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We would like to share with you some insights we have gained over the years in working with church committees that were instrumental in building churches that exceeded their most optimistic expectations.
In the beginning of a project, committees are intent on quantifying their decisions. They begin by measuring the responses of the competing architects to the committees' questions, so that an objective ranking can be obtained for comparative purposes. This approach facilitates their selection of consultants. It also facilitates the committees' presentation of their selection to the parish.
Many of the committees' questions focus on such measurable items as -- scheduling, size of firm, fees, historical experience. Their initial work centers on other tangible actions such as identifying where to locate sacred items already in use in their church, and selecting colors and types of building materials. These tangible and quantifiable issues are important -- both in the selection process and as milestones to mark progress.
However, as they gain confidence in working with us, their concerns begin to shift -- away from the quantifiable, toward the intangible poetry which is an integral part of our creative process. Working with us, they learn to value qualities that seem at odds with their earlier quantitative focus. They learn to look at the whole, not just the parts; at passion, not just prudence; at process, not just milestones; at liturgy, not just architecture, at function, not just form.
In reflecting on their selection of the us, they acknowledge that while an architect must be able to deliver the quantifiable measures, it is from what can’t be quantified that creation emerges. It is the duet between the committees and the our professionals that rises above a technically accurate performance and reaches a soaring crescendo. In the last analysis, it is intuition and passion, rather than rationale and reason, that create truly functional architecture.
It has been our experience that church committees tend to model themselves after corporations where data is typically used to drive results in such areas as productivity, quality, and safety. This accounts for the initial reliance on quantifiable data and other tangibles.
However, successful committees soon make a shift -- from being data-driven to being results-driven. Successful corporations today are making the same culture change. Success in both comes to those willing to take risks and let go.
In a recent article, Tom Peters, management guru, summarizes his philosophy for success as "No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going." He explains it as follows:
We're faced with an emotional paradox. The fact is, most readers of this column do favor markets and dismiss centrally planned economies. Yet we instinctively resort to local master plans to "get in control." The problem: Those plans help achieve a sense of control at the expense of real control. Real control flows from allowing numerous, impassioned champions to vigorously pursue the moment. That is, creative artists or Silicon Valley firms must chase, intensely, what makes sense at the time.
Perversely, the odds of success increase to the extent that we let go of the master plans. In the past, when market feedback loops were much longer, we could at once maintain the illusion of control -- plan! plan! plan! -- and somehow muddle through. But with feedback loops shriveling to nothing, that luxury is long past. Tapping energy and imagination, and having the nerve to know not whither we are going, may be the chief task for tomorrow's leaders.
Others have voiced similar philosophies in their writings and actions:
We must live with principles that seem diametrically opposed -- patience and encouragement, impatience and caution -- and so on. These simultaneous properties are simply part of the change process. (Ralph Stayer, CEO, Johnsonville Foods - Harvard Business Review)
I keep reminding people that what we are doing isn't easy...that we need to keep looking and keep experimenting. Because I firmly believe that is the future...(Paul Allaire, CEO, Xerox Corporation - Harvard Business Review)