Interesting or Interested?

"It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don’t you invest more time being interested?"

— Advice from John Gardner to Jim Collins

I came across HOK’s interview series on The Green Workplace and Mark English’s interviews on The Architect’s Take early into our research on social media in architecture and engineering.  I believed then, and still believe now, that both are best in class examples of architecture blogs.

Looking outside of our industry, the TED conference was clearly an inspiration for KA Connect, but so were Gel, the Business of Software, and Big Omaha. I am deeply inspired by the interviews of the Paris Review. They are very long, but if the topic is right, I’ll read and read and read. I also love The Corner Office column in the New York Times, Bootstrapped, Profitable, and Proud, by 37signals, and the thought leadership marketing interview series by our friends at The Bloom Group.

What do all of those blogs, columns, and conferences have in common? The authors and editors are, or appear to be, genuinely interested in other people. They have built platforms for telling other people’s stories, not just their own.

One of the reasons that many architecture and engineering firms are anxious about starting blogs is that they are afraid they don’t have anything to say.  Here are some common fears that I hear:

“What are we going to talk about?”

“We don’t know if we have enough content to sustain a blog after we launch it.”

“We don’t have a writing culture.”

I share their fears. In fact, after blogging for two years on two separate blogs, I still share their fears. I often open up WordPress, stare at the blinking cursor, and ask, “How am I going to be interesting today?”

That’s why I think that John Gardner’s advice to Jim Collins might be the secret to the universe.

Being interested is so much easier than being interesting. There is an endless supply of fascinating people and ideas. The more time I spend outside of our firm talking to folks about their work, the more I enjoy writing.  Over the last few weeks I conducted and published three interviews with leading thinkers from the AEC industry – James Kent of Thornton Tomasetti, Alex Serriere of TEECOM Design Group, and Hobson Hogan of ZweigWhite. 

Interviewing James, Alex, and Hobson was one of the highlights of my professional career. Of course, putting over 80 people on stage and publishing their talks at the last two KA Connect conferences was pretty rewarding as well.

I’m going to tape John Gardner’s advice up on the wall in my office. The next time I’m having trouble writing a blog post, I’ll look to it for inspiration, pick up the phone, and ask someone, “What are you working on?”