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on telecommuting. We’re a smaller firm. We’re a collaborative firm that is built on staff interaction and communication. For our office, we found this is best done face to face. Good architecture and high-level professional customer service are hard to do over the phone or screen. Our clients appreciate this effort. We finished 2020 6 percent ahead of 2019 because we stayed safe, but face to face as much as possible. We’re allowing employees to extend maternity and paternity time off and long-term sick leave via telecommuting. I think the advances in this area in 2020 were beneficial for our staff. “I work to ensure that staff feel connected to their projects and valuable for their contributions to the work. I model hard work, consistency, focus, and responsibility to our team without micro- managing.” TZL: Trust is essential. How do you earn the trust of your clients? MT: Our company earns our clients’ trust by being responsible, dependable, and communicative. I strive to get everything the client wants in their communities and buildings, and say “no” as little as possible. We then execute the work precisely; always meeting deadlines. Our focus is on straightforward and direct communication throughout the process. Even with all of this diligence, projects do have problems. I stand by our work even when there have been problems and I have worked to make things right, functionally and financially, many times. This personal and long view approach builds trust and partnership with our clients. TZL: What type of leader do you consider yourself to be? MT: I am a 500-foot manager. I can and want to see everything that is happening at the firm. However, I don’t get down to the street level on details. I cast vision, delegate responsibilities, and hold our senior leadership working at the 10-foot level accountable. I spend the majority of my time with them. In a design firm, ego and ownership design are real factors. I work to ensure that staff feel connected to their projects and valuable for their contributions to the work. I model hard work, consistency, focus, and
responsibility to our team without micro- managing. TZL: What benefits does your firm offer that your people get most excited about? MT: I think there are three. First are the quarterly team bonuses. These are based on team productivity and performance. For many of our staff, this is the first time they have ever received a bonus. Second are Friday afternoons off. We close at noon on Fridays. We work an adjusted schedule to let that happen, but again and again, we hear how much staff enjoys this. Finally, we offer a $2,500 bonus for any new client, new project that they bring to the firm. This encourages them to market Arrive and feel valued and rewarded as the firm grows and succeeds. TZL: Is change management a topic regularly addressed by the leadership at your firm? If so, elaborate. MT: Quality control is a constant management topic we address. The products we produce are drawings and specifications. The quality, consistency, and coordination of these means everything to clients and ultimately the final outcome of the project. We regularly review how we are doing in this area with lessons learned meetings. We try to instill in our emerging profession that quality starts with what they are doing, so we do lots of training and mentoring. TZL: Have you had a particular mentor who has guided you – in school, in your career, or in general? Who were they and how did they help? MT: I had a wonderful mentor when we first started Arrive. I was very competent in design and client skills, but severely lacking in business knowledge. My mentor was a financial planner who attended my church. He truly took us under his wing and taught us business management 101, including the maxim “the money is not yours.” This truth has served me again and again in my role as managing principal. He also instructed us to do everything by the book and get signed contracts from clients. Architects, including myself, tend to be dreamers and a bit naïve to the ways of the business world. My mentor confronted us over and over those first few years with the cold hard facts. I have since paid it forward with so many young people who have worked for me over the years who now own their own firms and ask for my advice and mentorship. See TEAM BUILDING, page 8
HEADQUARTERS: Bedford, TX
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 22
YEAR FOUNDED: 1998
NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: 1
SPECIALTIES:
❚ ❚ Architecture
❚ ❚ Planning
❚ ❚ Project management
PROJECTS:
❚ ❚ Apartments
❚ ❚ Student housing
❚ ❚ Assisted living
❚ ❚ Memory care
❚ ❚ Independent living
❚ ❚ Senior apartments
❚ ❚ Senior campus communities
© Copyright 2021. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
OBER 4, 2021, ISSUE 1411
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