We live in an amazingly connected world; a world where our ability to share ideas which will someday create great things far exceeds the wildest dreams of even the most creative minds of the previous generation.  A world that has been flattened by the internet has been connected by international travel and has been politically stable enough to build international relationships.  However, given the crisis mentality that seems to have gripped us and the profound and continuous change that this connectivity breeds you might be wondering if it is a good thing. 

You fear the internet might send your job to some far-away place.  You worry about the cost of filling your gas tank more than buying an international airline ticket.  You hear about the threats of terror somewhat regularly.  This constant connectivity can cause us to lose perspective and take a negative outlook about the state of the world in which we live.  Every now and then we have an experience that sharpens our perspective and reminds us of the great opportunities that exist in modern society. 

I recently read a fascinating book by Mandit Kumar:  Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality.  This is a book about the dawn of theoretical physics and the beginning of the atomic age.  It includes a twelve page timeline that starts in 1858 with the birth of Max Planck and ends in 2007 with the current puzzle of how pairs of non-local photons can behave predictably over long distances.  You might wonder what it could possibly have to do with politics, international collaboration and the building of relationships. 

The main plot of the story was not the part of the book that sharpened my perspective.  The fascinating sub-plot of the book that should be of interest to anybody trying to solve a problem that requires teamwork, was the story of the relationships between the dozen characters that led the focus of scientific discovery.  Nine pages of this twelve page saga occurred between 1900 and 1945.  If you take the time to plough through the subject matter you will realize that the incredible advances chronicled in this relatively short period of time would have not been possible to unlock by one person.  Even a person with the legendary intellect of Albert Einstein cannot succeed without the constant challenge and prodding of ideas from his peers.  As you begin to understand how long-standing relationships, respect and social engagement between this diverse group of scientists, you see the engine that propelled discovery and understand the necessity and the value of teamwork. 

Compare the collaboration tools, access to travel and the social and political state of the world between 1900 and 1945 to what we have today.  If you think we live in difficult times consider the following:

·         Forget the internet they wrote letters and had them delivered days or weeks later by steam ship

·         Commercial air travel was not available so if they met for a conference it took a real commitment of time.

·         These events took place during two world wars and the protagonists of the story were on different political and social sides of the conflicts.

With all the advantages we have today I suggest the next time you feel inclined to find an excuse about why you can’t collaborate with a colleague to solve a problem you might want to get a little perspective, role up your sleeves and get busy.  

In a world focused on action and results here are three questions that you might want to consider every day:

1.    If I hit a dead end when trying to solve a problem, what do I do?  Have you built a support network of trusted collaborators that can help you break-through?

2.    What keeps me from opening up to the insights of others?

3.    What risk did I take yesterday?  What risk will I take tomorrow?

Tags: Behavior, Collaboration, Generations, Inspiration, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Design, Futuristic, Generations, Innovative, People, Technology, Technology/Innovation, Trends

I’m seeing increasing evidence that skilled labor and the people who produce it are growing in value to business owners. So even in an economy with a nearly 10% unemployment rate, why are these key employees in short supply?  The answer is simple, it’s because our idea that the value of labor is rooted in an industrial revolution era concept of the assembly line.  We tend to view all labor as a mindless task reserved to those who don’t have the mental capacity to do something else.  In a six sigma, just-in-time manufacturing world, labor has become anything but a mindless task.  We are increasing the need for both thinking and doing.  I predict that this phenomenon will eventually change our mindset about higher education. To advance in the new economy, we’ll need intelligent workers who can make informed decisions in the manufacturing process and the employers who are willing to pay a premium to get workers that can both think and do.

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Tags: Behavior, Generations, Leadership, Millenials
Posted in Generations, People, Services, Trends, Workplace

I recently had the pleasure of attending a two day Lessons Learned Workshop at NIH related to Biomedical Research Facilities that have been built in the last several years. In today’s complex world we architects are trying, harder than ever it seems, to meet the needs of our client with each project, but today, our clients seem to have many voices. The beauty of this conference was that all of the competing voices were in one place and had a chance to express their perspective in an educational setting. In the project world it can be an extremely delicate balancing act to place the proper emphasis on the right voice.

