I recently had an informational interview with the professor of real estate finance at Yale to discuss the MArch + MBA dual degree. The gentleman I spoke with teaches at both the school of architecture and business and also holds professional degrees in both disciplines.
From the beginning, he was extremely accommodating, polite and genuinely interested in helping me make the best decision possible. Beyond representing his department to the highest standard and offering me his thoughtful guidance, I left the conversation chewing on a new bit of information that hasn't lost its flavor since we said our goodbyes nearly two weeks ago.
"Influence."
He said '...architecture students work harder, are smarter, will have more debt and make significantly less money than the MBA's.' This is part of the perennial storm that I have come to understand hangs over the profession.
Then came the thunder... or simply the part that hurt the infantile architect in side of me the most. '...They will also have significantly less influence than an MBA over their career.'
"SHIT."
Architects respond to a client's wants and needs. Real estate and construction are also bottom line driven so design tends to go out the window. It's business, I get it.
But Architecture is not and was never intended to be a service industry, or at least so I think...So is it possible for architects or the field itself to become more dynamic and aggressive? Spearheading projects and simply being proactive versus reacting to the scraps that our employed MBA friends throw our way?
What can individuals do to restore or simply have more influence? And how does the new generation of designers educate and prepare themselves for this battle?
There's a lot of literature on the sources of influence (i.e. 'power') -- the one pasted below is about as good as any:
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is also known as positional power. It's derived from the position a person holds in an organization's hierarchy. Job descriptions, for example, require junior workers to report to managers and give managers the power to assign duties to their juniors. For positional power to be exercised effectively, the person wielding it must be deemed to have earned it legitimately. An example of legitimate power is that held by a company's CEO.
Expert power
Knowledge is power. Expert power is derived from possessing knowledge or expertise in a particular area. Such people are highly valued by organizations for their problem solving skills. People who have expert power perform critical tasks and are therefore deemed indispensable. The opinions, ideas and decisions of people with expert power are held in high regard by other employees and hence greatly influence their actions. Possession of expert power is normally a stepping stone to other sources of power such as legitimate power. For example, a person who holds expert power can be promoted to senior management, thereby giving him legitimate power.
Referent Power
Referent power is derived from the interpersonal relationships that a person cultivates with other people in the organization. People possess reference power when others respect and like them. Referent power arises from charisma, as the charismatic person influences others via the admiration, respect and trust others have for her. Referent power is also derived from personal connections that a person has with key people in the organization's hierarchy, such as the CEO. It's the perception of the personal relationships that she has that generates her power over others.
Coercive Power
Coercive power is derived from a person's ability to influence others via threats, punishments or sanctions. A junior staff member may work late to meet a deadline to avoid disciplinary action from his boss. Coercive power is, therefore, a person's ability to punish, fire or reprimand another employee. Coercive power helps control the behavior of employees by ensuring that they adhere to the organization's policies and norms.
Reward Power
Reward power arises from the ability of a person to influence the allocation of incentives in an organization. These incentives include salary increments, positive appraisals and promotions. In an organization, people who wield reward power tend to influence the actions of other employees. Reward power, if used well, greatly motivates employees. But if it's applied through favoritism, reward power can greatly demoralize employees and diminish their output.
If you look over this list and think about what we do in architecture (and how we do it) we probably exercise only one of the above five sources of power with any consistency -- i.e. "expert power".
The MBAs -- of which many become our clients -- tend to find themselves in positions where the other four sources of power are much more readily ats their disposal. Consequently, for many MBAs 'expertise' can become much less important as a source of influence.
I've thought about this issue of influence a lot recently, and it’s kind of driving me crazy.
Architects are great problem solvers. They work diligently at solving problems that clients pay them to solve. This sometimes leaves problems that clients do not want to pay to have solved underserved and unaddressed. I really feel like the way architects can become more relevant and have more influence in society is to become more entrepreneurial in nature.
Defining problems that affect peoples lives, investing resources into developing feasible solutions, engaging with other industries and following through to bring new products or ideas to market are all ways architects (or anyone in that respect) can become more relevant and have more influence on society.
