Patterns I Keep Seeing

Across practices of all sizes, I notice the same cultural pattern: everyone talks about collaboration, but few have examined what collaborative behaviour actually looks like in their context.

Twenty-five years in the built environment teaches you to spot patterns. Not just in buildings, but in how practices build themselves.

Here's one I see repeatedly: practices invest heavily in technical training—software, regulations, new materials. But cultural capability? That's assumed to develop naturally. Except it doesn't.

I see talented architects who can design complex systems struggle to navigate the cultural system they're part of. Project managers who can coordinate hundreds of tasks but can't read the room when tensions rise. Leaders who can pitch brilliantly to clients but can't articulate their own practice's cultural values.

The pattern isn't individual failure. It's systemic invisibility. Culture remains unexamined because we don't have the tools, language, or permission to examine it.

This is why the IRIE framework is built on four explicit pillars: Innovation, Responsibility, Inclusion, and Equity. They're not aspirational values. They're dimensions of culture you can observe, measure, and intentionally develop.