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Tags: Advice, Behavior, Biocontainment, Change, Collaboration, Labs, Leadership, Learning, NIH, pain, Programming, Research, Safety, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Architecture, Change Management, Design, Generations, Innovative, Lab Planning, People, Science

I just returned from the 2010 SCUP North Central Conference held at the University of Cincinnati. I always find it energizing to reacquaint with old friends, make new ones, and truly inspiring to witness the passion in higher education that SCUP members share in common. It was a privilege to present the topic “The Future is Now: Community College Planning for 2020” with Bruce Massis of Columbus State Community College and Jerry Webster of Terra State Community College. Our talk focused on the challenges and opportunities that these colleges face from the impact of the “Great Recession”, the varied needs of an increasingly diverse group of students, effective strategic planning, effective partnerships that benefit both community colleges and surrounding communities, and the positive impact that architecture can have to enhance the experience of learning, social interaction, and student success. Over the next several weeks, I will continue to share more information about the subject

Tags: Behavior, Campus, Change, Generations, Leadership, Learning, Millenials, Programming, Recession, Research, Strategy, students
Posted in Architecture, Campus Planning, Classrooms, Futuristic, Generations, Higher Education, People, Trends

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” Albert Einstein.

Like Tim Brown from IDEO, we have found that it is more effective to initiate the act of design by taking design out of the hands of the designer and putting it in the hands of those most impacted by the design.  On a recent project we were faced with a challenge that changed my method of initiating, envisioning and conceptualizing a project in collaboration with those it impacted the most. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAinLaT42xY

The challenge was put to us by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center when they asked us to create a new experience for the child patient, their family, and their caregivers in the design of a new satellite hospital. The essential ingredient in the process of putting design into the hands of those most impacted it was to find a way for children to be active participants in the design process.   

To do this, we created a process tool we call “Imagine.” In this case,  where we utilized narratives to lead children through a series of visioning sessions to uncover the qualities of their favorite places, the places that make them happy, feel good and most importantly not scared.  We then worked with the kids to do sketches or “ideagrams” to diagram or “draw what they saw” while listening to the narrative.  The process, taking no longer than 30 to 40 minutes opened a new way of working together that fully engaged the creativity of the children.  We then worked with the children, core project team and parents alike to apply those favorite qualities to the design of new space and the experiences they would have when receiving or giving care.  In his terrific book Inner Game of Work, Timothy Gallway puts it this way.

“It is more effective for a golfer to “see” the trajectory of his golf ball rising into an arc against the sky, then falling onto the green and rolling into the hole, than it is to say to himself, “I want to hole this shot.”  Likewise, if your goal is better teamwork with your colleagues, it contributes to mobility to envision what that might look and sound like.  When you use pictures, sounds, and words to project a desired future state, more parts of the brain are involved in the goal setting.  This increases the likelihood that more of your brain will be used in the process of fulfilling the goal.*”        

When we used this process with parents as well as kids we found it worked equally well if not better than what we were using to engage adults in collaborative design thinking.  We use this method today with a wide variety of groups, including business and community leaders complete with crayons and construction paper.  Though occasionally we find, especially serious executives, skeptical of the idea that you can do effective work with a crayon in your hand, this has tool has made the sometimes ethereal process of visioning immencely practical, leveraging the power of the imagination.

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Tags: Books, Experience, Imagination, Pictures
Posted in Cool, Design, Generations, People, Tools, Workplace

I have been involved in many projects with different types of retailers, where I always inquire about the number of employees in the store and their responsibilities. In the past twenty years, the number of people manning the floor and servicing the guest has reduced considerably. The responsibility of those left has increased, an employee used to be there to service the guest and refold merchandise has in most cases now include boarder activities including: stocking, changing signage, visual merchandising, moving fixtures and even changing light bulbs in some instances.     

With the recession, I have noticed that those behind the counter or on the sales floor have been getting older, and not just by a few years. I encounter a returning retired work force. A survey by AARP recently found 20 percent of workers age 55 to 64 plan to delay retirement because of current economic conditions. Couple that with the added job responsibilities and what does all this mean to the aging sales force?     

