The Habit of Excellence

Editor's Note: A habit to ponder for the New Year. The Seven Habits series and Industry Speaks posting will resume in January 2014.

Recently I read a proposal that, like most, had a section written about the firm’s QA/QC procedures. It was eloquent. It highlighted the QA/QC director, and a QA/QC process. There was just one problem ... it wasn’t true!

While the narrative was well written, it was fiction, describing a theoretical quality control process the firm would go through if they had time. The truth is the QA/QC director (by his own admission) often doesn’t have time to do quality control. Tight fees, even tighter deadlines, insufficient staff and multiple responsibilities make it all but impossible. The drawings are instead checked hastily by the project manager as the clock ticks toward the deadline or as someone frantically calls to ask for an extension.

I’m sad to say I haven’t seen an excellent QA/QC process recently. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Those I recall from ages ago were in smaller firms where excellence was a core value in the firm’s operations. They were successful. But, in smaller (niche) firms, there are no QA/QC directors. Everyone does everything.

The process described in that proposal wasn’t bad. It just failed to recognize the realities of a working architectural practice. As an industry, we must develop a way to bring quality assurance and control to the core of the design process on a consistent basis — not when we have time, or when the client is willing to pay for it — but all of the time. Clients expect and demand no less, and so should we as representatives of this profession.

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Industry Speaks Review: aecKnowledge Course on Public Design Opportunities for Small Firms

Excerpt: "This course will provide you with meaningful insights on how to seek public design work and be successful with your efforts. The insights are offered directly from panelists who have had many years of experience in qualifying and selecting architects for public facilities."

Armando Gonzalez, FAIA, has reviewed Growing a Small Firm: Public Design Opportunities for Industry Speaks. Read the full review here.

I'm Being Audited! Now What?

We have almost completed the fourth quarter for 2013. Are your credentials requirements up to date? After reviewing our client base and their license renewal requirements, there are a significant number of jurisdictions, nine for architects, fourteen for engineers, and nine for landscape architects due in December 2013. The learning unit and professional development hours range from eight annually to thirty biennially.

Continuing education is a condition of renewal held by jurisdiction statutes.

Now is a good time to evaluate your completed and pending continuing education requirements. Professionals of the built environment have numerous options for continuing education, including seminars, lunch & learns, online continuing education that may be free or require a small fee, industry conferences, university courses, and something as simple as reading a specific approved article for self-reporting purposes.

Are you prepared for an audit?

The easy to ignore elephant in the room is a potential audit. Typically the audit process is initiated at the time of license renewal. However, certain jurisdiction rules allow random audits immediately following license renewal. It can be daunting if you are not prepared to submit the proper required documents or if you have not maintained complete records for professional licensure.

How complicated can an audit be?

The following are examples of some jurisdiction auditing procedures:

• A random computer audit selection occurs during license renewal or after license renewal has been completed.
• A letter sent requiring licensee to prepare and submit certificates of completion, transcripts, jurisdiction log form with chronological completed continuing education credits, license renewal form, and renewal fee.
• Jurisdictions may require electronic submissions, hard copies mailed or both.
• Jurisdiction staff and licensing board reviews audit licensee's documentation.
• Fine/fees will be charged for noncompliance of continuing education requirements. As an example in Ohio - $500 to $1500 for the total number of delinquent continuing education credits may be assessed.
• Typical compliance periods range from 30 days to as much as 120 days.
• Ultimately, if the jurisdictional license board determines compliance has not been met, you may be required to fulfill a reinstatement process. This process may include three references, a documented list of all projects you have been working on since your license has been canceled, and yes you are still required to complete the delinquent continuing education!

Simplify your life by managing your most valuable resources, your licenses, your professional affiliations, and your continuing education requirements.

