In 2010, Peter Larson decided to open up his personal philosophy of Blue Design to the people around him and the public at-large. An architect and principal at Ashley McGraw Architects in Syracuse, New York, Peter brings holistic thinking to what we know today as sustainability and “green” design. He believes that a healthy relationship with the Earth begins with being purposeful about the relationships we make with each other, what we consume and how we create.
As we see with many of our clients, folding a personal philosophy into an organization is challenging for the person who is the keeper of it and for those asked to do something with it. Fathom helped Pete formulate a self-publishing and engagement strategy so that he could invite others to contribute to Blue Design and scale its evolution. I called Pete recently to catch up on his progress. He had a lot to share:
Pete in action during the 2010 CBIA Leadership Dialogues Conference In Hartford, Conn.
How have things changed for you since first putting the concepts of Blue Design out to the world at-large?
I used to be very guarded with sharing my ideas. Now, things are more fluid and open. There no longer needs to be a single person steering the ship. Anyone is welcome to jump in and bump things in a new direction. And, it doesn’t have to be me.
Essentially, I’ve discovered that you can collaborate but not lose yourself in the collaboration. It’s wonderful to figure out how to open yourself up and still stay who you are. Now, I see that people adding to my ideas makes them better than what they are. Bottom up collaboration is the answer.
Plus, it’s a killer to take things on your own back. I come to work and discover each person’s passion, instead of telling them what to be passionate about or steering them. I realized there was really no right answer to the questions I was asking, so instead, I just began looking for a better answer knowing that the current one is just temporary and that I’ll find something better still when I meet someone else.
When you first launched, the leadership of the firm were advocates of Blue Design but adoption throughout the company was still on the horizon. What’s changed?
We have definitely gone through distinct phases of adoption. We are much more inclusive now. During “2.0,” we instituted the Advanced Building Studio so that the concepts of Blue Design had a formal place to emerge and be channeled. ABS is diffused now and doesn’t really exist. How we channel Blue Design concepts happens in less trying terms. Project teams of 3-10 people are testing and applying concepts and a Blue Design research group gets together once every 3 weeks. The firm still has pockets of involvement so there’s quite a spectrum of people who are engaged. I’ve discovered that alignment in spirit is a work in progress. There’s a tipping point in an organization when you don’t need to push itself so much because there’s momentum. We’ve definitely reached beyond that point.
Has the culture of the organization evolved and, if so, how has it impacted Blue Design?
We were booming when we first began working with Fathom and then we experienced some layoffs due to the economic downturn. There is no great way to recover from that. People grieve and there’s nothing you can do about it. We realized that we were going to exist in a negative culture for a while and we needed to be sensitive to that. At the same time, good things were happening with ABS and the business so what developed over time was a more open and creative environment.
Creativity lets people move around more. Getting people involved and encouraging them to develop their own ideas and contribute according to their strength, has improved positivity and helped us get through a tough time.
What’s changed in your industry and how has it impacted the firm?
The climate is different in construction and design since the housing collapse in 2008. I now see architecture finding greater meaning in smaller things. In building big, new things, it’s easy to find meaning and satisfaction there. With renovation and “fix it” work, a lot of architects look at that work as not glamorous but I think we need to turn that on its head. Treasuring what we have and valuing the little things is the way the world is going. At the firm, I see my colleagues finding meaning in helping clients through what could have been routine before – that they are doing something for the greater good that is beyond a design project.
Where are your philosophies hovering about these days?
I’m doing a deep dive into what it could mean if we lived in a “steady state economy”, which is the opposite of the “bigger is better” approach to life that we see all around us now. I see that we’re in the middle of two eras — industrialism and ecology — and neither are complete. Industrialism has distinct systems with an expiration date. From fossil fuels to social and political norms, these systems are all breaking down because the planet can’t handle growth as we’ve always known it. Simultaneously, new underpinnings for an ecological age are emerging. For instance, waste is going away as a system, while the use of solar power is increasing. What’s challenging is building something new when living in an in-between state. We can’t really build a green building, one that is a fully ecological structure, because we have yet to fully transition into the new age.
The pointy headed conversation where all this stems from is understanding how to achieve synthesis in life, where wholeness is the ultimate goal, while living amidst fragmentation. There’s a way of understanding where we are in time that is helpful to what we can accomplish today without losing hope for the future.
I noticed that you’re much more personal on the Peter Larson & Blue Design blog now. How has the way you use your blog changed?
New ideas start with something on the blog. It’s much more free flowing, and used to promote a creative environment for me and others at the firm. When there are no expectations and it’s much more about finding something new, it leads to doing something new.
I always worry that it will dry up but the ideas keep coming. I like experimenting in writing and speaking. I used to worry a lot about blog traffic, which is pretty steady, but generating a high volume of traffic isn’t my focus anymore. People I know read it and we talk about it, so that’s a win. Blogging is a difficult medium. People love what you can pick up off of Facebook in a short post but it’s hard to catch people for a three-page blog post. They need to have some investment in what you’re doing to stay engaged.
What’s next?
We’re working on a book based on five days of conversations. Each day captures different perspectives and uses different text style/colors to indicate different voices. We’re writing for two types of readers, those who skim and want the big statements and the in-depth reader who wants to read it end-to-end.
Moving forward, I’d really like to figure out how to connect with more people who are doing similar things. Sometimes I get lonely because people get motivated by what we’re discussing but would like someone to push back more and have it be a bit more of a debate. I run into people at conferences and have great conversations but it’s difficult to find where these conversations are happening on a broader scale.
What is it like to be the guy who takes on a big idea and asks others to help you make it happen?
You never feel like you’re there. You’ve stood up for your principals and made your life about what you believe in and it’s good to look back and see that you’ve come a long way. At the same time, I see that I have a lot of work to do.
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Posted by:
Suzi Craig
Email the author:
suzi@fathom.net
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