call. The 1.1 The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 7 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 8 Ethics and Professional Practice conference call is neither transcribed nor recorded, and nothing said during the call becomes part of the case record. The hearing officer may ask questions of the parties in order to better understand the framework of the dispute. A date for the hearing is set, along with a location, in the event that the complainant and respondent are not in the same area. Also established during the pre-hearing conference call is a deadline for the parties to submit and exchange various information in advance of the hearing, notably includ- ing their expected witnesses and any additional documents (not submitted with the complaint or response) that will be used as evidence at the hearing. This pre-hearing exchange largely constitutes the extent of "discovery" in the AIA's ethics complaint process. Hearing The hearing is conducted as an in-person meeting among the hearing officer (assisted by staff counsel), the complainant, the respondent, and their respective counsel or other designated advisers. Witnesses are ordinarily allowed to be present in the room only during the time that they are giving their testimony. The hearing is also attended by a court reporter, retained by the AIA, who makes a transcript of the proceedings for the case record. Most commonly, a hearing lasts the better part of a day, but occasion- ally the amount of information to be presented may require more than one day. As with the pre-hearing conference call, the hearing officer presides. No evidence is typically permitted beyond what was indicated by the parties in their pre-hearing exchange of information. The hearing typically follows the following agenda: brief opening statements by both parties, presentation of the complainant's evidence, pre- sentation of the respondent's evidence, and, finally, brief closing statements by both parties. After each witness (usually including the complainant and respondent) provides testimony, an opportunity is provided to the opposing party to ask questions of the witness. The hearing officer (and staff counsel) also frequently have questions to ask a witness to complete the record. During the hearing, the complaint, the response, and the supporting documentary evidence submitted by each party are marked as exhibits for inclusion in the case record. Report and Recommendation Following the hearing, the hearing officer prepares a Report and Recommendation. This written document describes the circumstances of the case, cites the Rule(s) of Conduct from the Code of Ethics that were alleged to be violated, presents pertinent facts, states the hearing officer's conclusions regarding violations, and, if a violation is found, recommends a penalty. This Report and Recommendation is distributed to the parties, who are given the opportunity to submit written comments. Deliberation and Decision by the Council The entire case record is submitted to the members of the Council for their review. The case record includes the Report and Recommendation, the reporter's transcript of the hearing, the hearing exhibits, and the written comments, if any, submitted by the parties. At a subsequent meeting of the Council, the hearing officer makes introductory remarks and responds to questions that the other Council members may have, after which the hearing officer withdraws and is not present for any case deliberations. If either of the parties has requested to appear before the Council, they also may make short statements and respond to questions the Council members may have. The Council conducts a vigorous review and deliberation of the transcript, other evidentiary materials, and the hearing officer's Report and Recommendation. The Council makes its determinations by majority vote and authors the written decision, which is subsequently issued to the parties. In the event no ethical violation is found, the case is closed and confidentiality continues to protect the innocent respondent. Should the Council find one or more violation has occurred, a penalty will be determined. Penalties Penalties that may be imposed for ethical violations are set by the AIA's bylaws. The National Ethics Council does not have the authority to require a respondent to pay money. The Council also does not have the authority to require a respondent to take any action or to refrain from any conduct. Penalties are imposed in keeping with the severity of the violation by the respondent in the eyes of the Council. Unintended or relatively minor matters may result in a nonpublic admonishment. More significant violations are made public and are of increasing severity. First is a censure of the respondent, which includes publication of a notice describing the viola- tion in an Institute periodical. Next, membership in the Institute may be suspended for a period of time, usually one to three years. In more egregious matters, membership is terminated. In all instances of violation, the respondent's AIA membership record will reflect the penalty, although the AIA will maintain confidentiality in the matter except for the published notice of violation. Appeals Members found in violation of the Code of Ethics may choose to appeal the decision of the Council to the AIA's Executive Committee. In an appeal, both parties are given an opportunity to submit statements to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is provided the entire case record for consideration. Except in cases where the penalty is termination, the decision of the Executive Committee is final, and no further appeal is offered. Upon appeal, the Executive Committee may approve the Council's decision and penalty, approve the decision but reduce the penalty, dismiss the complaint, or return the matter to the Council for further proceedings. Matters resulting in termination are automatically considered as an appeal. In such cases, the Council's decision is first considered by the Executive Committee. In the event that the Executive Committee approves the decision and the penalty of termina- tion, the case is further considered as an appeal by the full AIA Board of Directors. The Board is provided the Council's decision, the parties' statements to the Executive Com- mittee, and the Executive Committee's decision. The Board may concur in the Execu- tive Committee's decision or return the matter for reconsideration. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS Although the number of cases pending before the National Ethics Council varies, usu- ally between 20 and 30 complaints are filed each year. Because of the requirement of confidentiality, most of these will never be made known to the public in any fashion. Only in cases where violations are found, accompanied by penalties of censure, suspen- sion, or termination, are the names of the respondents disclosed. Guidelines for Complaint and Response Complaints Regardless of category, the formal complaints will cite one or more Rules of Conduct and briefly describe the circumstances of alleged violation. It is essential that complain- ants thoroughly and accurately understand the rules chosen for citation and that the argument be clearly stated. Responses A member's response to a complaint falls into a few broad categories, regardless of the particulars of the matter. Best are the thoughtful, well-documented responses filed in 1.1 The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 9 PART 1: THE PROFESSION ATTRIBUTION: CASE 2004-10 Case 2004-10 involved a complaint by an architect member against two other architect members regarding project credit, citing Rules 4.201, 5.201, and 5.202. The Complainant founded an architecture firm 30 years ago and was chair- man of that firm. Respondent A was a former employee of the Complainant of 10 years' duration, departing to become vice president and managing principal of a regional office of the Respondents' architecture firm. Respondent B was a senior vice president of the Respondents' firm. A hearing was held with the Complainant and both Respondents present and participating. Testimony at the hearing established that, at the time of the move, Respondents' firm hired a marketing consultant to publicize Respondent A's new presence as manager of one of the firm's regional offices. A folded announcement brochure prepared by the marketing consultant was reviewed by both Respondents and subsequently mailed to prospective clients of the Respondents' firm, including some clients of the Complainant's firm. The announcement described Respondent A as "one of this region's leaders in architectural design and project management with over $200 million in projects and 10 years of award-winning design and project management experience." The announcement also stated: "Her portfolio includes the acclaimed Office Building, Sports Facility, and College Facility, as well as other award-winning facilities like the Stadium, the University Facility, and the University Hospi- tal." The Complainant learned of the announcement from clients who were confused by the fact that the Complainant firm's projects were being attributed to the Respondents' firm without mention of Complainant's firm. Initially, the Complainant sought the publication of spe- cific corrections to the announcement by the Respondents' firm but without success. The Complainant then filed a com- plaint with the National Ethics Council, alleging an absence of credit and improper use of photographs that had been commissioned by the Complainant's firm. At the hearing, the parties offered testimony regarding permission for Respon- dent A to use materials from her former firm, which had no published policy regarding the use of photographs or other project materials by former employees. It was established that another principal of the Complainant's firm, Respondent A, and the former counsel to the Complainant's firm had met as friends for lunch a few months after Respondent A's 10 Ethics and Professional Practice a timely way. Unfortunately, some responses are not timely or thorough. Worse are cases where a response is not provided, which can result in a finding of violation. Regardless, the formal response should address each of the Rules of Conduct cited in the complaint and briefly refute the alleged violation. It is equally essential that respon- dents thoroughly and accurately understand the Rules of Conduct allegedly violated and that their rebuttal argument be clearly stated. Effective Communications and Proof The hearing officer's role is to facilitate fact-finding and submission of information by the parties, not as an investigator or judge. The burden of proof of a violation rests exclusively with the complainant. Inappropriate citation of Rules of Conduct, lack of supporting evidence, large amounts of irrelevant information, and presenting self- serving witnesses are unlikely to be persuasive. The same cautions hold true for the respondents, who are well advised to take care to address each of the allegations com- prehensively and in correct sequence. COMMON COMPLAINTS Attribution of Credit Because architecture firms market their services based on their portfolios of com- pleted work, it is no surprise that some of the most frequent complaints are filed by architects against other architects over project credit provided or taken. These cir- cumstances may arise out of the dissolution of a firm or the departure of a principal from a firm. Other credit disputes may be prompted by the departure of project staff members from a firm or between firms formerly in joint venture or other collabora- tion on project work. PART 1: THE PROFESSION departure. During that conversation, Respondent A's experi- ence at the Complainant's firm was discussed and use of the Complainant's firm's projects by the Respondent's firm as examples of Respondent A's experience was deemed accept- able as long as the Complainant's firm was given credit. The discussion did not include permission to use Complainant's project photographs given to Respondent A, and the type of materials her new firm might want to use was unspecified. Other evidence submitted at the hearing included promo- tional materials of the Respondents' firm that incorporated photographs of Complainant's firm projects, including nine of the Complainant's firm projects as examples. While sev- eral dozen photographs were used, all of which were com- missioned by Complainant's firm, identification of the Complainant's firm was by text under only one photograph of each example. The type font was smaller than that used in the body of the text describing the project and was the sole attribution. Applying Rule 4.201 ("Members shall not make mislead- ing, deceptive, or false statements or claims about their profes- sional qualifications, experience, or performance, and shall accurately state the scope and nature of their responsibilities in connection with work for which they are claiming credit") and the accompanying commentary ("This rule is meant to prevent Members from claiming or implying credit for work which they did not do, misleading others, and denying other participants in a project their proper share of credit"), the Council concluded that Respondent A violated the rule by mak- ing such misleading and deceptive statements in the initial announcement. Regarding Respondent B, prior decisions of the National Ethics Council have explained that the principals of a firm may be held accountable under the Code of Eth- ics for their firm's marketing materials regardless of whether they are directly involved in preparation of the materials. (See Decision 92-07; Decision 94-07.) In this case, the testimony reflected Respondent B's awareness of the content, review, and approval of the announcement prior to publication. Hence, Respondent B also violated Rule 4.201 by making misleading and deceptive statements. Regarding Rule 5.201 ("Members shall recognize and respect the professional contributions of their employees, employers, professional colleagues, and business associ- ates"), the Council concluded that Respondent A had both overstated her project influence on certain projects and understated the contributions of the Complainant's firm, creat- ing an impression that the projects were projects of the Respondents' firm. The Council concluded that both Respon- dent A and Respondent B violated Rule 5.201 by failing to provide appropriate credit to the Complainant's firm for its professional contributions. Applying Rule 5.202 ("Members leaving a firm shall not, without the permission of their employer or partner, take designs, drawings, data, reports, notes, or other materials relating to the firm's work, whether or not performed by the Member"), the Council determined that testimony did not sup- port Respondent A's claim that she had tacit approval to take and use the Complainant's firm's photographs of that firm's projects and concluded that Respondent A had violated Rule 5.202. Having found a violation by Respondent A of three cited rules, and by Respondent B of two cited rules, these ethical lapses warranted a penalty of censure on both of the members. Homeowner Complaints Nowhere is the relationship between architect and client closer than in bespoke resi- dential commissions. Another common type of complaint is filed by homeowner clients, who believe that services provided were in some way inadequate: the scope of the proj- ect was unknowingly altered; the overall schedule was hindered; and the project budget was ignored. Often, homeowners are first-time clients, without a depth of knowledge necessary for a good client-professional relationship. HOMEOWNER COMPLAINTS: CASE 2005-15 Case 2005-15 involved a homeowner who filed a complaint against an architect, citing Rules 2.104 and 3.102. The Complainant, along with his wife, had retained the Respon- dent architect to design and prepare construction documents for an addition to their 100-year-old house, which was located in a historic district. An agreement for architectural services was prepared and signed, and the Respondent pro- vided architectural services as a sole proprietor. (continued) 1.1 The AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 11 PART 1: THE PROFESSION Testimony during the hearing established that the Respon- dent had encouraged the Complainant to act as his own general contractor, so as to save construction expense. While preparation of signed and sealed drawings for the building permit took five months, the Respondent also suggested the existing kitchen be demolished at the midpoint of this period, resulting in the loss of kitchen use for two years. The Respondent signed and sealed drawings for the project on two separate dates, although he did not have a valid architectural license for more than six months during the project because of a failure to renew the license. The Respondent proposed that he provide plumbing construction services for the project through a separate construction busi- ness that he owned, although he was not a licensed plumber. Finally, the Respondent used the Complainant's personal credit card, with permission, to purchase roofing materials for the project but charged $1,500 for materials used on another project. Evidence in the case included a copy of a consent order with the state architectural licensing board wherein the Respondent had previously agreed to accept a reprimand, complete the NCARB Continuing Education Monograph on "Professional Conduct," and pay a $250 civil penalty. The Respondent had also signed a consent agreement with the state board of plumbing contractors, agreeing not to provide such services without a license. The essential facts in this case were not in