View this in your browser.

I pay my respects and acknowledge all Traditional Custodians of Country and on whose land I live and work. I recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.
Always was, always will be.

Hi! I'm Michael.

Welcome to this week's useletter.

The newsletter that's useful. Focussed on your future not my past.

Warning. There’s a risk this will be a rant this week.

I’ll try to resist and keep it useful.

Currently I'm writing an application for a travelling scholarship. I’m wanting to research how we might become better at cultural change for wellbeing as a profession. My focus is on the less well resourced small to medium sized practices, where the challenge is greater.

The thing is, there’s a lot of resources to support wellbeing in the profession.

The Guides to Wellbeing in Architecture Practice

Architects Mental Wellbeing Toolkit

To name two.

That’s not the challenge.

The challenge is getting enrolment in the need to embrace and deliver wellbeing.

And operationalise the resources. Supporting practices in cultural change for wellbeing.

When resources are tight, the challenge is real.

But the profession also grips tightly to the status quo.

Fearing change, or the perceived cost of making it happen.

But status quo is a sunk cost.

So please allow me to explain sunk costs and the profession.

Rant incoming!

I got you

Michael

PS: If you've thoughts on how to support smaller practices in cultural change for wellbeing, I'd love to hear from you. Please feel to reach out with your ideas or insights.

It’s been spent. We’re spent

Let's start with this extraordinary quote in regard to the recently completed The Wellbeing of Architects research.

“Many respondents both in 2021 and again in 2023 identified architecture as a career that did not support their personal wellbeing and would not necessarily recommend it to others. But in an apparent contradiction, respondents also recorded high levels of professional and creative identity – in other words they felt proud to be personally associated with the practice of architecture.”

I hope we can all agree that’s completely bonkers!

And it got me thinking about why that might be the profession's condition.

Firstly, as identified in the quote, it’s very much about identity.

People love architects. Sadly not so much their work perhaps, but saying you’re an architect usually piques interest at a party, right? And everyone wants to be loved.

An architect’s identity is very much wrapped up in what they do and why they do it.

Thinking up extraordinary solutions to building briefs.

And seeing them realised is also freaking awesome.

What’s not to love about being and architect?

Oh… wait!

In the aforementioned research, the surveys identified architects wellbeing was well below the Australian national average.

I say again, that’s completely bonkers! Right?

I got to thinking further…

Architects invest A LOT of time and energy into both their education and career establishment. So much so they’re reluctant to leave, even when it’s at substantial personal cost.

That’s a sunk cost fallacy.

It’s therefore important for the profession to understand sunk costs better,

because once you understand the concept, you start to see it everywhere.

And once seen, it can’t be unseen.

Basically, the Sunk Cost Fallacy is our tendency to continue with something we've already invested heavily in - that might be time, money, effort, or emotional energy - even when abandoning it is clearly the better choice.

You see where I'm going with this?

For example, have you ever gone out wearing an expensive outfit you realised looked terrible on you only after you got home from the shops. I know I have - hello awful 90’s suit, which I’m embarrassed to say I slipped into many times in spite of how badly it suited me! And the point here is we often double down in our denial. It becomes an escalation of commitment to a losing cause - throwing more and more money at that bomb of a car, in the hope that’ll be the last time.

The problem here is we end up making decisions based on our past investments and often in things that no longer serve us. Doing so instead of investing in what brings us value in the present and future, which objectively is the the only thing that rationally makes a difference. That can include persisting in a profession where we've done 5 years of study and another 3+ years to registration. And that's before we've started our own practice.

Our sunk costs might also include our systems, strategies, or even goals and values. The things that may have once propelled our practice, and are now more of an anchor.

There’s identity tied into this too. Recognising sunk costs might require humility and acknowledging our errors, and that change is required. Which neatly brings us back to how sunk costs can impact wellbeing and cultural change.

Now... it’s at this point I realise this might have been better as a blog post!

Thanks for staying with me. Understanding sunk costs is vital in recognising their impact in our decision making and subsequently the professions wellbeing.

You've probably one question that I'll end on...

How do you over come sunk costs?

In short...

find the ways that work for you, to take your emotions out of your decision making.

You got this.

The culture of practice workshops

Workshops ending with better practice

Master practice skills, leadership and elevate your team’s culture.
Build a more efficient and adaptable practice, with a plan for the future.
Level up team skills to amplify practice capabilities, wellbeing and passion.ion.

Free 45 minute Practice Clarity Consultation

Book a consultation