12 Steps to Fellowship: Episode #4
GO/NO GO, ORGANIZE & COLLECT
Welcome to the Twelve Steps to American Institute of Architects Fellowship podcast Episode 4. I'm your host Rebecca Edmunds, AIA, here with my colleague and friend Michael LeFevre, FAIA Emeritus. We're talking through a diagram that Michael created, Twelve Steps to Fellowship, which is in our book Architect + Action = Results. You can find information on the best architecture books on Fellowship, flexing your creative muscle, and related ideas at ArchitectActionResult.com.
Today’s podcast will go longer than previous episodes because the stages GO/NO GO, ORGANIZE and COLLECT are best looked at together.
We are at the point where a candidate has been nominated. They've heard from their peers about why they should pursue Fellowship, and they've gained an understanding of all that is involved in submitting. So, the big question is GO or NO GO?
MICHAEL: It seems easy, and it seems binary. And maybe it is easy for those who are ready to say GO. They've done their ANALYSIS and ASSESSMENT. But I always remind them this is not a decision to be entered lightly, nor is it one where you want to start and then reverse or change your mind, nor enter it half-baked. Fellowship is an “all or nothing” proposition once you decide. So, for those who already concluded GO, and they're off and running.
For the NO GO or the still uncertain, there are a few reasons to no go forward. The first type, after surveying prior Fellows on the AIA's website, the candidate simply doesn't feel they measure up in one or more categories. Maybe they had a brilliant career for 50 or 10 years, worked on zillions of square feet of significant buildings, or fewer, smaller, wonderful ones in lead roles. But they're challenged to show how they went beyond just doing their job. Many damn good architects get ruled out or rule themselves out of a Fellowship attempt because they had the heads down and focused entirely on their work. And in Fellowship, that can be the kiss of death, because it is about transcending doing your job.
A second type might be someone who can make a case for having gone beyond their own work and made a difference to others: the lead designer who has won plenty of awards, the tireless servant who has filled leadership positions. But these kinds of folks may lack in one or more significant required areas. Despite their demonstrable achievements, they've never written a single article or only published once or twice. Maybe they're introspective types and have never given a presentation to share their perspective. Any of these omissions can quickly become glaring and can logically make a candidate feel like they don't comply with the minimum requirements for Fellowship. They need to say no, at least for now, until they can do more digging or shore up those weak areas.
The third type is the candidate who probably feels like they measure up well in all areas, but due to timing, a late start, huge workload in their office, or a planned summer semester in Europe that will consume their time. For these folks, it’s not the right time, so they defer to the next year or simply give themselves another year to cement their commitment and prepare.
I'm sure there are more valid, understandable reasons. We've both seen them plenty of times.
Another important issue for many folks recommended by their chapters for elevation because they are excelling at architectural design and belong in the Design Object, but they've never gone after awards. Awards are an important part of the requirements, not just for design awards, and design awards within all levels of the AIA, but service awards and community awards. So, many nominees back up because they must lift their head up from the wonderful design work, or whatever work they've been doing, and go after awards to bolster the recognition their work deserves. I agree with all these reasons for people taking a pause and backing up or maybe even deciding this is not a priority for them.
The ORGANIZE phase involves formalizing much of what we've already discussed, like all the stuff that's part of submission content. So, the most important element of this phase is establishing a Schedule and a Plan of Work that includes who's doing what across the submission process. As you've said, the AIA sets the end date, and I encourage folks to submit early—a week to five days—so they avoid a potential online log jam.
Can you share intel on the key activities of the ORGANIZE of the process?
MICHAEL: I'm thrilled to hear you have as a conscious task that everybody produces a Schedule or a Work Plan. Because, if we're honest with ourselves, this isn’t every architect’s strong point.
ORGANIZE for this phase is a one-word synonym for Project Management. Any professional setting about accomplishing an objective within a budget and time period, if they're worth their salt, they have a method. As designers, our level of organization is “let's just dabble around with this and wing it and see what happens.”
Because Fellowship is such a major effort, just as a candidate may approach to project management or a design project, they should start with a program of requirements. The American Institute of Architects has all that’s required to submit on their website, including the elements of a submission and their order. But I find people start without ever having been familiar with that. Start at aia.org. Like in design work, you need a concept; you need to gather resources and all the stuff, as you call it, that you've generated in your career that must be realigned as a part of a submission.
