12 Steps to Fellowship: Episode #1

In this episode, we introduce the series and the Twelve Steps to Fellowship diagram.

Podcast Transcript:

Welcome to the Twelve Steps to American Institute of Architects Fellowship podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Edmunds here with my colleague and friend Michael LeFevre, FAIA Emeritus. We are going to be talking through a diagram that Michael created, which is The Twelve Steps to AIA Fellowship, which is in our book, Architect + Action = Result, which you can find on the architectactionresult.com website. 

So, Michael, you created this great diagram, and it clearly outlines 12 steps to Fellowship. Can you tell me a little bit about creating that diagram and why it's such an important tool?

MICHAEL: Sure. And it's fun to be here. Thanks for inviting me. I think we'll have a fun chat. About that diagram, I spent much of my career as a disruptor and change agent. Many of us like to begin the journey without knowing where we're going and see what happens. But I found there are probably far more of us who like to know the road ahead. The duty and responsibility of any good leader is to be able to chart out those paths. 

Having been through the process, I forced myself to give it a bit of structure and lay that out. Ttwelve is a good number, and twelve seems to be the right number of stages to go through this process. 

I’m sure, as we go through the chat, we’ll dive into each one, but you know, only a few of those steps are actually about preparing and producing a submittal. What I found through my consideration and deliberation of this, that the decision to be a Fellow is personal. It is not a decision you're going to make flippantly, that you just wake up one morning and say, yeah, let's do this. Or someone suggests it to you and you say, sure, why not? This is an acknowledgment and a culmination of a life's work. 

The early stages of that diagram reflect how long it can take to become aware of what this process is—and even what AIA Fellowship is. So, getting back to the point, it was an attempt to give some visibility and some structure and simplify what could be a long, confusing process for many AIA architects despite our self-avowed ability to design, structure and create. So many people I worked with and coached down this road, on this journey, had no clue. So [the diagram] was a way to capture a repeat process and share the wisdom for anybody and everybody who was thinking about [Fellowship] as well.

A lot of people I work with are confused. And even though the AIA does a really good job; they have the “Demystifying” process, which has a lot of good information. But, it seems like for a lot of people, that's not enough. They have so many more questions about the process. And the process has changed over the years, in some of the criteria. So often when you're dealing with a sponsor or support committee who were elevated before 2015, they might have a different lens on the process because [the AIA] changed things in 2014, they changed some of their requirements for Exhibits ever so subtly. 

But also, you know, every jury is different. So, I think it's valuable to have a framework that helps you understand all the parts and pieces beyond that idea of what Fellowship means from the AIA standpoint. 

MICHAEL: Yes. Despite all the AIA resources that are shared, the “Demystifying” seminar and PowerPoint they offer, which have always been helpful. But yeah, I've never seen anyone create a process. It reminds me of an anecdote. I was at a conference and an industrial systems engineer stood up and said, “Design is really simple. You list the steps, isolate the variables, and you go through, and you winnow them out.”

I stood up and said, “Well, the design process isn't like that. We go in circles, we go backward, we explore.” 

He laughed and said, “Okay, I get what you're saying. But let me ask you this: every building you do has a floor, doesn't it? It has a roof, doesn't it? And a structure?” 

So, yes, there are repeatable steps and processes. And I think the Twelve Step diagram was an attempt to put those down and display the relative order they might happen and the relative magnitudes. 

Again, in the early stages, just deciding you're committed to trying to pursue Fellowship could take as much time as any one of the other steps. 

Yes, it's great. I hope this podcast, which is going to be a series of seven, will be valuable. We’ll go through the phases in the series, so listeners can directly hear the thoughts on the process of submission from first considering or being nominated for Fellowship. Because, a lot of people know Fellows, and that's who says, “You know, you really should go for this.” Because they know the person's work, and they are very enthusiastic about it. They think [this person will] make a good candidate. Or someone may decide they want the acknowledgment and start lobbying for support. 

I've been helping people for 15 years to achieve AIA Fellowship, but I'm not one myself because I only achieved AIA certification in 2017, after an NCARB president insisted I should be licensed, who I worked with on Fellowship. So, I'm a long way away from being eligible. 

You've been on the side of making this decision, both for yourself but also as someone who was chair of an AIA state chapter Fellows Committee. So, I wonder if you want to talk about that consideration process. 

MICHAEL: Well, with your breadth and exposure and years of dealing with all kinds of candidates across the country, you know as well as anybody those early stages happen in different ways and orders and durations. I'll just share my own.

I had been in the profession for 30-something years. I got a random letter from a little committee that AIA Georgia had set up. I didn't know the person who said it was part of their job to send me this said, hey, we've reviewed some candidates and we thought you might be a candidate. You should give this some thought and pursue it.

I was well into my career, working for a construction company, and I had no personal connection to the person who was nice enough to give me this nudge. So, I crumbled up the letter and threw it in the wastebasket. I said, “I'm far enough in my career. I'm no longer practicing, literally. I'm more about connecting people in relationships. I'm not doing this.” 

