Being a guide rather than shout out your academic titles

Few times in my career, to my questions about how to proceed with the design, bosses answered me:

 

“I don´t know, YOU ARE THE ARCHITECT”!

This answer bored me a lot. It left me the constant frustration to prove that I´m the architect, so then, I have all the answers.
The result was, obviously, feeling the pressure of being “the architect”, whatever that means.

 

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Probably, you experienced architecture offices, in the form of an internship or as a fellow employee before starting on your own. And maybe, your role was “limited” to solve everything in the design phase on AutoCad or Revit.

 

You were sitting for long hours behind a desk, and paradoxically, you had never talked with clients, who are going to benefit from your design.

 

How can you be THE ARCHITECT if you don’t even know, client´s struggles or wishes? How can you deliver Right and Bespoke design solutions, if you are involved just in the production process?

 

When you finally have your first project on your hands, unconsciously, you replicate the same dynamics:

 

answering and not listening (aiming for a perfect answer).

 

You were 100% into production. And now you have no idea how to deal with clients.

 

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Instead of focusing on giving advice, get to know where they want to go and see what is sitting in between them and their final goal.

 

Clients will probably replace you quite fast, if you give solutions ready in front, before listening.

 

Think about the time you went to the mechanic for a car problem. Would you accept solutions in front, just bringing the car to their eyes?

Or do you rather prefer seeing them investigating before giving you the answer?

Do you prefer a fast solution, or do you prefer answering their questions about where the wired sound is from, when you notice it, if the sound is showing up during braking or acceleration, and so on.

 

 

Rewind the experience, a good one. The one that made you feel heard.

 

Being a guide rather than shouting out your academic titles.

 

This post was originally part of my personal newsletter. 

 

-Danila-

 

The author

Danila Lampis arkitekt. Connect with her on Instagram and say hi!