Lexi Selvig, CDT, President, LS Credentialing Services LLC, is a registered consultant on Industry Speaks. She can be reached at info@AECredentialing.com

Early Bird Pricing Through Today for PSMJ Principals Bootcamp Atlanta, Feb 6-7, 2014

This is your last chance to take advantage of special early bird pricing (Save $300!) for PSMJ's popular Principals Bootcamp in Atlanta, GA, February 6-7, 2014. Covered during the two-day conference:

1. Why 90% of design firm mission statements are a waste of time.
2. How to win a project when you are 1 of 40 firms proposing.
3. How to get your multiple offices to work as a single company.
4. How to move from managing projects to managing project managers.
5. Six ways to raise your multiplier to 5.0 or higher.
6. The best-kept secrets for motivating employees.
7. Three keys to ownership transition success.
8. And much more...

2014 Dates & Locations

• January 30-31, 2014 – San Francisco, CA
• February 6-7, 2014 – Atlanta, GA
• February 20-21, 2014 – Denver, CO
• March 13-14, 2014 – Seattle, WA
• March 20-21, 2014 – Boston, MA
• March 27-28, 2014 – Chicago, IL
• April 3-4, 2014 – Vancouver, BC
• April 10-11, 2014 – Dallas, TX

More information, and registration link here.

Karen Compton on PSMJ A/E/C Panel in Las Vegas

The PSMJ 2013 A/E/C Industry Summit "Back to Growth" starts Thursday, December 5 in Las Vegas. Industry Speaks Founder Karen Compton will be presenting Transferring Key Client Relationships from Retiring Principals on Friday afternoon (December 6, 4 p.m.) along with other distinguished panelists:

Brad Wilson, PSMJ, Senior M&A Consultant
Chad Surprenant, PE, President/CEO, I&S Group
Bob Kain, AIA, Director of Healthcare, Balfour Beatty Construction

Check the conference brochure for full program details.

The Habit of Generosity

I have a client firm that is relatively small. It has 16 people and does transportation work in the metropolitan area. Each year, the firm completes performance evaluations in order to provide employees with much needed feedback—what they are doing well, what they could improve upon and how their career can develop and progress. In prosperous years, this small firm would distribute bonuses to its employees—not because of its largess, but as a means of retaining staff.

Whether the acknowledgement is monetary—in the form of benefits, bonuses or incentive compensation, or non monetary—such as additional days off, training /educational opportunities, casual Fridays, breakfast days or flex-schedules, effective firms have retention strategies to keep their intellectual capital (otherwise known as staff) happy. Why? The cost of turnover is too great, especially for smaller firms.

In recent years, almost all the CFOs I’ve spoken to have had to take a hard look at the cost of their benefits packages. In some cases, they’ve taken on increased premiums while offsetting with higher co-pays, partial contributions by employees or benefits for employees only. Many have also sought ways to reward and retain employees through non-monetary benefits. There is no right or wrong answer in terms of what to offer. My only observation is this: Firms that have figured out the correlation between satisfied employees and productivity are the same firms that have low turn-over rates, high productivity and profits.

The habit of generosity is one to acquire, and share!

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

PSMJ A/E/C Industry Summit "Back to Growth" in Las Vegas Dec 5-6, with Dec 4 pre-conference programs - Last Chance to Register

PSMJ's 2013 A/E/C Industry Summit is December 5-6, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada with informative pre-conference programs taking place on December 4.

This event is for senior leaders of A/E/C firms including:

• CEOs and COOs who will set the strategy for their firm's success in the coming decade.
• CFOs who will manage the firm's finances in the future.
• Senior Project Managers and Directors who will embrace BIM, IPD, P3, and other major project delivery innovations.
• Business Development Directors and Marketing Directors who need to prepare their firms for the hot markets of the future.

Benefits:

• Keynote presentations from industry-leading experts
• Breakout sessions on a wide range of topics and specialty areas
• Cutting-edge practices you can immediately implement
• Networking with top performing firms to form new strategic alliances and partnerships
• Benchmarking your firm

Conference Program Brochure
Online Registration

5IN30 - Axium Best Practice Webinars for AE Firms

Axium's upcoming complimentary webinars focus on 5 great ideas. The November 22 webinar covers Maximizing Retirement Savings, and December 6 covers Speeding Up Your Billing Process.