A second set of resources is your team. The people who will help you with this effort. Schedule, again. Get organized. Have you assessed your life and your practice to confirm you have the time to devote to this activity between now and the deadline? If you don't, you'll waste your time and that of those supporting you. And you’ll likely have to redo it all again.
And consider other, simple resources. Do you have a physical location that can be the Homebase for this effort? Do you have digital files from which you can save and extract material? That's one level of ORGANIZE.
Probably the most important, however, is the development of a schedule. Far too many people start in April and hear that they've got until October to complete this thing. They say, “well, we've got plenty of time—six months! Let's fiddle around with it for five months and then pull it together in October.” In every case, I coach people to rethink that approach and challenge themselves to have a reasonably complete draft of the entire effort done in three months. That leaves three months more to refine, revise, fill in the gaps, hunt and gather those things that might take time, like recollections of awards, the facts of results, testimonials, or people polishing their reference letters. Leave the time to refine, potentially even reiterate and change course once you've seen your first draft and bring it in for a smooth landing.
In the worst case, what if a nominee lands an enormous project in August or September that re-prioritizes their life? If that's the case with the first scenario, they will not make it. In my over two decades working inside of a national CM firm, I learned plenty about contingency planning, risk management and scheduling.
So the benefits of having developed a work plan are that you have thought through the full scope of this effort for both yourself and others who are less under your control or less willing to stay up till midnight to get this done than you are.
Instead, you're prepared. You know what's coming. You've planned for it. You've written it down, and you use it to guide the effort. when you see you're missing an interim deadline, you can make course correction. All these things take time; failure to plan for them is the biggest bugaboo of all.
The last point on ORGANIZATION is don't underestimate the value and the potential unavailability of your support team. They might be on vacation, have an enormous project to themselves, and cannot engage in the brief window you need them in just because you went to the last minute.
It will serve you well if you deal with getting organized upfront.
The plan of work gets you organized, and the schedule helps keep your support motivated. They understand where they fit in. And if you must drop out because of a project or something else, they know what's got to get done without you always having to be there.
As candidates move out of the ORGANIZE phase, they should expect to have their Object confirmed, a sponsor lined up, and a strategy for getting the submission complete. Do you have any advice on these aspects of the process or any other products that they might move forward with?
MICHAEL: Each of the things listed in ORGANIZE is clear, but each requires different in process. Organizing them should start simultaneously because one informs the other. Object and Strategy are inextricably linked; you might think you're heading down the Design Object and come to find out through DISCOVERY that you need to take a totally different direction. Change the object, and hence change your strategy, which will cycle through other things such as the selection of your sponsor.
The earlier you start these things, the better off you are. Your sponsor and collaborators influence your reference writers. You may think one group is the best choice. Your sponsor or someone else may push you to broaden your geographic diversity or to include lay people besides AIA architects to give your work more credibility.
For themes, it takes time to find those threads. Many nominees rotate through different Objects as their cases develop. That's to be expected. Each iteration might affect the content and how it’s described. And Object and strategy are ultimately connected and synergistic with your sponsor, who should be your closest confidant and harshest critic. Not all sponsors can fully commit. Some will write the letter, so you must deconstruct the Sponsor’s tasks to other members of your support team.
On the last-minute Object change, I had a woman submitting in Object 2, Education (now Object 6), and her committee felt that was where she belonged. We’d developed themes around her teaching and built work related to education. When she pinned up for the Fellows committee in September, a month before the submission deadline. Everyone said, “Wait a minute. You belong in the Design Object.” We had four weeks to reshuffle.
That change wasn’t clear until we saw the entire submission; she submitted in Object 1, Design, and achieved Fellowship the first time. So, you're right that the Object can shift, and sometimes the Sponsor changes if they don’t know a specific aspect of your work. Sponsors can become Reference writers and a Reference writer can rise as a better sponsor based on how the case is built. So, things can remain relatively fluid for a while, but hopefully not as close to the finish line as four weeks or six weeks before submission. That’s why forming a team is critical. We've discussed many aspects of this already—the writer, the graphic designer, and other collaborators. You were a “go it alone” candidate, but you must have had some other support, even if it was just folks who kept you motivated.
