Are Architects Afraid to be Wrong?
Reframing wrong can free you.
Wrong is insight.
Wrong is an experiment with an unexpected outcome (from which you have now learnt.)
Wrong is the shortest distance to right.
Wrong is the way to better ideas.
Wrong is a pathway to understanding and then change.
Wrong is an opportunity to grow.
Being wrong is a natural part of growing up. While it’s a myth that children are better at learning languages than adults, they do take a different approach involving being wrong. Adults are faster starting, but children don’t have the same inhibitions. They’re not afraid to say something out loud and make a mistake.
Wrong is the way that children learn.
Design aside, the architecture profession appears to be afraid to be wrong, or even possess the insight that they may be wrong. They seemingly persist in the view that changes must come from without the profession. The profession is desperate for change, it faces numerous challenges: declining fees, poor procurement practices, gender equity, long hours, poor business practices, etc. Whilst the profession can’t accept some responsibility for being wrong, it is hard to make the necessary change.
It is difficult to begin to change the wrong in others if they see that you are unable to admit that you too are wrong.
By identifying what is wrong in architectural practice, an opportunity for understanding and then change is presented. By changing the profession it may then become possible to begin to change the others and begin the broader change required.
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Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels
