The Fellows Forum

Ted Sive
Bill Strong
Mark Tawara
Brad Thurman
Kasey Delucia

Fellows speak on their insights of the conference thus far and answer audience questions.

Insights from the Keynote, Dr. Rick Kirschner:
Loved his "point-story-point" structure. He made a point (quickly,) then told a story that illustrated the point, then made the point again. It set the information in mental stone.

Loved his emotional connections - was interesting to see him tell stories that he had clearly rehearsed and polished, and yet still be authentic.

Audience question: what's the balance between polished/rehearsed and authentic. Rehearse the information, be authentic about your passion.

Most valuable take-away: How do you listen and "go deep" to what they really want.

Insights from Brent Darnell, Emotional Intelligence:
Take-away -- Listen. Difficult to stop and listen to what they're saying and make points again.

"Did you know" slides from Hearthmath.org -- some of the most amazing information about the science of your heart and brain. Can help you explain, logically, why the emotional connection with others is so important.

Take-away -- it's not about mirroring/mimicking exactly what the other person is doing, but blending with their style.

Decisions are made on emotions.

Social Media panel:
The key is to get buy-in from your leaders. We realize how important it is now and will be in the future. We need to be able to communicate it to our leaders and get them on board.

Use SoMe as research-base to find out about your clients, your subconsultants, etc. It's not all about pushing information out.

Start with strategy. What do you want to attain?

"Return on Investment" -- no, Return on Communication. What are you learning/hearing that you didn't know before.

Be careful about what you post about other companies/brands. They are monitoring, and will respond!

Content is key - find out what your clients want/need and give them that.
70% should be directed to clients and what they need/want
20% should be exchanging information
10% should be self-promotion

800 lb. Gorilla (teaming with MEGA firms)
Mark Tawara led the panel - even 'though you have a set agenda for your presentation, it doesn't always go that way.

Take-away -- the relationships are the number way key to making business happen. Difficult to get work, get on teams, unless you have a relationship with someone at the company. Maintain contact; update your information at least annually.

Susan Murphy - Get on Same Page with Client
Simple technique - sit down with client and say "I am prepared to talk to you about our qualifications, but I want to start with getting your perspective on the project, so we make best use of your time." And then shut up. And don't pressure with questions like "What's the most important thing about this project..." Just let them talk. Repeat some back, ask "what else," listen, repeat stuff back, and ask "and what else." This is REALLY hard.

How you ask questions is also important. Don't restate or summarize, because you've limited the discussion to the three (or 4 or 5) things you mentioned... whether they were right or wrong.

Open-ended questions are excellent - What has changed since RFP came out? How many lanes are you thinking about for the road? Don't limit with "Do you want 2 or 3 lanes..." No multiple choice. Keep it open.

John Doehring - Uber Trends
What is the single biggest challenge you expect for A/E/C in 2013?

Relationships -- how we make relationships; how we keep them.

Business models -- who is partnering with whom? Who is working for whom? what will work look like? Is everything going to be on the internet/computer? What's the intellectual property (because technology makes it easy to access)?

Consolidation of firms -- mergers/acquisitions. Mid-sized firms will probably go away. There are about 90 MEGA firms ($1B in revenue, multiple disciplines and global; many owned outside US). How do we deal with this? How do we market against/with this?

Larger number of small, 1-2 person firms

Services -- commoditization of marketing, design (you can download an entire corporate identity package for $11!)

Commoditization industry -- concerned fees will be unrealistically slashed and force price war, rather than selection based on value. One thought is figuring out where you can commoditize. Can you charge value-based for the conceptual/design work? And then shop-out the production?

Climate change (missing from John's presentation) -- 10 years from now we'll be wrestling with this challenge in ways we haven't thought about.

Expertise -- how many of you feel you have staff who are uniquely qualified, world-class? We ALL think so, but that can't be true. You really need to focus and get more specialized to stand out. Not ALL bridges, for example, but a particular type of bridge.

Owners will be looking for better/smarter metrics -- how will our design make their business more profitable, more efficient, better, retain employees, safer, whatever. How will our products positively affect the owners' critical issues.

What is our role in analyzing and preparing for the future?
Training/mentor the technical staff
Find leadership opportunities within the company. Not about the titles, but about filling the leadership voids from a mindset of service to the organization.
Find the information the staff needs to succeed.
Bring these marketing discussions back to the organization in a way that is meaningful to them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad, @craftkat