Architecture as education: it’s okay to be enthusiastic
Had we finally found the answer?
It was my leadership team meeting in Pune, India, and we were discussing, yet again, what we could do to improve the visual communication skills of the architecture team. How could we teach people to recognise bad layout and design, to understand that it gets in the way of understanding, and that it undermines what they are trying to say?
Anubhav Pradhan, the head of the HSBC Technology Academy, had a suggestion. Had we read the C.R.A.P. book? After our initial, obvious reaction, Anubhav explained that the C.R.A.P. book was The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams, which explains why Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity are so important to design and visual understanding.
We agreed that anything was worth trying, even if it was C.R.A.P., and Anubhav duly assigned us all the training in our learning platform, so that we could all learn together and share our experience.
This isn’t a book review or a course review, but I must say that Ms Williams’ book, and the video series in which she teaches the content of the book, are a revelation and a delight. As well as explaining simple design principles, they make it clear why these principles matter in a way which technology architects can understand: by grouping these items together arbitrarily, you accidentally imply a relationship which you don’t mean to imply; by giving these items a strongly contrasting heading, you immediately tell the reader how many concepts are on this page before they have read a word; and because you haven’t aligned these items, you make it hard for the reader to find their way through the points you want to make.
Just as importantly, though, the course and the book reminded me of two important lessons about learning and communication.
First, no matter how much you think you know, it’s always possible to learn more from the right expert. I thought I was pretty good at visual communication and design, partly because I was raised in a design rich environment. But I learnt new concepts and new vocabulary, and learnt some of the reasons why bad design made me feel uneasy and unhappy. It helped me do my job better.
Second, it reminded me of the importance of enthusiasm and enjoyment in teaching and communication. The Non-Designer’s Design Book is in its fourth edition, and I expect that Ms Williams must have taught, explained and presented the concepts and examples many times over. Yet, in the accompanying video series, she is engaged and engaging, and continuously joyful in sharing her expertise and turning good design into bad design. Her enthusiasm amplifies the impact of her teaching.
Although architects are, among other things, professional communicators, we often forget the importance of enthusiasm and enjoyment in a corporate setting. When we are sharing a design, making a recommendation or facilitating a decision, we often feel that we must lay out our facts in a diligent, passionless fashion. We may even feel that expressions of emotion undermine the objectivity of our thinking.
I believe that, whenever we find ourselves draining the emotion out of our communication, we should remember three things.
It’s okay to be excited. I got into this profession because I love technology. I love putting it together in interesting ways to make machines do things which we find fun and useful. I think that many, if not most, technology architects feel the same way. It’s fine to let this show, and it doesn’t undermine your objectivity: after all, we are excited by things that work.
It’s okay to care. Architects often assume the persona of technocratic rationalists,who come to the optimal decision after carefully weighing all the facts. Yet we only spend our time doing all that fact weighing and cogitation because we care about the outcome. It’s fine to let this emotional commitment come out in your work: we are not just here to facilitate the goals of others: we care too.
Every moment of communication is also a teaching moment. As technology architects, we spend a lot of time explaining complex topics to people who aren’t experts in those topics. One goal of that explanation may be to gain sponsorship or get a decision, but another goal is to leave your audience with a better understanding of their technology. And you will amplify that understanding with enthusiasm.
In the HSBC Technology Architecture team, we follow the disciplines of Zang Jing Ge: technical excellence, communication mastery and leadership power. I am going to ask all the members of the architecture practice to read the C.R.A.P. book and watch the video, because it will help them improve their design skils and their visual communication. But I will also ask them all to pay attention to the way in which the message is delivered, and to remember that part of communication mastery is to share their joy and enthusiasm.
