Patience Jones: Hello, and welcome to As Built, the podcast from Graphicmachine about architecture firms, buildings, and how both get built. I'm your co-host, Patience Jones. With me is Brian Jones, your other co-host. Thank you for joining us. Today, we are talking about, or we're really asking and hopefully answering the question: Should your architecture firm enter competitions?
Brian Jones: Yes, maybe, no.
Patience Jones: I don't think that's helpful. [laughing]
Brian Jones: Okay.
Patience Jones: So, I feel like it's competition season, but when is it not, really?
Brian Jones: It's pretty immediate. Universally always, all the time.
Patience Jones: The competitions can seem like the thing you're supposed to do to jumpstart your practice or to propel it to the next level. That may be true, it might not be. They're also viewed sometimes as kind of the hallmark that your architecture firm has really made it, that you've won a competition. Again, sometimes that's true, sometimes it's not. There are different reasons for doing competitions.
Brian Jones: One of the big ones is that you want to grow your awareness. You have a chance that you'll be the one that gets selected. You want the opportunity to sort of test either yourself or your team, find out what is possible. You need the practice. And you want the opportunity to showcase your ability to do a different type of work. You want an opportunity to be a finalist among world-class firms. And you want an opportunity to be noticed for other competitions and commissions.
Patience Jones: All of those are really good reasons, perfectly legitimate reasons. There is no judgment about the reason that you're doing this. Note, the one thing that is not on this list is increased revenue. Competitions are not, in and of themselves, a way to increase your cash flow. If anything, they're going to cost your firm money. You may receive a stipend, but more often than not, that will not quite cover your time and your expenses. So it's a sunk costs kind of exercise. Reasons not to enter competitions: on the one hand, we have all the reasons to potentially consider it, on the other hand, we have some pretty significant reasons not to do it.
Brian Jones: Yes.
Patience Jones: Since I tend to be the more negative of the two of us, I'll cover that one. The first reason is time. Competitions take a lot of time if they're done well. If you're not going to do it well, query why you're even submitting. But to do a competition entry well, it takes a lot of time. This is time not just for you, but for everybody in your studio. There's the cost. There's the actual cost of the labor resources that go into it, the materials, the shipping, all that. There's also the cost of lost opportunities: all the things that you could be pursuing or work that you could be doing that you're not doing because you're entering the competition, and there's not a wrong answer there. If you are upfront with yourself and your team about, "This is what we're willing to give up for this opportunity," then that makes complete sense. The last thing that I think most people don't talk about is the emotional rollercoaster of competitions. It’s late nights, long days, a lot of sleeplessness, it can be frantic, there can be a lot of feelings of self-doubt that get triggered more than normal, which is saying something. And there's the high that comes if you win, but there can be the really low, low if you're not a finalist or you don't win. So particularly if the competition that you're entering involves any kind of public input or public feedback, that can be a really emotionally trying process. So reasons to do it, reasons not to do it, or to really consider if these reasons are significant enough. Which brings us to things to ask yourself.
Brian Jones: Should we do this?
Patience Jones:
That's probably ... Yes. [laughing] So under that umbrella, [laughing] there are some sub-questions, such as?
Brian Jones: [laughing] Why are we doing this?
Patience Jones: Yes. Yes.
Brian Jones: Yes. What do we have to do as a firm to really do a good job on this? That's an easy question to lie to yourself a little bit about because, see, the above, which is the time, the cost, the emotional rollercoaster, your other responsibilities that you have in the firm at that time - that's an important one.
Patience Jones: And a buffer for things that will inevitably come up on projects that you're already committed to during this competition timeframe.
Brian Jones: And what sort of financial condition is the firm in to embark on this? That's a big one. And is the team excited about working on it, or is this something where as a firm leader, you're going to have to really be bringing the team along, and they're sort of begrudgingly coming along for the ride?
Patience Jones: Which is hard enough under normal circumstances, but when you're also saying to somebody, "Okay, it's going to be another late night," or, "You're going to have to give up another weekend," that becomes much harder and more demoralizing when they're not even excited about the work that's being done.
Brian Jones: Your shot at becoming a finalist is certainly something that you should consider and ask yourself, but I would caution against being ... you know, look at all the other entrants, too. There are people that win all the time, people that have never won, and that's not a reason to do it. It's not a reason not to do it. It's just one of several factors. It shouldn't be the only factor, I would think.
Patience Jones: I think it's more a reality check in the most basic of senses. If this is a competition for a new natatorium, and you've only ever done kitchens and baths, that's going to be a pretty steep climb. What's really the chance of you becoming a finalist in this, and is it worth all of the cost? Is it also worth putting your team through it? Teams can be pretty resilient, and I think when people know, "We were really qualified for this, and we gave it everything we had, and we didn't get it, but we got some good press out of it, and we can move on. We can do the next thing.” When people feel like, "We had no business submitting to this in the first place. It was embarrassing. We were called out. Now we're sort of going home with our tail between our legs,” that's what you want to avoid.
Brian Jones: The final one I think would be, is this something that the firm wants to do long-term? Do they want to be in that circuit, or is this something that you see as more of a one-time thing?
Patience Jones: Yes, because if you want competitions to be an integral part of your practice, which many really esteemed firms do, you need practice. You need to keep doing it. You need to get better at it, and the only way to do that is to keep entering. But to Brian's point, if this is just sort of a one-off thing, that's okay, too, but then allocate resources appropriately, which brings you back always to the why are we doing this? Are we doing this to get better at doing competitions? Are we doing this to increase awareness? Are we doing this so that we can be seen in the same tier as some of the other firms that are submitting?
Brian Jones: Consider reaching out to your network of people who maybe work at other firms, specifically, to see what their experiences have been. Because you may find additional questions or additional considerations that might be impactful for your decision-making process, too. I think that's always a good thing.
Patience Jones: I think that's a really good idea - especially firms that have maybe done a project similar to what the competition project is or for the same project owners. That can be really, really helpful, too. So final takeaways.
Brian Jones: Be honest. Be realistic about why you're going about this and what your capacity is to go about this process. But also, if it's something that you really want to chase, then set yourself up for the best possible outcome.
Patience Jones: And to the extent possible, and hopefully that's a large extent, have fun! If this isn't something that you're excited to do, then it's probably not the right fit for your firm.
