I was wondering - how many of you have had any management training - either in school or through your office?

I'm not just talking business training - but something more along the lines of leadership-orientated training. i.e. - how to manage people.

thanks!

-to

In argentina we have training of the constructive process, like being a construction manager and dealing with the different trades in the work site, scheduling them, liabilities, payments etc etc. We also get a little bit of office management in my school, but very basic.
All that is very oriented to the architecture practice and not at all "leadership" like.

same here in Oz
There are some "leadership training" type courses around though, not related to schools or architecture/design- usually expensive

I've done a couple of "management health checks" during my career - so come out ok - I suspect there's something to do with - attitude, empathy, ethics, risk taking - all rolled into one

I think it is a good idea to take some managment, business law, and marketing type classes as electives in college.

In Colombia we get training on construction management and you could also opt for some real estate management courses. Of course all was completely superficial and meant to be an introduction only.
Some 4 years after finishing architecture I got some Design Management training, it was interesting that the best students came from Product Design/Fashion Design world, we architects were just dragging behind.

Even more years later, at an MBA, I was the only architect attending (from 42 people).
The main benefits of the latter training (for me) came from the courses on finance. There was a good leadership/general management component. Interestingly, during the leadership course, we were introduced to the work of the architect William McDonough, he was portrayed as an example of how you can introduce new concepts (in his case ecological buildings) and still make tons of money (for the client and therefore the architect). Seeing his presentations I got under the impression that he was an extremely good salesman (the buildings are good, though).
I can say that management training might NOT improve your designs, however it might help you to run your office and understand your clients better and more importantly, gather many more arguments (besides design) to "sell" your projects. This is relevant cause most of the decision makers just think about $$$ only.

Regards

Juanpa you've got an MBA! How much did that cost? And was it worth it?

In Colombia we get training on construction management and you could also opt for some real estate management courses. Of course all was completely superficial and meant to be an introduction only.
Some 4 years after finishing architecture I got some Design Management training, it was interesting that the best students came from Product Design/Fashion Design world, we architects were just dragging behind.

Even more years later, at an MBA, I was the only architect attending (from 42 people).
The main benefits of the latter training (for me) came from the courses on finance. There was a good leadership/general management component. Interestingly, during the leadership course, we were introduced to the work of the architect William McDonough, he was portrayed as an example of how you can introduce new concepts (in his case ecological buildings) and still make tons of money (for the client and therefore the architect). Seeing his presentations I got under the impression that he was an extremely good salesman (the buildings are good, though).
I can say that management training might NOT improve your designs, however it might help you to run your office and understand your clients better and more importantly, gather many more arguments (besides design) to "sell" your projects. This is relevant cause most of the decision makers just think about $$$ only.

Regards

design management? is that like managing a group of designers?

-did anyone have this kind of training as part of their architectural degree?

Gorgon- London Business School MBA- fees for the 15-21month course.... £44k :eek: is it any wonder that it is pretty much unheard of amongst architects?! I think it sounds like something I'd be very keen to do, but with 7 years and the best part of £30K in debt its not as viable as I'd like!

I do not know if there are architectural schools giving courses on design management. As I said before, most of the people I knew were involved in it were product and fashion designers, which is understandable cause they tend to design massively produced items (thus they have to have a clear understanding of the production, marketing, operational aspects, etc.)
Regards

Juanpa you've got an MBA! How much did that cost? And was it worth it?
The cost depends on where you study it, also all schools have different focuses and rankings. The top schools (lets say top-50) can be expensive, however applicants expect a semi automatic increase in their wages after completion (sometimes going up to 30% or more, depends on the job you get). (note: most of students I met were already working at some big company)
I think is worth not just from the educational perspective, but also for the potential contacts you can make, either with your classmates or with alumni and other people, those can become your clients in the future.
Also it gives you a good set of tools to tackle issues that eventually affect your design, the soft tools like strategy, negotiation skills, marketing, accounting, etc. and the hard ones like core financial math, risk analysis, statistics, investments, etc.
Now, today I mostly use the learned stuff at the beginning of the projects, to do the financial feasibility plans and before doing any real drawing.
Although might seem un-architectural and boring, understanding your own practice as a company is critical. Besides that, speaking the management lingo to many clients increases your credibility very quickly;)

Cheers