MICHAEL: Absolutely. Even though I collected it, wrote it, designed it, and produced it myself, I was the fortunate beneficiary of a newly established local Fellowship group supported by volunteers at AIA Atlanta and AIA Georgia. In fact, I wouldn't have pursued the “F” at all without their having a watch list and given me a nudge and a nomination. You note there are informal or informal groups around the country; some are only a couple people.
I was stunned and so appreciative at the first meeting. A dozen senior Fellows will give up their time once a month to coach me and a handful of others through this process. While their graciousness humbled me, it was inefficient. After I was lucky enough to be elevated, I became the head of that committee to pay the favor forward. I implemented a more asynchronous and smaller group, sometimes one-on-one, more “divide and conquer” and less full group meetings. The importance of having a support group cannot be overstated, but with one caveat. With five or twelve people in a support group, you'll obviously benefit from having five or twelve or even 15 different perspectives and recommendations. However, you're going to have to choose which to follow and whose advice to take. Often the advice can conflict. No one can resolve that except the candidate. One of my nominators—Stephen Swicegood, FAIA, of Gensler—served as my surrogate sponsor. I owe him a lot; he served as reader and critic and became quite involved.
Another valuable trick is to get an outside layperson to look at the submission to see if it even makes sense, but use caution. This is a very specific submittal per AIA rules for an AIA audience and a FAIA Architect jury, so a lay reader may not have the full perspective for this pursuit.
There is a point early in the process for bouncing ideas off those unfamiliar with Fellowship, but once we reach “GO,” your advisors must be people familiar with the process who understand what's involved in creating a convincing case for Fellowship.
As we've said before, this is not the time for marketing, and the groups and individual who help Fellowship, whether a chapter, a component or an ad hoc group of Fellows trying to increase the number of Fellows in their state, they're getting better at forming these committees. This is not an academic critique; it’s about content, the validity of the claims and the clarity of the case. So, get people to help with typos and logistics, but most of the voices should be people aware of the process who are also going to be productive, as opposed to just giving you a critique to simple critique.
I mentioned the reverse timeline. We've emphasized gathering all the stuff needed in previous episodes. Now let's talk about how this phase of COLLECTING differs. Walk us through how a candidate might approach searching their portfolio and determining the data to COLLECT.
MICHAEL: I think of this phase of in a couple of ways. Someone might already have their Object set and confirmed. They've been around the circles and blind alleys and confirmed their object is technical building prowess or quality of construction documents. As they're looking for supporting material for their submission, they have that lens.
There's another group of people who don't have their Object nailed down but want to outline whether they meet all the AIA’s minimum requirements. In that case, they're going to extract much more and whittle it down later. Hopefully, they’ve been tucking work away and saving it, so the information is there to be assessed whether it's pertinent. It involves converting your CV to fit what the AIA certification requires—its facts, figures, dates and bullet points.
We're living in the digital age; no one wants to read much, particularly architects who are visual people. Your job in the extraction or COLLECT phase is to highlight the pertinent stuff, the best stuff, and highlight the “so what” of it. Rather than listing a project by its name, maybe use a newsworthy headline like “First Project on the West Coast to be Net Zero Carbon.” That gets a juror’s attention, while seeing the project name may not.
Also, everybody understands this is an exercise in tooting your own horn and making your case. A single testimonial or quote from a client, partner, colleague or someone who has benefited from your work is worth its weight in gold compared to you singing your own praise.
As for the graphic layout—you've written beautifully about this in the book—it should be clean, with plenty of white space. It shouldn’t be overly stylized. Looking at the examples of others on the AIA website is so helpful. I’m also so thankful, since we are all designers, that the AIA doesn’t prescribe a format. They simply give the content guidelines and the order of things, but they allow individual freedom to present the material and live or die with our choices.
That's so true. The requirements are quite minimal: an eight and a half by eleven format. Landscape is preferred for screen viewing. 20 pages for the Sponsor Letter, Section One, and Section Two. For Exhibits, you get another 20 pages. Beyond that, it's up to individual taste and the material being presented. The AIA Sample Fellowship Application has great intel on the order of information and how it changes based on the Object a candidate pursues.
Sorting through what to include and not to include can be challenging. But once folks have unearthed the data and testimonials, the Exhibits emerge. What are the projects you have done, the service work you've been involved in, or the project management practices that have the most compelling results or influenced the largest number of people, and who will testify to your work?
