Working Genius for Architects

Ryan Loveday ,

How can understanding people’s natural strengths transform the way architectural teams work? Ryan Loveday, Director at Fulton Trotter Architects, explores the ideas behind Patrick Lencioni’s The 6 Types of Working Genius – and reflects on how self-awareness and recognising different “genius” types can shape project teams, leadership, and practice culture.

Aside from my regular job as an architect, I’m also a business owner of the practice, which as it turns out, requires quite different skills. On my long apprenticeship to ownership, I have developed a deep interest in organisational psychology and the way people work. I still read tons of management and business books in the effort to help me work better and lead better. I’ve become a fan of personality typing – DISC, Enneagram, Myers Briggs – in the effort to understand myself and my colleagues.

But my favourite model right now is called The 6 Types of Working Genius by a business writer named Patrick Lencioni. (You may have heard of his other big title The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – also very good). While personality typing tells you useful things about how people behave, Working Genius particularly deals with how people are fundamentally wired to work, the parts they naturally tend to play in the production of work. This is quite different from developed skills and habits. Given that architectural work is particularly project based and particularly involved in repeating a process from an idea to a bespoke built outcome, I have found this a profoundly useful way to look at our teams.

The Model

You can find more about the model here. For those who don’t know the model – this is from their site. There’s also a book and a regular podcast.

The Working Genius framework identifies six distinct areas of work, each representing a different type of genius: Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. These are not personality traits, but rather distinct stages in getting work done. The model proposes that an individual has two areas where they naturally excel (their Working Genius), two areas where they are competent but not exceptional (their Working Competency), and two areas where they experience frustration (their Working Frustration). The areas are:

• Wonder – The ability to identify opportunities and ask insightful questions. Wonderers are naturally curious and enjoy exploring possibilities.
• Invention – The capacity to generate creative solutions and new ideas. Inventors thrive on brainstorming and developing innovative approaches.
• Discernment – The skill to evaluate ideas and make sound judgments based on available information. Discerners are analytical and help refine ideas for optimal outcomes.
• Galvanising – The talent for inspiring and mobilising others to take action. Galvanisers are motivators who create energy and enthusiasm around a project.
• Enablement – The ability to provide support and resources, and remove obstacles to help others succeed. Enablers are supportive and focused on helping teams achieve their goals.
• Tenacity – The drive to see projects through to completion and overcome obstacles. Tenacious individuals are focused on achieving results and delivering on commitments.

They represent that as a series of interlocked gears spelling the word WIDGET! Wonder, Discernment and Enablement are responsive genius – they react to the world. Invention, Galvanising and Tenacity are disruptive genius – pushing on the world around them. As an additional observation, you’ll notice the model has a span with task/outcome-centred activities at either end, with the human/relationship-centred activities through the middle.

All work, fairly self-evidently, involves moving through these phases from top to bottom, from high altitude to low altitude. All work involves all of the phases, all of the geniuses. None can be realistically skipped to be effective. As an individual, working in our genius brings us joy. We can do it all day. Working in our competencies is possible but we get burnt out quickly. And working in our frustrations is mostly misery. What surprises us is that others seem to thrive at things we find exhausting to do.

The application to architectural practice

This model tracks beautifully with the production of architectural building designs, from the big picture strategy and master planning through to design invention, the process of iterative testing and discernment, galvanising a team around a chosen direction, supporting the vision and then the detail of technical production and follow-through. While it applies well to projects, it also maps well against bigger practice management business decisions and execution.

Most importantly, I’ve found Working Genius useful to start thinking about how our teams match up their complementary geniuses to deliver work together. Architecture already has a well-established language about the division of labour – typically dividing the team between design talent and technical talent, between concept and deliver, with perhaps team management, business acumen and salesmanship as separate overlays.

I’ve really struggled with these labels, since architecture offers and requires so many varied interlocking skills – and our people don’t always easily fit those simple categories. I’ve also struggled with the inherent snobbery attached to headline design over backroom delivery. Of course you don’t have a business without both. Working Genius really offers a much better and surprisingly informative way to assess what our people are uniquely great at, how to leverage those talents, where they need to grow, and how that fits together as a working system. Perhaps, critically, as important as finding their genius is to identify their frustrations – the things that the team collectively find inordinately hard and avoid doing, which creates systemic gaps. Team gaps that form significant holes in your business.

The key observation is that while one might imagine that design is all Invention and delivery is all Tenacity, in a neat linear progression, it’s actually much more nuanced than that. In my view the focal point of design work is actually Discernment – filtering disparate information into a clear path. Wonder challenges the starting point – what problem are we solving? Invention shows up in doses throughout the process from floor planning, spatial design, and materiality, but also in the fine grain detail assembly. Tenacity shows up in chasing the details all the way from master planning, stakeholder wrangling, to final technical drawings. And Galvanising and Enablement are absolutely key to building the trust that takes a client and a crew on the journey.

How I’m using Working Genius

I’m not saying it will solve all your problems, but Working Genius has changed how I think about the way our people work together, both the fine-grained project teams but also as one of a team of six business owners – the most important team in the business.

I’ve begun using the working genius as an overlay in my staff reviews – What is your superpower? What do you struggle with? What motivates you? What do I see you need to work on? From that, their working genius actually becomes pretty obvious. Contradicting the normal architectural assumptions, I’ve seen technical people strong in Invention and project leaders strong in Tenacity. It takes all types. It’s rich and it’s useful.

To be transparent, I’ve done the paid online assessment, and I am a WD… that is, my geniuses are Wonder and Discernment. I have an innate desire to understand the bigger context of a problem and I have reasonable judgement in finding clarity within the information and evaluating what makes sense. I can do this all day. I’m generally okay at Invention and Galvanising – coming up with novel ideas and getting people motivated around a goal. I can do those for a while, but I have to work at it. My frustrations lie in Enablement and Tenacity. I don’t instinctively support others on their own terms and I’m not personally great at grinding through on detailed execution. I can do it in short bursts, but I need real discipline. Seems like my combination of Wonder and Discernment can come across like Galvanising… kind of decided and preachy, but I’m generally just excited and looking for engagement in the idea I’ve found (like this whole article).

I am happy to describe myself as a technical nuts-and-bolts architect, not because I love the end-product execution so much but because I’m driven to make sense of things, to engage with a problem, and fit things into a meaningful context. I’m drawn to the big strategic decisions and planning, context and distillation, the why and how questions.

In my progression into business ownership, I have found that natural habit of context has developed into a real love of working on business strategy and what Lencioni calls “organisational health”. I’ve always felt guilty about wasting time on this fluffy stuff, that it’s not ‘real’ work. The model provides me with enormous relief to know that this is the way I am fundamentally wired and that this function is important and needed.

While I’m happy to feel like I am in exactly the job that can make the best use of my genius, all work requires all the geniuses. Being self-aware also means knowing when and how much of that genius is needed at any particular moment. Given that at least two of my partners have Tenacity as their genius, they may often say they want less talk (less Wonder) and more action (more Tenacity) from me! Every leader will naturally attempt to draw every meeting towards their own geniuses. Being aware means that we have set separate meetings for procedural and strategic issues, so we don’t derail the purpose of that meeting.

It seems important to understand that leadership can come from any place on the genius spectrum. They each work differently, and they will each create a different tone for their team. They all get frustrated with those others who don’t seem to ‘get’ what they get. Personality traits add another overlay to that. The point, as Socrates said, is to know thyself. This means to lead from your strengths and to work with your team in a way that leverages their strengths to balance up the equation for you and your practice.