Vision
2025
to our vision
Bold Steps
Goals
Invest
in our people
for our planet, climate & communities
Advocate
with design
Lead
without uniformity
Unity
our business model
Transform
DLR Group 5000
Implement an EDI strategy
Create an understanding of EDI; evolve an approach and take the necessary steps to embed EDI practices in the design culture of DLR Group
Evolve our operational structure
Re-imagine the operational structure, leadership matrix and Forums to increase nimbleness, efficiency, and accountability design culture of DLR Group
Amplify automation
Implement AI platforms to leverage more time for value-based activity
Leverage outside partners & investments
Develop DLR Group Labs as a vehicle to offer creativity & investment to industry partners and generate value from our intellectual property for both the firm and our partners
Launch DLR Group Academy
Up-skill our people for the next generation of applied design delivery
Implement a Leadership Development Program
Launch internal learning resource platform
Global identity & impact Design thinking beyond buildings Commit to performance, aesthetics, results Design decisions that elevate the human experience Be resilient in the face of industry change Champion design agency Evolve our brand
Firm-wide embodiment of our brand, processes, and culture Integrated design. Always. Dynamic and evolving leadership Leverage employee voices to improve performance and culture
Amplify mentoring, training, & career development Foster a culture of transparency, equity, diversity, and inclusion Evolve talent acquisition, engagement, and retention programs Leverage employee voices to improve performance and culture
Prove our impact on climate change Regenerative, restorative and adaptive design 2030—get to zero and beyond Design with purpose
Data intelligence informs our business Get paid for the value, not the hours Increase by 10X our revenue from innovative/ non-traditional design services Evolve to a 65/35 value creation model Partner with top tier industry influencers/disruptors
Profits with a purpose Sustainable practices in a volatile industry Performance driven accountability Scale up quality of partnerships & services Diversify services beyond buildings Preserve intellectual property
VISION
Our Vision
Visioning Process
Summary Graphic
TENETS
DLR Group’s differentiator in the industry will be a dynamic design culture that acts as a magnet to attract talent to, and retain talent in, the firm. We will reimagine all aspects of our recruiting and professional development programs to embrace diversity, nurture inclusion, and offer equity for every employee-owner. Accelerated decision-making will bring clarity. Consistent communication coupled with enhanced mentoring will detail the expectations and corresponding measures of success for every role within the firm. To support the growth and expanding global reach of the firm we must intentionally educate, prepare, and empower the next generation of DLR Group leaders.
NARRATIVE
Commit to equitable representation on the Advisory Board to the Board of Directors Establish clear role expectations to promote accountability
Focus on the value of retention and engagement Pursue collaboration with nationally and globally recognized academic institutions Review, revise, and revitalize Square Roots with a design focus
Enhance understanding of EDI as an integral part of an evolving firm culture Bring greater transparency to our enterprise systems Reimagine an Annual Report V2.0
Define and fully activate the role of HR/Talent Identify career pathways for greater transparency Identify DLR Group experts as the core faculty for the Leadership Development Program (LDP)
Leverage employee voices to improve performance and culture
Evolve talent acquisition, engagement, and retention programs
Foster a culture of transparency, equity, diversity, and inclusion
Amplify mentoring, training, and career development
CONTEXT
DEFINITIONS
CONTRIBUTIONS
DLR Group
5000
We will instill a design culture that assumes elevating the human experience is the primary design goal for every project. Integrated design teams will view each design opportunity through the lens of our values to equitably define goals and measures of success; use collaborative processes to deliver a design solution; and validate performance to ensure a building, product, or system is fulfilling our brand promise and delivering value to clients, users, and society. By applying the principles of design thinking to solve design challenges in beautiful ways, the DLR Group design brand can be recognized globally as a leader in the A/E/C community.
Align brand, core values, and Vision 2025 in our culture with no exceptions Measure success using our values Align design, operations, and marketing as the lens through which we evaluate our enterprise value
Stake a presence and be recognized leaders in the communities where we practice Advocate for and execute work that illustrates our promise
Be precise in expectations, flexible in thinking, nimble in decision making Be informed about the future to have the courage to adapt and change Be diverse in what and where we do our work
Achieving our brand promise is always a project goal Approach design opportunities holistically Understand that Performance + Value = Stakeholder Success
Embrace the burden of proof (performance) and trust (results) delivered through integrated design thinking (aesthetics) Commit to defining and executing performance and results parameters
Apply expertise prior to pre-design and following occupancy Design an experience, not a space Design the spaces between the buildings
Deliver innovative design to establish DLR Group as a globally recognized brand in the AEC community Lead with the design strength of established sectors to drive our global growth strategies Identify strategic global investments of scale for accelerated success
Evolve our brand
Be resilient in the face of industry change
Champion design agency
Design decisions that elevate the human experience
Commit to performance, aesthetics, results
Design thinking beyond buildings
Global identity & impact
DLR Group will shift from the production of documents to design thinking and design deliverables as our primary driver of revenue. Integrated design teams will leverage ideas, data, and outcomes to inform design and provide evidence of performance. We will approach each project as both an opportunity and responsibility to optimize performance over the full lifecycle of a building using existing tools and future technologies. By exploiting technology and data to work smarter and faster, we must recapture time for our greatest asset, our people and their ideas to validate design performance and develop new products and markets to generate value for employee-owners.