The Axium webinar page has details, registration links.

The Decisiveness Habit

News flash: Not making a decision, is making a decision. A CEO was once asked how he became so successful. His reply: “Good decisions!” The follow-up question was then how he made good decisions. His reply: “Bad decisions!”

Making a decision, even a bad one, is an opportunity to learn and grow. In the July issue of Departures magazine, chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson put bad decisions in the context of “love for the craft” and the learning process.

Effective practices make decisions in a timely manner, and there are many decisions to be made on projects to pursue, revenues to invest, or profits to take or hold. In order to support decision making, effective practices are able to test decisions against the firm’s core values. Did I say something you didn’t understand? Yes, your firm must have core values. These define how difficult decisions can be made. If the firm’s core value is profitability, it will make decisions based on its fiduciary position. If the firm’s values reflect client service and client need above all else, decisions will be based on clients’ satisfaction.

Why is this important? Because as organizations grow, decisions that must be made on a daily, hourly or minute-to-minute basis cannot be controlled by one person. Decision making must be shared by all levels of the organization. In the absence of clearly defined core values against which staff can test and make decisions, the result is either a lack of decision making (at any or all levels of the organization) or a fear that one will make a mistake and be chastised. This is often called the “paralysis of analysis,” and characterizes an ineffective organization paralyzed by fear.

Let me give you the advice I gave to a senior partner in a successful architectural firm...ready? Staff are going to make mistakes. They are NOT going to always do it your way. Provide staff with the framework to make a decision (values), define the outcome you expect and move your firm forward by practicing the Decisiveness Habit.

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Transform Your Firm NOW!

Although there is some debate over the exact time frame, Psychology Today has published that it takes approximately 25 days to form a new habit. Some of us run our practices out of habit – this can be good or it can be bad.

A habit is "a settled or regular tendency or practice that has become custom, practice, routine, pattern, convention or norm." It may or may not have any reason behind it. Sometimes decades of repetition foster a habit that bears no relevance to effective firm management in the present day.

I have two client that serve the AEC industry in different markets. When I asked the principals why things are the way they are (in human resources, accounting, time management), the point of reference for both was 25 years ago, when they were working in other practices, as employees! Their ways of doing things had no logic or relevance, they were just habit.

This set me to wondering: What are the habits of highly effective practices? I offer you my observations in this 5-part series.

The Habit of Responsibility

My clients with the most effective practices are those that establish roles and responsibilities. I don't mean job descriptions! Roles and responsibilities, among other things, define an individual's decision making capacity and jurisdiction within an organization, and allow the "buck to stop" with a designated person. As a result, the individual's performance can be established as an expected outcome that achieves a company's objectives such as profitability, client service or service-delivery.

In today's environment, it is not enough to say that Tim is a Project Manager and hand him a job description that outlines his responsibility as "managing projects on-time and on-budget." Effective organizations define the role, quantify and qualify their expectations, provide the employee with feedback on performance and may, if they chose, reward staff for contributions.

Many smaller firm leaders feel it isn't necessary to define roles and responsibilities because everyone does everything. However, in these instances it is even more critical for employees to know which contributions are valued and which are less important. This alone resolves most issues of unmet and unrealistic expectations for both employees and employers.

Of the firms I've worked with, I estimate only 15% have adopted the Habit of Responsibility. If the percentage is roughly the same throughout the industry, is your firm in this effective minority?

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, 15th Ed., November 2013 – Compton Contributes Networking and Business Development Chapter

Industry Speaks™ Founder and A3K Consulting Principal Karen Compton, CPSM, contributed a chapter to the just-released 15th Edition of Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Compton covers the topic of “Networking and Business Development.”

Authored by The AIA with industry leaders as contributors, this comprehensive guide is the profession's standard on practice issues. The content has been significantly revised to reflect the changing nature of the business of architecture related to the impact of integrated practice.

