A cherished mentor of mine advised me at a young age that “knowledge and experiences are two things no one can take away from you.”
To this day, that insight has been my Northstar. As a creative and strategic consultant, I delight in learning the details about a new client’s business and utilizing comparative analysis from my past professional experiences to introduce new approaches and solutions to their friction points. Encouraging clients to realize their potential by being open to growth strategies and developing collaborative alliances that leverage their distinctive values.
When navigating my own path forward, a chance internship led me to pursue a degree in architecture, which provided me with a process of thinking that examined the context, function, and complex interconnectedness of systems. This left-brain thinking, married with human experience, creativity, and divergent thinking, made all the difference.
I was motivated to utilize the process of architectural thinking and ask, “How might I apply it along with my business experiences to cast a wider net beyond the traditional role of the architect?”
The answer was to apply the mindset characteristics, practices, and principles of architecture in developing an application for approaching business consulting and building with what I call ‘Architectural Thinking’ whereby the three components—leadership mindset, strategy, and visual communication—are organized into a three-legged stool to support any professional in their given field and industry. This methodology is the bedrock of my work as the founder of NODE-D.
As you read through the three-pronged approach, consider how you might apply each component in evolving your business with the goal of reaching its full potential.
Leadership Mindset
Without the practices of a leadership mindset, all other aspects of business are moot.
Adopting a leadership mindset has a profound impact on achieving desired outcomes. Leaders are responsible for making critical decisions and establishing standards of behavior and operations that steer the direction of a business or organization and inspire others to work towards a shared objective. We now know that successful leadership entails utilizing a multitude of techniques and tools by the individual(s) in top decision-making roles, employing various modalities such as leveraging architectural thinking, emotional intelligence, growth mindset, and metacognition.
To develop a leadership mindset, it’s crucial to have self-awareness or ‘metacognition.’ We can cultivate this by training our attention to our thoughts and their effects on our emotions and behaviors. Tools are available to help, such as Dr. Dan Siegel’s “Wheel of Awareness,” or the Conscious Leadership Group’s above-the-line conscious thinking. Our thoughts are the driving force behind our actions, and the goal is to identify our thoughts and where they come from, such as from a place of acceptance and trust, which generates curiosity and growth.
On the other hand, thoughts that come from fear and resistance lead to reactive and defensive behaviors that can contradict the desired outcome. By implementing metacognitive techniques of becoming more aware of our thoughts and feelings, we can gain the much-needed pause and perspective to respond consciously instead of reacting reflexively. This simple pause creates a gap of awareness, allowing us to make more thoughtful decisions and take purposeful actions. With practice, we can avoid making knee-jerk decisions and instead respond more deliberately.
In addition, developing a growth mindset means that one believes that anything is achievable with meaningful effort. Intelligence, skills, and abilities are not set in stone, and they can be developed. This perspective fosters transparency and open-mindedness, sparks curiosity, and encourages lifelong learning. This applies to individual performance and when leading others. Promoting a growth mindset creates an atmosphere of resilience. How one or many bounce back from setbacks is often the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. It is proven that resilience positively influences work satisfaction and engagement.
Applying a growth mindset plus metacognition might look like: when something unexpected arises, pause to respond with curiosity rather than fear or resistance and seek solutions that stem from growth, such as collaborating with someone who has relevant expertise or supporting an employee who wants to learn new skills that will add value to the project or team.
With a growth mindset, we understand that our capabilities to be great leaders are not fixed, and with the right tools and practices, we can show up as effective, conscious leaders in our companies, communities, and homes.
Interestingly enough, architectural thinking embodies aspects of the modalities mentioned above. Leadership mindset is a hidden gem in the architecture discipline, as it offers a network of leader attributes patterned from the methodology’s principles, practices, characteristics, and habits of architecture.
However, it is important to mention that architectural thinking offers a leadership perspective of systems thinking, of relationships that are crucial when making decisions. The leader(s) are responsible for considering what is best for the whole and what right actions will reinforce the values and vision of the company. Referencing the opening statement, ‘Without the practices of a conscious leadership mindset, all other aspects of business strategy are moot.’