Be perceived and sought after as disrupters and influencers Pursue opportunities with recognized partners outside of traditional A/E/C services for investment and development of ideas Work with not for our clients
Shift our primary revenue streams to design phase thinking and delivery Develop new revenue models for the full lifecycle of a building
Develop smart subscription services (BOLD) Grow the capabilities of energy modeling and monitoring Leverage customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) as new revenue streams
Create a design firm known for, and valued as, design thinkers Speak about our work through the voice of our unique value and expertise
Leverage what we already create/know to find additional enterprise value and ROI Focus on working smarter to become data informed not data led Commit to evidence-based design to prove our brand promise
Partner with top tier industry influencers/disruptors
Evolve to a 65/35 value creation model
Increase by 10X our revenue from innovative/non-traditional design services
Get paid for the value, not the hours
Data intelligence informs our business
DLR Group will lead the design industry in advocacy for our planet. We will deliver sustainable, regenerative, and responsive design to address global climate change. InDePro will establish goals and track the performance of every DLR Group project in accordance with Architecture 2030 benchmarks. We will be equity-centered designers, committed to sharing our voice as advocates for the power of design thinking to deliver access and equity for all. The quality of life of future generations is in the balance. DLR Group chooses to lead the effort to stem climate change and by 2025 can be recognized as the leading expert for regenerative design.
Formalize corporate sustainability programs to model our value of environmental stewardship Use design thinking to serve as a force for equity and to enhance our understanding of equity-centered design Investment to support employee-owners’ involvement and the mission of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)
Evolve InDePro to calculate 2030 performance goals for each project Restructure the Sustainability Forum to add expertise and the diverse voices of client sectors and regions
Amplify our focus on planning, and specifically urban planning, so our buildings elevate the surrounding environments Move beyond energy to instill a holistic focus on water, air, and human comfort and wellness
Use the Getting to Net Zero Energy Dashboard to illustrate the impact of sustainable design; collect project data to enable evidence-based design Invest in growing high performance design (HPD) as a core discipline within our integrated design model Designate the AIA COTE award as the definitive design award for a project
Design with purpose
2030—get to zero and beyond
Regenerative, restorative, and adaptive design
Prove our impact on climate change
DLR Group will establish a design culture that is agile, dynamic, and interconnected in response to an increasingly diverse marketplace. We will separate the insignificant from the important in our structure, practices, and measuring and reporting to recapture time for employee-owners. Rigor in adhering to guidelines and standards will produce efficiency and provide opportunity for new ideas to be proposed, tested, and implemented to improve integrated design. Digital tools will deliver flexibility and collaboration for employee-owners in our evolving virtual workplace. To succeed and grow in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, we must be unified as one brand, one integrated design firm, one DLR Group.
Activate and listen to the counsel of the Advisory Board to the Board of Directors Commit to sharing your ideas with R&D, DLR Group Labs, DLR Group Academy, the LDP, DLRU, and our Forums to amplify your voice within the firm Establish an annual engagement survey and act on issues of importance as identified by employee-owners
Improve nimbleness of decision making Break the silos of region versus sector accountability to improve bottom line performance Demand and enhance the collaboration of cross-sector expertise to foster innovation Define lessons learned and best practices from recent M&As
Practice as a unified culture of integrated design Generate value messaging through the lens of integrated design; from initial business development through the building lifecycle Create the InDePro Quotient to evaluate the adherence to integrated design
Respect our brand and practice guidelines and commit to adhering to standards and rules in the development and delivery of work Evolve our operations, communication, production, and financial platforms to redefine how we work around the globe Promote our core values to ensure each informs our decision-making
Dynamic and evolving leadership
Integrated design. Always.
Firm-wide embodiment of our brand, processes, and culture
DLR Group will generate stock value of $5,000 per share. We will increase the scale of our projects around the globe while evaluating each opportunity to ensure it aligns with our values. Smart growth will be fueled by performance-driven accountability, focused investment to expand sector expertise in existing locations, and investing in new urban areas poised for growth. The firm will monetize our intellectual property by investing in development and licensing of products and tools that can influence and provide value to the design industry. By aligning with new partners and strategic investment in geographies and services we can strengthen the financial position of our firm for the benefit of employee-owners.