Available for pre-order November 14, 2013; shipping begins the week of November 18. The book is also available in electronic pdf format. See the AIA webpage for details and order information.

ENR Best 2013 Projects Awards

Engineering News Record Best Projects Awards are a series of special events to celebrate and honor building teams around the nation that created the best projects of 2013. Projects are selected by juries of local prominent industry professionals. Categories awarded cover a variety of categories - from Best Green Project to Best Highway Project and many more.

Upcoming Best Projects events by city, including San Francisco, Long Beach, Baltimore and Dallas, with registration information, on this webpage.

Industry Speaks Review of ProjectNote:Project Information Management Software

Designed by Colorado-based architect Doug Porterfield, ProjectNote™ is a computer-based software system that digitally stores, archives and manages project design and construction information. The application allows project teams to manage design elements such as sketches, drawings or graphic files, as well as project emails, correspondence such as RFIs, submittals, closeouts and punch list documentation.

The ProjectNote interface is easy to use and appears to be a "lite" version of Newforma®. ProjectNote, however, reflects a wide variety of work flows, and does accommodate BIM and 3D clash data. The server and workstation syncing and cloud capabilities make it easy to use, although it isn't clear what ProjectNote uses as its search engine and this may affect the software performance.

There are some platform downsides to ProjectNote which consumers should note. It is not capable (at this time) of running on a Macbook® Pro since Microsoft OneNote does not have a OneNote engine for Mac®. According to the designer, there is an app for Mac®, Outline+, that will allow a Mac® user to view any OneNote application. However, it will not allow additions or edits. We've pointed this out to the designer and we believe they are working to find a solution. The OneNote app for iPhone® and iPad® may allow you to open ProjectNote and work within the application using SkyDrive or Sharepoint. The other challenge is that you can't use ProjectNote on older operating systems. It requires Windows Office 2007 or newer, a 500Mhz processor, 256 MB RAM and 2.0GB of disk space. For firms that don't regularly upgrade hardware, this might be a challenge.

All of that said, ProjectNote offers a low-cost solution for digital project management. The base price of ProjectNote A-E and GC is $495.00 for up to three users. ProjectNote FM (which comes with a copy of ProjectNote A-E included) is $695.00 for up to three users. All prices increase proportionately by $200.00 as additional users are added (example: ProjectNote A-E for up to six users costs $695.00 and for 10 users $895.00). Special reduced pricing is available if more than 20 users are needed.

To learn more, go to www.project-note.com

Reviewers:
Rena M. Klein, of RM Klein Consulting and author of Architect's Guide to Small Firm Management (Wiley 2010), rena.m.klein@gmail.com.
Paul Veloz, Director of Technology for HMC Architects, Ontario, California, paul.veloz@hmcarchitects.com.

Mobility 21 Panelists: Boomers & Millennials Seek Walkable Urban Lifestyle

More than 1,000 professionals and elected officials gathered for Southern California's largest transportation summit October 29.

At an afternoon breakout, planning directors from Los Angeles and San Diego focused on California's Sustainable Communities Strategy and its implications for senior citizens.

Walkable urban neighborhoods are becoming more important for Boomers as they age; and the same dense urban lifestyle is preferred by Millennials. This makes the demand for such housing strong, but creates vocal opposition in neighborhoods with strong activists. As a result, panelists noted that politicians are happy to cut the ribbon on a new transit line, but not at all happy to be known for promoting high-density, transit-oriented residential development.

The challenges for urban designers: taking advantage of a demand for sustainable lifestyles, leveraging political will, and designing communities, transportation, and information technology to serve a growing senior population.

Elise Kalfayan, Editorial Director, Industry Speaks™. Elise Kalfayan blogs about transportation, development, and regional issues facing Southern California on her community news blog SunroomDesk.com. She can be reached at ekalfayan@industryspeaks.com.