dispute. The Respondent performed various architectural services for the project while he did not have a valid architectural license, including signing and sealing drawings for the project. The Complainant had a right to expect that the architect he retained was licensed and would maintain a current license throughout the duration of the project. The lapse in the Respondent's architectural license created a high degree of risk that the Complainant would be adversely affected. For example, approval of submittals to a building department that required an architect's seal might be denied or substan- tially delayed. Therefore the Council concluded that the Respondent's failure to renew his license was in wanton disregard of the Complainant's rights and that the Respon- dent violated Rule 2.104 ("Members should uphold the law in the conduct of their professional activities"). The Respon- dent's execution of a consent order with the state architec- tural licensing board was an admission of fault to that state's relevant governing body and sufficient proof of an ethical violation. The Council next considered Rule 3.102 ("Members shall undertake to perform professional services only when they, together with those whom they may engage as consul- tants, are qualified by education, training, or experience in the specific technical areas involved") and its commentary ("This rule is meant to ensure that Members not undertake projects that are beyond their professional capacity. Mem- bers venturing into areas that require expertise they do not possess may obtain that expertise by additional education, training, or through the retention of consultants with the nec- essary expertise"). The Respondent's plumbing construction was also carried out without the required state license. His execution of a con- sent agreement with the state board of plumbing contractors is admission of fault with that body. The Complainant alleged that the Respondent violated Rule 3.102 due to his lack of valid licenses, as Members must be "qualified by education, training, or experience" to perform the services they provide. The evidence, however, did not prove that the Respondent lacked either education, training, or experience as an archi- tect or plumber. What the Respondent lacked was a valid plumbing license, which was not covered under Rule 3.102. Hence, the Council concluded that the Complainant had not established a violation of this particular rule. Having found a violation, albeit of Rule 2.104 only, the Council determined that this particular ethical lapse was sufficiently serious to warrant a penalty of a three-year suspension of membership. PART 1: THE PROFESSION 12 Ethics and Professional Practice CONCLUSION Architects strive to provide exemplary service, while adding beauty and functionality to the built environment. Within and without, each commission brings untold decisions predicated on ethical practice, balancing the competing interests of clients, the public at large, our profession and colleagues, and of the earth itself. The AIA's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is that essential document by which all such decisions are benchmarked. For More Information AIA Code of Ethics and Bylaws website: http://www.aia.org/about/ethicsandbylaws/ index.htm. 1.2 Ethics and Architectural Practice Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA Understanding ethics helps architects deal with the dilemmas faced in the course of practice as well as those that arise in the design and construction of the built environment. This article discusses four ways of considering the ethical issues of practice and offers three case study vignettes with analysis. FOUR WAYS TO THINK ABOUT ETHICS Architecture practitioners continually encounter questions such as: what is the right thing to do in a conflicted situation, and how to decide among the divergent values or opinions of people? Ethics helps architects find answers in such questions. While eth- ics, like any branch of knowledge, has a long and complex history, this essay explores four of the main approaches to thinking about the topic: • Character-based ethics (Virtue) • Contract-based ethics (Social Contract) • Duty-based ethics (Deontology) • Results-based ethics (Consequentialism) Character-Based Ethics Dating back to ancient Greece, this approach to ethics encourages people to focus on the development of a good character or what the ancient Greeks called "virtue." Virtues such as justice, courage, prudence, and temperance all stress the importance of a person acquiring a sense of balance, persistence, and moderation, which philosophers such as Aristotle thought of as key to living a good life. Such virtues also lie at the heart of professional practice. Exhibiting fairness when dealing with others, having courage to do the right thing in the face of opposition, using good judgment when encountering new information, and displaying self-control in the midst of multiple pressures can all help architects successfully serve their clients, retain their staffs, and remain well regarded among their colleagues and coworkers. The medieval period saw a shift toward more empathic virtues such as faith, hope, charity, and love. These, too, have direct applications to architecture practice, whether it means having faith in oneself and one's talent in competitive situations, giving people hope that they can have a better physical environment, showing charity toward the aspirations of clients or needs of users, or loving the act of designing itself. Modern virtues like honesty, respect, tolerance, and trust also underpin the effec- tive operation of commercial society. Following through on what one promised, rec- ognizing the value that comes from a diversity of perspectives, accommodating viewpoints or ideas different from one's own, and having confidence that others will also do what they have committed to all enable a practice, a profession, and a commu- nity to operate effectively. Contract-Based Ethics If the virtues involve the development of a good character, a contractual approach to ethics focuses more on the creation of a good society. Under a "social contract," moral- ity consists of a set of rules governing behavior, which rational people would accept on Thomas Fisher is the dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and a professor in its School of Architecture. 1.2 Ethics and Architectural Practice 13 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 14 Ethics and Professional Practice the condition that others accept it as well. People tend to follow the rules because, on the whole, they are to their advantage, while breaking the rules undermines that useful system. Differing historic views of what constitutes a good life and a good social con- tract derive from two diametrically opposed ideas about the earliest human settlements. The seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes saw human nature as some- what wild and early human life as "nasty, brutish, and short," and argued that people should give up some of their personal freedom in exchange for the authority of a strong government able to keep the peace and enable people to lead longer and happier lives. In contrast, the eighteenth-century thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau saw early life in "the state of nature" as one of blissful harmony and independence, ruined only when people started to claim property as their own. Rousseau saw the possessiveness sur- rounding property as a corrupting influence and argued that the best societies enabled people to live as close as possible to the original state of nature, with the least interfer- ence from outside authority. Modern social-contract philosophers, such as John Rawls, take a more nuanced view of what a good society comprises. Rawls argued that people should imagine "a veil of ignorance" behind which they cannot predict their own individual futures or for- tunes in life. Using this thought experiment, he said, a good society would distribute resources so that everyone would benefit fairly and without prejudice. These different views of the social contract have clear parallels in architecture. Hobbes foretells the generations of architects who have reacted to urban decay with new visions of urban order, while Rousseau presages the rise of suburbanization and the modern desire to live close to nature. Meanwhile Rawls gives justification to laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and strategies such as universal design. Duty-Based Ethics All professions have a duty to those whom they serve. In the case of architects, that duty extends not only to the needs and wishes of clients but also to the present and future users of buildings as well as to past generations (via preservation), to other species (via sustainability), and even to underserved populations (via public interest design). What distinguishes professions from ordinary businesses is the obligation, embedded in pro- fessional licensure, of using disinterested judgment to do the right thing, regardless of the biases of particular interest groups. In duty-based ethics, one's own actions must be ethical regardless of the consequences, and the ends do not justify the means. This approach to ethics is most closely associated with the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant who argued for a set of what he called "categorical imper- atives" to guide a person's decisions when faced with common ethical dilemmas. The first of these imperatives would have everyone treat others as ends in themselves, and not as a means to an end. This is a variation of the biblical appeal to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This imperative helps practitioners remember to treat clients, users, and society with respect and dignity. A second categorical imperative entreats people to judge every action as if it were to become universal. In architecture, this idea relates most closely to attempts by prac- titioners and scholars to develop architectural theories: principles derived from par- ticular buildings that should apply to all buildings. While some theories may have universal relevance, most do not: Think of the pretensions of "International Style" architecture and how ill-suited it was to many cultures and climates. A possible caveat related to duty-based ethics has to do with the importance of having good intentions and acting accordingly, regardless of the results. Kant's dis- missal of consequences brings to mind Colin Rowe's observation that modernism was an "architecture of good intentions," whose practitioners seemed too willing to over- look its negative impact. Architecture education, too, has had a strong focus on design intentions, with relatively little attention paid to design results, as would be learned from postoccupancy evaluations of buildings. Results-Based Ethics In part as a reaction to duty-based ethics, results-based ethics—consequentialism— arose in the nineteenth century, arguing that we determine the goodness of an action by looking at its consequences. In consequentialism, the ends justify the means. Archi- tecture, of course, has always had functional utility at its core: Buildings have to meet occupants' needs, protect people from the elements, and stand up against the forces pulling or pushing a structure. And buildings make the consequence of ignoring such things quickly evident: They fail, leak, or fall down. Utilitarianism, one example of consequentialism, is a theory that values whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number. For the nineteenth-century thinker Jeremy Bentham, that involved a simple calculation: Whatever maximized the most good for the most people was, by definition, the right course of action. But that quantitative approach also brought problems. Providing everyone the same minimum shelter would maximize happiness for the greatest number, but would it result in a good built environment? Bentham's follower John Stuart Mill argued instead that qualitative consequences have more value than quantitative ones: that the quality of the built environment, for example, matters more than the quantity that each person has. For pragmatists like William James and John Dewey, what matters is not maximiz- ing happiness, but looking at the results of our actions to discover what works best in a given situation. James argued that something is good if it is useful and corresponds to how things actually are. Dewey thought, instead, that experimentation is needed in order to find the good, repeatedly trying things and learning from the results. A recent variation of this results-based ethic has a strong environmental component. Philoso- pher Peter Singer has argued that we cannot limit thinking about consequences to human beings, but instead need to include all "sentient" beings—all of the animals who, like us, can feel pleasure or pain. This presents a major challenge to architecture, which consistently degrades the habitat of other animals in the process of creating habitat for human beings. Were architects to consider the impact on all sentient beings, buildings would likely be much more energy conserving, environmentally friendly, and ecologi- cally diverse than most are now. Summary TABLE 1.1 Four Approaches to Ethical Issues in Practice Being Good Doing Good As Individuals Character-based ethics Fairness, courage, moderation, good judgment Faith, hope, charity, love Honesty, respect, tolerance, trust Duty-based ethics Treat others as ends, not means Act as if it were to become universal Act with good intentions, regardless of consequences As a Group Contract-based ethics The good lies in social harmony and security The good comes from living close to nature The good comes from helping the least advantaged Results-based ethics Do the greatest good for the greatest number Do what seems most useful and true Maximize benefits to all sentient beings CASE STUDY VIGNETTES These four approaches to ethics (see Table 1.1) offer different ways of resolving the ethical dilemmas faced during the course of practice. The following case studies, all adapted from real situations, show how ethics can help professionals sort through and evaluate alternative decisions and actions. 1.2 Ethics and Architectural Practice 15 PART 1: THE PROFESSION PART 1: THE PROFESSION 16 Ethics and Professional Practice 1. Conflict Between Personal and Employer Values An architect worked, during the day, designing big-box stores. During her free time, though, she volunteered for nonprofit groups helping the poor, some of whom had been displaced by the same big-box stores she had designed. While big-box stores provide a public good in the sense of making low-cost products available to more people, such developments sometimes disrupt existing neighborhoods and environments in ways that can bring harm. This architect considered quit- ting her job because of its conflict with her values, but she also needed the income and had few other employment alternatives. Analysis In her sense of responsibility for the well-being of people negatively affected by the work of her employer, this architect exemplifies such virtues as a sense of fairness, an instinct for charity, and a deep respect for others. However, the decision to stay in her job or leave it depends upon other virtues, like the courage to act even if it runs coun- ter to her financial best interest or the honesty to tell her employer of her misgivings even if it means her dismissal. Situations like this also show how complicated questions of duty can become. This architect has a duty to her employer, but does that trump her feeling of duty to those negatively affected by the employer's buildings? Design as a way of thinking can help when confronted by such divided loyalties, since it can often find win-win solutions to seemingly unresolvable dilemmas, whether in a building or in life. As a way to honor duty to the community and to her employer, this architect might do better staying with the company and trying to change its practices rather than leaving and relinquishing that possibility. From a social-contract perspective, the dilemma has to do with a paradox of capi- talism. Her employer has an obligation to generate the greatest return to its sharehold- ers and to attract customers to its products and services. But in a case like this, a company cannot maximize its returns while damaging its reputation in the community in which it wants to do business. The idea of ensuring that the least fortunate benefit from every action applies here. If this company put more emphasis on how its actions affect the community, and worked more on improving community relations and less on maximizing profit, it would likely make more money. There is a reason why the terms ethics and economics both have their origin in ancient words having to do with stewardship and care. The company could argue that, from a strictly consequentialist perspective, the ben- efits of a big-box store to a community—directly through its goods and services and indirectly through its taxes—outweigh the displacement of a much smaller number of homeowners and the qualitative deficiencies of big-box stores. Making less-expensive goods available to less-affluent people can improve the quality of their lives economically, but does that have to come at the expense of the quality of their physical environment? The architect, in this case, decided to talk to her employer about her volunteer work and her misgivings about the impact of the company's big-box stores on lower- income communities. And to her surprise, her employer asked her to move into a community-relations position in which she could work with neighborhoods prior to the development of the company's urban stores, in order to mitigate their negative effects. That response showed an understanding within the company that it is often beneficial to proffer in good as well as in goods. 