https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:07:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/www.lifeofanarchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Life-of-an-Architect-New-Logo-200-x-200-e1451878774701.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com 32 32 A gifted storyteller communicating the role and value of architecture to a new audience, host Bob Borson uses the experiences acquired over a 25-year career to inform his podcast. <br /> <br /> A small firm owner, architect, and college design instructor, co-host Andrew Hawkins brings his insight from his 20 years in various roles within the profession. <br /> <br /> It responds to the public curiosity and common misunderstanding about what architects do and how it is relevant to people’s lives, engaging a wide demographic of people in a meaningful way without requiring an understanding of the jargon or knowledge of the history of the profession.<br /> <br /> With a creative mix of humor and practicality, Borson’s stories are informative, engaging, and approachable, using first-person narratives and anecdotes that have introduced transparency into what it really means to be a practicing architect. <br /> <br /> To learn more about Bob, Andrew, and what life is like as an architect, please visit Lifeofanarchitect.com<br /> Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins false episodic Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins Bob Borson Bob Borson podcast Life of an Architect, a podcast dedicated to all things architecture with a little bit of life mixed in for balance https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/Life_of_an_Architect_Podcast_iTunes_Thumbnail.png https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/category/office-2/ TV-G Dallas, Texas Dallas, Texas bi-weekly 131299242 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-148-meetings-are-a-waste-of-time/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ep-148-meetings-are-a-waste-of-time https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-148-meetings-are-a-waste-of-time/#respond Sun, 07 Apr 2024 19:00:02 +0000 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/?p=39322 You check the time and realize that you have 4 minutes before your next meeting. Maybe it’s an internal meeting, maybe clients are coming in. Is it in person or online? Depending on how you answer those questions, time to start scrambling so that you are where you need to be and have the information […]

The post Ep 148: Meetings are a Waste of Time first appeared on Life of an Architect.]]> https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-148-meetings-are-a-waste-of-time/feed/ 0 You check the time and realize that you have 4 minutes before your next meeting. Maybe it’s an internal meeting, maybe clients are coming in. Is it in person or online? Depending on how you answer those questions, You check the time and realize that you have 4 minutes before your next meeting. Maybe it’s an internal meeting, maybe clients are coming in. Is it in person or online? Depending on how you answer those questions, time to start scrambling so that you are where you need to be and have the information required to make this meeting a good use of your time. But guess what? I promise that you will end up waiting on someone … maybe you are that someone. Either way, you aren’t getting that time back and you haven’t even started yet. Welcome to EP 148: Meetings are a Waste of Time<br /> <br /> [Note: If you are reading this via email, click here to access the on-site audio player]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1562005974350-0'); });<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I wrote a post on this topic 11 years ago – and it was also titled “Meetings are a Waste of time.” When I wrote this down as a topic, it wasn’t because I had already covered this topic a decade ago, it was because I had forgotten that I had covered it and I most likely had just come out of a meeting that I felt was an unproductive waste of time. Is this going to be a crabby podcast episode? It’s entirely possible, but you can hit the pause button, go grab a beer, and then restart the show because I feel like most people feel like I do when it comes to the majority of meetings they attend.<br /> <br /> I am becoming more and more sensitive to sitting in meetings where I think:<br /> <br /> What am I doing in this meeting?<br /> <br /> You already said that, move on …<br /> <br /> What does that have to do with what we are supposed to be talking about?<br /> <br /> I went back to reread that post from 2013 and as I went through the points, I typically thought to myself “Nailed It” but things are a little different for me now and shockingly, I thought I was in a lot of meetings before, I am in ten times that number now. It’s not even close!<br /> <br /> A couple of caveats to consider:<br /> <br /> There is a huge difference between professional environment meetings and volunteer organization meetings, Meetings with Clients, and internal meetings. Along with those distinctions comes a slightly different pain threshold for what is acceptable behavior or not. While I would like volunteer meetings to be run with the same efficiency, I have to acknowledge that these are "volunteer" based meetings and if the people attending have to do something as part of their real jobs, I am not going to get in their way.<br /> <br /> Probably 50% of the time I spend in meetings isn’t scheduled. My office (air quotes) is pretty open and it lends itself to pop-in meetings – which was purposeful at the time of design. Exactly what is supposed to happen DOES in fact happen, but it does become disruptive to developing any sort of rhythm to the creative process.<br /> <br /> Client meetings generally fall outside of the requirements I considered, unless I am the one who is slowing things down – which does happen. I wrote in the 2013 post the following:<br /> <br /> “At least half of the meetings I attend, nothing is really happening other than the swapping of stories. One on hand, that’s okay because I’m the Pecos Bill of stories, but I simply don’t have the time for it anymore.”<br /> <br /> So in an effort to reclaim some lost time, here are some tips I have collected and follow to help make sure that my days don’t get longer by sitting in unnecessary or gratuitous meetings.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Start your meetings on time jump to 17:39<br /> If someone is late, that’s their problem. Don’t review information that’s already been covered. I make it an effort to be on time to meetings and it drives me insane when someone else is late and I have to just sit there waiting on them. Not only a waste of time, it’s disrespectful – it says “my time is more important than yours”. Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins 2024 2024 148 148 Meetings are a Waste of Time full false 1:10:34 39322 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-135-employee-takeover/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ep-135-employee-takeover https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-135-employee-takeover/#respond Sun, 01 Oct 2023 20:00:57 +0000 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/?p=38846 It was podcast Episode 130: Employee Evaluations, and Andrew and I were discussing the process and criteria used to assess and measure an individual employee’s performance when we made the point that there would be value in creating a process where upward evaluations could be implemented, one that allowed the employee to share their thoughts and opinions on what mattered to them from their managers, from their team leads, even their employers. We decided to have that discussion to do just that …Welcome to EP 135: Employee Takeover