If we wait for clients to bring the problems to us then it’s too late, we will always have to play by their rules and the issues we (as individuals) feel strongest about will always take a back seat.
doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, etc...all experts but ultimately part of the "service industry".
experts have knowledge and understanding that many potential clients think they can figure out after a few HGTV shows and the internet.
someone with an MBA absolutely thinks they could be an architect, seriously how hard can it be right "make drawings and pretty design...":
architects for the most part are weak politically and try to stand behind silly things like the license as the basis for their authority instead of trying to figure out way s to gain real power like an MBA would - all the powers as methods listed above by quizzical.
the old architects that make us all look bad and i've tried to not be like, actually are starting to make sense to me. by old architects, i mean that guy who in the middle of a conference out of left field drops a building code issue or some minor design point that shoots all the CM's on cocaine and developers down in 5 seconds. At first I used to think like the CM's and developers, well like no big deal - we will just file this then do this and etc...but now I get it. these old guys have been around they know the typical MBA bullshit and when it counts, they drop the facts hard and make everyone else feel stupid and mad enough to punch them. and then the old guy sends a bill for like $1600 at $400 an hour to the MBA's....
Business is all bullshit upfront counting on potentials. Developers who have been around usually align themselves with an architect who doesn't bullshit upfront, these architects are experienced enough to tell the developer up front where all the issues will lie and based on who is in the building department what paths could be taken.
to get to this position of influence in architecture you need to be old, frankly. this isn't a profession for the random young genius.
the old guy charging $400/hr gets it from the developers who make millions a year, because in that one hour the architect can cut through all the bullshit MBA types throw out there.
until architects accept a key fact about their business - it's a business and everything is a commodity, your advice and design needs to make money - until then architects will be like
hello everyone.. im an italian student of architecture.. sorry for my ignorance.. but what are the mba ?? .. and what is the use ?? .. thank
Sep 13, 12 3:23 pm ·
·
MBA is a MacBook Air. It's a lightweight laptop computer that looks fly but you really want a MacBook Pro if you're planning to do any real work on it.
that's just not nice. an mba is a masters in business administration degree. and you don't want a mac anything. apple is old news after steve jobs passed away. they're pretty much done innovating and instead trying to make money off of patent lawsuits instead of creating or designing anything useful.
the average architect is part of the service sector. that's why he gets paid shit.
if you actually get your act together, and learn that there are other ways of doing things. smarter ways, then you get to straddle that thin line between the creative class and the service sector. this is most apparent in the workloads associated with being the design architect as compared to the architect of record.
if you like making beautiful spaces/objects, you're lucky.
if you like putting stuff together, you're pretty much fucked.
Sep 16, 12 1:39 pm ·
·
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The Influence of an Architect
I recently had an informational interview with the professor of real estate finance at Yale to discuss the MArch + MBA dual degree. The gentleman I spoke with teaches at both the school of architecture and business and also holds professional degrees in both disciplines.
From the beginning, he was extremely accommodating, polite and genuinely interested in helping me make the best decision possible. Beyond representing his department to the highest standard and offering me his thoughtful guidance, I left the conversation chewing on a new bit of information that hasn't lost its flavor since we said our goodbyes nearly two weeks ago.
"Influence."
He said '...architecture students work harder, are smarter, will have more debt and make significantly less money than the MBA's.' This is part of the perennial storm that I have come to understand hangs over the profession.
Then came the thunder... or simply the part that hurt the infantile architect in side of me the most. '...They will also have significantly less influence than an MBA over their career.'
"SHIT."
Architects respond to a client's wants and needs. Real estate and construction are also bottom line driven so design tends to go out the window. It's business, I get it.
But Architecture is not and was never intended to be a service industry, or at least so I think...So is it possible for architects or the field itself to become more dynamic and aggressive? Spearheading projects and simply being proactive versus reacting to the scraps that our employed MBA friends throw our way?
What can individuals do to restore or simply have more influence? And how does the new generation of designers educate and prepare themselves for this battle?
There's a lot of literature on the sources of influence (i.e. 'power') -- the one pasted below is about as good as any:
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is also known as positional power. It's derived from the position a person holds in an organization's hierarchy. Job descriptions, for example, require junior workers to report to managers and give managers the power to assign duties to their juniors. For positional power to be exercised effectively, the person wielding it must be deemed to have earned it legitimately. An example of legitimate power is that held by a company's CEO.
Expert power
Knowledge is power. Expert power is derived from possessing knowledge or expertise in a particular area. Such people are highly valued by organizations for their problem solving skills. People who have expert power perform critical tasks and are therefore deemed indispensable. The opinions, ideas and decisions of people with expert power are held in high regard by other employees and hence greatly influence their actions. Possession of expert power is normally a stepping stone to other sources of power such as legitimate power. For example, a person who holds expert power can be promoted to senior management, thereby giving him legitimate power.
Referent Power
Referent power is derived from the interpersonal relationships that a person cultivates with other people in the organization. People possess reference power when others respect and like them. Referent power arises from charisma, as the charismatic person influences others via the admiration, respect and trust others have for her. Referent power is also derived from personal connections that a person has with key people in the organization's hierarchy, such as the CEO. It's the perception of the personal relationships that she has that generates her power over others.