Somebody was nice enough to follow-up or a personal friend made the call to help me come to grips with the value and the “why.” Maybe this is a good time to share. We put it in the book, and I'll credit Fellow and long-standing friend, Stephen Swicegood, who shared these two thoughts with me, which are invaluable. 

He said, “I always ask people two questions when they’re first considering pursuing Fellowship. Number one, why do you want to do this? And two, how will you feel if you don't get it?

I think only 2% of the profession are lucky enough to be elevated to Fellowship, and only about 20%, I think, is the average percentage over the years who have been successful. There are some, and I'm sure you've experienced them, who’ve aspired to do this their whole careers, [have] a game plan and are ready to go. 

I used to go to the AIA conference on architecture, and I'd be off to some event on Saturday night and see these people standing outside the hotel in their gowns. And I’d say, “My goodness, I’d never want to be one of them. Those people are old and they look like some secret society of Druids.” 

So, it hadn’t been high on my list. But you get to a point where you acknowledge that you're older. And once you understand what this opportunity is, you have to come to grips with what is it; what it does do for you; what it costs you. There's a responsibility that comes with it. And when you do an even anecdotal benchmark, you look around and say, do you have something to say? Are you in the same league with these other people who have done this? You've got to convince yourself of that first and answer those two questions I posed. Why? And it could be nothing more than [saying], okay.

If you're in a leadership position in a firm, you want this as a feather in your cap to bring additional respect. And when you work and bring profits to the firm and help grow yourself and your colleagues, that's a good reason. It could just be a sign of respect that you've been around a while and you're okay with accepting the recognition, so many different, different reasons for so many different people. 

A lot of people who find out about me often are younger, and sometimes they’ve been told by their state chapter AIA Fellows committee they're too young or to wait a year or so. This has happened to famous architects, who end up with a national reputation. But when they first try for Fellowship, their state AIA Fellows committee says, you're so young. So, they've gone outside of that system to go on and be elevated, because they're doing such good work. And so that's been a little bit of a side specialty of mine—helping those people who really have done a lot but maybe are not 40 yet. I like the idea that one way to transform the profession overall is to diversify and bring younger people to that echelon of the profession, that 2% who achieve it.

A lot of younger people just like you when you were at the conference seeing these people—the Druids in ball gowns—wondering, why would I want to be a part of that? That it's been changing over the years because of people like you. You're highly approachable; you're not a Druid. You're a pretty casual guy. And I think that the [American Institute of Architects College of Fellows] becomes more valuable when it becomes more approachable, not that it dilutes the acclaim that it brings and the meaning of the award. I just think an important aspect of the profession is diversifying the profession. 

MICHAEL: I think we're definitely seeing that happen, even with AIA leadership. And hopefully there is conscious discussion going on at the Fellowship jury level to obtain some demographic and every kind of diversification. 

The interesting thing about the Twelve Step diagram is it shows so well all the various things and the creative muscle involved in the completing process. Many people don't know all those subtleties, even people who, as I said before, have been through the Fellowship process themselves. It's very easy once you get to the other side of it, I’ve discovered, to not remember all the logistical issues and the commitment of time for the nominee and anyone supporting them. 

I shared with you that I recently had a conversation with someone on the East Coast who's a Fellow; we were talking about a different subject. And they said, “You're one of those people who do that. Part of your work is that you help people get Fellowship?”

I said, “Yes.” 

And the individual said, “Well, I don't approve of that.” 

It was such an interesting thing to hear after doing this for 15 years. I said, “You know, a lot of people don't have the kind of support people have in certain states to understand the process and be shepherded through it.” 

You’d said, “I'm interested in hearing about this.” So, I thought I'd give you a moment to talk about the people seeking support or even feeling they need a different kind of support than they can get even from their local chapter or the AIA. 

MICHAEL: I was struck by that when you mentioned it. And I guess it's not surprising because I suppose I can feel that way about other professions. Even our newscasters have turned into entertainers, and they're not just reporting facts, but the notion of getting some expertise and help is… I'm sure the person who said that wants their clients to hire them to provide professional help in designing a building. So, I find it a little funny, but I will say I took it upon myself to do it all myself. The writing, the layout, the content collection. And I have a feeling that's rare. Most people at a minimum get some help writing. If they have a firm of any size at all, they've got some staff who can do some of the collecting and compiling. And so, I’d respond to the dissenter, that's why we have a division of labor in civilization. All people are good at something. 

And as we're working with these people, there has never been one occasion where we're telling them to fabricate something they didn't do, to tell lies, to stretch the truth. This is all their stuff. If they don't have the stuff, they don't get it. What I know you're doing, and what I did, is to help them bring clarity to that and make it a compelling story is all. 

So, yeah, that's an interesting conversation to have. 

It is. Folks on the East Coast and maybe on the West Coast—the Coasts—and maybe around Chicago, don't realize architects in the middle of the country are often in states where there might not be many living Fellows, and there certainly isn't an AIA Fellows committee. There’s rarely any kind of support network available. So, I think that's one thing. And we're trying to help here. The book—Architect + Action = Result—was step one. Providing this podcast is another way just to give people some encouragement as they go. And to lay out some of the steps. 