2. Clash of Ethics and Aesthetics A client came to an architect wanting his firm to design a building that would put it on the covers of magazines and get the publicity presumably needed to market the facility. The architect obliged and created a structure so striking that it achieved the coverage the client wanted, but at a price. The structure proved so difficult to occupy and unpleasant to be in that the client still had a hard time attracting tenants, and the design represented such an extreme that it triggered a broader conversation in the profession about the absurdity of such work, ultimately leading to less coverage of the architect's work thereafter. Analysis From the point of view of duty ethics, this situation seems perfectly justifiable. Archi- tects have an obligation to meet the clients' needs and help them achieve their goals, and so, in that sense, the architect here did the right thing as a professional. While architects also have a duty to the general public and to protect people's health, safety, and welfare, that does not preclude the architect from helping a client get as much publicity as possible for a project, including getting it featured on the covers of maga- zines. The client, too, conceivably has a duty to get the greatest return on the invest- ment in a building, and getting a lot of press for the project can be an effective way of doing that, attracting potential tenants without having to do as much marketing. Other ethical approaches, however, help shed some light on why the project's recep- tion did not turn out as either the client or architect expected. Consider the character of the client in this situation. His placing publicity above all else suggested that the building was as much about his desire for attention as it was about attracting tenants. And the architect's accommodation of the client's immoderate ambitions casts doubts on the char- acter of this design practitioner as well. Architects may have a duty to meet clients' needs, but professionals also have a duty to advise clients about potentially unwise actions. From a social-contract perspective, the self-importance of this project also raises ethical questions. Buildings represent creative responses to the needs of people, orga- nizations, and communities, but at the same time, architecture also has an obligation to meet at least some of the expectations of the societies and cultures in which it stands. Moving too fast and too far away from those expectations can backfire, as happened here, when the building, having received the press coverage that the client had wanted, still could not attract tenants. In terms of functional utility, this project hardly met that measure, either. While its design obviously held some value for the client and architect, both of whom had the freedom to largely do what they wanted, the structure lacked even the most basic util- ity, given the number of people who found it too hard to inhabit. By ignoring certain important consequences of their actions, in favor of pursuing publicity, both architect and client undermined their original goal of attracting tenants. In addition, the build- ing's pragmatic flaws did not end with the structure itself; its sheer extremism cast a pall over the architect's career. 3. Difference Between Employer Obligation and Employee Needs An intern in an office wanted to go through the Intern Development Program (IDP) required of him in order to sit for his licensing exam. The principal of the firm in which he worked, however, could not be bothered by the requirements of IDP and did not give his intern the vari- ety of experiences in the office that IDP expected. The intern complained to the national orga- nization that oversees the program, but its representatives told him that there was nothing they could do to force this architect to participate and, despite the poor economy and few employment options, they told him that he could always look for work in another firm. Analysis Being an architect involves not just the acquiring of the skills required to design and detail buildings, but also the joining of a community of professionals. Professional communities are not without their tensions. Architecture firms, for example, often have to compete against each other for commissions even as they cooperate with each other on matters affecting the profession as a whole. And, as happens in every community, practitioners have different levels of involvement in the profession; some get very engaged and even seek leadership positions in the various professional organizations in the field, while others pursue their practice and never attend a single meeting or 1.2 Ethics and Architectural Practice 17 PART 1: THE PROFESSION ▶ Intern Development Program (3.2) discusses the IDP in further detail. contribute to any committee. Professional obligations range, in other words, from the mandatory—taking the licensing exam, for instance—to the voluntary, such as joining the American Institute of Architects. That personal preference becomes an ethical issue when it affects others, as in the case here, where an architect did not see his oversight of an employee's progress through the Intern Development Program (IDP) as part of his professional obligation. The IDP arose in the 1970s to address this very problem. Because so many firms in the past did not attend to the needs of interns for diverse experiences in order to become well-rounded professionals, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) made the IDP a requirement for an intern to sit for the architect registration examination (ARE). The profession saw this as being in the best interest of the entire field and, in utilitarian terms, as doing the greatest good for the greatest number of those who aspire to become architects. The IDP, however, puts the responsibility on the interns and has little force in requir- ing practitioners to participate in it. Most practitioners do support interns' IDP efforts because it has become an expected part of being an architect in the United States, part of the "social contract" that an older generation has to the younger generation of profes- sionals. Most architects also see this as part of their duty to their staff and perhaps, self- interestedly, as a way of attracting and keeping interns who want to become architects themselves. From almost every ethical position and from the perspective of an employer as well as an employee, participation in the IDP makes sense. Virtue ethics may shed some light on that question. A character-based approach to ethics emphasizes personal responsibility, and while that has many benefits in terms of helping people lead better lives, it also tends to see a community as a set of autonomous individuals. In cases like this one, an emphasis on individualism allows practitioners to opt out of their community responsibilities, with little or no leverage to force them to do otherwise. However, as of 2012, the AIA National Ethics Council has adopted a rule that makes supporting the professional development of interns an ethical obligation of AIA members. WHAT'S NEXT FOR ETHICS AND PRACTICE? Architecture has taken an "ethical turn" in recent decades, reflecting a renewed empha- sis on ethics in other fields like medicine and law and a reinvigorated interest within the profession in issues like sustainability and social justice. Ethics has become a required part of an accredited architecture curriculum and a topic covered with greater frequency in the profession's annual meetings and academic conferences. At the same time, ethics has highlighted areas in which the profession needs to pay more attention: • Architects generally have good intentions, but rarely give enough time and attention to postoccupancy evaluations of the consequences of what they do. • Architects often seek to create the greatest good for the greatest number, but have largely overlooked the needs of the world's poor and the habitat of other creatures. • Architects frequently respond well to the contexts in which they work, but have a much worse record when it comes to giving awards to buildings that represent a-contextual extremism. The work of architects has such an enormous effect on large numbers of people and other species that the profession cannot avoid the ethical consequences of its actions. This will continue to make ethics a relevant issue for architects in the twenty-first century as the scope of professional activity expands to include responsibility for global populations and global climate disruption, and to address the resources, systems, and infrastructures that are all part of the built environment. This ethical turn may even lead to a redefinition of what it means to be an architect, attending to the health, safety, and welfare not just of clients and building users but also of other sentient beings, future generations, and diverse ecosystems, ultimately for the good of all. PART 1: THE PROFESSION 18 Ethics and Professional Practice For More Information AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct: www.aia.org/about/ethicsandbylaws. Ethics for Architects: Fifty Dilemmas of Professional Practice (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010) by Thomas Fisher. Architecture Design and Ethics: Tools for Survival (The Architectural Press, 2008) by Thomas Fisher. The Ethical Architect: The Dilemma of Contemporary Practice (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001) by Thomas Spector. Ethics and the Practic

Chapter 8

APPRAISALS AND EVALUATIONS Feedback is integral to growth and improvement. A primary tool for professional feed- back is a performance appraisal. Regular performance appraisals and professional development discussions offer both the fi rm and the employee opportunities to take stock, assess the relationship, and make plans for continued improvement. Properly approached and carried out, performance appraisals provide the means to align staff activities with the fi rm's goals, challenge staff, provide recognition, create a communi- cation link between supervisors and those they manage, and ensure that everyone has a common understanding of the requirements of the position. The performance appraisal process begins by understanding the fi rm's strategy and culture. Once a supervisor understands the overall strategy of the fi rm, what the fi rm values and why, and what the fi rm requires for its long-term health, they can provide the everyday praise and constructive criticism that forms the backbone of a formal appraisal. Providing feedback to staff members, both positive and negative, on a regular basis increases the likelihood that staff knows and understands what is required of them to succeed. Unfortunately, feedback of any kind is often neglected. It can be diffi cult to tell an employee that performance on a given task has been unsatisfactory. Rather than using such situations as a learning experience, a supervisor may delay discussing an employee's performance until an accumulation of incidents results in dismissal. Performance appraisals should be seen as an important responsibility that a supervi- sor has to an employee to help them gain confi dence that the professional choices made so far are serving an individual well (or not), that there is a path in the organization that holds promise for an individual (or not), and that there are specifi c ways of improving and progressing in one's career (or not). Having a frank discussion with an employee about the pluses and minuses of their performance is a privilege that supervisors should exercise to help grow the profession, help the fi rm achieve its goals, develop strong architectural skills in others, and match individuals with career paths that take advan- tage of their innate strengths. In general, the appraisal process is one part of career planning for the employee and implementation of the fi rm's strategic plan. The purpose of a formal appraisal is to improve performance by recording the strengths and weaknesses of a member of the fi rm; it is used to establish a plan for improvement or a path for accelerating growth. More specifi cally, appraisals are an opportunity for both parties to communicate goals, expectations, opportunities for improvement, and progress. They help the fi rm identify and determine ways to develop management potential. They can become part of the process of determining promotions and, when necessary, layoffs. It is also an opportu- nity for employees to evaluate their managers and the fi rm in general, providing healthy and innovative two-way input for the fi rm's management. Performance appraisals can achieve much, including: • Communication of the fi rm's goals and priorities • Clarifi cation of an employee's roles, responsibilities, and expectations • Encouragement and support of communication between managers and employees in both directions • Recognition of accomplishments and needed improvements • Identifi cation of training and development needs along with plans to address them • Sharing of input or feedback from others • Setting of new annual goals and objectives • Ability to serve as a basis for salary and promotion decisions • Establishment of long-term professional goals and a path to achieve them • Protection of the fi rm against potential employment litigation What Is a Performance Appraisal? Performance appraisal and professional development are two different processes. How- ever, they are often conducted together, much to the confusion of staff members. It is important to be clear with staff about which process is being attempted, or if both processes are combined. A performance appraisal or review looks backward at how an employee performed their work over the past evaluation period. The appraisal has two parts: the evaluation or judg- ment of the employee's past performance, usually measured against job descriptions or responsibilities; and second, the feedback provided to the employee about the evaluation. Professional development looks forward at an employee's future goals and oppor- tunities to grow along a career path. It can be used to correct minor defi ciencies, set new goals, defi ne new learning programs, and show staff how they might advance and grow within the profession. Another area of discussion is whether the performance appraisal should contain a dis- cussion about an employee's salary and promotions, or be limited to performance aspects only. One camp will argue that linking an appraisal with a salary review reduces the oppor- tunity for a constructive review, as it is perceived as too narrowly focused, judgmental, and punitive. The other camp will argue that there should be a direct connection between performance and compensation so employees see that better performance results in higher pay and consideration for a promotion. The issue is most important when an employee is unaware of or in denial about their shortcomings at work. In this case, supervisors need to prepare for a (sometimes lengthy) constructive discussion about these shortcomings and when relevant, connect them to the decision for denying a raise or promotion. Whatever a fi rm chooses to include in their performance appraisal process should be clearly communicated in advance to all employees to avoid poor alignment between expectations and reality. Likewise, it is important for the fi rm to spell out how the review process is related to the salary review program. The best appraisals are those that: • Determine whether the efforts of the employee are aligned with the goals, strate- gies, and tactics of the fi rm through a clear dialogue that defi nes what the employer wants the employee to do. • Determine whether there are any performance gaps or areas where an employee has met or exceeded expectations through a discussion of how well an employee has per- formed. This discussion covers successes and failures, good outcomes, and mistakes. • Describe how an employee can improve areas needing attention or accelerate their development. • Are based on job performance and behavior using facts, specifi c examples, and quan- tifi able results rather than opinions, hunches, or generalizations. • Are seen as constructive—where the reviewer serves also as a coach and counselor, not merely as a judge. • Are based on information that is familiar to an employee, gleaned from the regular and consistent feedback given by their supervisor over the entire performance period. Nothing in the review should surprise an employee or be seen as new infor- mation. • Refl ect the work of the entire review period, not simply the current assignment(s). Timing and Frequency of Appraisals To be effective, appraisals and professional development planning should be done at regular intervals. Many fi rms conduct reviews once a year, although some man- agement consultants recommend semiannual or even quarterly reviews. One approach is to review everyone during the same time period. Another approach sets review dates to align with the anniversary date of employment. There are advan- tages and disadvantages to both. Reviewing everyone in the fi rm in the same time frame allows for assessment of the full staff relative to each other, consistent mes- saging about the process, and an easy application of any salary adjustments to the business plan. Reviewing staff on the anniversary of their employment allows for better integration of the time to review employees with other supervisory respon- sibilities over the course of a year rather than all at once, and permits a ready means of marking the