start designing a series of astonishing paper projects in your own time; which will shatter the architectural world when they are finally discovered after your death. don't waste your time with tv or friends or reading dumb books. your paid work is just getting you the money to do the real architecture at home. enter a competition or something: not to win, but to do something you're happy with.

you have too much architecture in you to be stopped by mere officework.

according to the book 'duck in a truck', you get a goat (in a boat), a sheep (in a jeep), and a frog (pedestrian?) to help you push your truck.

when they get your truck out of the muck, you leave them splattered with mud and drive away.

or hire an administrative assistant.

dsc_arch,

can i go item by item?

"I have even received resistance from staff regarding adding long range marketing activities to their plate because we just have too much to get out the door."

"review your past deadline promises and start to ask more time from the clients on the get go.
the office which is always on the rush rush rush, usually comprimises design quality. if you want to be a highspeed turn around or fast tract experts, then hire more people and earn more from the billing frequancy, if you feel thats where you want to be.
if your client base is always asking you to do the jobs in a rush order then you have to charge more to hire extra staff and move into a bigger building and so on.. gear up for that kind of firm.
you can't have it both ways and ask your overloaded staff to do even more. what do you think? nobody will put their hearts into it. i wouldn't.
so, sit back and review new projects from now on, with your people and do more realistic delivery projections that allows everybody to do extracirrucular activities without drainage and wear and tear in an actually fun and rewarding way.
a relaxed and efficient office environment is better for many reasons.
how can you do long term marketing activity like going to community meetings, parties and etc., if you already feel worn out? you wouldn't generate inspired energy to market your firm for interesting future clients.
furthermore, make sure you have a good handle of whats on your plate and make sure your milestones actually enclosed -read- projects concluded."

"The only one left to do the low level tasks of purging the contact database, reformat (fonts and pagination consistency not content) contracts and specs and work on a lot of other miscellaneous things is me."

"i mean, c'mon, these things should be done by an office maneger/assistant who can be hired, perhaps part time. and once you set up the system, updating shouldn't be that time consuming. what do you mean, purging contact database? how many days you purge and purge?"

"Furthermore, the lay staff does not seem to want to pick up these tasks because they are booked too."

"read the first item."

A lot of my job is spent in taking phone calls from current clients, wooing the next client and fire fighting the daily problems. I never seem to get three hours of dedicated time, so I am not the best person to complete these tasks.

"read the first item. and pass on some responsibilities. you are actually trying to do everything by yourself for your expansion oriented business set up. you won't expand in a healthy way and one day boom... fuse..."

It is becoming circular. In the past when the admin was getting too bad, I just went out and got more work. We need to sharpen the saw. But I feel that I am not the one who needs to be at the grinding wheel.

"you have to let go some responsibilities to other people and concentrate on what you want to do. otherwise your life is going to get more and more boring. it is time to give yourself and others a breake and some slack. you might be surprised to find out how good the others sharpen their saws given the time and material."

dsc_arch, don't get bogged down with many little tasks and focus on the real work architects do. seems like you need a professional administrative person. you shouldn't give your architectural staff to do administrative tasks because since it ain't their craft, they'll take hours of their sweet time tracking down somebody's current contact address. and, they will hate their job.

dear abra

administration? isnt that what the weekends for???

Yes we are moving too fast and all of us are working toward burn out. There has been a lot of advise toward beginning to move up the food chain as it relates toward work.

While I think that it would be nice how do you service the existing clients on one end while beginning to target and woo the clients on the other end. More over part of the root problem is deciding how, and at what speed to move up the food chain.

I did begin a small Marketing meeting to reflect on what types of projects do we want to feel passionate about and go after. The responding answer was, “it is your firm why are you asking us”. It was rather a bubble bursting moment. I would have jumped at the opportunity to speak my mind when I was junior staff.

I just finished watching the Black Pearl on ABC. Maybe I should be more like a strong captain, keep up the beatings until the moral improves.

Either that or re- read My Side of the Mountain and look for a tree.

Abra,

We do have a 35 hour week admin only person. I just don’t want to hire a second.