The "Messy" Path to Leadership

In Euclidean geometry, "The shortest path between two points is a straight line." You may know the concept, "the path of least resistance."

These ideas work well in many areas, but if you're navigating an upward career path toward executive leadership, you may be well advised to take a longer, messier path that comes with some challenges. Here's why:

• The distance between points A to B is short, and limiting. When you apply a linear approach to your career trajectory, you coast in your comfort zone. Let's say you started your career as a marketing intern, and through years of hard work you eventually land in a VP of Marketing position. But, your experience is mono-focused and limited only to marketing, possibly within the same company, so your next logical career step is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) - that's it.
• The path of least resistance is also the path of least opportunity. Advancing toward executive leadership roles doesn't have to be difficult, but you must be willing to stretch outside your comfort zone to build experiences, gain exposure and broaden your sphere of influence. In doing so, you gain new skills, develop key relationships and add to your credibility as a value-added leader - all factors in creative new opportunities.

How to navigate the "messy" path to leadership
To effectively lead in today's challenging economy, executives need strategic insight and organizational awareness, coupled with critical skills like communication and relationship management. These qualities are developed through diverse career experiences that force you to move from one area of expertise to another - for example, from marketing to finance or operations.

Messy doesn't necessarily mean haphazard. You can be strategic and intentional about your non-linear approach to the C-suite when you:

• Clarify where you want to eventually end up. Where do you want to be in your career five to ten years from now? Knowing the end result you want to achieve helps you strategize opportunities that may be a good fit for your growth path.
• Identify success patterns. Most corporate CEOs have a non-linear career trajectory despite having a very specific sweet spot in a certain area. According to Forbes, 30 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have a foundation in finance, though few advanced to the C-suite directly from the area. Instead, CEOs have a range of experience in a variety of areas -- from finance and accounting to marketing and operations -- that gives them strategic insight and the ability to understand the financial implications of their decisions.
• Seek assignments that stretch you. Actively seek projects that elevate your diverse skills and align with your career goals. Look in areas outside your usual comfort zone. If you're in engineering, seek assignments in operations that might leverage your existing skills, but that also present learning opportunities and exposure to other departments.
• Build relationships. Conduct informational interviews with people in departments outside of your own. The intent is to both learn more about the areas of expertise that are new to you, and develop relationships with key people of influence within the organization.

While the path to the C-suite isn't always clearly marked, you can be assured that organizations place high value on leaders who can communicate a strategic vision and deliver results, and that can only happen when you have a breadth of experience and knowledge that comes from taking the messy, non-linear path to leadership.

Charmaine McClarie, executive coach and keynote speaker. Reprinted by permission of The McClarie Group. Charmaine McClarie has helped thousands of executives lead highly successful organizational and career transformations in a variety of Fortune 500 companies, including, Starbucks, Humana, Adobe, The GAP Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson and Tate & Lyle. Contact her at charmaine@mcclariegroup.com.

Mid-November Los Angeles Area Networking Events Focusing on Entertainment, Health Care Markets

The Southern California Development Forum, a real estate networking organization, is holding Rethinking Entertainment:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 7am-9am
Luxe Summit Hotel Bel Air
11461 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles

Moderator:
Michael White
Principal Director of Creative Media Studio, Los Angeles
Gensler
Speakers:
Jim Jacobsen, Principal
Industry Partners
Sean Bender
Riot Games
Heather Cochran
Managing Director, Planning and Operations
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences


The Society for Marketing Professional Services is holding a Healthcare Leaders Roundtable:
Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 3:30pm-6:00pm
Millennium Biltmore
506 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles

The SMPS event webpage has details, including the list of seven confirmed speakers who are key decision makers in the health care market.

Registration and details for each of these events are at the links above.

I Have Plans A, B and C

And, if I think about it long enough, I have plans D, E and F! So, there I was, leading my first international seminar. I had been invited by the Alberta Association of Architects to teach 75 people about business development, marketing and proposals. I had three hours to deliver the curriculum, which included a 15-minute break at the hour and forty-five minute mark. My students were experienced firm owners, architect / principals and partners who, at 8:30am, were not yet in the talkative mode for which I had structured the seminar.

