There are two types of people in this world. Those engaging architects and those that don’t. The key to generating more work is to change the minds of those people proposing to design and build without the assistance of an architect.
Convincing more people to use an architect is about change-making. It’s less about education.
When it comes to making change happen, it’s rare for people to be swayed by data. We only have to have a casual glance at many of the critical issues of today to know there’s a multitude of people remaining unswayed by irrefutable data. Change is driven by emotions not data. As Seth Godin noted, “Change happens when people fall in love with a better idea of the future.”
There are three principle reasons people might resist change: affiliation, status and convenience. Affiliation and status are matters that challenge identity and community – always ticklish areas. The three all lead to personal questioning:
Affiliation: Do other people I know and respect use an architect? Do I want to fit in with and be the same as those people?
Status: Am I the sort of person to use an architect and will it be a point of pride or embarrassment? Is an architectural design, and all that comes with it, the sort of building I seek and represents who I am?
Convenience: Is using an architect going to challenge my time, beliefs or bank balance?
They’re all questions with potential entré to an impenetrable self-limiting belief. They lead in to stories potential clients might tell themselves, about being the sort of person that doesn’t engage an architect. It’s not only about emotion, it’s also about changing the inertia of affiliation, status and convenience. A lack of inertia is challenging, especially when it comes to convenience. Emotion and perception therefore need to be leaned upon to change stories around affiliation and status. Change perception and you’ll change the framing of affiliation, status and convenience. It’s therefore beholden on architects to change perception:
Change the perception of the profession.
Change the perception of cost and opportunity cost.
Change the perception of the value of design.
Change the perception of the value of architects.
Change the perception of what architects value.
Change the perception of what architects actually do. (It’s not just design.)
Change the perception of the work that architects can do. (Maybe it’s not full services.)
Importantly, this is not just about marketing. This goes far beyond marketing. To generate a deeper pool of work, architects need to change the way they do things, not just the way they talk about, present and execute what they do. Without changing communication and how they act, the volume of work available is unlikely to increase.
There’ll be some that might argue it’s not possible, it’s too ambitious to think the profession can change. Arguing the way they’ve always done things must not change or be challenged. Suggesting it’s not possible (or desirable) to change architectural practice and communication for new markets. They’re right, it’s not possible if they don’t try. Nothing changes without creativity, hard work and embracing failure.
Change feels risky, and as I’ve previously written Risky is Better. Doing nothing, playing it safe, feels better in the short term, but it’s a dangerous long term strategy. It’s better to adapt and change to meet external change in a proactive way, rather than be forced to do so reactively and against your best intention. The point here is in order to generate work it’s necessary to try things out, to take small risks. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Experiment and learn from the results, both failures and successes and always with a defined objective in mind. Whilst being mindful of building emotional connection and changing perception.
There is plentiful work for architects. More than I think is recognised. It first requires change from the profession, experimenting and taking risks. Doing so to change what they do and change the perception of those that might not otherwise engage an architect.
To change others, sometimes change has to first be made by you.
Picture by David Yu
