Equip yourself with the business skills needed to thrive in today’s competitive market, whether you are a design professional, business owner, or aspiring entrepreneur. Each course focuses on a specific aspect of business success, from cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset to mastering strategic planning and developing effective marketing strategies. You’ll learn to identify opportunities, develop robust business models, and implement practical strategies for growth and sustainability. Upon completion, you’ll have the knowledge and tools to position your firm for long-term success. 

Take your architecture career to the next level with our 3-course package designed for architects aspiring to step into leadership roles or elevate their impact within their firms. This specially curated bundle provides the tools, strategies, and insights to shape you into a leader who can inspire, motivate, and drive team success. 

Learn the essential skills and insights needed to develop effective team leadership and cultivate positive team dynamics. Understand the six essential characteristics of team excellence that distinguish high-performing teams from average ones so you can analyze individual roles and nurture the key traits that drive successful teamwork. Plus, dive into the major impact employee engagement can have on team performance—learning actionable strategies to boost engagement and motivation among your team. Assess the influence of team dynamics on productivity and performance and acquire practical techniques to optimize these dynamics, ensuring that your team works cohesively towards shared goals. Course expires 04/06/2027

Improve your understanding of the fundamental business concepts in architecture and design. Learn the significance of business acumen in your professional journey and gain insights into how you can use it to have the greatest impact on your career. Dive into the current and historic internal and external business dynamics—from organizational culture to economic conditions—shaping architecture and design firms to establish a crucial foundation for making informed and strategic decisions.

The integrative process relies on the series workshops that keep the project on track and the expanded team on the same page. But given all the considerations, planning a series of successful workshops can be a challenge, especially when integrating health. With the help of two case studies, this course will walk you through key considerations and goals for workshops in each phase of the design process. You will get an overview of how to keep your stakeholders engaged, the kinds of information you would present at each phase, and various facilitation techniques to ensure success even after the workshop is complete. Course expires on 9/13/2026.

The public sector is experiencing a surge in project demand—driven by new federal, state, and local funding sources and increased fee limits for Department of Defense (DoD) projects—presenting small and mid-sized architecture and design firms an unprecedented opportunity to expand their practice and influence. Traditionally, these lucrative public projects have been dominated by large firms, but the landscape is shifting—allowing smaller firms to compete and succeed. This comprehensive course is designed to equip architecture and design professionals with the tools and knowledge needed to identify, pursue, and secure public sector projects. Through a discussion of key case studies, you’ll learn how to navigate the complexities of public procurement processes, use your skills and experience, and strategically position your firm to win public contracts. You’ll develop the skills to leverage emerging public sector opportunities to diversify your project portfolio and grow your small business. 

The community contexts in which we work today are defined overwhelmingly by pervading public mistrust, conflict and controversy, and community opposition. Our urban crises – climate, housing, equitable development - are forcing quick action to avoid catastrophe. Controversy, community opposition and legal challenges pose significant and costly burdens to achieving our collective goals. This session will provide an overview of the key challenges in the field of public participation today. It will identify core components of healthy processes that can lead to more successful community outcomes with broad community support. The session will address technique selection, as well as tools, resources and networks where participants can develop skills in public participation.  This session was recorded live on March 15, 2023.

When the design assistance team program was created in the 1960s, it pioneered participatory approaches to city building. Over five decades later, the program has established a track record of urban innovation and change that has influenced cities all over the world. Learn how the DAT program has employed one of the most powerful methodologies for urban innovation in the field today – and how its component parts have been adapted and deployed globally for urban transformations.  This session was recorded live on April 26, 2023.