Mother’s Day was coming and the kids decided they wanted to get their mother an iPod Touch. So we investigated the best and closest place to get a metal clad 8 GB model and Walmart came up the winner. The Friday night before, we headed up to my Super Walmart in Lebanon, Ohio to purchase one. There has always been elderly gentleman at the door, no matter the time of day, greeting us at the door: “Welcome to Walmart” and then randomly checking register receipts against what was in your basket on the way out, but always a “Thank you for Shopping Walmart”; not a tremendous amount of responsibility.  I have noticed that the staffing at Walmart has also been getting older. The cashiers, floor stockers and even the deli team members have been changing over to much older employees.     

Since it was late at night, there was no electronics department manager on duty or manning the electronics department cash register. My son found a man stocking the office supply aisles who radioed the night manager to assist us. Mary, a friendly, senior women came to our assistance to open the Apple showcase to retrieve our iPod. To my surprise, as she reached down with the set of keys to open the sliding door lock, she suddenly let out a loud grunt as she sat down hard on the floor. Apparently she could not physically bend down to 4 inches off the floor to unlock the case. In a lot of discomfort, I quickly offered to help her; she refused and remarked how she is “used to it”. As Mary reached into the case I quickly captured the moment on my camera.      

We insisted to help her back up, but again she refused and noted “Why, in the life of me, wouldn’t they have put the lock high up on the case?”. I looked her in the eye and sincerely replied, ” Unfortunately,  I am a store designer.  I am one the people in the world whose responsibility is to think about these things. I even know the head of design for electronics at Walmart and he would never want you to end up sitting on the floor.  So on his behalf and my profession, I apologize.” I meant what I said, but I quickly realized how strange and unimportant it was to say it to someone who probably has to sit on the floor several times a night. Mary then hobbled over to register to ring us up.     

I did some research on Saturday after wrapping the gift. According to one government estimate, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older. The incident has had me thinking more about our responsibilities to truly consider the need of the employee and recognizing everyday tasks that are difficult, if not dangerous for a senior retail workforce. Retailers and designers need to plan more user friendly environment; one that consider the ergonomics, the physical limits, the eyesight and the too broad responsibilities for this every increasing demographic.     

So far the biggest problems I have observed include; the handling weight of product, ladders, under stocking, over stocking,  button sizes on registers, font sizes on safety signage, low light levels, register floor matting, walk-off mat edges, and the distance required to traveled in the larger stores. I believe we all have a duty as  designers and storeplanners to at the very least understand the needs and limitation of a senior work force.

Tags: Change, Experience, Generations, Store
Posted in Big Box, Design, Environmental Graphic Design, Generations, People, Retail, Store Design, Trends

Johnson Controls has self-funded a large body of research on the workplace.  One of the results is a paper called “The Smart Workplace of 2030”. The language of the paper suggests that the current trend we see toward community space, with emphasis on collaboration and innovation, will be in full maturity in 2030.  The “Key Outputs” are defined as:

• The permanent physical location of work is the Hive
• Work grows through Cloud Networks
• The Eco Office becomes intelligent growth zones where individuals with a common interest meet and collaborate
• Collective knowledge zones form a powerful collective intelligence, which is then automatically scanned, recorded and classified to use in business results
• Our technology solutions are intuitive, embedded in our environment and non intrusive, yet controllable by each individual
• The Smart Worker is equipped with remarkable technological tools and solutions, intuitive systems and solutions

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Tags: Papers
Posted in Generations, People, Technology, Trends, Workplace

My youngest child, Eric, was born in the last year of the “Millennial” generation (1981-2000). When I recently mentioned to him that I was going to begin writing a blog and was not exactly sure how to get going, my nine year old casually replied “A blog is just a virtual diary Daaad. I blog with my friends about the music I listen to all the time.” It never ceases to amaze that kids just seem to embrace what is new and innovative, whether it’s music or technology. I suppose it’s my fascination in how my own children learn and communicate that plays a large part of my passion for higher education.

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Tags: Millenials, students
Posted in Classrooms, Futuristic, Generations, Higher Education, People, Technology

As we prepare to plan libraries, science buildings and classrooms, the design process has typically been to quickly develop the “program of requirements”  (many times not much more than a list of spaces and sizes) and jump right into design concepts. Designers listen to what the client wants and needs. Many times this comes from the faculty and administration levels, with some or little input from the students. 1-3 years later, when the project is complete, will it meet the needs of the students?

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Posted in Classrooms, Design, Generations, Higher Education, People