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I was born in 1944, a couple of years before the baby boom. But my values and my approach to relationships align pretty well with that generation. My challenge as a young professional was to communicate with “the greatest generation,” who didn’t always understand where I was coming from. Getting the best from each other Today’s workforce is multigenerational, so those with experience and seniority must learn to understand, and teach, younger colleagues.
Ed Friedrichs
of the most important lessons he taught: Not everything is urgent, so don’t treat every task the same. Some items were brought out to get everyone thinking about them, with a long- range date by which an answer was necessary. Others, sometimes brought up at the spur of the moment, were urgent and needed action within an hour, a day, or two days. I learned that in project leadership, you must understand this and not run a fire drill unless it’s necessary. He also gave me a feel for how a project proceeds. I was also privileged early in my career to be within walking distance of a number of projects that I was working on. This offered me the opportunity to visit a project during the lunch hour, introduce myself to the subcontractors on the job, and ask them what they thought of our drawings. I wanted to know if our drawings communicated clearly our intent and, if not, how See ED FRIEDRICHS, page 8
In my career, I’ve worked with Generation X, Generation Y, and now I’m working with millennials. It’s been an interesting journey, as each generation has some unique characteristics. The success of our work and our firms is deeply dependent on our ability to communicate well across generations. Here are a few thoughts on what I’ve learned and observed on this topic. I’ll start from a point early in my career. In 1972, I was assigned to work as the tenant development coordinator for the Oakland City Center. Both the developer and contractor asked that I attend the owner/architect/contractor meetings each week so I would be familiar with the technology and operations of the building when meeting with tenants. This turned out to be a graduate course in how to take a complex project through design, bidding, buying, and into construction. The project executive from the contractor became a role model for the balance of my career. One
THE ZWEIG LETTER March 21, 2016, ISSUE 1144
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