The future of the architectural profession is not assured. The profession is facing an existential triple threat: Complicity in the climate crisis in the tacit service of capital has left many architects uneasy about their work and the diminished status of the profession; The formerly singular control of architects, their project scope and professional status are being eroded by alternate professions; Whilst AI and algorithmic systems threatens to marginalise the professions’ creative cachet.
“The architecture profession has become moot, left with no other option than to mimic the language of those who have co-opted its intellectual domain.”
Reinier de Graaf
Regardless of the challenges, as oft observed, there’s opportunity in a crisis. The opportunity to refresh the profession, rethink what it does and the way it does it. Not only becoming more responsive to change but seeking opportunity in it.
Becoming more responsive requires agility, and the more agile model of distributed leadership is highly suited to the profession. It’s a non-coercive model, affording individuals more autonomy whilst working on common goals. It’s a collaborative system managed by appointed and informal leaders. Giving everyone agency to contribute their expertise, knowledge, skills, and ideas. It’s hierarchy tuned to maximise contributions, leverage everyone’s strengths and initiative.
Note: there’s more on distributed leadership in my previous post Architects, lead like pelicans. With more about an agile model of practice in my next post.
Why distributed leadership is a good model for the profession
Driving innovation
Innovation is first not because it’s singularly the most important reason, but because it’s the most important in addressing the architecture profession’s evolution.
A distributed leadership model encourages everyone to contribute their personal skills, insights and expertise to deliver change defined by a common goal. And by prioritising a common goal over process, experimentation and innovation follow.
Give people more autonomy and responsibility and you give them the agency to experiment and be more entrepreneurial in their thinking. It’s subsequently in their interests to identify what can be done better and how they might contribute to positive change. They’ll identify and engage in new ways of working with each other, spreading ideas faster, and developing innovations with a shared vision. All for the overall benefit of the practice and its evolution.
Discovering and developing leaders
By making space for everyone to step up and lead, leadership ability is more readily identified. People no longer wait to be asked, they can pick themselves and build their leadership skills. Existing leaders are then to be encouraged to mentor, train and support new leaders. Continuing and reinforcing the shared ambition and vision of the practice.
Knowledge distribution and learning
In a model with greater equity, everyone feels more comfortable contributing their knowledge and expertise. It similarly encourages everyone to embrace learning from others. Resulting in a more extensive distribution of knowledge and expertise. With less loss to the practice on the departure of team members. (Albeit less common – see Reducing churn below).
Improving communication
In order for effective leadership in a distributed model, effective communication is required but not guaranteed. When all leaders are invested in working together, however, they’re more motivated to communicate effectively, checking in and offering ideas. Communication is a central plank of successful leadership.
Sharing
Just as communication is not a given, neither is sharing, but sharing is implicit in distributed leadership. The sharing of ideas, feedback and resources. Sharing is the point.
Increasing productivity
With autonomy comes typically greater productivity and commitment. There’s fewer bottlenecks, more initiative and ownership of problems. Everyone is working for the team and a shared vision or goal. The instilling of confidence and trust, through good leadership, reduces indecision and increases productivity.
Mistakes will be made no matter the leadership structure. The difference in distributed leadership is that instead of finding blame for mistakes, the emphasis is on how the mistake might be fixed and what can be learnt and improved.
Collaboration
When it comes to delivering buildings, collaboration is the stuff of practice. An inherent part of architectural practice, but not an inherent part of architectural leadership. The collaborative aspect of distributed leadership brings all the advantages of collaboration on building projects to the daily running of the practice: innovation, experience, knowledge distribution, learning, communication, sharing and productivity.
Reducing churn
A leader trusted with agency feels more valued, more in charge of their development, career and less inclined to seek opportunities elsewhere. They’re in charge of making their own opportunities where they are.
Scaling
Distributed leadership readily scales up from small practices to large ones. Whilst command and control models of leadership become unworkable when personal hierarchies and status intervenes. It’s a bigger conversation but I assert distributed leadership would be a better model for the collective profession, rather than relying on and exclusively looking to professional bodies for leadership and representation.
How to implement a distributed leadership system
This will take a core cultural shift for many architectural practices, even when the principles outlined above are inherent in many practices, in varying degrees. Traditional architectural practices, however, operate with a linear or pyramid leadership models, not always command and control, but often.
To move entirely distributed leadership will take time, here’s how to do it well.
Trust
Trust in the process. It might seem a challenging and radical change, and there will be bumps along the way, but you need to trust it will succeed. For trust to be established leadership must be given up and shared. This is best achieved by identifying the desired outcomes and shared vision at the outset. Establishing guard-rails and a direction for everyone to work within.
