Leadership Articles

LEADERSHIP ARTICLES

Rebuilding the Profession

by Mark Wight
Chairman and CEO, Wight & Company
June 13, 2022 | 10 min read

Wight & Company’s chairman and CEO discusses the firm’s culture of collaboration and how its integrated design led-design build model challenges the profession

Rebuilding the Profession

What’s Inside Comes Out

by Dave Gilmore
President and CEO, DesignIntelligence
June 29, 2022 | 4 min read

Knowledge Is One Thing, Knowing Is Another

What’s Inside Comes Out

Sustainable Design as Design

by Steven McKay
Global Design Leader, Managing Principal, DLR Group
June 20, 2022 | 10 min read

Commitment to sustainable design is fundamentally a change management issue

Sustainable Design as Design

Responsibility Requires Authority

by Paul Finch
Programme Director, World Architecture Festival
May 11, 2022 | 3 min read

Letters from London: Paul Finch questions emerging contractual models

Responsibility Requires Authority

Creating a Culture of Accountability

by Dan Noble
President, Chairman and CEO, HKS Architects
April 13, 2022 | 3 min read

HKS’ Dan Noble investigates the continuum of individuality, teams and structure

Creating a Culture of Accountability

Leading Relevance: Design Innovation and The Future Possible

by Ana Pinto da Silva
Co-Founder and CEO, Minka
March 23, 2022 | 12 min read

Ana Pinto da Silva examines leadership responsibilities and meanings.

Leading Relevance: Design Innovation and The Future Possible

What Does it Mean to Influence?

by Dave Gilmore
President and CEO, Designintelligence
March 16, 2022 | 4 min read

Dave Gilmore reflects on stewardship and internal and external forces

What Does it Mean to Influence?

Learning to Let Go: Leadership Lessons for a Sustainable Future

by Scott Simpson
Senior Fellow, Design Futures Council
March 2, 2022 | 5 min read

Sustainability is a hot topic in the A/E/C industry these days, and for good reason. In a remarkably short time, we seem to have reached cultural consensus that the long-term success of homo sapiens requires wise stewardship of the resources at our disposal...

Learning to Let Go: Leadership Lessons for a Sustainable Future

Interdependent Relationships

by Dave Gilmore
President and CEO, DesignIntelligence
September 23, 2021 | 5 min read

DI’s Dave Gilmore examines the essence of mutual dependence in sustained social and business contexts.

Interdependent Relationships

Effective Interaction: Essential Enablers

by Dave Gilmore
President and CEO, DesignIntelligence
June 30, 2021 | 4 min read

I’ve been pondering the theme of human interaction for the past several months, trying to understand the heart of it. Like so many words in our vocabulary...

Effective Interaction: Essential Enablers

Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

by Amy Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School.
June 8, 2021 | 4 min read

Teaming is difficult. But it is essential for success in the future operating environment.

Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation

Creating Competitive Advantage

by Scott Simpson
Senior Fellow, Design Futures Council
May 26, 2021 | 5 min read

Every design firm suffers from the illusion that it is unique. While each one certainly has distinguishing characteristics, there are far more similarities than differences.

Creating Competitive Advantage

A Culture Unsure

by Dave Gilmore
CEO, DesignIntelligence
March 18, 2021 | 4 min read

DI’s Dave Gilmore posits a new lingua franca for professionals in their quest for action, relevance, and reinvention.

A Culture Unsure

Reinventing Leadership

by Michael LeFevre
FAIA, Managing Editor DI Media Group Publications
November 3, 2020 | 15 min read

In changing contexts, we need new models and skills for an old role.

Reinventing Leadership

Does Strategy Matter?

by Scott Simpson
FAIA and Senior Fellow, Design Futures Council 7 min read

A perspective on post-Covid recovery with actionable steps for firm leaders.

Does Strategy Matter?

The Way of Authentic Leadership

by Dave Gilmore, President and CEO, DesignIntelligence

Authentic, effective leaders are front and center when it comes to functional collaboration. They lead from a collaborative posture, inviting multiple voices into the decisioning process...

The Way of Authentic Leadership

The Way of Authentic Leadership — Part 2

November 19, 2019 | Dave Gilmore
A curiosity of sorts is in the natural behavior of people placed into leadership when neither their skillset nor experience warrants the placement. Over the past 5+ years I’ve been witness to multiple misplacements into senior leadership roles only to see their organizations swirl into a choreography of confusion and misaligned activities.

The Way of Authentic Leadership — Part 2

The Way of Authentic Leadership – Part 1

November 12, 2019 | Dave Gilmore
Over the past twenty-nine years, I’ve been an intentional observer, writer and speaker regarding leadership. The journey has taken me to large and small places, large and small personalities, and large and small thinkers.

The Way of Authentic Leadership – Part 1

The Not-So-Common Sense of Leadership Communication

By Bob Fisher
Nothing could be simpler, more commonsensical: spend less than you earn and save for when you need it. Few would argue against such sound practices. Yet according to the U.S. Federal Reserve, in 2018 American consumer debt rose to just over $4 trillion, up from $3.3 trillion in 2014. And according to the 2018 North-western Mutual Planning & Progress...

The Not-So-Common Sense of Leadership Communication

Nine Characteristics for Leadership in Sustainability

September 25, 2017 | Phil Harrison

These thoughts derive from a presentation I delivered a few years ago at the Design Futures Council Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design.
Are design firms doing enough ...