I'm a noobie to practice, junior of junior, but here is my perhaps naive 2 cents:

What would happen if you were to spread the load: restructure the firm, flatten the organization... instead of hiring right away, promote the most qualified and talented of your staff, define roles, make senior people partners in command rather than trying to be a strong captain... I've seen a couple very successful firms where each partner plays a role related to their strength: one designs, one is the charismatic client schmoozer / rain maker, another might be the business manager... Of course each could play other roles, each could oversee projects, but their primary leadership roles would shift to their strength, and this would be very open within the firm and explicitly defined. While this might mean giving up some ownership and control, it might actually give your firm room and energy to grow... if ther work and size of the office were to double, would it be worth splitting ownership?

The effect of this on the firm is twofold: 1. to motivate leadership and spread the leadership burden, and 2. to generate a culture of collaboration and comradery among the staff, let people take more ownership of their work...

In other words, it could possibly be the case (I don't know the situation, but just hypothesizing) that a powerful response to “it is your firm why are you asking us” could be to stand up on your desk like Jack Sparrow and rant in a drunken stupor: "No, dammit!! It's not my firm. It's OUR firm. Things are going to CHANGE around here, we have alot of work available to us, and I want to give everyone an opportunity to take ownership and authorship of our work, to embrace constructive criticism, but to strive to do always do good work... We're all in this together, and if you're with me, let's do something that inspires each other, that inspires our clients, and that we can all be proud of and point to and say 'I was a part of that, and we all, with our clients, did it together'... Let's grow together, it might not all be fun and glorious, but I encourage you to speak out, be yourselves, collaborate in your teams and with each other, work hard but enjoy life too, and enjoy yourselves in your work, and as our opportunities grow, we will take on more people to do more work, this should not be a sweatshop, but we can all do the best work that we can within an environment that inspires us. Let's be colleagues, comrades, and friends, and do damn good work!!"

Well, that would definitely be revolutionary...

Hmm... You might get blank faces and then people would all put their headphones back on and go back to their autocad terminals... I dunno it's tough... How do you inspire people or jump start energy and to make work enjoyable and exciting?... IMO, part of it is a social thing... Making people want to jump out of bed every morning to run to work (or your clients want to jump out of bed and run to see your work) is partly finding the right mix of people, not just in terms of the work and talent but in terms of a team fit...

But then maybe these things take time... I dunno rambling... Or maybe give them cookies... They just need sugar.

Hilarious - but absolutely valid - counterpoint to your argument, bRink.

This thread is turning into a discussion about office culture - I like it.

We had a bit of that today during staff meeting. However the feedback was “the sprit was willing but the body weak.” They all enjoy me being the heavy.

We talked about passion. We also talked about how much additional work would be required to be the development coach to out clients. How to package it and would the clients’ pay. Leading a true DD phase and taking on the role of the CM.

A lot of it came back to staffing. It is so hard to find talented people in the hinterland of Chicago. To make it work would be 6 more people. It did start the discussion – how to make this place what it should be.

Then they did put back on their headphones...

bRink – Great speech. I am not as eloquent. How long did it take you to conjure up that speech? It would have taken me hours! Also I am too close to the subject matter. Thank you for your objectivity.

Is being a CM really what you want, though? Construction Management is more about management than it is about architecture (obviously), and it would likely bring upon even MORE administrative tasks than you already have. Unless you want to move into design-build, but I do not get that sense from your previous posts.

If it were up to me, I'd say, "Let someone else be the "development coach" / owner's rep / CM. I want to be a fantastic designer who focuses specifically on architecture, who doesn't compromise design integrity, and can deliver a design that exceeds client expectations."

We all have different goals; it's always best when they align with our actions and intentions.

Well, writing up that speach in an anonymous forum and *not afraid to speak from the gut for fear of hearing crickets chirping as a response* took all of 5 minutes... I think that's something that alot of people working in architecture feel in the back of their minds and in their gut, and might daydream about, but the reality is can't really voice... I think the issue is that it would take alot of guts for somebody to say what's in their gut, to expose themselves, even though alot of people feel the same way... And it takes alot more than a speach to change culture. So the most likely effect of exposing your gut is a momentary connection, and then people put their headphones back on and get to work...

