Think. Time. Tuesdays.
Returns as a series of online workshops for A+D leaders. Topics covered in this year’s series include the following:
Business development strategy and systematic BD processes
Financial management and operational optimization
Ownership transition and succession planning
Leadership development for emerging principals
Strategic planning and firm positioning
Virtual; Session will be held via Zoom.
A Business Planning Workshop for Architecture & Design Firms.
Strategic plans don't fail because the goals were wrong. They fail because no one did the math first.
What are the “profiles of success” for A+D business? How are purpose, profit and portfolio interconnected? Why is a good business strategy dependent on financial health?
This fast-paced, one-hour virtual workshop is built for A+D firm leaders who are done with aspirational planning that evaporates by February. You'll work through four focused frameworks: where to point your business development energy, whether you actually have the capacity to grow, how to stay visible without burning out, and which operational bottlenecks are quietly sabotaging everything else.
Watch recording Here
Passing the Torch. A Workshop for A+D Firm Leaders Thinking About Ownership Transition
The torch doesn't pass itself. And waiting until you're ready to leave is already too late.
This candid, one-hour virtual workshop is for firm leaders who know succession is coming — and aren't sure where to start. You'll run a quick self-assessment across the three dimensions that determine whether your firm is actually transferable: founder dependency, financial health, and leadership depth. You'll take an honest look at what's standing between your firm and a successful transition — gaps in your candidate pipeline, skill readiness, and the "no visible path" problem that makes even your best people appear uninterested.
Sign Up Here
Profit Motive & The Business of Design.
Who deals with the money, and how?
This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as an A+D firm culture and its bottom line.
Staying fit is an ongoing goal, and a long-haul effort that focuses on all aspects—physical, mental, emotional, and even, creative – to the extent that mental fitness is integrated in Elisabeth’s work with clients particularly around the area of financial fitness which is critical to their success.
Why? Staying in shape financially is sustainable in the long-term and makes an A+D practice more resilient to internal and external pressures.
Sign Up Here
2025 EVENTS
The Relationship Business: Turning Connections Into Clients.
Many business leaders and owners (whether they offer a service or a product) understand that at the end of the day, they are in the relationship business, and their company's success is built on practical, strategic and personal connections.
What does being in the relationship business mean to AEC architecture and design firms, and construction companies, particularly when it comes to business development?
Hear from a cross-section of architecture, design and construction industry business development leaders on how they turn connections into clients and leads into projects. The panel will share what works for them and lessons they have learned when it comes to getting work in the short-term and building a pipeline for the long-term.
Listen to Audio Recording Here
Storytelling at the Intersection of Brand & Business Strategy.
What goes into building an architecture, design, engineering or construction firm with a distinctive brand, and why does it matter? What's the relationship between brand strategy and business strategy, and how does this determine success?
Through examples and experiences from the professional world, construction industry executive Daniella Jimenez (Guzman Construction Group), Elisabeth Sporer (SOarch) and brand strategist Lisa Boquiren unpack these questions.
The group will discuss the basics of brand strategy and business strategy; dynamic and static components of these strategies; and the role of impactful storytelling. The group will also discuss what it means to successfully operate at the intersection of brand strategy and business strategy.
Watch Recording Here
A Year-End Financial Review Workshop for A+D Firm Leaders.
Your P&L is not a strategy. But it's trying to tell you something.
A one-hour virtual workshop for A+D firm leaders who want to close out the year with clarity. You'll move beyond basic KPIs to the metrics that actually predict whether your firm is set up to grow, get honest about what the data is really showing (without the blame spiral), and make the year-end decisions that matter: tax positioning, bonuses, reserves, and where to point your energy in 2026.
Participants will leave with a goal-setting framework, a financial review checklist, and a dashboard template you can actually use — not a folder of slides you'll never open again.