Create an evidence based design library to leverage our intellectual property Understand what we own and how to consistently and legally protect our intellectual property
Expand on non-traditional AEC services including BOLD, UX, and experiential design Pursue licensing of product designs such as Getting to Net Zero Energy Dashboard, INDEPPRO, EBDL platform, LinkedIn Dashboard, and commissioning Monetize R&D and research outcomes
Align with clients who desire projects of scale and impact Double down on selected existing investments to go deeper rather than wider Scale up new services/expertise like high-performance design (HPD), mission critical, and reality capture
Connect personal performance to personal opportunities and compensation Focus investment to diversify the firm Explore non-traditional AE acquisitions
Become economists to recognize future industry trends/directions Target investment in geographies of high urban economic growth domestically and globally Invest in existing locations to grow our sectors
Identify issues that a design agency approach can resolve locally, regionally, globally Look to non-profit partners to bring focus and visibility to our public work
Preserve intellectual property
Diversify services beyond buildings
Scale up quality of partnerships and service
Performance-driven accountability
Sustainable practices in a volatile industry
Profits with a purpose
Since 1999, DLR Group employee-owners have gathered every five years to engage in an intensive, interactive, graphic-driven exercise to envision DLR Group’s future. Our Vision sets our North Star for who and what we want to be in five years through big-picture goals; the tenets of those goals; and essential bold steps we will take to get there.
WHAT
The Visioning process is a crucial piece of our culture as an employee-owned firm. Change in the world around us is constant. By engaging in a firmwide visioning process, we can plan our own response to those changes; forecast what we think is ahead of us; and determine and shape what we want our firm to be in five years.
WHY
You.
WHO
Although our approaches to precedent Visioning gave us a strong foundation for process, developing Vision 2025 presented us with new challenges. At 1,200 employees, we stood at nearly double the number from Vision 2020. More than half of the firm had never gone through Visioning. And multiple firms had recently merged into DLR Group, injecting more diversity into our design culture. These factors and more led us to add new methodoligies into our Visioning process.
HOW
08.22.2019
Process Kickoff
CEO Griff Davenport kicked off the Vision 2025 process with a firmwide presentation discussing the history of the process, examples of preceding accomplishments, and the possibilities that lie ahead.
A select group of facilitators from every office came together in Denver for two days of training on how to gather employees, encourage participation, and record and assimilate graphic output.
Facilitators' Training
08.26.2019
For the first time in Vision history, we leveraged a variety of digital lines of communication to bring everyone into the conversation leading up to the actual vision sessions in each office. A dedicated page on Square1 was established as the digital home for Vision 2025 news, updates, invitations, and ongoing interaction.
Launch Digital Communications
09.11.2019
During Annual Meetings, every employee in every office participated in Visioning sessions, collaborating, creating, and innovating our future. Our facilitators led us through guided discussions and workshops exploring SPOT matrixes, context mapping, and aspirational “cover story” concepts.
Regional Workshops
10.2019
In September, a series of three employee surveys were distributed via Square1 to prompt early firmwide dialogue and generation of ideas.
Begin Online Surveys
09.16.2019
The year is 2025 and Vision 2025 has been successfully completed. You're tweeting something about DLR Group that makes you feel super inspired and proud. What does your tweet say?
What is the most significant issue our industry will have to face by 2025?
In 2025, DLR Group is best known for _________________ .
The word cloud combines all responses from the previous three polls. Select the top three words you think deserve the most focus in Vision 2025.
A diverse group of 75 employee-owners representing every office, every sector, and every practice, met for three days in Phoenix to begin distilling unified themes from the outcomes of the regional workshops and surveys. Bringing all the design voices into one moment of convergence resulted in synthesizing input, sifting out synergies, and building consensus as the next step in defining our Vision.
Convergence Meetings
12.16.2019
Returning to the digital feedback loop, all employee-owners were asked to comment on the Convergence Conference outcomes, leading to the final fine tuning of the Vision. This began with a survey focused on our Big Goals on January 8th, and then another survey on January 20th focused on our Bold Steps.
01.2020
Following the final firm-wide feedback, a series of virtual convergence meetings brought together a cross-section of employee-owners, senior principals, global sector leaders, and the executive team. These meetings focused on validating thinking and providing focused direction to arrive at the final Vision 2025.
Virtual Convergence Meetings
02 - 03.2020
CEO Griff Davenport presented the final graphic version of Vision 2025 on the first of April. Unveiling a final graphic expression of V2025 built excitement around the six Goals and five Bold Steps that together make up our North Star for the next five years. Griff subsequently held a series of AMA sessions on April 8-10 to unpack the why behind the final Vision, and to give all employee-owners the opportunity to ask questions or offer further thoughts and insights on our Vision.
Vision 2025 Graphic and AMA Presentations
04.01.2020
FY21 Business Planning was the first opportunity to begin plotting a path to execute against our new V2025 goals. Each year moving forward, Business Planning will begin and end with Vision 2025, ensuring that our immediate efforts are feeding into the longer-term goals and steps of our North Star.
Begin FY21 Business Planning
05.2020
So let’s make it happen. Together. All of us. Five years might seem like a long time, but it will pass in the blink of an eye. Which is why we’ll buckle down. We’ll focus on the goals and steps we defined together. We’ll collaborate to creatively bring them to fruition. And we’ll be an even more amazing design firm for it.
The October 2020 Annual Meetings: official kickoff of Vision 2025.
Celebrate!
10.2020
Top
Why + WHO + How
And your fellow employee-owners. Everyone at DLR Group has a design voice, and that includes having the opportunity to volunteer your input, your expertise, and your opinion on just what (y)our firm is, what it could become, and what it should look like in five years. And our Vision ultimately will be the richer for the diversity of our input.
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