Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

Business at architecture firms remains soft (AIA)

Highlights:

• Inquiries into new work grew slowly this month, but the value of newly signed design contracts at firms declined again in July, as firms continue to struggle to convert inquiries into contracts for new projects.

More U.S. companies plan to slow hiring in second half of 2025 (WSJ)

Highlights:

• One in five U.S. employers surveyed plans to slow hiring in the second half of 2025.

• That number is nearly double the rate of companies that anticipated bringing on fewer people at this time last year.

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Management Perspective

One of the most effective mechanisms for learning is the feedback loop. It works like this: you act, you receive feedback on the action, you adjust, repeat.

Feedback loops have two components:

• Amount of time between action and feedback

• Fidelity of feedback

The shorter the delay, and the clearer the message, the faster and more effectively people learn. Many industries understand this and take measures to improve feedback loops.

Athletes review film the day after a game. Pilots debrief after landing. Surgeons have post-operation meetings.

The AEC industry, however, doesn’t have strong feedback loops. A design decision made today might not reveal its impact until construction begins months—or years—later. Even then, the feedback often comes back filtered, incomplete, or softened by layers of communication.

By the time the feedback makes it back to the original decision-maker, the learning opportunity has already eroded.

That’s why leaders in the AEC industry need to be intentional about closing the feedback gap. Here’s how.

Shorten the loop

Feedback is provided by quality control (QC) reviews at certain intervals in the design phase. However, these intervals are usually spread out too far apart and happen too late, meaning major decisions have already been made.

Instead, take a page out of the software engineering playbook and develop short sprints of work. Develop small tasks that can be completed quickly, then review and provide feedback. Then let them loose on repeating that work after having direction.

Depending on the type of task, these sprints can happen weekly, instead of months at a time.

Increase clarity

Deliver feedback that is specific, candid, and actionable. Increase understanding by providing written comments and then follow up with verbal discussion. During the discussion, make sure to cover the reasoning behind your thoughts. Show them your thought process so they will start to understand what a decision could impact further down the road.

Final thoughts

AEC projects can be complex, long, and dynamic. And there are many parties involved in bringing a vision to a built reality.

It’s an important industry that, like many others, looks for competitive edges. Well, accelerating your team’s training is a huge one.

A company that can learn faster than a competitor has staff that can do more earlier, has fewer quality issues, and builds a brand that is known as a good place to work and do business with.

Management Insights

Ed Catmull on working with others:

“We tend to discount the contributions of others. We disconnect and start to deny the dependencies we have on one another. I’ve come to believe that instead of measuring where your work ends and the work of another begins, it is far better to ask: How do you connect with other people? How much have others added to the work you’ve done? And do we recognize and appreciate that we have built on what others have done?”

—

Ursula K. Le Guin on ends and means:

“The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.”

—

Larry Winget on prioritizing what matters:

“It’s not that we don’t have time. It’s that we don’t have time for the things that are really important. There’s always enough time to do what’s really important, but we get caught up doing things that aren’t important.”

Management Resource

Lessons from U.S. army special ops on becoming a leader (HBR)

You can learn a lot from other professions. Here’s a glimpse into leadership in a demanding organization.

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Or…

• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

• Let me know what challenges you’re having as a manager.

• Let me know what challenges you see other managers having.

Send me an email at [email protected]

Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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