The following is a list of the top ten original behavior taxonomies (or traits) that have informed my consulting and discussions with clients:
1. Curiosity: Looking outside the given industry/field and beyond immediate information.
2. Focus on opportunities rather than problems: Every failure, weak spot, or setback offers an opening for innovation, agility, and opportunity.
3. Identifying ‘the need’: Fulfilling a purpose. Not arbitrarily taking action instead of responding to a need.
4. Risk-taking: Confidently embracing change and finding opportunities in the limitations.
5. Mentorship/Apprenticeship: Provide guidance and support to the next generation, which keeps one relevant. Apprentice, hands-on learning from mentors to build skills, knowledge, and industry insight.
6. Zooming in and out: Details to the big-picture planning. Macro-to-micro planning and analysis
7. Look at (things) in a new way: Bringing insight, creativity, and innovation by looking outside the status quo and asking, ‘what if?’
8. The guest-host relationship: Always consider the user. Enhance the experience and connect with the user.
9. Have a compelling vision: This is the bedrock of every project, the touchstone for decision-making. Focuses on the essentials. No to most, yes to few.
10. Responsible decision-making: Making decisions based on knowledge and information that is the best for the whole.
Strategy
Strategy is architecting an idea.
Constructing a strategy should be a normalized practice in life and especially in business. Without a plan, it is nearly impossible to achieve a desired outcome of any scale. A thoughtfully laid out and informed framework leads to an effective decision-flow process. Taking a page from architecture, a well-built building depends on the process and planning that takes place before any ground has been broken.
To build a strategy, begin at the end, begin with a compelling vision, the desired goal, or the driving idea that the strategy will scaffold together actions and solutions to achieve. Once the vision is established, it is time to get down to the hard lines, the existing conditions, and the circumstances. Having a transparent foundation of current conditions will aid in reducing setbacks while building the path forward. Developing strategic plans is an exercise of zigzagging back and forth from the endpoint to the starting point, exploring the multiple pathways in which the story can unfold.
Once the plan begins to embody an intelligent solution, the next step is to develop the details or set more granular frameworks and timelines into the strategy, it becomes an exercise in measuring a fractal. The process shows you the systematic relationship of the parts to the whole. As a key decision maker or manager, training oneself in the ability to move quickly from the details to the big picture in relation to one another is a vital skill.
Lastly, because of the inevitable uncertainty of economic, social, and cultural conditions, new feedback is always arising, and new information or technology will be brought to light; because of this, build agility into your overall strategic plan. Having a certain level of ‘give’ will allow you to pivot, innovate, and respond with grace as change happens.
Visual Communication
“Beige is the color of indecision.”—Paula Schar, Principal at Pentagram
Visual communication plays a crucial role in shaping the relationship between an entity and the public. Companies rely on visual cues to convey a wide range of information, including what they sell, their pricing, internal values, the quality of their offerings, and their defining characteristics. For instance, humorous marketing campaigns communicate a light-hearted and youthful nature, while a company’s messaging about social or environmental rights empowers buyers to make a difference with their purchases. By establishing a clear visual identity, companies can build trust, loyalty, and understanding with their audience.
Visual communication is also a powerful facilitator of storytelling. The combination of photography, type, color, language, and other graphic elements, when skillfully composed, yields a legible and hopefully lasting message. In architecture, for example, drawings, blueprints, and layouts communicate the driving concept behind a building, the method of construction, and the defining program or building type; these elements even translate the affect and feel of the spaces. It is how these visual elements relate to one another that helps to paint a complete picture.
Effective visual communication is vital for companies and organizations to connect with their customers and competitors. Written and visual communication should be part of the dialect of the company’s unique characteristics, values, and qualities that is supported through creative direction, brand identity, and marketing to come together for a persuasive and engaging rhetorical conversation with the public