People assign their name and title to verifying your responsibility of each Exhibit via the Declaration; this is additional information that must emerge from the culling through and specificity of what each endeavor accomplished. Those that rise to the top become the Exhibits.
Exhibit requirements do change depending on the Object. For design, Object one, the minimum is five Exhibits, and the maximum is ten. All other Exhibits are a minimum of seven and a maximum of ten. Exhibits get 20 pages in all objects. The exhibit list is basically a free page.
Do you have any thoughts on what rises to the top as we move into Exhibits or the intel we’re capturing, either in Exhibits or in Section 2?
MICHAEL: I want to mention a couple of points you made when we were talking about lists earlier—lists of projects, photos, positions, service, presentation, awards, publications, descriptions and quotes. We harp on this not being your life story. We don't want it all, just the best material to establish credibility and highlight the “so what” or impact. You said earlier, a business development list of project competencies will bore the heck out of a jury. You’ll land in the reject pile. A short, targeted list is better than a long one. You made two points that are significant. One is for that collection of lists that the AIA requires. A best practice is to preface each with a navigational 2-3 sentence summary that says, “here's what this list is about and here's why you should care.” And if a nominee can do that well, they don't need to read the list if they don't want to, but they see it exists. That is brilliant advice.
Your other point was about Exhibits, that they are an invitation to say more. Whereas Section 2 lists are constrained by numbers of pages and format and only allow thumbnail images, the Exhibits are your chance to differentiate yourself with full page spreads with large images, very colorful storytelling with words and images.
Another hidden secret about Exhibits is what you're selling. If you're a designer, have pictures of your buildings. If you're a process creator or a change agent, lead with Exhibits about your processes. One of my exhibits was a montage of 20 training classes and seminars I gave to support practice-changing disruption and collaborative efforts.
Exhibits are an opportunity. Don't just go through the motions, as you might for a list. The Exhibits should be unique, compelling, and visually exciting and definitely an opportunity not to miss.
Exactly. They look different. Exhibits in design are project focused. In Practice, the first exhibit is typically about a way of practicing; what is the process that differentiates your work from others who are working in that building type or who are practicing today? The rest may be projects. Folks might have an Exhibit on how they've shared that work. People in Service to the Profession or Service to Society may have document pages as opposed to pictures of projects. Nominees get a little confused about that. But the Exhibits and their format are very much determined by the Object itself. The AIA's Best Examples for the Fellowship website are very helpful here.
Sometimes Nominees get very intimidated by those Best Examples. Ask Fellows you know to share theirs. This can help people understand that not every submission is a Best Example. There are so many ways between the different objects to present a case. It’s very important for people to not get intimidated.
At this point in the diagram, the Resources, or supporters, a candidate will rely on stay the same. Some nominees are lucky to have a robust AIA chapter, component, or a loose committee. Do you have any parting thoughts about the Resources people are relying on to get all the way to submission?
MICHAEL: Even if your firm has a support team or someone else can wear all the hats, you'll need to prepare a Fellowship submission—collector of content, writer, strategist, editor, graphic designer, critic, you're still going to need a team. You cannot do this in isolation. And the needs and the demands and the skills of that team ebb and flow. Early on, you need a strategy, or you're headed down the wrong road. Later, you need copyeditors. Hopefully early on, you get strength and support for coming up with a clear graphic format.
The evolution or ebb and flow of these different skills is critical. Hence, again, the need for a good project manager, hopefully yourself. Or maybe it's a coach like you, Rebecca. The highest value of all is to build that team early. If one person doesn’t have all those skills or the time, deconstruct the tasks within a team, just like designing a project. You've got to build your village, build a great support team and a network of collaborators with different perspectives, different generations, and different proximity to you in your intergalactic Fellowship solar system. You'll be glad you did when they're there to help you out of an asteroid is headed your way.
And listen to them. Right? People often say architecture is an art, but editing is an art as well. So be willing—we both use a phrase that is very common in the literary world—to kill your darlings. That is difficult for designers to do, right?
MICHAEL: Absolutely.
So editing is the key and knowing what to remove, as we've said before.
Thank you so much for your time today. We went a little longer than we intended, but I look forward to talking to you again next time. We’ll get to the last phases of the FAIA process. In the meantime, more information is available in our book Architect + Action = Result.
