At the risk of alienating some of my friends and colleagues, I am going to admit to a self indulgence that I finally succumbed to last weekend. I went to The Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia! After more than 50 years of watching the tournament on TV, I accepted the kind invitation of a friend and attended the final round on Sunday. And I’m glad I did because I learned a great deal. I didn’t learn much about golf since it quickly became evident that they are not playing the same game that I am playing; no, I learned what it takes to be GREAT at whatever you do.
Here’s what happened. I was in the grandstands watching the players warm up on the practice tee before starting their rounds. All were hitting crisp iron shots and towering drives, including Tiger Woods. After a while I moved to a more private practice area nearby where the players could hit pitch shots away from the huge crowds. As I stood by myself near an isolated green with absolutely no one else around I noticed one of the players approaching with a bag of practice balls. He stopped immediately in front of me, dropped the balls at my feet and began pitching them onto the green while he chatted with his swing coach, Hank Haney. It was Tiger! For several minutes it was just the three of us and I got to watch the greatest player in the world hone his game.
As I watched, Haney suggested that he hit some full wedges. Tiger hit four of them in a row, each one about a hundred and forty yards down the fairway, all within an area that could be covered by a blanket. Then the unthinkable happened! He hit the fifth shot a bit offline…..about ten yards to the left. He stopped and looked at his coach. As Tiger reconstructed his follow through, Haney took the club in his hands and made a slight adjustment to the swing plane, then stepped back to watch. Tiger dutifully struck the next five balls with a slightly extended follow through, just as his coach had suggested. It was a minor adjustment, of course, almost imperceptible, but it made a measurable difference. Each of the five shots landed in a tight grouping no larger than a beach towel.
Of course, within five minutes the spell was broken and there were two TV cameras and about three hundred people gathered to watch as Tiger chipped and pitched a few more shots, then left for the first tee. But, I had witnessed firsthand what few people are ever privileged to see: greatness in the making.
In design, as in golf, to be truly great at what we do we must continue to learn from others, no matter how experienced or talented we may be. Good is simply no good.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Green Council
TRO JungBrannen just formed a committee to expand the firm’s sustainability policies and practices, and to lead our many green design initiatives. The Green Council is made up of a broad cross section of the firm, ensuring that our five specialty practice areas, our four professional services, and all of our regional offices are properly represented. Jamie Newton, PE, LEED AP, and Glenn Allen, AIA, LEED AP are Co-Chairs.
There are as many as fifteen firm wide sustainability task forces being led by members of this committee, among them: Staff Development, Building Technologies, Legislative Review, Carbon Footprint & ZNEB, Building Design, Consultants & Vendors, Project Standards, and many others. Their work will ensure that our firm remains at the forefront of our profession’s dedication to sustainable design practices. Earlier this week I drafted a letter to Christine McEntee, CEO of the AIA, and pledged our support for the AIA’s 2030 Commitment….a program whose goal is to encourage the AIA’s member firms to design carbon-neutral buildings by the year 2030. In it I said “The places where we live, work, and play represent the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in America, as well as around the world. As architects, we understand the need to exercise leadership in creating the built environment. We believe that we must alter our profession’s practices and encourage our clients and the entire design and construction industry to join with us to change the course of the planet’s future.”
All of us here at TRO JungBrannen are proud of our continued commitment to sustainable design, and we recognize the vital global need for significant reductions in the use of natural resources, non-renewable energy sources, and waste production.
There are as many as fifteen firm wide sustainability task forces being led by members of this committee, among them: Staff Development, Building Technologies, Legislative Review, Carbon Footprint & ZNEB, Building Design, Consultants & Vendors, Project Standards, and many others. Their work will ensure that our firm remains at the forefront of our profession’s dedication to sustainable design practices. Earlier this week I drafted a letter to Christine McEntee, CEO of the AIA, and pledged our support for the AIA’s 2030 Commitment….a program whose goal is to encourage the AIA’s member firms to design carbon-neutral buildings by the year 2030. In it I said “The places where we live, work, and play represent the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in America, as well as around the world. As architects, we understand the need to exercise leadership in creating the built environment. We believe that we must alter our profession’s practices and encourage our clients and the entire design and construction industry to join with us to change the course of the planet’s future.”
All of us here at TRO JungBrannen are proud of our continued commitment to sustainable design, and we recognize the vital global need for significant reductions in the use of natural resources, non-renewable energy sources, and waste production.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Kairos
The other morning I had the good fortune to attend the Healthcare Leadership breakfast in Boston which is a fund raising event held each year to benefit the United Way. The featured speaker was Liz Walker. Liz is a media icon here in Boston, and is a respected journalist and a former news anchor. I was surprised to learn that she is an ordained minister as well.
She spoke to us about a number of subjects, but one in particular resonated with me personally. It was the concept of a Kairos moment. Kairos is a Classical Greek word that refers to the opportune time and place to present a thought or thesis for maximum effect. She then recounted her personal “Kairos moment” which ultimately led to her transition to the ministry. As she told the story, I immediately recalled my own such awakening. It occurred while I was a freshman at The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Like many young men and women, I was undecided about my major and altogether naïve about career development. I knew where my skills lay – in math; and I knew where my passions lay – in the visual arts. But I was unsure how the two could be conjoined in a professional career.
Shortly after arriving on campus, I found myself fascinated by the Richards Laboratory Building that I could see from my dorm window. I decided to attend a lecture by Louis Kahn who was its architect, a Professor of Architecture at Penn, and one of the world’s most widely respected designers. He was a soft-spoken, unassuming little man, but what he said that day changed my life. His passion for architecture, and his delight in the expressive power of drawing, filled the auditorium. I can still recall his words as he counseled the incoming architecture students on the need to improve their drawing skills…. “ As a young man I dreamed of spaces full of wonder, that rise and envelop flowingly without beginning or end, of a joint less material white and gold. But when I placed the first line on paper to capture the dream, the dream became less”. I enrolled in a drawing class immediately thereafter, and selected architecture as my major later that year.
Kahn’s lecture was my Kairos moment!
She spoke to us about a number of subjects, but one in particular resonated with me personally. It was the concept of a Kairos moment. Kairos is a Classical Greek word that refers to the opportune time and place to present a thought or thesis for maximum effect. She then recounted her personal “Kairos moment” which ultimately led to her transition to the ministry. As she told the story, I immediately recalled my own such awakening. It occurred while I was a freshman at The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Like many young men and women, I was undecided about my major and altogether naïve about career development. I knew where my skills lay – in math; and I knew where my passions lay – in the visual arts. But I was unsure how the two could be conjoined in a professional career.
Shortly after arriving on campus, I found myself fascinated by the Richards Laboratory Building that I could see from my dorm window. I decided to attend a lecture by Louis Kahn who was its architect, a Professor of Architecture at Penn, and one of the world’s most widely respected designers. He was a soft-spoken, unassuming little man, but what he said that day changed my life. His passion for architecture, and his delight in the expressive power of drawing, filled the auditorium. I can still recall his words as he counseled the incoming architecture students on the need to improve their drawing skills…. “ As a young man I dreamed of spaces full of wonder, that rise and envelop flowingly without beginning or end, of a joint less material white and gold. But when I placed the first line on paper to capture the dream, the dream became less”. I enrolled in a drawing class immediately thereafter, and selected architecture as my major later that year.
Kahn’s lecture was my Kairos moment!
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