 |
| Garden of the Gods, Colorado |
Author's Note: I wrote this in the summer of 2022 and wanted to repackage it and update it but found it better as is. Yes, my term on CSI's board has been over for over a year but I'm embarking on a new challenge… more on that later. Our firm did move into our new office space in Dec 2022 and we love it! I hope you enjoy my thoughts here!
Our firm is moving into new office space later this year. For an architecture firm to move into new office space brings a lot of questions, a lot of excitement and a modicum of drama and second guessing. Especially when your firm is a top design firm in your area and has an incredibly talented workplace studio within your interior architecture group, as we do. All of this combined with the stereotypical ego of architects means the design of our new office space is under a fair amount of scrutiny.
I’ve built my career designing renovations and ground up buildings at colleges and universities, specifically research and teaching laboratories. I know very little about workplace design and furniture selection. For those reasons and more, I have stayed out of the design and furnishing of our new office space. For me, it’s a matter of trust. I trust the leaders and the design professionals who were tasked with the thankless project of designing and producing construction documents, selecting furnishings and working with the construction professionals to bring our new office space to life. When you honestly and absolutely trust those folks, it's easy to stay away. I ask a few questions, provide input when asked and anxiously await the next tour of our new space.
Leaving leadership is also all about trust – trusting the people that come after you to continue the work that you helped start. Every leader’s time in the big chair comes to an end. Either by retiring, term ending or losing an election, we all see our time in leadership come to an end. Leaving leadership and trusting those who come after you is about recognizing your place along the continuum. There were leaders before you that set the table for your work and there are leaders after you to continue that work. The same is true for CSI. I trust the leaders that are coming after me to continue the work; not work that I started but work that I continued, taking the reins from the leaders before me.
My time as CSI Board Chair ended at midnight as June 30, 2022 turned to July 1, 2022. My time as Board Chair was one of the great honors of my life and was an immensely rewarding two years. How I react after my term ended is entirely up to me. I’ve observed a number of different reactions from other past presidents and past board chairs. It is easy to get used to being “in the know” and the juice that comes with it. It’s an easy trap to fall into wanting to remain involved at the same high level but that can lead to problems with your successors in addition to confidentially issues.
I knew leading up to June 30, how I reacted to the end would chart the course for the next Board and Board Chair, so I started preparing towards the end of 2021. In our January 2022 board meeting I referenced events and decisions that would have to be made at the October board meeting, emphasizing these are their decisions and I will no longer be a board member then. I kept up those references across the next several months while supporting the next set of leaders, once the slate of officers was elected in April.
I saw that as the last of my duties as Board Chair: ensure the next group is ready to continue. It was easy for me as our board is stocked with smart, kind and caring folks who enjoy each other and enjoy working on behalf of our members. I was fortunate in that manner and I recognize not all leaders have that advantage. But I also didn't leave it to chance. I had multiple conversations with the Chair-elect, both with our paid staff and without. I spoke with each incoming officer and other key board members to help them with what they needed and letting them know I'm still here for them and will be their biggest cheerleader both publicly and privately.
Change Management is sometimes a cliché in most industries but is critical to the success of any organization. Those of us in design professions all know firms who did not have a succession plan and either folded altogether or were sold to larger firms when the founders wanted to retire and saw no other way out. Professional organizations are no different. We have all seen leadership transitions at local and national levels not go very well. Part of the lasting responsibility of leaders is planning for and executing a well-designed succession plan. Without one, everything is left to chance and no one wants that.