People will make different decisions, operate and communicate differently, they may make mistakes and that’s OK. This is all part of the growth of the leadership team and is an important part of the model. The new ways of thinking and doing are a learning opportunity. Trust that even though the path may be different the outcome will be the same. Gently guide and coach (see Coaching) towards achieving an outcome not a process. Your people will benefit and grow from this support. Trusting in themselves and in you.
Participation
Once a direction has been established and agreed upon by the senior leadership team, everyone’s input should be allowed. Leadership is a skill, encourage everyone who wants to participate to contribute. Broad participation captures all ideas and assists in developing leadership skills among the entire team.
Roles
Allow the team to have a say in their role in an open conversation. It allows them to identify their particular interest, experience, expertise and knowledge, and where they might best contribute. Allow this to happen no matter their position in the practice. It helps to maximise everyone’s input and the practice will benefit from their unique skills and knowledge. When people have a say in what they’re doing, they’re more invested.
Honesty
“Clear is kind, Unclear is unkind.” – Brené Brown.
It requires direct and clear feedback to ensure people are not overcommitted, incapable or over-ambitious about what they’ve chosen or given to undertake. Everyone must be realistic. Honesty starts with trust (as above) and psychological safety.
Coaching
Senior leaders should learn how to coach less experienced members of the team. With internal or external coaching and learning available to the team. The coaching of skills, unearthing of personal insights and feedback are invaluable to personal and practice development. Coaching, instead of teaching (or telling), helps the team to lead in their own way and make their own decisions, not necessarily replicating or repeating previous approaches. Learning opportunities (internally and externally) are crucial to development.
Senior leadership
Senior leadership should be the ongoing facilitators of change and of the leadership team. Whilst relinquishing command and control, it’s important they retain oversight of the process, contributing experience and expertise. Senior leadership empowering others to lead whilst assisting in delivering change.
Senior leadership’s urge to delegate must be resisted. Distributed leadership is not about delegation but empowering others to lead. Trust others to take responsibility, rather than delegating.
Transitional leadership
It’s impossible to go all in from the start. It by needs start with leadership and direction from the top, to guide the leadership change process. Beginning by establishing the vision and desired outcomes – done with buy-in from the entire practice, led from the top. Authority relinquished gradually and a little faster than feels comfortable.
Empower others
Empower everyone ready to lead, giving them agency to step up into leadership. Create opportunities for this to happen, whether that’s leading meetings or making bigger decisions. Let them know it’s OK to make mistakes and that everyone has their back.
Leading and following
Everyone can’t lead all the time. People should stepping into leadership when needed and appropriate, when they have the energy and only when required. The best example is when birds migrate in v-formations, as discussed in my previous post. There’s a time to lead and a time to follow. The team needs to learn to recognise when they’re needed to perform one or the other. Feedback and communication are key to managing this.
Agile
There’s a lot the architecture profession might learn from other industries. The ‘Agile’ model, created by the software industry, is one the profession might benefit from experimenting with. Agile substantially overlaps with distributed leadership and instead of a brief paragraph here my next post will cover it in more detail. Suffices to say that agility is critical to transitioning to new leadership. Being willing to experiment, adjust and adapt on the fly.
Is distributed leadership for my architectural practice?
Many architectural practices are already operating under a distributed leadership model, or very close to. Practices identifying as having a ‘flatter’ hierarchy have essentially adopted this leadership model. They’re practices operating at small to medium sizes, it’s less common to see wholistic distributed leadership at larger size practices outside of project delivery. It’s more common to see large practices utilising distributed leadership in their design teams, but not so in the running of the practice.
If you’ve got this far and you’re still undecided as to whether it’s right for you, consider your relationship with trust.
Change happens at the speed of trust.
Trust is the framework over which distributed leadership and change are built. It needs to be nurtured and given over. Trust allows for decisions and work to be done at pace. Trust helps people become more creative, developing, and embracing innovation. Trust is the way to leverage everyone’s skills, expertise and leadership no matter what their position is in the practice. If this makes you uncomfortable, it might not be for you.
Concluding thoughts
Mindsets around work are shifting. People are seeking greater input, autonomy and wanting to contribute to the world in a meaningful way. Without evidence, my assumption is that in the general populous, architects represent a higher proportion of people thinking in this way. Adopting a distributed leadership model maximises people’s contributions and delivers greater satisfaction in their work.
Distributed leadership is a brilliant model for initiating and managing change and evolution. Helping a practice to become more agile and capable of adjusting, adopting and anticipating the challenges facing the profession now and in the future. Helping practices evolve, in the words of Reinier de Graaf, into one that’s no longer “moot”.
Image by john cox [edited]