Thirty minutes into my presentation, which included a PowerPoint and flip charts, it happened: The blue screen of death. My laptop froze. Without missing a beat, I heeded some of my own advice that I dispense freely in a course on presentations. I briefly apologized for the failed PowerPoint, and kept the presentation moving by switching to my flip charts. I was without electronic media for an hour.

In the back of my head, I kept thinking, "This is bad. My first international audience, and I have failed." I had to block out my thoughts, however, and continue to lecture on roles, responsibilities, competition and value propositioning.

At the break, I rebooted my laptop. The moderator told me to "just wiggle” the mouse, to keep it from timing out. The course resumed at 10:15am and concluded promptly, as scheduled, at 11:45. Despite my dread of poor reviews, I received amazing praise: "You've clearly done this a few times!" to "You rock!" to "You never missed a beat."

I tell my clients all the time: We rely too much on our media to sell or deliver, whether it's a new project, a meet and greet or even a course. The smarter strategy is to rely on ourselves, to know our subject area and to have a backup plan. Technology fails every day, but you don't have to fail with it. The backup plan only helps you. For the record, I've been invited back to Alberta to lecture next year. See you in 2014, Alberta!

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.

North American Competitiveness and Innovation Conference Going on Now in San Diego

The U.S. Dept. of Commerce and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce is co-hosting the third annual North American Competitiveness and Innovation Conference October 27-30, 2013 in San Diego at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines.

The conference program will explore a vision for North American competitiveness and connectivity in areas including aerospace and automotive, energy and green technologies, workforce development, travel and tourism, border facilitation, and public-private partnerships. A mayoral and gubernatorial panel is set for October 29.

See the event webpage for details.

2013 California Economic Summit, November 7-8

The Second Annual California Economic Summit will take place in Los Angeles on November 7-8, 2013. The 2013 theme is Advancing the Triple Bottom Line: a prosperous economy, a sustainable environment and community equity.

The first summit was held in 2012 in the Bay Area. Continuing the collaboration of California Forward and the California Stewardship Network, the 2013 meetings will feature the work of several action teams during the past year.

See the California Economic Summit webpage for more information, registration information.

"I Can't Find Any People!"

Before I start, I confess that that what I am about to espouse is more anecdotal then evidential. So, here goes, and I'll start with a question: Where are all the people?

For the last several months, some of our clients have been trying to find trained design and business professionals for some very exciting leadership roles. Truth be told: they can't find people, and it is not for lack of effort. National searches have ended with candidates that are a poor cultural fit (but technically qualified). Several different agencies have been engaged to find a candidate that could easily have been found seven years ago. What happened?

CNN Money recently reported that the labor force has shrunk to a level not seen in 35 years. In August, the labor participation rate -- the percentage of people over 16 who either have a job or are actively searching for one -- fell to 63.2%. That means there are now 90.5 million Americans who don't work and are not counted as part of the labor force. The last time it was that low was in August of 1978.

For the population as a whole, numerous reasons have been cited for this occurrence--retirement of the baby boomers, fewer students who also work or a lack of "good jobs". According to AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, the AIA doesn't track labor participation rates for architects. The government tracks architecture firms in its payroll survey, but doesn’t track the profession in its household survey. As a result, in design and construction, we can only collect anecdotal evidence.

Retirement, consolidation of practices, unwillingness of younger generations to assume leadership roles, the lack of transparency to achieve promotion, frustrations, high stress, low pay, long hours and not enough flexible time remain among the most common reasons for leaving the profession.

A study conducted by the Royal British Institute of Architects cited some of these reasons in their 2003 study of 174 women who left the profession. While they could equally apply to men and women, one thing is sure: We need to offer compelling reasons to lure people back to the profession, or our ability to deliver creative design into the future will be limited.

Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting (Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.