employee's hiring anniversary. Whichever approach is used, the emphasis should be on providing continuous feedback to staff on the progress of their career. Performance Goals Human resource director at Dewberry, Dave Francis, recommends establishing per- formance goals for each individual in the fi rm. "If you have a new employee, you should sit down with the employee within the fi rst thirty days to create performance goals and objectives. It is very important that employees get off to a good start and understand what is expected of them in their new role. Goals and objectives should be developed jointly by the supervisor and employee and they should be SMART," said Francis. The acronym SMART is used to set performance goals that are: • Specifi c • Measurable • Attainable • Relevant • Time-bound During the performance appraisal, a supervisor is asked to give a description of the results achieved. Francis explains, "For each performance goal, a supervisor writes a description of how well the employee met the goal. Did they complete it fully? Was it on time and within budget? Were the clients satisfi ed with the results? Did they com- plete it in a way that exceeded what was required, or did they fall short of the goal? Examples are important, especially if you are giving someone a particularly high or low rating. Pay attention to the descriptors of the ratings, and make sure that the examples you are providing match the level of your rating. This description covers what an employee achieved during the evaluation period." Equally important to what an employee accomplished can be how the results were achieved. Each fi rm should develop its own evaluation criteria that directly express its values, goals, objectives, and priorities. Criteria should relate to work requirements and not to an employee's personality traits. Evaluation criteria factors might include the following: • Quality of work • Creativity • Embodiment of the fi rm's values and culture • Communication skills • Degree of initiative • Staff relations • Emotional maturity • Potential for growth or leadership • Adaptability to change • Client relations • Mentoring of others The Appraisal Form Some fi rms use appraisal forms that are unstructured, with only the barest of guidance to supervisors. These systems can be nothing more than a paper identifying the employee and a few fi elds to capture free-fl owing ideas that summarize the past per- formance period and agreed-to actions for the next performance period. Other fi rms use a highly structured form that charts a path from fi rm-wide strategic goals, through tactics to the specifi c goals for each employee, so the individual can see exactly how their actions and results fi t into the overall performance of the fi rm. The middle ground can be described as a rating system with a multipart scale ranging from "unsatisfactory" to "outstanding" for specifi c performance areas. Most rating systems approaches encourage or require additional comments for ratings at either end of the scale. Other forms may use essays (open-ended questions about performance), discussion of critical incidents (specifi c examples of commendable or poor performance based on a log of recorded incidents), or results-oriented evaluations (comparing results with goals established earlier). Whatever system is chosen, it should be common for every employee, provide meaningful feedback, and be fairly consistent through time so that a collection of appraisals conveys a recognizable pattern or trend for the employee. Appraisal Process The appraisal process begins by assigning a reviewer to an appraisal assignment. In the case where multiple persons are assigned to contribute to an appraisal, it is recom- mended to have one person who is responsible for summarizing or incorporating all comments. Step One: Many fi rms will then ask an employee to prepare a self-assessment. This self-assessment can mimic the evaluation format being used by the supervisor (e.g., rating scale, open-ended questions, forced-choice, etc.) or can be any combination. Step Two: Once that self-evaluation is complete and reviewed by the supervisor, the supervisor's appraisal is written and usually reviewed and/or approved by offi ce leader- ship. Francis adds, "This fi nal review is intended to determine whether the perfor- mance appraisal is specifi c, whether the goals and objectives are clear, and if the employee will get a clear picture of what is expected for success. Approvers will want to confi rm that the appraisal lends itself to a quality discussion and clear performance expectations, and if improvements are needed that a draft plan is provided. If an approver does not feel the appraisal is an accurate representation of the employee's performance or has questions about the consistency of the language and the ratings given, it should be sent back with a request for additional information. If an employee is given a particularly high or particularly low rating, clear justifi cation should be 502 Human Resources PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT provided. This is an opportunity to check for suffi cient documentation, which is impor- tant for both recognition and reward as well as when there are performance issues." Step Three: The next step is a meeting to discuss both evaluations prepared in steps one and two, set goals for the coming evaluation period, determine a course of action for any needed improvements or training, and sign or acknowledge the appraisal for storage in a personnel fi le. Performance appraisal forms are merely vehicles to aid the actual performance discussion. The face-to-face session is the most important part of the process. Many supervisors plan on one to two hours for this meeting. Like employment interviews, good performance reviews are a two-way street. Both the employee and the supervisor should come prepared with their understanding of the position responsibilities, goals, evaluation of performance based on the fi rm's appraisal program, and a list of specifi c topics to discuss. Comparing these materials is a good place to start the review. The comparison may reveal differing perceptions or even misunderstandings about the employee's performance goals and achievements. It can also provide an informed basis for discussion and goal-setting for the next appraisal period. Performance Issues If there are performance issues, the annual performance review can be seen as an opportunity to manage the responsibility that every supervisor has to address perfor- mance problems and set expectations for future performance. However, the best time to manage a performance issue is when the issue arises. Note that the fi rst time a per- formance issue arises, managers should follow any coaching or disciplinary procedures outlined in their HR manual. The annual performance review can then serve as a checkpoint within a performance improvement plan. Regardless of when performance issues are brought to an employee's attention—even if the conversation is uncomfort- able—remember that no one is well served by supervisors glossing over or ignoring performance issues. In a face-to-face review where performance issues are present, a manager should explain the issue, making sure the fi rm's expectations are clear, get the employee's view, and ask the employee for their ideas for improvement. This should be followed by the development of an improvement plan that describes how the employee should go about correcting the defi ciency, what support the fi rm will provide, what the employee should expect to be doing on their own time to gain improvements, con- sequences for continually underperforming, and when the next review will be to track progress against the plan. The manager should retain documentation of the discus- sion. This should not be seen as punitive but rather as an opportunity to improve performance. If the problem remains or recurs, another discussion should take place. Document this meeting and send copies to the employee and their personnel fi le. It is best to have the employee sign the written document to acknowledge it has been received. This document should cover the fol- lowing: • What performance standards are not being met • What has been done to assist the employee to date • Dates of any previous performance discussions • What expectations must be met to turn around the employee's performance • A reasonable time frame within which change must occur • The consequences of failure to meet the performance standard Discussions of unsatisfactory performance should be clearly documented in an employee's personnel fi le. A chronological record of unsatisfactory work is a useful defense against unjustifi ed claims of discrimination or wrongful discharge following an employee's demotion or termination. However, be careful not to use the annual performance appraisal only as a documentation opportunity for poor performance. If this process becomes known as a dismissal tool, an environment of distrust can develop. Use the annual review process to refl ect positive achievements and successes as well as poor performance. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PLAN CONCLUSION Architecture is a profession learned over a lifetime, in which the details of design, con- struction, management, and leadership are garnered and honed through project involvement, client meetings, staff discussions, and consultant relationships. The use of training courses, mentoring programs, and appraisal systems is important in this learning process. Each of these tools can add positively to the development of indi- viduals, set up new challenges, and allow for the continuity of the fi rms and the profession. BACKGROUNDER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE VIEW FROM SMALL FIRMS Jane Frederick, FAIA, LEED AP Sole proprietors and small fi rms of fewer than 10 employees have unique challenges in professional development and mentoring. This article visits several small fi rms to explore how they approach mentoring and professional develop- ment. Jane Frederick has been a small-fi rm owner since 1985, and was the 2012 chair of the AIA Small Firm Round Table. She practices residential architecture with her husband, Michael Frederick, AIA, in the Beaufort, South Carolina, fi rm Frederick + Frederick Architects. Small fi rms might struggle to fi nd enough time and money for mentoring and professional development for both the fi rm owners and their employees. Their challenge is to prioritize the available resources and decide whether to spend the money to go to a conference, for instance, or spend the time volunteering on a community planning board. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Compared to a large fi rm where mentoring is institutionalized, mentoring emerging professionals in small fi rms is often less formal, even less recognizable, but usually very successful because interns working in a small offi ce are exposed to all aspects of the profession. This is an important difference from larger fi rms. For instance, a former head of design in a large fi rm said that he did not know what happened to projects once design was fi nished and had never seen shop drawings until he moved to a small fi rm. Small fi rms can provide exposure to all phases of a project in a condensed period of time, as proj- ects are generally smaller-scale and faster-paced. These expe- riences are invaluable to interns as they prepare for the architectural registration exam, licensure, and practice. The continuing education challenge for small fi rms is to fi nd really useful information at the right price. Lunch-and- learns sponsored by vendors can be tailored to specifi c needs or projects. Jeffery Rosenblum, FAIA, of Rosenblum Coe, a fi rm of seven people in Charleston, South Carolina, commented on the diffi culty his fi rm was having fi nding the right sustainable adhesive for vinyl fl oors installed on a con- crete slab. A product that he was interested in using was not available in his market, so he called the manufacturer for a lunch-and-learn to introduce the product to Charleston. The AIA Webinars are the go-to source for continuing education for Lisa Stacholy, AIA, a sole practitioner with LKS Architects in Atlanta. For John Black, AIA, a partner in the two-person Honolulu fi rm Lapis Design, traveling to the main- land and participating in an AIA Knowledge Community symposium makes his AIA dues a wise investment. John remarked, "The AIA Custom Residential Architect Network (CRAN) symposium is an opportunity to network with residential architects from around the country, attend seminars that are both entertaining and enlightening, visit great examples of vernacular architecture, and spend fun- fi lled evenings at local restaurants. The CRAN symposiums have provided me with more meaningful insights and valu- able contacts than all of the architectural conventions that I've attended over the past 25 years." MENTORING EMPLOYEES Small fi rms are also challenged to fi nancially support the expense for interns to progress through the licensure process. There are several examples of how fi rms meet this need. The philosophy of Van Pond, AIA, principal of the three- person Nashville, Tennessee, fi rm Van Pond Architects, is to treat his young employees how he wanted to be treated when he was an intern. Pond pays for his employees' AIA dues, continuing education costs, and convention attendance costs, among other things. The employees earn two weeks of vacation a year, and the offi ce is closed between Christmas and New Year's. The fi rm's structure is to work 41-hour weeks, which pays for the week during the holidays. The additional 10 hours are used for community and AIA volun- teering, in the spirit of the Volunteer State. Jean Dufresne, AIA, principal of Space Architects + Plan- ners, a nine-person fi rm in Chicago, has a formal mentoring system. As with most small-fi rm principals, licensure of employees is important to Dufresne; his fi rm only hires emerg- ing professionals who are interested in getting licensed. To that end, the fi rm supports the interns by paying for study materials, reimbursing test fees upon passing, and paying for licensing fees, IDP fees, and AIA membership. The fi rm offers regular lunch-and-learns and has a rigorous annual personal goal-setting requirement that must be quantifi able and mea- surable. The employees are reviewed quarterly, and the entire staff participates in an annual 360-degree review. "Our fi rm pays half of the test fees upon passing each section, and after the intern passes the fi nal exam we pay the balance of the fees plus a passing bonus," said Rosenblum. He believes that this method creates an incentive for the interns to complete the exam faster and more effectively. Stacholy mentors emerging professionals while they are still students. Georgia Institute of Technology has a program whereby local architects can hire students for a semester. Stacholy pays Georgia Tech, and the student works 13 hours per week learning from Stacholy. MENTORS FOR PRINCIPALS The need for mentoring is not limited to interns. Firm owners and senior architects need to fi nd a source for their continu- ing development. Participating in the American Institute of Architects, both in Knowledge Communities and in elected positions at the state and national level, is a primary source for mentoring for small-fi rm principals. Colleagues from other geographical areas who are not competitors are a wonderful resource. Rosenblum, a class of 2006 AIA National Board member, said that he is still in daily contact with board col- leagues and that he has found fi rms to team with on projects through his AIA contacts. Stacholy has also developed men- tors through the AIA Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community. Stacholy says she identifi es potential mentors by what they are doing and then approaches them to ask, "How are you doing x, y, or z?" As a principal in a bigger small fi rm, Dufresne helps men- tor his Chicago peers and extends resources into the archi- tectural community. When Space Architects + Planners schedules a lunch-and-learn, they invite local sole practitio- ners to join the meeting held at either their offi ce or the local AIA offi ce. They also share their library with their peers, including resources that would be extremely expensive for a one-person shop. Likewise, fi nding mentors outside of the architecture fi eld is critical to expand a fi rm leader's realm of infl uence. Rosen- blum has participated in a daily breakfast group for over 30 years; this group is able to mentor one another, offer advice, and provide a sounding board for issues and new ideas. Dufresne stressed the importance of community oppor- tunities. While serving on the Chicago Association of Real- tors' Commercial Committee, Dufresne suggested that the Chicago Zoning Commissioner would be a good speaker. As a small-fi rm owner, it would have been diffi cult for him to get time with the commissioner alone, but it was easy when Dufresne invited the commissioner to speak before a large group of city stakeholders. CONCLUSION Small fi rms need to be creative in solving the dilemma of limited resources for professional development and mentor- ing opportunities. There are resources available in most com- munities, such as SCORE, a network of retired executives that offer mentoring and confi dential business counseling. The Small Business Administration has an abundance of informa- tion, as do local chambers of commerce. The American Insti- tute of Architects, from the local component to the national component, has a wealth of information and opportunities to connect architects to knowledge, a mentor, and networking with peers.