The post Ep 135: Employee Takeover first appeared on Life of an Architect.]]> https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-135-employee-takeover/feed/ 0 It was podcast Episode 130: Employee Evaluations, and Andrew and I were discussing the process and criteria used to assess and measure an individual employee’s performance when we made the point that there would be value in creating a process where upw... It was podcast Episode 130: Employee Evaluations, and Andrew and I were discussing the process and criteria used to assess and measure an individual employee’s performance when we made the point that there would be value in creating a process where upward evaluations could be implemented, one that allowed the employee to share their thoughts and opinions on what mattered to them from their managers, from their team leads, even their employers. We decided to have that discussion to do just that …Welcome to EP 135: Employee Takeover Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins 2023 2023 135 135 Employee Takeover full false 1:16:23 38846 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-134-management-101/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ep-134-management-101 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-134-management-101/#comments Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:00:42 +0000 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/?p=38812 Today we are talking about firm management – but at a fairly introductory level so that we can focus on a broad range of considerations that are applicable to a broader range of individuals who are transitioning into management roles.

The post Ep 134: Management 101 first appeared on Life of an Architect.]]> https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-134-management-101/feed/ 1 Today we are talking about firm management – but at a fairly introductory level so that we can focus on a broad range of considerations that are applicable to a broader range of individuals who are transitioning into management roles. Today we are talking about firm management – but at a fairly introductory level so that we can focus on a broad range of considerations that are applicable to a broader range of individuals who are transitioning into management roles. Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins 2023 2023 134 134 Management 101 full false 1:21:01 38812 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-130-employee-evaluations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ep-130-employee-evaluations https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-130-employee-evaluations/#respond Sun, 23 Jul 2023 19:00:41 +0000 https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/?p=38652 In this episode we discuss the role that structured and organized employee evaluations have a valuable role to play in the process of evaluating the role that employees fill in any office environment

The post Ep 130: Employee Evaluations first appeared on Life of an Architect.]]> https://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ep-130-employee-evaluations/feed/ 0 In this episode we discuss the role that structured and organized employee evaluations have a valuable role to play in the process of evaluating the role that employees fill in any office environment In this episode we discuss the role that structured and organized employee evaluations have a valuable role to play in the process of evaluating the role that employees fill in any office environment Bob Borson and Andrew Hawkins 2023 2023 130 130 Employee Evaluations full false 1:13:09 38652