Watch Recording Here
BUSINESS STRATEGTY + FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Profit Motive & The Business of Design – The A+D Leader’s 101 of Firm Financial Management
Who deals with the money, and how? This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as an A+D firm culture and its bottom line. Staying fit is an ongoing goal, and a long-haul effort that focuses on all aspects—physical, mental, emotional, and even, creative – to the extent that mental fitness is integrated in my work with clients particularly around the area of financial fitness which is critical to their success.
Watch recording Here
Profit Motive & The Business of Design – The PM Edition.
Who manages the projects and how? This session focuses on how the approach to utilization, project metrics and team performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Elisabeth provides an overview of what metrics a project manager needs to measure and how to influence the bottom line. This spans key performance indicators [KPIs] from staff utilization and billing forecasting to work and resource planning tied to financial performance. In interactive mode Elisabeth creates awareness on how these KPIs relate to the essential duties of a PM and show case studies of tools and best practices.
Case Studies at the Intersection of Purpose, Profit & Portfolio
What are the “profiles of success” for A+D business? How are purpose, profit and portfolio interconnected? Why is a good business strategy dependent on financial health?
Watch an AIAU presentation [recorded at AIASF] rooted in case studies, best practices grounded in financial health and the lessons of entrepreneurship. Drawing from my extensive experience helping A+D clients successfully navigate the various phases of their business’s life cycles - from growth and expansion to restructuring, succession planning and ownership transition
Watch recording here
LEADERSHIP
Principals’ MasterCLass.
What does it mean to lead an A+D practice today? And what does it take to be a firm leader? Who is part of the team leading the firm? What are the leadership team roles? What processes and tools do we need? Get into the mindset of success with me.
In this informative presentation, I discuss the skills an A+D practice leader needs to master—from knowing who they are with its limits and opportunities; to building and leading BRAND / FINANCE / OPERATIONS / DESIGN teams; to stewarding firm culture; and to staying on top of best practices.
I elaborate why personality tests matter, how to assemble BRAND / FINANCE / OPERATIONS / DESIGN teams [with individual’s roles and best practices on processes/tools] and how to create strategies around leadership transitions.
Watch recording here
The Creative Leadership Workshop.
What does it take to be an A+D firm leader? Create your own path to success with business strategy consultant and leadership coach, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA CIC, whose approach rooted in mindfulness is influenced by psychology and neuroscience.
During this 90-minute, leadership-coaching-meets-personality-test interactive session, Elisabeth will share the various A+D leadership personalities and why personality tests matter; how values and communication styles influence firm culture and the skills an A+D practice leader needs to master—from knowing who they are with its limits and opportunities; to building and leading teams; to stewarding firm culture; and to staying on top of best practices.
Participants will explore how to better understand and manage their physical, emotional and mental reactions, so that they can perform and behave more skillfully in particular under stress. Participants will gain competence in shifting from a reactive mode to a creative way of meeting challenging situations. Participants will gain competence in connecting with their core values; and learn practical tools to be present and to recognize the best path forward in the midst of challenging situations.
Soon.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Skin in the Game. Paths to Ownership.
As the architecture practice continues to evolve, so does the business of architecture, and more than ever, equity plays an important role, from the standpoints of social justice and business.
This panel discussion will focus on the business side of equity: how creating value in an A+D (architecture + design) practice not only helps to attract and retain staff, but also, more importantly, provides paths to ownership. By creating equity and viable pathways for others to share the responsibilities and the rewards of owning and running a firm, founders can grow their business; plan for succession (and eventually, retirement), and/or leave behind a legacy.
Hear from the panelists on why they joined forces with founders of established, boutique A+D firms, rather than start their own A+D firm. How did they arrive at their decisions, and what has that professional journey been like for each of them?
Watch recording Here
Metamorphosis: Legacy, Transformation & The Business of Design
What is the life cycle of an architecture and design practice? Why, and how do architecture and design firms evolve? How do firm leaders and owners navigate transformation, and keep the firm spirit alive during periods of transition?