Chapter 10

10.3 Project Budgets, Work Planning, and Monitoring Stephen C. Evans, AIA Project work planning is the central element in establishing and updating accounting budgets. Project work plans with the proper level of task detail provide the basis for project schedules, support the monitoring of project progress, and serve as a means of communication for all project participants. THE IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT WORK PLANNING Design excellence, exceptional client service, quality assurance/quality control, and technical expertise are all elements of successful project execution. The ability to fore- cast revenue accurately using simple methods is fundamental to a fi rm's operations and the foundation for many critical, high-level decisions such as staff adjustments and overhead budgeting. Good revenue projections represent the "lifeblood" of successful fi rm fi nancial operations, and the processes in place for project budgeting, scheduling, and tracking serve as the basis for these forecasts. Project work planning is certainly a role expected of project managers, but also an opportunity for project team-building and leadership both internally and externally, including clients and contractors. Most fi rms, large, medium, and small alike, earn revenue by providing professional services—architects do projects. The resources used to perform project services must be managed and measured with tools that report and analyze past performance but more importantly use that information to look into the future. Resource utilization ratios, the amount of project chargeable time divided by the total time worked by individual staff members, are measured at the fi rm, market sector, discipline, and proj- ect levels and are an important factor in the ability to be profi table. A well-designed annual business plan includes utilization ratios expected for everyone in the fi rm including management, marketing, and project staff. The controlling mechanism for using resource utilization goals and resource forecasting is once again the project work plan. The term "resource" is used throughout this article to mean staff members in a fi rm. Good Project Work Plans = Good Resource and Revenue Projections Project work planning serves as the means to achieve project and fi rm profi tability, schedule project milestones and resources, and monitor project progress. Work plans need not be highly detailed. The following attributes characterize the process and the plan: • Start early in the marketing phase by preparing top-down budgets. • Prepare simple project work plans with staff resources listed at the phase level at a minimum to produce a conceptual bottom-up budget. • Compare the two budgets and combine them into one feasible starting point for the project. • Further refi ne the conceptual plan with more detailed task-level planning during contract discussions to represent the scope of services proposed. Stephen C. Evans is the owner of Stephen C. Evans Consulting, LLC. His experience includes serving as senior project manager with Populous, director of risk management for HOK Corpo- rate Legal, and director of operations for HOK's North Central Region and Treanor Architects. 622 Design Project Management PART 3: PROJECT DELIVERY • Finalize the project work plan with the contracted scope of services and the project team including outside consulting engineers immediately. • Involve the client in the work plan schedule development with particular regard to the timing of their input and approvals. • If a contractor or program manager is engaged in the project during design phases, involve them relative to their roles, input in the design, and timing. • Monitor the project work plan regularly during the life of the project. Project managers wear several hats in most small to medium-size fi rms and even in some larger fi rms that typically do very large and complex projects. The indi- vidual responsible for project management duties must lead the work planning efforts even though design and technical responsibilities may also be required by this person on the project. Preparing project work plans is not a "closed-door" process done by the project manager and presented to the principal and project team. Key team members, particularly design and technical project leaders, are at the table during the entire process, and it is good to have accounting staff involved at the same time. It works well for the architectural team to prepare the initial plan and project schedule followed by consulting engineers joining to add their major milestones and needs to the plan. Finally as part of a team-building exercise, the client is brought in to see the plan and how their participation is needed to meet the schedule. A proper project kickoff meeting agenda includes signifi cant discus- sion and "buy-in" of the schedule produced by project planning efforts. Even in a small fi rm, working on smaller projects, with fewer project team members, a project kickoff meeting is advisable. PROJECT BUDGETING The project budgeting process starts with the determination of the gross fee for the project. It is best if this has evolved through the marketing, sales, and contracting process but that is not always possible. Although value pricing is encouraged in fi rms with expertise and specialized services, it is most common that the "market" will determine the appropriate level of fees available if the fi rm expects to procure the project. The following are common compensation options for fee calculations that begin the budgeting process formally in one's accounting system after the contract is signed: • Lump sum fi xed fees. • Hourly with no upset based on hourly billing rates. • Hourly-not-to-exceed fees based on hourly billing rates. • Cost plus fi xed fees. • Unit cost pricing. • Percentage of actual construction cost. • Reimbursable and non-reimbursable direct costs are considerations in all options. Compensation options are affected by client types, building types, and the project delivery methods used. The budgets established in accounting systems contain both similar and dissimilar aspects depending on the compensation option established in the Agreement Between Owner and Architect. It is also possible to have more than one compensation option in a singular agreement responding to the scope of services pro- vided, or compensation options with consultants that are different than the prime agreement. Revenue is recognized in professional service fi rms using one of two accounting methods with timing being the primary difference. The cash method of accounting recognizes revenue when cash is collected and expenses are paid. With accrual-based accounting, revenue is recognized when it is earned and expenses are incurred without regard to the time of receipt or payment of cash. The accrual method represents a more accurate means to measure the actual project and fi rm fi nancial performance. The accrual method asks the question "what is the work in place," earns revenue accord- ingly, and is not based on the collection of cash. All fi rms use the cash basis for cash fl ow and income tax purposes. Top-Down and Bottom-Up Project Budgeting There are three fundamental approaches to the project budgeting process and all three are necessary for successful project execution and performance: 1. Top-down budgeting 2. Bottom-up budgeting 3. A combination of both The development of an initial project budget based on the top-down approach is a good place to start in the process. If these budgets are based on historical project data and similar project scopes of services, they can actually be very accurate in the end in terms of projected fees to be earned by phase. A great exercise for fi rms to undertake would be to spend the resources necessary to look at past projects by market sector type and record actual labor and expense costs by phase into a database for future use in top-down budgeting. Top-down budgets are formula driven and based typically on a percentage of construction cost for the gross fee followed by a distribution of fees for the net service revenue representing the architect's fees, consulting fees by discipline, and direct expenses. The net service revenue is then distributed by phase again on a predetermined percentage basis. Table 10.4 includes the following assumptions: • The estimated construction cost for the project is $10,000,000. • The gross fee is 7 percent of the estimated construction cost. • Consultants will receive 40 percent of the gross fee. Subtracting the direct expense and contingency budgets from the net service rev- enue results in a project labor budget of $378,000. Table 10.5 includes the following assumptions: • The amounts by phase are based on the percentages listed and the total labor bud- get of $378,000. • The hours by phase are based on the dollar amounts by phase divided by an average hourly rate of $125. Particularly with a new project type and without historical data on labor expendi- tures, top-down budgeting does not provide a confi dent level of detail necessary to perform and monitor the job. Further, it does not respond to scope of services and provide assurance that the project can be delivered within the schedule and budgeted fee. The project work plan is the basis for a bottom-up budget, and project planning builds the fees by phase based not on assumptions but the project's scope, schedule, and tasks required to complete the work. It uses staff hours planned for these tasks and builds the fee amounts by phase based on the fi rm's hourly rates schedule. The bottom- up budget based on the project work plan provides a means to analyze the top-down budget and test its ability to be fi nancially successful for the fi rm. More detail on the bottom-up work planning process and budget is contained in the project work plan- ning process section of this article. It is not uncommon for the initial bottom-up budgets to be unrealistic in terms of the market fee value for the project. Nevertheless, it may not be wise to rely solely on the top-down approach. The best practice is to work with the two approaches together, combining them into a realistic plan with the proper level of task detail and resources. The project leadership team needs to work together and consider the scope, schedule, tasks, and resources absolutely needed to do the job. It is common to work through several versions of the plan and to balance these criteria into a feasible plan that meets fi nancial goals and client expectations. Cartoon mock-up sets and deliverable lists can also provide needed support in "landing on" the proper project budget and work plan. Although deliverable lists are essential to the technical execution of any project, they are typically at a level of detail not appropriate for project work planning. However, used hand-in-hand with the project plan, these lists are invaluable in achieving a con- fi dent position moving forward into project work. Project Budget: Initial Accounting Setup The establishment of an initial project budget in a fi rm's accounting or project manage- ment system should coincide with documentation of client, consultant, and contract status for the project. Although challenging at times, this is an opportunity to verify that the project contract has been fully executed, or at least that a letter of understand- ing with the client regarding scope and fee has been signed. The following items should be addressed during initial project budgeting: • Is the fi rm able to bill the client at this time? • Is the fi rm able to recognize revenue at this time? • Is the owner-architect agreement signed? • If the owner-architect agreement is not signed, is there a signed letter of agreement that establishes scope of services and compensation? • Are all consultant agreements signed? • If all consultant agreements are not signed, is there a signed letter agreement that establishes scope of services and compensation? • Are direct expenses reimbursable, or included in the compensation? The fundamental question that needs to be answered and supported by a fi rm's policies is whether or not a signed owner-architect agreement or signed letter of agree- ment is required in order to get a project number and assign (staff) resources to begin work. At a minimum, a signed letter of agreement should be required by policy, with a time restriction placed on the ability to recognize revenue internally if the fully exe- cuted owner-architect agreement is not completed. There remain many fi rms with long-standing client relationships and practices that use the "handshake" approach and are less structured in the contracting process. This carries risk, of course, and all fi rms should consider implementing at least the minimum requirement for signed letter agreements. The elements of a project budget are as follows: • Gross fee • Consultant fees • Net service revenue • Project contingency • Non-reimbursable direct expense budget • Project labor budget by phase of service • Current percent complete by phase of service • Budgeted resource forecast by phase of service The example illustrated in Table 10.6 starts with a gross fee of $100,000 and is a lump sum fi xed fee. The consultant fee of $40,000 is inserted and based on the informa- tion contained in Table 10.4. The percentages used for contingency and non-reimburs- able direct costs are in a typical range for most projects and could be based on historical data. It is best for fi rms to establish guidelines for these amounts based on past project data. Contingencies should not be targeted for "extra" profi t, but rather utilized for various project circumstances including unplanned direct labor, unplanned direct expenses that are not reimbursable, or unplanned consultant fees. It is important to understand that these are internal budgets that will be used to recognize revenue and pay consultants for their services. (See Table 10.7.) The client billing process is a separate accounting tool that is based on contractual amounts by phase and can actually have different amounts by phase than internal budgets. For example, internal contin- gencies and expense budgets would not be part of contractual fee amounts, and this alone sets up different amounts by phase between internal budgets and contractual fees billed to clients. Table 10.8 exemplifi es that revenue has been earned at the time the accounting setup occurred, and shows a total earned revenue amount of $3,078, recognizing work that was in place and complete. It is also good practice to consider the cash fl ow aspects and fee utilization by phase for consultants. The architect may be compensated for 15 percent of the con- tractual amount for Schematic Design, but the engineering discipline may only use 10 percent of its fee for this phase. If this is the case, the architect-consultant agree- ment for this service should carry an amount of 10 percent for Schematic Design. It is typical for most engineering disciplines to lag behind in actual percentages com- plete in early project phases and catch up toward the end of Construction Documents. Table 10.9 represents a tool that can be used for "high-level" resource planning during the initial budgeting process. It also serves as a good starting point for more detailed project work planning to be addressed in subsequent sections of this article. Table 10.10 demonstrates the timing of recognizing revenue and billing the client for work complete. In this example, Phases 1 and 2, Project Planning and Preliminary Design, were not part of the compensation in the owner-architect agreement but were used internally by the architect to recognize revenue for work completed prior to the initiation of actual Schematic Design. This also exemplifi es "withholding" amounts for direct expenses and contingencies internally until they are incurred and utilized, which is reconciled at project closeout. It is recommended that a "billed vs. earned" analysis be completed over time by month to see that these do not get considerably out of sequence during the project's scheduled completion dates. Earning too far ahead of billing carries risk in the collection process, whereas billing ahead of earning in a rea- sonable way lowers this risk considerably. THE PROJECT WORK PLANNING PROCESS The project work planning process has evolved considerably in the last 20 years in the direction of simplifi cation and service to the project. There is an appropriate level of detail for every plan, and without exception every project needs a project work plan. Large and complex projects need simplifi ed and manageable task lists refl ecting the scope of services in the contract. Small projects