Outgoing President Gordon H. Chong, FAIA,
gave this address to the AIA Board of Directors December 6, his last day
in office. We found his words of wisdom well worth sharing with the entire
AIA membership. We also would like to thank him for his leadership during
the past year and wish him the very best for all his future endeavors.
When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann
You cant trust your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Mark Twain
My life has been a laboratory for continual learning, exploration, invention,
and, yes, correction and reinvention. This past year that lab has been
in overdrive. In fact, what Ive learned in the course of these 12
months as AIA president has prepared me well for the day after my tenure
has ended, when I return fulltime to my firm, my family, and my community.
When youre about to open a new chapter in your life, friends and colleagues
naturally want to know what youve learned. What lessons do you want to
pass on? What advice can you share with future leaders? My response is
to cite the lines from Lippmann and Twain quoted above. Both succinctly
capture what I call the leadership attitude that provides the greatest
opportunity to advance the profession and the AIA.
But most of those who ask arent satisfied with the succinctness of Twain
and Lippmann and ask me to elaborate. So I take the bait and offer some
thoughts on two specific attitudes of leadership that I believe will affect
the course of our profession: They are about: 1) leading change and 2)
social responsibility and ethics.
Leading change
In the course of my year as AIA president, I have not run into a single
architect who does not appreciate how the world is changing, and how that
change is accelerating. Yet, can we honestly say that change within our
profession has been equally transformational? Yes, we all use computers.
But has technology or anything else really enhanced the breadth or depth
of our knowledge, increased our professional influence in the eyes of
our communities, increased the value of our services in the eyes of our
clients, enhanced our real or perceived contribution to society, increased
our financial remuneration, or enhanced the publics understanding
of the importance of architecture?
Look, by way of contrast, at the general field of design as a product
and process. There we see significant strides being made in defining the
quality of life for this generation of Americans. Would we not be a more
dynamic and influential profession if we, too, were as engaged in applied
research, rapid prototyping, rapid ideation, pilot projects, assuming
risk and responsible roles in project delivery, and thinking more expansively
upstream and downstream from traditional basic design services?
In the face of all the change happening around us, some of my colleagues
argue that architects should return to the basics, stick to our core competency,
and not oversell ourselves by stepping beyond our comfort zone. Dont
change our standards of practice, and, for gosh sake, dont rock the boat!
I wish I could take credit for being the first person to observe that
what has got us here is not what will move us forward into the future.
The thought is well-worn, but its no less true for the wearing.
Others, recognizing that some response is called for, suggest we should
adapt cautiously. They believe incremental change will ultimately be more
effective. I wonder. Yes, there can surely be multiple paths to and rates
of change. Yet those who have been challenged to be leaders had better
be sure that a call for gradualism is not in fact an avoidance mechanism,
a shield from criticism, or an aversion to risk.
The times call for leaders who are passionate and fearless; leaders who
are eloquent communicators, motivators, and risk takers. This is where
the AIA can and must be a role model, for if we are to achieve the status
of trusted advisor, a reputation thoughtful commentators tell
us is the best hope for our profession, the AIA needs to be perceived
first and foremost as being committed to bettering society and the profession,
rather than the business of our members.
The paradox of what some might perceive to be a naively idealistic approach
is that doing right is good business. Serve society and the work will
follow. Im not advocating the arrogance of discounting member needs but
rather the wisdom of Tao Te Ching who noted, Care about peoples
approval and you will be their prisoner.
Social responsibility and ethics
Because the times urge architects to assume the role of trusted advisors;
provide expanded services in strategic planning; assume increased roles
in civic activities; and provide expertise on issues of sustainability,
land use, and alternative project delivery, we will need to move beyond
the obligations of licensure (health, safety, and welfare), beyond our
client business contracts, and reaffirm a social responsibility for the
greater good of society that we serve.
Although we have gained an increasing amount of intelligence about the
publics changing expectation of architecture and architects, I am not
persuaded that our response to date has been up to either the challenges
or the opportunities inherent in the data weve gathered. More often than
not we set out to change the publics opinion of architects rather than
question and change ourselves. Were tempted to ask the AIA to defend
our preferred activities rather than to give us the resources to expand
our value.
But there is a hopeful counter-current. Given public cynicism toward
corporate America, the federal oversight placed on the accounting profession,
and the scrutiny of our political leaders, it is timely that the AIAs
national Board of Directors discussed ethics and practice at our December
meeting. There will be no easy answers, no quick solutions. But with any
luck (and a lot of leadership!), we are seeing the opening of a thoughtful
dialogue that will color and inform discussion and decisions in the coming
year that deal with knowledge, education, communications, and our role
in influencing the livability of communities through design excellence.
Stay tuned.
A final thank you
In recent months, many from a younger generation have encouraged me to
carry on a tradition by Bill Caudill, a giant in our profession, who penned
a series of articles he entitled TIB or This I Believe.
I wouldnt have the audacity to do so. But if I did, Id entitle it TIL
. . . or This Ive Learned, with the emphasis on the
dot, dot, dot, which is suggestive of the temporal nature
of truths and the open-ended nature of the learning process.
Ive learned a lot, Ill continue to learn, and I thank every AIA member
for your trust. And speaking of trust, let me end with another quote,
this time the words of Sigmund Freud: In small matters, trust the
mind. In the large ones, trust the heart.
Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved.
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