Learning as a Strategic Priority at Turner Fleischer Architects

Ellen Bensky, CEO
Turner Fleischer Architects
 

Talk Description
Ellen Bensky's passion for lifelong learning has propelled her to experiment with a variety of learning modalities over her 27 years at Turner Fleischer Architects. Through iterative continuous improvement, Ellen has validated that active learning is one of the best ways to transfer important knowledge in a meaningful and successful way. Her talk will highlight the various methods that Turner Fleischer has implemented, and how they are now an integral part of the practice.

Speaker Bio
As a Partner and CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects Inc., Ellen's mission is to build and lead a dynamic, results-oriented organization dedicated to client satisfaction, staff retention and growth. Ellen joined the firm in 1990, rising to her current role in 2008. She is especially proud of the TF Academy and other in-house learning opportunities, which aim to nurture the firm's large cohort of young, enthusiastic talent into tomorrow's leaders. Ellen is able to engage daily in the process of successfully leveraging business needs and architectural realities, driving her ambition for operational excellence.

Zucu Bermann Ingersoll of Knowledge Architecture interviews Ellen Bensky of Turner Fleischer Architects at KA Connect 2018.

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Collaborative Communications: The Key to Business and Culture Change

Luanne Greene, President
Ayers Saint Gross
 

Talk Description
Over the past 5 years, Ayers Saint Gross has crossed over a mountain range of change—including onboarding a new president and leadership team, re-organizing the practice around integrated delivery of services, and converting to a 100% ESOP ownership structure. Luanne Greene and her team facilitated these business and culture transformations by creating clear and collaborative communication channels up, down, and across the business. In this talk, Luanne will share strategies, tactics, and lessons learned from Ayers Saint Gross' business and culture change journey.

Speaker Bio
Luanne is President of Ayers Saint Gross, a 170-person multidisciplinary design firm with offices in Baltimore, Washington DC, and Phoenix. In addition to her leadership role, Luanne specializes in the planning and design of colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. With over 30 years of design and planning experience, she has been a strong advocate for innovative and sustainable planning strategies which address the needs of both the institution and local community. Luanne has worked with numerous mission-driven institutions across the nation, including: Carnegie Mellon University, Smithsonian Institution, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Susan Strom of Knowledge Architecture interviews Luanne Greene of Ayers Saint Gross at KA Connect 2018.

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A Framework for Collaboration and Quality: SMMA’s ISO 9001 Journey

Ryan Farias and Jessica Smith
SMMA

Talk Description
In 1996, SMMA formalized their internal and external commitment to quality management by obtaining ISO 9001 certification. Obtaining this certification required that SMMA create, document, and implement formal processes to learn from their mistakes and share their improvements. In this talk, Jessica and Ryan will share the good, bad, and the ugly from their experiences of the firm's continuous improvement journey.

Speaker Bios
An SMMA Principal, Studio Director, and Quality Manager at SMMA, Jessica Smith offers more than 20 years of design experience. Jessica's passion and expertise lies in process improvements and project management. At the helm of SMMA's ISO 9001 Quality System, Jessica upholds quality requirements and fosters continual firm-wide improvements toward client satisfaction and design excellence. She is passionate about sharing lessons learned and best practices across SMMA's six design studios and seven design disciplines, and fittingly, her credo is "Let's make new mistakes."

As Principal and Director of Marketing, Ryan Farias is responsible for overseeing the full scope of SMMA's marketing initiatives and assisting in the development of the firm's overall strategic direction. Moonlighting as a Knowledge Manager, Ryan is particularly interested in helping his firm advance by better connecting people to critical knowledge while helping them work smarter and develop professionally. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, and trying to find time to play music, watch Boston's sports teams, and brew beer.

Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture interviews Ryan Farias and Jessica Smith of SMMA at KA Connect 2018.

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Lessons Learned from Lessons Learned

Nick Milton, Director and Co-Founder
Knoco Ltd
 

Talk Description
Lesson learning is something most organisations attempt but are rarely satisfied with. This talk covers the principles of lesson learning, and explores what is needed for lessons to systematically and reliably drive change and improvement.

Speaker Bio
Nick Milton is director and co-founder of Knoco Ltd, with over 20 years experience in Knowledge Management. Originally part of the British Petroleum KM team in the 90s, Nick has helped develop and deliver KM strategies, implementation plans, and services in a wide range of different organizations around the globe.

He has given keynote speeches at most of the leading international Knowledge Management conferences, is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group currently developing a KM standard, and has authored or co-authored six books including The Knowledge Manager's Handbook, The Lessons Learned Handbook, and Designing a Successful KM Strategy.

Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture interviews Nick Milton of Knoco Ltd at KA Connect 2018.

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Operationalizing Lessons Learned at Boulder Associates

Todd Henderson and James Lenhart
Boulder Associates

Talk Description
For years, Boulder Associates collected 'lessons learned' and clung to the hope that doing so would keep us from repeating mistakes. Nope! Recently, however, we seem to have cracked the code and developed an effective system that gives lessons learned the thing we lacked all along: delivery into a design team's awareness at the right time to be helpful.

Speaker Bios
Todd is a principal at Boulder Associates, leads their San Francisco office, and has over 20 years of healthcare design experience. An advocate and innovator of lean design within his company's culture and beyond, Todd is also currently fascinated by Agile, Knowledge Management, microcontrollers, pickling, and homemade cocktail bitters.

James is a principal and Director of Operations at Boulder Associates, overseeing quality, staffing, and standardization across the five-office enterprise from its Boulder, Colorado headquarters. With over 25 years of healthcare design experience, James leads some of BA's most challenging projects while finding time to support an interest in baseball that some (Todd) find excessive.

Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture interviews Todd Henderson and James Lenhart of Boulder Associates at KA Connect 2018.

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Improving Knowledge Flow: The AEC Lessons Learned Pipeline

Christopher Parsons, Founder and CEO
Knowledge Architecture
 

Talk Description
Last summer Knowledge Architecture reached out to our clients to help us shape our 2018 research agenda. They told us that getting better at sharing Lessons Learned was their top Knowledge Management priority. Since then, Chris has interviewed over 30 leading AEC firms to understand how their firms currently identify, share, and operationalize Lessons Learned from project work. He asked each firm to share what was working well, what their top challenges were and how they overcame them, and who was responsible and accountable (if anyone) for managing their Lessons Learned program. In this talk, Chris will share best practices and case study examples gleaned from his research, as well as strategic insights and tactical takeaways to help launch or improve your firm's Lessons Learned program.

Speaker Bio
As Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, Christopher is responsible for research and development, sales and marketing, and corporate operations. He is the executive producer of KA Connect, our annual knowledge management conference for the AEC industry. Christopher has been a technology leader in the AEC industry since 2002, including serving as the Chief Information Officer for Steinberg Architects and the Information Technology Director for SMWM (now Perkins+Will).

Q+A with Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture at KA Connect 2018.

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