can have few tasks and be planned at the phase level in most cases. Some may argue that small projects do not need a work plan. However, all fi rms still need information provided by a work plan—staff utilization, historic data for fee development, and forecasts for fi rm-wide operations and fi nancial management, for example. Project plans should be monitored regularly, which is normally on a monthly basis if there are no staff or scope changes. The components and considerations for a typical project work plan include the following: • The contractual scope of services, the "foundation" for the phases, tasks, deliver- ables, and milestones for the plan • A bar chart showing the start and end dates for phases, special milestones, and the overall project schedule • The staff resources and hours needed to do the work, planned by day, week, month, or year • Consultant requirements for their part of the project • Owner requirements for reviews and approvals • Labor or billing rates, applied to (staff) resources and used to track the fees, both planned and actual, to assess status • Non-reimbursable direct costs, earned as incurred and part of the profi t calculation The benefi ts of project work planning are numerous and include the following: • Better understanding of the contractual scope of services with the ability to com- municate the scope with graphic and numerical information. • Used to develop fees based on the scope of services with the level of detail needed to be confi dent schedules and profi t targets are achievable. • When used during the contract negotiation process even at a conceptual level, scope and fees can be balanced in a quantitative manner. • Provide the necessary information to produce resource and earned revenue fore- casts for the firm. • Document project team member roles and responsibilities that can be measured. • Analyze changes and their root causes related to scope and schedule, with proper documentation for additional service considerations. • Identify and take corrective actions if a project is not performing according to the project work plan. Work Breakdown Structure One thing remains consistent in all fi rms and all projects: Project plans and project revenue projections are necessary to see where the project is headed. The work plans can be set up in Excel or created within an enterprise software solution that has a proj- ect planning component. An enterprise solution is software with integrated accounting and timekeeping (project management) capabilities. An enterprise solution will provide important information that stand-alone Excel won't; it will synchronize actual hours with planned hours in one place and provide reports for earned and projected revenue for your fi rm. After that, it gets easier to spend time where most architects want to live their professional lives—providing great client service and well-designed and func- tional buildings that are built well, sustainable, and lasting. It is essential to prepare the project plans to the level of detail that works for the project and the team, and not go to a level of detail that is hard if not impossible to manage. Plan to three, in some cases four, levels in the work breakdown structure (WBS) for most projects to produce a manageable plan that can be monitored and updated as required. Planning to two levels, where you simply add staff resources at the phase level, is likely not detailed enough. However, it can work well for experienced project managers that are very engaged in the project work, and for smaller projects with net service revenues under $50,000 to $100,000. Typically, the WBS levels are as follows: Level 1: Project name Level 2: Phase name Level 3: Task name Level 4: Sub-task name Level 5: Sub-sub-task name An example of a common Level 3 task would be "building elevations," and associ- ated Level 4 sub-tasks would be "north elevation," "south elevation," etc. For most purposes, staff assignments are made for the Level 3 building elevation task to be completed over a period of time, with no need to name the sub-tasks. Therefore, Level 3 is really all that is needed to manage the project. Special projects may require planning to Level 5, although this is micromanaging in most cases and risks serving the plan rather than letting the plan serve the project team. Small project practitioners might say, "I only have small projects, a lot of them, and I don't have the time or see the need for doing project plans." Project plans for small projects don't need much detail, do not take much time, and can provide resource utilization reports to help manage staff. Let the complexity of the project guide the level of detail in the plan. Firms need to use resource utilization reports to measure the chargeability of staff, and when accuracy and regularity is achieved in this metric the fi rm will have measurable benefi ts. Do project plans for all projects, no exceptions: It's not dependent on fi rm size. Lastly and in parallel with project planning, deliverable lists and cartoon sets are needed for all projects. Project profi tability is most dependent on tailoring scope of services and fees to the documents and services delivered. A proj- ect work plan that does not refl ect the tasks and consider the deliverables for the proj- ect has little chance of succeeding. Figure 10.8 demonstrates the principles of work breakdown structure and project work planning with resources added at Task Level 3.

5.4 Firm Growth and Development: How to Build a Creative Culture Kirsten R. Murray, AIA This article focuses on how to cultivate and maintain excellence in a fi rm as it grows and develops. The importance of core values, organizational structure, fi rm culture, and balanced leadership is discussed.

INTRODUCTION Most firms begin very small, as entrepreneurial architects practicing on their own or as partners working in collaboration. After an initial start-up phase, founders who are successful in establishing a reputation for excellence will likely have an opportunity to grow their fi rm. If growth is managed well, the fi rm will be able to maintain the inten- sity and creativity typical of smaller practices while adding the resources and capabilities characteristic of larger fi rms. To maintain a culture of excellence during and after the transition to a larger practice, fi rm leaders need to be mindful of critical decisions that will defi ne the quality of the fi rm's work: its culture, its people, and its legacy. Some fi rms are founded by talented, driven sole practitioners, while others begin with small groups of like-minded colleagues seeking professional independence, often- times as offshoots of other organizations. In each case, the founders bring their experi- ences and preferences with them. The growth of a fi rm can be reactionary—changing in response to immediate opportunities or a crisis—or it can be highly strategic, designed with the intent of achieving sought-after goals. In either case, taking time at frequent intervals to under- stand the drivers that underlie change and growth is critical to the development of the fi rm, as are planning, research, and analysis. This approach provides opportunities to assess effectiveness, observe results, and course-correct when necessary, enabling the fi rm to navigate change gracefully. THE BASICS To be successful, all fi rms need to address, and periodically review, the basics of running a practice—from getting the work, executing the projects, and handling administrative tasks to adopting a vision and core values. Whether they are two-person fi rms just starting out, midsize fi rms with a well-established record of achievement, or interna- tionally renowned fi rms, this is essential to maintaining the health of the fi rm. The Firm's Shared Vision Most fi rms that establish a successful growing practice have, at their core, a strong set of goals and values and a clear vision of the workplace culture they want to cultivate. At the core, a strong set of skills and a mutually agreed-upon belief system are critical to maintaining a culture of excellence Kirsten R. Murray is a principal and owner at Olson Kundig Architects, where she started as an intern in 1989 when the practice was a 10-person offi ce. She acts as both design principal and president of the 100-person fi rm, now in its fi fth decade. 5.4 Firm Growth and Development: How to Build a Creative Culture 217 PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT Strongly held and shared values serve as the touchstone for decision making and relate to every aspect of the practice. While some strive to design highly recognized and published "critical work," others place a high value on serving the local community and providing a broad range of services. In some fi rms principals seek to position them- selves as thought leaders in a specifi c practice area, and some choose to strike a balance between achievement in practice and academia. From the sole practitioner just starting out to the 100-person practice, leaders of fi rms that grow successfully know that all decisions about growth must rest on the foundation of their vision and be aligned with their values. Firm operations are a direct outgrowth of a fi rm's values and vision. These include level of risk tolerance, expectations about work-life balance, and a desired workplace atmosphere, both physical and cultural. As a fi rm grows, established norms in these areas need to be maintained, but with fl exibility, so that the fi rm responds to the chang- ing needs of the practice. Open forums that empower staff to discuss values and pri- orities help these operational and cultural aspects to be continually updated and understood fi rm-wide. Balanced Leadership Leaders thrive when they contribute complementary skills and also have the ability to work in a highly creative and integrated way. Successful fi rms are likely to be founded by people who have the skills and desire to seek out and cultivate clients. These indi- viduals might also possess a well-rounded set of design, technical, and management skills. However, growing fi rms benefi t from the teamwork of multiple well-rounded people. As part of the planning for fi rm growth and development, consider the skills within the fi rm's leadership group, develop agreements as to the way the group will work as a team and, if needed, look for ways to supplement qualities not yet present. The best practice for cultivating creativity and excellence is to cross-fertilize the offi ce with team members who bring multiple strengths, adopting specialized or highly specifi c roles only when the need becomes truly evident. Getting the Work All architectural fi rms begin as entrepreneurial entities. It takes a combination of con- fi dence in an excellent product and tireless enthusiasm for telling its story to convince clients that a particular fi rm is best for their project. A range of different but comple- mentary strategies can help build the professional and client relationships needed to foster a steady fl ow of the right type and amount of work to provide continual oppor- tunities for a fi rm. Initially, a fi rm may be able to rely on the skill and personal connections of key fi rm leaders, but as a fi rm grows, it is no longer the sole responsibility of one or two leaders to garner work. Increasingly, the effort will need to be supported by business develop- ment specialists and by staff who are able to nurture strong relationships with consul- tants, other organizations, and potential clients. As a fi rm grows and begins to pursue work in increasingly competitive arenas, the training and coaching of staff becomes even more important. Skills in visual, written, and verbal communication, as well as in strategy and negotiation, are critical tools, and staff development can be provided internally or with the help of outside consultants. It is also important to identify and cultivate appropriate ways for staff to participate in business development. Often referred to as the seller-doer model, this approach helps a fi rm retain highly motivated individuals and increases the likelihood that the fi rm continues to succeed. The power of No: Not all business is good business. Sometimes, the best choice for the fi rm in pursuit of new business is to say "no" to a prospective client. Turning down a project is often a diffi cult decision for seasoned veterans; it can be an excruciating decision for new fi rms or smaller fi rms looking to grow. But if the client is not right for the practice and doesn't share the fi rm's values and the work isn't consistent with where the fi rm wants to go, there is a risk of allocating precious resources that could be better used elsewhere—and ending up with both the fi rm and the client dissatisfi ed. The empowerment of Yes: The fi rm's vision, values, and goals should guide deci- sions about the clients and projects that best suit the practice and provide the right challenges and learning experiences for growth. This is especially important for smaller fi rms with limited resources, but it is true for all fi rms, regardless of size. Nothing is more empowering, fuels creativity more, or provides more long-term satisfaction than staying true to the fi rm's vision and saying "yes" to clients and projects aligned with the fi rm's values. HANGAR 41 We have three principals and eight associates. By design, we created an offi ce environment that could thrive on col- laboration. One key ingredient of collaboration is equality. If one person makes all the fi nal decisions, you close off the creative process and the ability to brainstorm fades away. That's one reason for the two-tiered hierarchy. Another is staff motivation and personal accountability. In the typical fi rm model, it takes years of dedication to earn responsibility at an associate level. It's a coveted position, and people some- times do what they can to jump up the corporate ladder at any cost. In our model, there are only three principals, and no plans to add more without substantial growth or expan- sion. There is no motivation to gain a more prestigious title. So what happens to the motivation? Money is typically one motivator. If you bring work into the Hangar, you earn a substantial bonus based on the revenues generated by that project. Our philosophy from a management perspective is that 11 rain- makers are better than one. We also run weekly meetings using parliamentary procedure to keep order. Everyone at Hangar has a stake in the business, not as a direct owner of the LLC, but in profi t sharing and voting power. This is where recruiting becomes very important. It's critical that your staff shares the same values in design and practice, is entrepre- neurial in spirit, and has an incredible passion for architec- ture. How the team works together is more important than any one individual. Parliamentary procedure works amaz- ingly well when you fi nd a group of people with the same passion and focus on what they are trying to accomplish together. Ninety-nine percent of all our votes pass unani- mously. Believe me, if you put 11 talented and passionate people in the same room together day-in and day-out build- ing a company, and give them all a voice and the power to infl uence decisions, you had better be prepared for some fi reworks. It keeps us on our toes, and pushes us further out- side our comfort zone. We believe in developing well- rounded architects. Each person is actively involved in marketing, fi nancial decision making, business development, design, and production. Giving everyone the full picture helps us make the best decisions together. Buddy Poppitt, Principal, Hangar 41, LLC Project Execution Every fi rm must establish expectations and maintain methods for excellence in the quality of delivery for the services it will provide, from understanding building science to knowing how to assemble a solid set of construction documents and specifi cations. The distribution of design, technical, and production work in a smaller fi rm is usu- ally integrated, often with the same people doing all tasks from the beginning to the end of the project. Ideally, a similar level of integration should also be the goal for a growing fi rm, though the way this is organized will need to evolve. In a small fi rm, one or two leaders can typically oversee every aspect of project execution and can continu- ally guide other staff members to meet their expectations. Growing fi rms, on the other hand, need more structure in order for quality expec- tations to be widely understood by the staff. This will require that mentoring and training practices are put into place to allow staff to succeed. It also means that struc- tured methods