The population pyramid of Japan is notably top heavy, with a declining number of new arrivals at its base to support its ageing population. It is often reported that many European countries are already showing signs of middle-aged spread, and so heading in the same direction, accompanied by the prospect of substandard pensions and overworked health systems.
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On the bright side it is noticeable as one travels Japan that much of the culture and infrastructure is smoothened by the presence and participation of many people of an age that closer to home would have left the workforce for a comfortable if less socially satisfying retirement. And these ancients have a committed and light-hearted air, directing traffic on streets, driving taxis, taking tickets and care on trams, controlling ticket offices in museums and gardens, sharing jazz chords, and generally bringing a polite, experienced overview to events that few would have the temerity to disregard. Their social tact and lack of overt haste adds much to the quality and delivery of the day to day.
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Back at home I know many of my peers are presently facing the conundrum that is the tailings of an intense career, and some are becoming ‘Chairmen’ and some ‘Consultants’ to their former colleagues, but this is not available to everyone. I see some establishing new sole trader companies to provide hard-earned advice, some looking to be employed by people they don’t yet know, and the occasional Linked-In request as some find the time to look back through their yellow-edged contacts lists and reminisce on where these people might be now, find out what they are doing and what they might look like and, most importantly, who they may know. This is a considerable pool of under-used talent.
And this talent is mostly at a time in life when competition, compensation, essential growth, and bounding progress have become less necessary, when a professional life can take a deep breath and reflect on what is worthy of doing and knowing for its own sake, and yet when the enthusiasm for the chase has not yet subsided. This is the time when all that has been learned can be reapplied in a more advisory, sharing capacity, and when the gaps in knowledge can be explored and filled at a measured pace by the application of travel and the investment of time in other people’s projects.
And this talent is mostly at a time in life when competition, compensation, essential growth, and bounding progress have become less necessary, when a professional life can take a deep breath and reflect on what is worthy of doing and knowing for its own sake, and yet when the enthusiasm for the chase has not yet subsided. This is the time when all that has been learned can be reapplied in a more advisory, sharing capacity, and when the gaps in knowledge can be explored and filled at a measured pace by the application of travel and the investment of time in other people’s projects.
I recall a time in 2004 when, not many tunnels having been built in the recent years, I had chance to call upon the services of half a dozen of the great and the good from the heydays of tunnelling, for support in developing solutions to the tunnelling we proposed at Shepherds Bush. And, as they each enjoyed a hearty lunch at our weekly meetings and after discussions of troubling joints of the more corporeal kind, how valuable an insight these men – for they were all men in those days - brought through their experience and their knowledge and their anecdotes. I and my colleagues learned much from this period, from their advice, not only about the art of tunnelling, but also about the benefits that could be gained from a generosity of sharing industry knowledge with a younger generation.
And now it is my turn.
Trisha Chauhan Architecture is a practice set up by a past TMA colleague, a young practice in age but having fought its way through the Covid time and having shown such resilience, one that has managed to grow their client base to an enviable strength. They do good, solid, honest work and I like to think they learnt much from TMA in the days when it was firing on all cylinders. And from time to time, in between and occasionally during my travels, I have the pleasure to be asked to throw my halfpence into their management and projects, just sufficient to advise but not do. And from time to time I am also put forward as an expert, briefly entertaining others in the inevitably youthful consultant and client team with a few none too carefully chosen words, spoken from beneath not too few grey hairs.
And as I do this, I can see that in many consultant and client organisations such an advisory role is by no means as prevalent as it should be in these times of working-from-home, and with the salary emphasis placed on only passable management roles in lieu of design capability. It is apparent that there is experienced and knowledgeable mentoring missing from the industry. Skills that would once have been passed down from senior practitioners, who are now too busy dealing with increased administration and the long-winded business of job securing, are notably missing. But of course, should these seniors be successful in their paperwork and their bids, it is those who are unnurtured that ultimately get to do the work.
So to all young burgeoning practices, I propose that, just as Japan engages the people of greater age to give depth and balance to the society it supports, there is much to benefit from entertaining the non-confrontational, educational role that those of a certain age can now take, there is much value in seeking directional support from those who have done it before, and there is much wisdom in helping the industry avoid repeated errors of judgement.
Let us prevent the inevitable population pyramid from becoming the industry’s future knowledge pyramid.
And as I do this, I can see that in many consultant and client organisations such an advisory role is by no means as prevalent as it should be in these times of working-from-home, and with the salary emphasis placed on only passable management roles in lieu of design capability. It is apparent that there is experienced and knowledgeable mentoring missing from the industry. Skills that would once have been passed down from senior practitioners, who are now too busy dealing with increased administration and the long-winded business of job securing, are notably missing. But of course, should these seniors be successful in their paperwork and their bids, it is those who are unnurtured that ultimately get to do the work.
So to all young burgeoning practices, I propose that, just as Japan engages the people of greater age to give depth and balance to the society it supports, there is much to benefit from entertaining the non-confrontational, educational role that those of a certain age can now take, there is much value in seeking directional support from those who have done it before, and there is much wisdom in helping the industry avoid repeated errors of judgement.
Let us prevent the inevitable population pyramid from becoming the industry’s future knowledge pyramid.