He brought us coffee.

00:00 - Introduction
Today we welcome Jay Jenkins. Jay is Principal in charge of Higher Education and Operations at May Architecture. We invited him to the studio to learn about building a team that’s equipped to handle the unique challenges of college and university construction.

Jay points out that colleges and universities are little cities unto themselves. Eddie brings up the fact that Jay’s teams have worked on projects at the University of Georgia and at Georgia Tech. Jay explains that each educational institution has its own culture.

Jay says his job is making sure his team of architects and designers have the tools they need. Then he just stays out of their way.

06:46 - Principles of success
Tyler asks Jay to share what owners and their teams do to position Jay and his people for success. Jay says that honesty is frankly the most helpful thing.

Jay shares about the complications involved in communicating to all of the relevant parties on college projects when construction projects affect groups that might not usually need to communicate with each other. It always starts with listening closely and thoughtfully. Then it’s often necessary to filter and reframe–to see if you’re properly understanding what’s being said.

Tyler asks Jay to expand upon the importance of listening. Jay emphasizes the need for objectivity and making an honest effort to grasp the needs of the other party. If you can’t truly grasp that need, you can’t communicate it to the team with the means to solve it.

Tyler points out that we’re all pretty good at talking, but we’re not always great at presenting prompts.

Eddie asks about the give and take between Jay and Gil, an architect he has worked with in the past. Jay shares about how the availability of a long-term conversation partner has been helpful.

This openness led to the development of 3 guiding questions within their firm:
1) Are you committed to letting the best idea win?
2) Are you passionate about what you do?
3) Are you building expertise within your team?

16:40 - Looking back
Eddie asks Jay to share about times when the challenges became greater than usual. Jay explains that sometimes the university’s team’s goal was actually to keep architects from being brought into a project because of the concern that things would become more complicated than necessary. Jay’s job was to ensure that the job was done right–in a manner that would take liabilities into consideration and similar concerns.

Jay talks about the options that are provided by architects and responses given by the owners. Eddie shares his appreciation for Jay’s role as communication facilitator–a person who comes between two parties to ensure that messages are making it back and forth.

24:15 - The greatest challenges
Eddie asks about factors that complicate college projects–students, donors, etc. Jay says that the hardest thing is actually when the owner doesn’t know what they want. Building consensus with end users is also a challenge, though.

Jay gives examples of the diverse end-user-groups involved in a sample building: IT, health care, instructors, administrators, etc. Politics sometimes come into play.

Eddie asks about the importance of long-term, multiple-project relationships with owners and contractors. Jay says they are simply huge. Over 95% of their work is repeat work with clients. Growth comes from providing exceptional experiences for everyone involved.

It’s about creating great experiences. Jay says you’d be surprised at how far a simple thank-you goes.

37:04 - Finding good help
Eddie asks Jay to share about the challenges of finding reliable, high-quality people as his team grows. Jay explains that they seek people who are eager for feedback. This feedback from contractors is more useful than anything else for designers interested in growing professionally, he says.

Jay shares about an eye-opening moment when he discovered how much he hated losing. As the owner, he says, you win in every meeting. On the consultant side, that’s not how it works. But that makes the wins sweeter.

43:11 - Megaphone message
Jay says that he’d like people to view their work as a career rather than a job. Have a passion for what you do. Build value in yourself. If you focus on the input, all the things you want out of a career will come out of it.

Find Jay on LinkedIn

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