of reviewing work for completeness and quality must be developed. Firm and project leaders also need more formalized ways of remaining integrated into the execution of the work. This is critical to assure quality because demands on ▶ Professional Development and Mentoring (8.4) addresses training, mentoring, and appraisal programs that support a fi rm's strategic plan. 5.4 Firm Growth and Development: How to Build a Creative Culture 219 PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT the time of the fi rm's leaders increase as a fi rm grows. Depending on the nature of the practice, the level of complexity of the work, and the client type, this integration can be achieved in several ways: • Maintaining small teams, where experienced staff can provide direct feedback and oversight to other staff • Group review or discussions, critiques, and pin-ups to engage all fi rm members in dialogue and learning from others' experiences • Peer review by individuals within or outside of a fi rm to solicit input and analysis from people with fresh perspectives • Creating shared resources, including written and Web-based guides, to document lessons learned and best practices • Formalized oversight processes where more experienced people are assigned to provide quality assurance horizontally across the body of a fi rm's work Unless a fi rm is very large and has had time to develop a sophisticated network of specialists and production strategies, it is best to assume that getting the most experi- enced and diversifi ed types of input and frequent review (i.e., eyes on the work) will increase its quality. As a fi rm grows, it becomes increasingly important to identify individuals who are leaders in the areas of technical execution and project delivery, and to recognize their achievements and reward their efforts. Success in project acquisition and design is sometimes easier to see and more often rewarded in the industry. However, the fi rm's technical expertise must be highly regarded, and experienced people retained and nur- tured, or the results can be very detrimental for the long-term survival of the practice. Firm and Project Management Management is the system of processes and tools—the circulatory system for the prac- tice—that keeps the offi ce and the projects running smoothly together. While small practices can often navigate their way through the day-to-day operations using com- mon sense and good judgment, larger fi rms require more intentional behaviors. Man- agement systems, from the tracking of project budgets and schedules to the overall strategic direction and governance of a fi rm, must be put in place. At every stage in its growth, it is critical that a fi rm's management practices align with its larger values. Successful management should be integrated into every aspect of the practice. It need not be seen as opposing or inhibiting the delivery of excellence, but, rather, as making excellence more likely. As with technical or project delivery, few fi rms succeed without an appropriate understanding and recognition of the value of management systems to the overall practice. Both fi rm management and project management can be approached as centralized or collectively held responsibilities. Management-savvy design professionals can per- form all these functions. But as a fi rm grows, certain aspects of management should be delegated to people with training in business management or fi nance, who are also attuned to the nuances of design practice. To foster excellence and success as a fi rm grows, management skills should be taught to young practitioners with the same level of rigor and quality expectation as are matters of design and building science. Understanding and appreciation for man- agement issues improves team dynamics, communication, and collaboration with cli- ents and consultants. At some level, everyone in the practice is responsible for managing some aspect of the fi rm or its projects, if simply their own tasks. Financial, Legal, and Administrative Tasks All fi rm owners face the need to oversee the fi nancial, legal, and administrative aspects of their practice. Small-fi rm owners usually choose to undertake these tasks themselves, supported by outside attorneys, accountants, and other specialists as needed. As the size ▶ Origins and Development of Quality Management (12.1) provides an overview of quality management as a system that improves a fi rm's performance. 220 Organizational Development PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT of a fi rm increases, many fi rms fi nd it advantageous to build an internal team to provide these services, and use outside consultants for advice and strategy. As a fi rm continues to grow, administrative staff may evolve from generalists to more specifi c roles, requiring more specialized training. Like any business, defi ning communication systems and clarifying the fl ow of work between administrative and project activities protects against wasted time and frustration. Managing Work Flow Assuring a manageable fl ow of work, not too much or too little, is one of the most chal- lenging aspects of growing a fi rm. Poor planning or an unstable work fl ow can lead to wild swings in workload that could necessitate rapid cycles of hiring and fi ring. This creates job insecurity and can make it diffi cult to retain valued staff and build on insti- tutional knowledge. There are a number of software tools and systems designed to assist a fi rm in tracking and studying work fl ow, such as Newforma for project manage- ment or Deltek Vision for accounting and business development tracking. As a fi rm grows, such tools will become increasingly important. Even when a fi rm has an abundance of work and growth prospects look promising, it is generally advisable to employ the smallest workforce a fi rm can confi dently sup- port. Look for ways to maximize productivity before making new hires, such as stag- gering project start-up schedules or subcontracting production. This way, growth can be approached in an intentional and strategic way. Rapid growth without careful plan- ning can strain a fi rm's systems and compromise quality. In addition, over-hiring can lead to poor business decisions such as indiscriminately taking on the wrong projects for the sake of "feeding the beast." This is seldom a recipe for excellence. Similarly, it is important to plan for temporary decreases in workload. If a fi rm has planned well, and is fi nancially healthy and optimistic about future work, it can use slow times very strategically. "Found time" as a result of fewer projects can be used to focus on internal projects, getting organized, and tending to long-term initiatives like educa- tion or research and development. For fi rms with less fi nancial cushion, it is often possible to work with staff to negotiate some level of short-term cash fl ow relief through reduced work schedules, furloughs, or job-sharing situations. However, if a decrease in workload appears to be a long-term situation, it is in the best interests of a fi rm to downsize staff, sometimes at every skill level in the fi rm. This should be done with sensitivity to individual situations but also with an eye to the overall health, needs, and skill diversity of the remaining staff in the practice. Frank and open communication with staff as these situations arise is the best policy. Best practice is to remember that staff members are highly trained professionals who deserve to hear information that impacts their futures as soon as decisions have been made. FIRM ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Assuming a fi rm has the basic skill sets of design, management, and technical execution, a shared system of values, and a vision for what it wants to be, there are still many things to consider as a fi rm grows and develops. As with any gathering of people, fi rm leaders will need to agree on a way to organize as the practice grows, all the while being mindful of the intellectual and creative community they hope to establish. The relationship between organization and creativity is nuanced and complex. Cre- ating organizational structure for an evolving fi rm is more an art than a science. Some organizations can have a very rigid, ordered system and produce high-quality, creative work. Others can be very egalitarian in their organization, yet do uninspired work. More often than not, for most fi rms, there is a healthy balance somewhere in the middle that works. A growing fi rm is advised to walk a fi ne and well-scrutinized line between creating the collective order needed to be effective and maintaining the high level of individual freedom generally sought in creative occupations. ▶ Offi ce Administration (5.10) discusses personnel, procedures, and processes that improve the effi ciency and quality of services of the entire fi rm. ▶ Navigating Economic Cycles (7.1) discusses the construction industry's ups, downs, and impact on architects. 5.4 Firm Growth and Development: How to Build a Creative Culture 221 PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT Ownership Structure From sole proprietorships and partnerships to corporations, ownership structure is one of the first decisions to be made in new firms and one of the most important, as it will shape the nature of a firm's design community. Many firms begin as sole proprietorships, with all decisions remaining in the hands of the owner. And while many firms often remain sole proprietorships, there can be benefits to expanding the ownership structure to a partnership or corporation as the firm grows, including: • Increased fl exibility in ability to serve clients • Ability to develop specialties or areas of expertise • Financial stability for the fi rm • Greater capital resources available to the fi rm • Shared responsibility, risk, and reward • Greater growth opportunity for key staff Owners can be staff that have been identifi ed and promoted from within. This can create a healthy culture where key staff members have incentive to stay and lead the practice when they have achieved professional maturity. However, keep in mind that the criteria for partnership are likely different than that for an excellent project lead. As well, the generational needs of the fi rm should be taken into account, and partner- ship decisions made with a view to the ongoing success of the fi rm. It's important to develop a clear understanding of both the fi rm's short- and long-term needs when making this important decision. Owners can also be individuals with strategic skills that are solicited or brought from outside the fi rm. As fi rms grow, it can become increasingly advantageous to broaden the skills and services of the fi rm by partnering with individuals that have other skills, or can expand the fi rm's client base. Sometimes the merger or acquisition of fi rms with complementary skills can pro- vide stimulus to the practice. This sort of change can be challenging to any established practice, and care should be given to the careful planning and communication of the process to employees and clients. In all cases, when dealing with partnerships, corporations, mergers, acquisitions, or other forms of structure that involve more than one owner, to succeed, partners must be able to: • Identify and articulate a mutually agreed-upon vision for the fi rm and agreed-upon roles for each of the partners or owners. • Establish a partnership agreement including guidelines for governance, methods of confl ict resolution, agreed upon code of conduct, confi dentiality requirements, and terms of separation. • Identify an ongoing process for leadership cultivation and a structure for leadership transition. Beginnings of Structure Many small and newer fi rms tend to resemble traditional master and apprentice arrangements. There is the founder or boss, the apprentice, and perhaps a few staff members in between. While the group may enjoy the simplicity of this structure for some time, as the work becomes more demanding, the hours longer, and the levels of profi ciency more equal, the midlevel staff may be the fi rst to request more clarity in roles. It is likely they will be seeking more responsibility and craving the recognition that might come with a title or perhaps a larger paycheck. In dealing with fi rm structure, it is diffi cult, and unwise, to ignore these basic needs. Few businesses succeed without establishing a correlation between risk and reward, experience and pay, accountability and opportunity. This is especially true when the HOW FLAT ARE WE? THINK OF THREE HYPOTHETICAL WORKPLACES AND THEIR TYPICAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES. • An urban hospital: Each worker has highly specialized training and correlating authorization to do a particular set of tasks, with everything from pay to social status dictated by their qualifi cations, training, and authorized decision-making latitude. Carefully prescribed methods of client care and engagement, and routinized procedures, punctuated with highly regulated oversight from superiors and administrators, are expected. Lives and livelihoods are at stake. • A high-tech gaming start-up: Such companies often embrace a "fl at" workplace structure (no titles, no offi ces, minimal administration) to enable and encourage people to work with relative independence and egalitarianism towards a marketable goal (the creation of a gaming product) set forth by the leadership. In this structure, there is a lucrative reward system for the highest-achieving, those that crack the code to success; and a guarantee of rapid replacement awaiting the underperformer. • A college within a university system: In this situation, there are a few individuals who act as administrators, working toward established university and industry guidelines. There are professors who set forth the expectations for performance and develop a curriculum for the students, assisting them through their instruction and guidance to achieve these expectations. There are also teaching assistants and senior students who serve as mentors. In the end, the quality of the student work is a tribute to their own talents as well as the supportive structure set up by the administration, professors, and teaching assistants. While none of these examples are entirely adaptable to most architectural practices, consider the outcomes that would result from each if it were considered as a model for practice in a fi rm. The highly structured hospital model would likely result in an effi cient, productive workplace capable of generating a high quantity of carefully executed work in a known arena. But there are likely fewer creative opportunities for the individual expression or personal investment that can set a fi rm apart from its competition. Also, it is likely that entrepreneurial personalities would tend to avoid such a structure, and that retaining talented and committed staff would be a challenge. The entirely fl at structure would conceivably offer the inverse of the pros and cons of the structured hospital model. It is likely that some signifi cant strides could be met in areas of innovation, and the most entrepreneurial and confi dent of the staff would likely feel stimulated by the professional freedoms and opportunities experienced. However, it is diffi cult to imagine that the fi rm would be successful in keeping long-term senior staff, which would inevitably be strained to fi nd, train, and manage a potentially undisciplined, highly competitive, and loosely trained workforce. The college, perhaps, is the hybrid of these systems. In the best schools, as in the best workplaces, individual enthusiasm and passion are encouraged in a collegial atmosphere, and helpful guidelines and curriculum are put into place, along with an administration that brings governance and a faculty that brings specific occupational or subject matter knowledge to the group. fees for professional services that are established in the market link directly to experi- ence levels and titles set forth as industry standards. However, depending upon the nature of the work and the goals of the practice, there can be detrimental effects that come from the push to create a tiered organiza- tional structure. Problem-solving ability, creativity, and enthusiasm are often the stron- gest assets of junior staffers, for whom the right balance of encouragement and oversight must be provided to keep them motivated to stay with the practice. This is especially true in an environment where technology and social media enable less dependence on businesses for employment. Even as fi rms struggle to adjust to an unpredictable economy, they must provide the stable and supportive environment