In this candid and enlightening conversation, we discuss milestones, pinch points and opportunities from a variety of perspectives—respectively, as a firm leader-turned business strategy consultant and leadership coach; an owner who led the merger of his small firm with a large cross-border A+E firm; a new principal at a cross-market midsized sector practice; and the founder of a nearly 30-year-old residential design studio.
We discuss ownership structures, and strategies around succession planning and leadership transitions.
Watch recording Here
Ownership Transition in the Entrepreneurial Era of Gen X.
From going solo midcareer, to moving up the ranks to strategically merging with another firm - how are entrepreneurial firm owners leading their architecture practice? Are they delivering traditional design services, or are they exploring other venues in professional services to meet and exceed their client’s needs?
In this panel conversation moderated by Elisabeth, 3 small firm owners offered insights about their trajectories from designers to owners, about how their firms respond to changing skills, talents, interests, and perceptions, the culture [and values] of their organizations and their position on diversity and inclusion.
THINK-TIME TUESDAYS - Inside the A+D Studio
Events on BRAND / FINANCES / OPERATIONS / PRACTICE + DESIGN
What makes a successful A+D practice?
Find out by taking a break from your daily grind and getting into active thinking mode with business strategy consultant, leadership coach, architect and SO|arch founder, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA, CIC.
SERIES DETAIL BELOW:
TTT1 BRAND
Story-selling & The Freestyle Practice
Who gets the work, and how? The first session [of four] focuses under the umbrella term BRAND focuses on how brand is tied to BD (business development), marketing and PR (public relations).
Once elusive-sounding concepts, perhaps even taboo topics, in A+D, "brand" and "marketing" have not only become part of the industry's lexicon, but can also be key influencers, along with BD (business development), of a successful practice. Think-Time Tuesday host, and business strategy consultant, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA CIC, engages in a dialogue with her guest, brand strategist and creative consultant Lisa Boquiren who unboxes each element through case studies and an interactive segment.
TTT2 OPERATIONS
Leadership & Where the Buck Stops
Who builds, manages, and supports the team and how? The second session under the umbrella term of OPERATIONS is centered on business strategy, culture and firm management - a presentation on the business of running an A+D firm.
Elisabeth provides an overview of firm profiles and firm structures, as well as leadership styles and firm cultures, then presents select SO|arch case studies in conversation with my clients:
• Building teams with Michelle Gayle Hill (Spatializing) and Rob Zirkle (brick)
• Improving overall performance for small and midsized firms with Cathy Merrill (Merrill Morris Partners)
• Leveraging niche services with Dong Kim (DIALOG)
TTT3 FINANCE
Profit Motive & The Business of Design
Who deals with the money, and how? This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Elisabeth provides an overview about the metrics behind the business of design and how A+D founders and leaders can achieve and maintain fiscal health for their businesses - from basic best practices to advanced systems that can help measure, predict and manage their firm’s performance. A presentation will show & tell the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] an A+D firm needs to monitor [operating profit rate / utilization rate & target utilization / payroll multiplier & net effective multiplier / overhead & break-even rate] and discuss best practices of monitoring cash flow, AR, backlog volume and proposals pending.
Then in conversation with her clients, Elisabeth presents case studies that founders and leaders of small studios and midsized firms in particular will find useful:
·Transitioning to professional systems for midsized firms with Julia Campbell [Quezada Architecture]
·Optimizing basic systems for small firms with Khal Khaireddin [K2A]
TTT3+ FINANCE [The Project Manager Edition]
Profit Motive & The Business of Design — Unpacking KPIs
Who manages the projects and how? This session focuses on how the approach to utilization, project metrics and team performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Join me for the “Project Manager Edition” a follow-up session to the TTT3 event on the metrics behind the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of what metrics a project manager needs to measure and how to influence the bottom line. This spans key performance indicators [KPIs] from staff utilization and billing forecasting to work and resource planning tied to financial performance. In interactive mode Elisabeth creates awareness on how these KPIs relate to the essential duties of a PM and show case studies of tools and best practices.
