Become a learning organization
When officials in Istanbul, Turkey, wanted to build a medical facility similar to the
Cleveland Clinic, the NBBJ partners soon
discovered that patient rooms would
require a few modifications to fit with the
local culture.
“In Turkey, the entire family stays in the
room with the patient 24 hours a day, and
they prepare meals on-site,” Parris says.
“So we needed to design rooms that
could accommodate as many as 10 family
members.”
Succeeding in the global marketplace
requires any business to adapt to the
local culture, but in the design business,
it’s crucial because nothing reflects a
community and its heritage more than
the architectural style of the buildings.
Parris says it soon became clear that
global expansion would be accompanied
by a huge learning curve.
“In many cases, the building environments are much less regulated, and we
were dealing with entrepreneurs who had
never built buildings before,” Parris says.
“They bring a trader mentality to the
building process, where they want to
debate and negotiate every step of the
process on a daily basis. We had to
become a learning organization to succeed in global markets.”
The firm instituted videoconferences
and Internet meetings where design
groups working on international projects could share what they were learning
about each country’s culture in real time
with their associates, and the firm created a presentation to share with clients in
an effort to educate them about the
building design and construction
process.
In addition, the firm created a learning
program called Oregano, which got its
name because Parris says the firm wanted
to spice things up. Each year, 20 NBBJ
associates travel to other countries, build
local relationships, and then share their
learning moments and experiences with
their peers. In keeping with the firm’s
leadership philosophies, Oregano participants are nominated by their peers and
more than 225 employees have traveled to
25 countries since the inception of the
program.
Given all the changes, Parris says that
the main consideration for prospective
NBBJ new hires is their desire and ability
to work in a team environment. But nothing speaks more to the success of the
organizational and cultural changes than
the number of “boomerangs” working at
the firm. Twenty-five percent of NBBJ’s
current staff is composed of former
employees who left the firm, mainly
because they didn’t see a clear path for career progression, and have now
rejoined the firm.
“I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is
that sometimes you wait too long to initiate some of these things,” Parris says. “I
wish we had made these changes five
years earlier. Now we keep our fingers on
the pulse and collect 360-degree feedback
from associates every year and make the
necessary changes.”
HOW TO REACH: NBBJ, www.nbbj.com
