Four practices that AEC businesses should adopt for a competitive advantage.

I’ll always be an architect at heart.

In my career I’ve worked on a wide range of exciting projects. K-12 school design with DTW Architects & Planners ; Multi-family residential development during the era of Revit adoption with Elkus Manfredi Architects ; villa design and sustainable development in the British Virgin Islands with KAO Design Group Inc ; data-driven urban planning and strategy with Arrowstreet Inc.

I’ve since focused my career on business innovation and digital strategy. I’ve had the pleasure of supporting initiatives for organizations like NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and others as a member of the Aerospace innovation team at Booz Allen.

What’s most interesting to me about my shift in clientele—from Architecture to Government/DoD and back—is the opportunity I've had to learn how digital strategy and innovation get applied to a wide set of complex problems.

TL;DR: There is an immense opportunity available to architects who embrace innovation strategy and digital transformation.

AEC business leaders--here are four practices that you should adopt that will put you ahead of your competitors.

Set aside time for focused strategic planning and alignment, and find ways to include your entire staff in the process.

Establish a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound accountability system.

Invest in scalable digital infrastructure that can grow alongside your business (and yes, this includes AI)

Embrace a growth mindset and get curious, like really deeply curious, about your business, your industry, and your clients.

First, set aside time for focused strategic planning and alignment, and find ways to include your entire staff in the process.

Okay, I get it. You're trying to run your business. You wear 10 different hats and have to jump from proposal writing, to client management, to invoicing, to hiring, to firing, to... the list goes on. Who has time to plan for the next 24 months when your attention is on today?

Whether you're a partner, COO, marketing director, or in any kind of leadership position, don't forget that strategic planning is a part of your role. As cited in this HBS article: "48% of leaders spend less than one day per month discussing strategy" and "48% of all organizations fail to meet at least half of their strategic targets."

There are many ways to approach strategic planning, many best practices, pitfalls, etc. One key practice is to have a third party facilitate your strategy discussions. Let the facilitator hold the agenda, the time, the conflict resolution, and decision-making process, the follow-up actions. By engaging a facilitator, you free your team's brain up to focus on what's important to your business, not the mechanics of running a meeting.

It's also important to include, in some way, your entire staff. They are, after all, the ones helping you implement the strategy. You want them bought-in, aligned, and eager to go out and deliver on your behalf. They may not be in the room for the decision making, but their input and insight can go a long way to ensure that your strategy is rooted in day-to-day pragmatism.

Second, establish a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound accountability system.

So you've developed your strategy--now it's time to implement. But one of the downfalls during implementation is the lack of day-to-day accountability. You have a rock solid 24-month strategy, but what are you doing every day to move the needle? How can you measure your progress so you know if it's working, or if you need to adjust?

You need to establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that your entire organization can work toward.

Establish a weekly or bi-weekly check in with your team to review their progress. Make sure you set the tone of curiosity and openness. You want your team to feel comfortable reporting a missed target just as much as a bullseye, otherwise your data will be skewed. You should be just as excited about the losses as the wins because it gives you an opportunity to course-correct.

Do this 2-4 times per month and you'll be shocked at how much visibility and progress you make.

Third, invest in scalable digital infrastructure that can grow alongside your business (and yes, this includes AI).

One of the biggest challenges I've seen with architecture firms is the knack for getting stuck with an outdated and inflexible tech stack. I'm not talking about design software like CAD vs BIM. I'm talking about business software.

One of your goals as a business leader is to grow your business. But so many firms are stuck with systems that run counterpoint.

Maybe you hired a developer to build your website but never assumed to the keys to the backend--making you dependent on their services.

Or maybe your marketing and lead management efforts span social media, MailChimp, Excel, and Deltek--making it impossible to get true data coordination and visibility into your pipeline.

Or maybe you've been resistant to embracing AI as a business solution, only to see your competitors outpace you. Their operations are now AI-powered while you're stuck in the stone age.

Take a critical look at your tech stack and ask yourself: "Does this system grow with me and where I want to go?" If not, scrap it and invest in the right one!

Finally, embrace a growth mindset and get curious, like really deeply curious, about your business, your industry, and your clients.

Let's talk about mindset. Things are changing so fast these days. The economy, technology, talent--how do you keep up? Embracing a growth mindset and curiosity will make the first three practices WAY easier. Instead of getting mad at or scared of the change, your job as a business leader is to see change as a fundamental part of business, and get really deeply curious about it.

The more curious you are about your business, your industry, and your clients, the more you'll learn and be in a much better position to take your team into the future that you envision.