TTT4 Design & Practice
The Art of Collaboration & Getting Things Done
Who does the work and how? What does collaboration really mean? This session focuses on how A+D founders and leaders create their own culture with impactful design, and how this is nurtured by design teams, leadership styles, new ways of working, and even, ownership transitions.
Join me for a presentation on design culture that energizes the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of the influencing factors of an office culture from the founder’s values and its impact on client and project selection to the way staff is hired, trained and mentored.
Then I am joined in conversation by Los Angeles-based A+D firm leaders Karin Liljegren [Omgvining], Georgina Huljich [P-A-T-T-T-E-R-N-S], Stephanie Ragle [office42], and Monika Haefelfinger [XTEN], who share stories that other founders and leaders of small studios and midsized firms in particular will find useful, on these topics:
· Applied values: Design culture manifested in client selection and project work
· Design teams: Growing the firm
· New ways of working: Collaboration in hybrid mode
· Leadership: Training, mentoring, and ownership transitions
TTT4+ DESIGN & PRACTICE [The Project Architect Edition]
The Art of Collaboration & Getting Things Done – Unpacking Culture
Who oversees the teams and how? What does collaboration really mean? This session focuses on how topics like thoughtful work and task planning, accurate job descriptions, leadership styles and team building influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Join me for the “Project Architect Edition” a follow-up session to a 2021 presentation on design culture that energizes the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of what a project architect needs to focus on to influence the office culture. This spans from job descriptions to the way staff is hired, trained and mentored to the way job responsibilities and deadlines are communicated and how projects are executed in a hybrid work environment. In interactive mode Elisabeth creates awareness on how these factors relate to the essential duties of a PA and show case studies of tools and best practices.
Blueprint for Success -
Case Studies at the Intersection of Purpose, Profit & Portfolio
SO|arch presents A+D Business Strategy Event on AIA SF, AIA EB and AIA CV platforms
Watch recording here.
What are the “profiles of success” for A+D business? How are purpose, profit and portfolio interconnected? Why is a good business strategy dependent on financial health?
ENTREPRENEURSHIP + INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE + MENTORING
The Free Solo Practice. Entrepreneurship & Roadmaps to Future Practice.
Small businesses form the backbone of communities, an integral part of a vibrant business ecosystem. How do locally-based firms help shape the regional economy, culture and society? What does it take to be an entrepreneur? How do local entrepreneurs benefit their communities and activate the urban fabric?
The panelists – who have in common big firm experience – shared their motivations for working outside a corporate structure, from the need for creative expression and experimentation to a desire for life-work balance and meaningful social impact as well as the realities, risks, rewards and responsibilities of having a locally-owned business.
Unlearning the Metric System. International Perspectives on Re-thinking the Practice
A candid, cross-generational conversation on shared experiences, challenges overcome and lessons learned appealed to anyone with an entrepreneurial approach, a success mindset and a pioneering spirit.
The panel shared best practices for each career stage including, licensure, advanced education, networking, communication skills, community involvement, advocacy, mentorship, leadership coaching and others.
High Performing Mentorship Groups.
One of the extracurricular activities I’m proud to be part of was the AIA SF’s mentorship program where I was the “senior level professional” of a group of 6 international professionals. My client work puts me in the thick of the business of design, so I saw my role for the yearlong program as helping designers, architects and leaders successfully bridge theory into practice. The profession has evolved – some might even say, stalled and stuck in the past – and I think “diversity” is no longer about a checklist on RFQ’s but a mandate for culture shift.
Who better than to help hit the re-set button and imagine a new paradigm than young professionals? Together we ventured on an open-minded, curious and inventive journey and visited topics and point-of-views relevant for all design professionals seen through the lens of an international background.