by Kate Schwennsen, FAIA

I used to think leadership meant being the person in command and control. As the oldest of four siblings, being the leader often meant taking responsibility for the welfare of others (whether I wanted to or not), and having loyal followers (whether they wanted to or not).

Experience has taught me a different way of looking at leadership. The leader as the standalone, take-charge hero, in the mold of Charles Lindbergh flying solo across the Atlantic, is losing traction. In the world of the 21st century, leaders are challenged not to grab the controls and go it alone, but to work for the team, build relationships, coach rather than command. In other words, not to think top-down vertically, but to think flat.

It’s a flat world after all
Anyone who has heard me talk recently knows that I quote a lot from Thomas L. Freidman’s book, The World Is Flat. In this best-selling book, Freidman persuasively argues that we are moving into its third great era of globalization, an era in which digital communications have made it possible for all educated people and all economies to compete on equal terms. Business and practice are now global and 24–7. Our competition and our collaborators are anywhere and everywhere

Not surprisingly, a flat world is not easy to navigate. In this new era, problems are remarkably complex and interrelated. Just look at our profession. For architects, alternative project delivery methods have become the norm, with roles and responsibilities of all participants changing with every project. Building information models and software interoperability are transforming design and construction in ways we couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago. Clients are changing, with growing demands for accountability and predictability related to the design decisions they and we are asked to make.

These and other changes are happening in the context of today’s headlines—diminishing and degraded natural resources, the widening gulf between the haves and have-nots, urban blight and suburban sprawl, sick buildings indoors and poor water quality outdoors, rising public obesity and declining public health, securing a nation and terrorizing a generation. Yes, there are a lot more ways of falling off the edges of a flat world. But I would argue there are a lot more ways for architects to serve this brave new world.

Those of us educated in the design method may offer the best hope for dealing with the challenges of a flat world. Not only are many of these complex predicaments related to the built environment, and therefore will naturally benefit from the application of design knowledge, they also will benefit from the style of design leadership that does or should come naturally to architects whose professional default is necessarily collaboration.

We know that we gain much by loosening our grip and reaching out across disciplines and modes of knowing. In other words, in a world that is inexorably moving from a primarily vertical (command and control) value-creation and leadership model to a model that is increasingly horizontal (connect and collaborate), architects have a major and growing contribution to make.

Leadership in and of the AIA
I have had the opportunity to meet many effective leaders within our profession, leaders who understand the power of horizontal, shared leadership. They seem to share some key characteristics.

• They believe that only the team, rather than any individual, can fail or succeed
• They understand how to think aspirationally and act practically
• They recognize there are problems to solve and predicaments to manage, and that there is a difference between the two
• They know that talking too much results in listening too little
• They remember to act on what matters, and not lose the forest for the trees.

Next month some of these very same leaders will be gathering in Washington, D.C., for the annual Grassroots Legislative and Leadership Conference. There they will be joined by a truly collaborative leader, our new EVP/CEO, Christine McEntee. Although she does not officially start her position until February 1, I have had the great pleasure of spending time this month working with her.

This is what I’ve learned. Chris values the sharing of responsibility and accountability, vertically and horizontally. She describes herself as a calculated risk-taker, which is a necessity trait for innovation and development. She is a very quick study, and I am convinced she is the leader to position the AIA to help the profession transition gently but firmly into this 21st century.

Architects as leaders
The local, state, international, and knowledge leaders joining Chris at Grassroots will also connect with each other to develop leadership strategies that advance innovative action in the realm of legislative advocacy, component affairs, and the AIA’s knowledge communities. Perhaps most significantly, on the eve of the AIA’s 150th anniversary, these leaders will also be exploring new paths of community leadership through the AIA150 initiative called the Blueprint for America.

The Blueprint presents us with a unique opportunity to apply the special gifts of our profession to lead collectively and collaboratively by reaching out across our components and communities. Through the Blueprint for America, we will engage in service to communities across the country, identifying common solutions to problems and, along the way, cultivating a shared leadership role for architects in their communities.

It is our time to give this gift of leadership. We know how to do this, how to engage in flat leadership. We are trained to work collaboratively and across disciplines, in ensembles. We are innovative, visionary, and know how to be the integrators of complex and seemingly contradictory information, and we know that leadership means doing the right thing.

The 21st century has less need of the solitary hero, like Lindbergh. The complex times in which we live and practice call for a quality of leadership that has much more in common with the collaborative effort that allowed astronauts to escape the pull of gravity. It is this unique collective knowledge, which is both our heritage and our future, which makes me hopeful about this new flat world and our potential to reach for the stars.

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