needed to build loyalty in a young and potentially entrepreneurial workforce. Teams and Departments There are a number of different general organizational attitudes that any business or practice can take, ranging in the degree to which hierarchy and defi nition of roles within the overall workplace are identifi ed, maintained, or valued. Specifi c to growing architectural practices, there are a number of organizational models that prevail in the industry, and countless variations that occur within these models. As with all other business decisions, it is wise to consider the impact that any structure will have on the culture and business. Think about what sort of culture a fi rm wants and how it needs to support this in everything from workspace design to business organization. Shared Studio/Team-Based Organization In this model, the principal or principals may work individually or collaboratively to bring projects into the offi ce and oversee them. They share the resources of a range of professionals who are assembled as skills and availability allow. The staff might work freely among the principals, and across the range of projects in the offi ce. This is a common structure for small and midsize fi rms that do projects of a specifi c type (everyone knowing the work) or projects that are similar enough in type and scale that people can conceivably succeed regardless of their assignment. It is also common in this sort of environment for a project team to work from beginning to end on a par- ticular project and to do a wide range of tasks related to design, management, and execution. The benefi ts of this model include fl exibility to move staff freely to the work as it comes into the offi ce and cross training of staff by working on the widest range of projects and with the widest range of people. This can impart a general sense of oppor- tunity and professional freedom to staff. Also, working with various fi rm leaders creates a stronger sense of common purpose, and shared mentorship. This shared, generalist studio model may have a number of people who work horizontally across the offi ce to provide continuity or specialist support, and this is somewhat required at a certain scale. Larger fi rms that maintain an open studio model may fi nd it helpful to adopt cultural practices to make sure people feel like they have a network within the larger group. Many high design fi rms are organized this way. Once a firm grows too large to maintain a shared studio format, or begins to do projects that require a high level of specialized knowledge, it is natural to look for ways to create distinct studios within the larger practice. These studios serve the purpose of creating smaller intellectual communities within the offi ce that act somewhat indepen- dently of the others, but share administrative resources. Depending on the particular characteristics of the workload and offi ce, there are several typical ways for studios to be organized. Studios Organized by Discipline In a multidisciplinary practice it is common to see separate studios emerge around a discipline, such as urban design or interior design. This allows for variations in orga- nization and business methodologies to emerge around best practices in each area. Typically each discipline-based studio has its own leadership and staff structure, and a somewhat individual vision for their department. Many fi rms in this vein rely on their complementary strengths and pursue and execute work together, as well as indepen- dently of each other. Studios Organized by Project Type Similarly, fi rms that engage deeply in a number of specifi c project types may fi nd it useful to create studios focused on one or more similar building types: education, high rise, and hospitality, for example. The boundaries of these studios can be very fi xed, or more permeable to allow people to move between studios if they possess the right type of experience. Typically this format is desirable for fi rms trying to attain deep expertise in specialized areas of design, and for those staff people who have a profound interest in a particular aspect of the fi eld. The downside of this arrangement is the possibility that staff will become too specialized or "pigeonholed" in a particular subset of the work of the offi ce. Sudden changes in the economic market might affect studios to different degrees and lead to an uneven distribution of work in the office, which can strain relationships and morale at all levels. Studios Organized by Principal Some fi rms organize themselves by creating studios around one or more principals, with a number of staff dedicated to working closely with a particular individual or subset of a fi rm's leadership. In this method, the size of a fi rm often correlates directly to the number of its principals, who often work rather independently in the direction of their particular subset of the practice. This can stimulate robust mentor and mentee relationships and further a fi rm to the goal of creating well-aligned teams. Conversely, the overall offi ce itself may struggle to develop and maintain offi ce-wide standards that work for everyone, and can even become competitive if performance expectations seem unevenly met. The degree to which an offi ce will work harmoniously in this organiza- tional pattern is linked directly to the synchronicity of the principals and the strength and clarity of their shared vision. THE MAKING OF A CREATIVE CULTURE AND A LEARNING COMMUNITY Regardless of the organizational structure of a fi rm's practice, its size, or the types of projects that are the foundation for its growth, the strength of the collective intellectual and professional community a fi rm is able to create is perhaps the most signifi cant contributor to the fi rm's overall growth, development, and long-term success. Firm growth that is inspired by a creative culture and fueled by a learning community pro- vides opportunities for the creation of a thriving practice that are far greater than the sum of any of its parts. The People The most important aspect of creating sustainable growth for a fi rm lies in hiring, cultivating, and promoting the most capable individuals a fi rm can fi nd. It is critical to secure people who are both talented and share the values of a fi rm, to give them a reason to want to work with a fi rm, and to value their contributions. Interns, with their energy, boundless enthusiasm, creativity, and highly developed technical skills, are one of the most important sources of talented staff for fi rms, whether they are newly formed or more established practices. Intern Development. Every fi rm benefi ts individually and industry-wide by pay- ing serious attention to their role in the stewardship of people joining the architectural workforce. The step from academia to practice can be a high one. It is in everyone's best interest to create a supportive work environment where entering professionals can continue to learn the aspects of practice, while bringing their new ideas and skills to a fi rm. While many learn from being "thrown into the deep end," it is helpful to pay attention to the special needs of the intern and to stay abreast of current NCARB's Intern Development Program (IDP) requirements and guidelines. Firm leaders have a profound obligation to make the best attempt to align interns with situations where they are likely to receive mentorship and guidance. Interns increasingly bring highly valued technical and graphic skills that are immediately useful to a fi rm, but it is equally important to consider the wider range of skills they will need as their careers progress over a number of years. Make sure they are gaining a broad range of skills that will allow them to move successfully into increasing levels of responsibility. Interns looking for their fi rst experience should look for a fi rm where emerging professionals have successfully matured and progressed within the fi rm based on knowledge they have acquired there. Employers should consider how to create oppor- tunities for interns to present their ideas or continue research initiated in school. Make young professionals part of the intellectual and social fabric of the offi ce and extend to them the same level of professional courtesy that would be extended to other col- leagues. Too often, the intern experience is poorly considered, and interns may fi nd themselves in frustrating dead end positions or junctures in their careers. If this time ▶ Recruiting and Hiring: Strategies and Methodology (8.3) discusses the research and strategic approaches that can help a fi rm attract and retain top talent. ▶ See Intern Development (3.2) for further discussion of the IDP as an important component of the licensure process. 5.4 Firm Growth and Development: How to Build a Creative Culture 225 PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT is well managed and guided, an intern could mature to be a loyal employee and a future leader of the fi rm. Practitioners should also avoid exploitive employment practices and be aware of the guidelines set by the AIA, state and federal governments with relation to paid vs. unpaid internships, and correct procedures for hourly and overtime pay. The Learning Community The importance of community and education is relevant beyond the intern phase and extends throughout an architect's career. A fi rm that seeks long-term success is wise to think of its workplace as a creative learning community. This means frequently assess- ing the overall collective dynamic of the offi ce, its systems, and its culture, as well as continually renewing the commitment to the ongoing professional development of each individual in the practice. A fi rm should act as a framework for the continued growth of each of its members. The Collective The best fi rms are those where people are buzzing with excitement about the work they are doing work in a collaborative setting to deliver the best projects. The offi ce, as a whole, can be an enthusiastic environment where people are encouraged to engage in open, constructive communication and knowledge sharing. While leadership is an important part of this equation, as a fi rm grows, it can be helpful to build opportunities for collaboration into the rituals and culture of a fi rm. Cultural practices that stimulate enthusiasm, growth, and community: • Create a shared dialogue about lectures, classes, tours, etc., in the community; con- sider an event calendar or e-message board to share this information. • Encourage staff to share lessons learned from their academic studies and travels. • Create a forum for lectures and discussion groups to share best practices internally. • Invite other local colleagues to speak to the fi rm about their work and ideas. • Support participation in learning forums provided by the local AIA and other groups that exist in the area. • When possible, allow staff the fl exibility to pursue teaching, research, or volunteer community outreach. • Celebrate success collectively, acknowledge special events in the lives of the staff, and have parties. • Ask the pros: Seek support from those trained in areas of organizational develop- ment (management consultants) and human resource management (facilitators, coaches) to work with a fi rm to assist with leadership training, team building, and change management. The Resources In addition to the general attitude and tenor of a practice, it is also important to rec- ognize the importance of supportive resources, both human and physical, as a fi rm grows. Antiquated methods and procedures, coupled with inadequate systems, equip- ment, and facilities, and a lack of support staff, strains and inhibits the potential of a fi rm to do its best work. • Review fi nancial and legal procedures every year or two, with the assistance of out- side consultants as needed, to make sure a fi rm is aware of changing industry stan- dards and the latest business tools. • Look at how a fi rm supports administrative needs in the offi ce. Is the billable profes- sional staff burdened by tasks that could be better performed by others? As a fi rm grows, be mindful of milestones where it might be wise to introduce administrative support staff. Assess the physical plant, and make sure the fi rm is maintaining its own standards for design, comfort, and usability. Make the space as fl exible as possible to accom- modate fl uctuations in the size and needs of the staff, but avoid making commit- ments to too much space, especially with the possibilities today of teleworking and virtual teams. • Don't ignore the costs of doing business in the digital age. Establish a calendar of renewal and replacement of communication infrastructure, computers, software upgrades or licenses, and personal devices, and plan for these expenses. The Individual People who are attracted to and succeed in acquiring the training needed to enter the fi elds of architecture and related professions are generally intelligent, ambitious, tal- ented, and hard-working. They are also frequently motivated by the belief that they can make a difference in the world, and look forward to working in a creative, com- municative environment with like-minded individuals, where their contributions will make a difference. With the realities of any business, including deadlines, budgets, and complex tasks, requiring painstaking and reiterative work, it is all too easy for most busy and successful offi ces to take the softer issues of fi rm culture and personnel devel- opment for granted. As a fi rm grows, it becomes increasingly important to be vigilant in establishing and maintaining a cycle of thoughtful review of each staff person and to give them timely performance feedback. A fi rm should also do what it can to align employees with educational and project opportunities that allow them to grow with the fi rm. While professional continuing education is equally the responsibility of the indi- vidual, a growing fi rm benefi ts from supporting this process. Maintain an open dia- logue with staff about what activities will be paid for or hosted by the offi ce, and which are considered to be extracurricular or volunteer. The goal is to create a culture where there is mutual investment between people and the practice. Examples of practices that cultivate the individual: • Create a system of formal reviews to gauge progress against understood goals, and encourage immediate feedback, including both constructive criticism and praise. Don't let perceived weaknesses in performance fester, but provide interim feedback in a timely manner. • Look for ways to let people shine, and to develop their own voice in the practice. Create opportunities for individuals to discuss or present work to the offi ce and to clients. • Be prepared to talk about long-term personal and career goals. Be open about plan- ning for the future. • Allow people to have input about issues related to the fi rm as a practice and include staff in planning for the future. • Allow people to fail in an atmosphere of safety. Celebrate lessons learned by discuss- ing mistakes and solutions openly. • Acknowledge the contributions of people with specialty or technical knowledge. • Allow for healthy competition: Host in-house design competitions, provide special opportunities and rewards for people doing exemplary work, and make this visible to others. CREATING A LEGACY The most successful practices, whether they are small or large, eventually become organizations that are greater perhaps than the talents of any particular individual. They can shape the industry and practice by their leadership in design, research, and service to the community. As the practice grows to a stable, mature entity, its leaders must become articulate in communicating the institutional values to others, and to 5.5 Leader Effectiveness 227 PART 2: FIRM MANAGEMENT maintain, refi ne, and reinvent them as necessary through transitions in its leadership and business focus. These values must become the norm for decision making if a fi rm seeks to maintain a culture of creativity, of rigor, of investment in community and profession, and—in short—of excellence. Actions that will create a fi rm legacy for the practice and profession: • Industry leadership, including giving back to the profession through participation in education, professional organizations, research, and development • Community outreach and membership in cultural and educational organizations • Personal and political engagement in local, regional, national, and global mecha- nisms • Leadership in political and environmental stewardship • Leadership in dialogues that shape the environment

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