So... I think that's pretty much how it goes... Everyone thinking the same thing, in between headphones, but the moment they open their mouths, what comes out is just more of the same, playing it safe and cool...

Sometimes speaking from the heart is the way to go, say making a speach at a wedding (where at least you have a license to be cheesy)... But in the workplace, I think it could work for all of a day, maybe people would congratulate you on 'telling it like it is' 'what we all felt', and then it's "Jerry McGuire", pack up your fish and take him with you... It's not that people disagree with you, it's that criticism of a culture that cannot change puts you on the outside... If Jerry McGuire never wrote that memo, and hit the "eject" button, you could have steered the plane gradually to a landing on the runway...

But I do think that sometimes these things are better left unvoiced but action taken subtly to gradually shape culture... Maybe feeding people cookies [i]is[i] revolutionary... (affecting workplace culture in small steps) Culture is a pretty strong thing, it can be expensive and chaotic to try to revolutionize a workplace overnight, maybe revolution has to happen from within? Gradual... Like starting up weekly initiatives like charrettes and crits, or ordering a pizza for employees you see burning the midnight oil...

Or maybe organizing an office sports team, I know a number of people who work at offices with softball or soccer teams... It's funny that it would seem like just a time waster or distraction, but it actually benefits the workplace by fostering comradery, positivity, energy, and teamwork...

But then again, when there is so much shit hitting the fan all the time, who has time to play softball? Better to hire more help and put on the headphones... Plus, headphones are kindof comfortable, and they are a good thing... A culture that lets people focus on their work is good. Maybe office culture grows over time, and it'll just *happen* when people reach a comfort level where everything just *CLICKS*...?

Regarding playing the client rep / "development coach" etc.:

That seems to me like a huge job in its own... You'd need somebody extremely knowledgable and really good with people, and able to talk well and empathize and excite people... Basically the idea salesman... Not necessarily the ideas person, but the person who could make it happen...

Which is one of the reasons I wonder if splitting leadership roles in a firm is a good thing... Let one partner focus on the client while others focus on design, running the business, etc...?

dsc arch. What about cutting one hour out of each day; a time of day when you have energy, no less, and work on a tiny project; an extension to your house or a garden shed or an easy chair design; draw with pencil on some nice, thick, rough paper, note down your thought processes: the written extemporisations have to fuel then be tested by your drawing and... just remind yourself by so-doing why you're doing all the rest of this work. If you properly concentrate for this hour-long period for a week or two you may find yourself getting passionate again and what you find yourself passionate about may well inform the direction of that boat you're captain of...

dsc, here's my thoughts:

1) I think, from listening to you in the past, that you do a lot of small projects - I think this, by definition, requires more admin time. Either move towards fewer, larger projects, or charge an increase for small projects, rush projects, etc.

2) hire someone cheap to do simple admin tasks

3) your job, as the boss, is to do the admin stuff, not the architecture. unfortunately, that's the reality. if you don't like it:

4) reduce your workload to a level where you can still work on architecture.

Ok, one other thought - how many people are you managing now? I recall that it's more than 10 - you may consider hireing someone to help you with management (ie: a real project manager, or a partner!). I seem to recall that you can reasonabaly expect to manage only 6 people before you need help w/mgmt.

(sorry about my crap spelling...too tired...)

Move to London...that's what I'm doing to get out of my rut...

Gravel. Or sticks. Basically anything that will give you a grip. Same for snow.

gruen,

Currently I am managing 8. Since the last post I have been doing a lot of soul searching:

Bigger projects, same staff, more projects more staff, more CM, less CM; buying a firm in Chicago in order to get a better response to staffing interns; Junking the residential side, bringing on a residential side, manager. Angst toward the echo boomers as well as baby boomers in the profession. We had a lot of deadlines and no one wants to work more than 40 week. There are days I might junk it all and just pursue development.