Coercive Power
Coercive power is derived from a person's ability to influence others via threats, punishments or sanctions. A junior staff member may work late to meet a deadline to avoid disciplinary action from his boss. Coercive power is, therefore, a person's ability to punish, fire or reprimand another employee. Coercive power helps control the behavior of employees by ensuring that they adhere to the organization's policies and norms.
Reward Power
Reward power arises from the ability of a person to influence the allocation of incentives in an organization. These incentives include salary increments, positive appraisals and promotions. In an organization, people who wield reward power tend to influence the actions of other employees. Reward power, if used well, greatly motivates employees. But if it's applied through favoritism, reward power can greatly demoralize employees and diminish their output.
If you look over this list and think about what we do in architecture (and how we do it) we probably exercise only one of the above five sources of power with any consistency -- i.e. "expert power".
The MBAs -- of which many become our clients -- tend to find themselves in positions where the other four sources of power are much more readily ats their disposal. Consequently, for many MBAs 'expertise' can become much less important as a source of influence.
I've thought about this issue of influence a lot recently, and it’s kind of driving me crazy.
Architects are great problem solvers. They work diligently at solving problems that clients pay them to solve. This sometimes leaves problems that clients do not want to pay to have solved underserved and unaddressed. I really feel like the way architects can become more relevant and have more influence in society is to become more entrepreneurial in nature.
Defining problems that affect peoples lives, investing resources into developing feasible solutions, engaging with other industries and following through to bring new products or ideas to market are all ways architects (or anyone in that respect) can become more relevant and have more influence on society.
If we wait for clients to bring the problems to us then it’s too late, we will always have to play by their rules and the issues we (as individuals) feel strongest about will always take a back seat.
what I have figured out so far...
doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, etc...all experts but ultimately part of the "service industry".
experts have knowledge and understanding that many potential clients think they can figure out after a few HGTV shows and the internet.
someone with an MBA absolutely thinks they could be an architect, seriously how hard can it be right "make drawings and pretty design...":
architects for the most part are weak politically and try to stand behind silly things like the license as the basis for their authority instead of trying to figure out way s to gain real power like an MBA would - all the powers as methods listed above by quizzical.
the old architects that make us all look bad and i've tried to not be like, actually are starting to make sense to me. by old architects, i mean that guy who in the middle of a conference out of left field drops a building code issue or some minor design point that shoots all the CM's on cocaine and developers down in 5 seconds. At first I used to think like the CM's and developers, well like no big deal - we will just file this then do this and etc...but now I get it. these old guys have been around they know the typical MBA bullshit and when it counts, they drop the facts hard and make everyone else feel stupid and mad enough to punch them. and then the old guy sends a bill for like $1600 at $400 an hour to the MBA's....
Business is all bullshit upfront counting on potentials. Developers who have been around usually align themselves with an architect who doesn't bullshit upfront, these architects are experienced enough to tell the developer up front where all the issues will lie and based on who is in the building department what paths could be taken.
to get to this position of influence in architecture you need to be old, frankly. this isn't a profession for the random young genius.
and what i didn't say -
the old guy charging $400/hr gets it from the developers who make millions a year, because in that one hour the architect can cut through all the bullshit MBA types throw out there.
until architects accept a key fact about their business - it's a business and everything is a commodity, your advice and design needs to make money - until then architects will be like
money talks, bullshit walks...ye who holds the purse strings has the power
hello everyone.. im an italian student of architecture.. sorry for my ignorance.. but what are the mba ?? .. and what is the use ?? .. thank
MBA is a MacBook Air. It's a lightweight laptop computer that looks fly but you really want a MacBook Pro if you're planning to do any real work on it.
Yo!
that's just not nice. an mba is a masters in business administration degree. and you don't want a mac anything. apple is old news after steve jobs passed away. they're pretty much done innovating and instead trying to make money off of patent lawsuits instead of creating or designing anything useful.
Buon Giorno Albarc,
MBA is a Master's in Business Admin.
Ciao
Grazie oneLost..
ciao buona giornata ..
the average architect is part of the service sector. that's why he gets paid shit.
if you actually get your act together, and learn that there are other ways of doing things. smarter ways, then you get to straddle that thin line between the creative class and the service sector. this is most apparent in the workloads associated with being the design architect as compared to the architect of record.
if you like making beautiful spaces/objects, you're lucky.
if you like putting stuff together, you're pretty much fucked.
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