But I do believe the more eyes and voices on the process, the better. As a writer, even when I was practicing architecture, you don't want to work in a vacuum. Insight is valuable. Different perspectives, the insight and the creative exercise they provide are valuable. That is an important factor. 

I like the term “F-ness, which I got from ZGF founder Robert Frasca, FAIA, who's recently departed. Wonderful, talented individual. But I think people who have not experienced “F-ness” can still add to the process. 

MICHAEL: Certainly, no architect that I know of would advocate, “I don't want any other perspectives. I don't want any collaborators. I alone. I'm going to produce everything in my project.” Why would we think any differently under the design of a personal story in pursuit of Fellowship. 

You've successfully navigated this process. Let's first go with that. What piece of advice would you give to people as they're about to undertake this journey, which they may not even realize to begin with. Daunting right? They're used to doing maybe AIA awards even before the AIA Framework for Design Excellence criteria that folks are wrestling with now. So, what would your piece of advice would you give people who are just starting the process in terms of being aware of what's ahead? 

MICHAEL: Sure. I had to contemplate that question before, but I'm just sitting here processing quickly, and I would split it into three parts:

The first one is almost impossible to convey because you need a time machine to do it. And that is if you have not collected your work, captured and saved it from the moment you got out of school, you will never be able to go back and recreate it, and you won't be able to demonstrate what has happened. So, there's a little bit of luck involved there either. You have to be a hoarder and have tucked the drawing, the process, whatever the thing is, and kept a good diary of when you wrote an article, when you gave a talk, if a client gave you a good testimonial, you have to be sort of pressure or foreseeing the future that there might be a use for that someday. And you've got to tuck all that stuff away. And those who aren’t lucky enough to do that are almost doomed because there's no way you're going to to remember it, and you won't have anything to show, so that answers to basic question of almost why you should write a book about everything in your career. You'll never remember the dates and the places. So that's one, which again, hopefully you're lucky enough to have a professor who told you to “save your stuff,” or you are smart enough to know to do that. Without it, you need a time machine. 

Number two is, again, just the convincing yourself process, because this is such a commitment to extract the highlights of your story and to do it. In some cases, if you count all the doing and the writing and the compiling and the thinking and the strategizing, it has to be hundreds of hours. In the best case, if you're delegating a lot of that. Maybe, you're a senior person with a bigger staff, it's far less. But the point I always make is, no one should go into this halfway. When you decide to do it, go all in, give it your best shot, and don't fail because you don't want to do it again. So the first step, as we talk about in the diagram and the book, Architect + Action = Result, is you must convince yourself that, “Yes, I'm ready. Yes, I'm committed. Yes, I think I have this stuff. Yes, I believe I can assemble it in a compelling differentiating way that will get the attention of a jury.” Because after all, it is a jury process, and that could include the help of a support team. 

So, the first [piece of advice] is to save your stuff. The second one is you must convince yourself. 

The third one—and maybe this is again why the diagram came because there is so much to do, I continued to find it shocking. Although not because we're notoriously bad schedulers and managers and we're always late. No, that's our rap that we [must] fix as a profession going forward. But very few of you ever had any semblance of a schedule or a plan on how they'd go about this. I just had a phone call back in September, an architect said, “Well, I know the Fellowship stuff is due in October, and I just wanted to have yet another conversation with you about should I do this?” 

It's like three weeks away and she's getting ready to start. 

I said, “Really? You haven't thought about this any more than that?”

And this is someone who's been thinking about it for a year already and had not blocked out any major milestones or timelines. 

And so, that third piece of advice is, have a schedule, have a plan, and then work to it like you would anything else that's important. 

I guess those are my top three overarching pieces of advice. 

That's great. One of the reasons I came up with the formula, architect + action = result, is I so many people looked at me like deer in headlights when I’d say, what does that mean? Where have you been? What actions do did you take putting yourself in a position on a project or in a speaking engagement or on a committee? Serving your community or serving the Institute? What action did you take and what resulted from that work? 

MICHAEL: Right. 

I’d write out “architect + action = result,” and their eyes would light up, they’d get the idea, “Oh, okay!”

I ask people to think about the moment after the architect leaves the project, or whatever the endeavor is when you're gone, what have you left? That's such an important part of compiling information, having the information, being in it for the long haul, giving yourself the time, having the commitment of resources, and always thinking, what does this mean? What does it mean beyond just me?

MICHAEL: As you so beautifully wrote in the book, that simple formula or equation, architect + action = result. It's a noun and a verb and an object. And you can apply that to the pursuit of preparation of an AIA Fellowship submittal. It needs the person, the manager, the candidate. It needs their action or their plan to get it done. And they need to be driven to that result, like any good manager or leader or somebody trying to get from A to B. So, this is such a simple and clear formula, but so many come to it, just like you said, deer in the headlights, no plan, no schedule. 

Thank you for our first episode. I appreciate you taking the time. We'll be scheduling our next interview soon. 

MICHAEL: All right, have fun with it, and I look forward to it, Rebecca. 

For more information, go to: ArchitectActionResult.com