On top of all of this I have too much going on. I forgot to mention that we are in the middle of moving and renovating the new home, starting the kids in a new school district as well as starting kids in athletic programs. I was blown away on how competitive 5 year old soccer is.

If I can get some more competent staff, complete some projects and gain momentum. Then I’ll work on dividing the staff into three teams: Residential, Commercial and CM. I will pursue a merger / buyout of a firm in Chicago. (we have already had prelim discussions). Have partner wife at home three days a week raising the kids. Spend my time between Waukegan and Chicago (about an hour on the train). Raise our fees, implement the marketing program / client experience surveys as well as update our web site.

Lastly, if there is time, swoop in and design a project or two.

Wow...all that in a week, huh?

dsc - actually, I think DCA's got some great advice. I see you squarely where I was a the moment when my business was at "make or break".

The post mortum (I closed my business) lead me to believe that I had grown too fast -- the money (and number of people) got larger than my management skills could allow at the time.

There was nothing wrong with the size, just too big, too quick.

I firmly think you would do well to focus on what you currently have, not take big steps (like buying another firm) until you can run what you have with your eyes closed.

Yes, I do think you should do bigger projects for more money, not more projects. My reasoning is that the start up time (pre project/ SD) and post project is NEARLY the same for a little project versus a big one. Yeah, I know that's somewhat of a generalization, but in my experience, it's difficult to make money on little projects. (Unless you charge a STRONG premium for the little projects.)

A lot of people compain about residential - ie: the clients don't know what they want, waste your time, etc. I personally find that all sorts of clients can be difficult - most recently I got to see the fun and games that large institutional clients can throw out. So, my advice is not "junk residential" but rather "junk the clients that you don't make money on" and "get more clients like the ones you do make money on."

Probably, commercial clients are the best, because they have a short time horizon and real money to spend. Of course, you have to pre-qualify them before taking on their project (but this is true for everyone). Institutional/governmental are often good too - deep pockets and able to string a project along forever. (although, beware of excess meetings and paper work - this can sink a small office if you haven't written a strong contract.)

Regarding your employees, that's the most difficult point. They never do it the way you want it done, and often downright screw up. I think you are stretched a bit thin, managing 8, home renovation, kids, wife, etc.

Probably what your employees need is strong leadership, which often translates into "tell them what they are going to do, and don't say anything that differs from that direction" for example, tell them "we will be working 45 hours per week until further notice." not "I sure wish we could get these deadlines done, why don't you work harder/better/smarter?"

I know you have regular meetings with your employees, perhaps these meetings are a bit too honest - ie: you are telling them how you feel, not so much telling them what you want them to do. (I'm just reading between the lines on your previous posts, I could be totally off on this one.)

At any rate - keep it simple for now, make some short term goals such as:

1) reduce workload
2) increase pay/profit
3) bring in more profitable jobs
4) kill off some deadlines before bringing in new short term deadlines

and do it with what you have. if you have some underperforming employees, consider either training them more, or unloading them. And, you need a solution where the employees have ownership of the deadlines to the point where they will do the time to meet the deadline. I don't have a solution on that one for you yet except the "carrot/stick" thing.

As a job captain/intern level employee, I would second gruen's last paragraph. Giving ownership of a project to an employee/team can do wonders. Consider previous posts about promoting & delegating to staff that seem promising and that you think will stick around. I am in a rut myself after asking for, but not receiving, more work/responsibility. I would be willing to move to chicago, want to hire me? :) The newly promoted might make mistakes in the shortrun, but they would be the future of your firm. If no one steps up to the plate, fire the least competent/promising guys. Consider paying more, offering higher position/responsibility to replace the dead wood.

Also, it seems you work hard/long hours. Does the intern/production staff see this? I can tell you from the other side, if I have no input on a project and the PM/PIC dumps work expecting 60hr week + weekends while they take off at 5 (or worse the afternoon off for golf) I don't have much motivation to do good work, and fatten their wallets.(not saying you do this, but support, and simple gestures ie food for an all nighter, can go a long way) This may seem lazy, selfish, typical gen-x/echo boomer but remember, we have many options in & out of the profession these days, and firms haven't exactly been loyal to us either.