🔒Breaking barriers: In strategy shift, SLAM Collaborative taps East Coast, West Coast leadership team

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A Glastonbury-based architectural firm has adopted a split leadership model, with the recent appointment of a West Coast president and East Coast board chairman – a move that reinforces what many businesses learned during the pandemic, that technology can transcend geographic barriers when it comes to running a company.

The SLAM Collaborative’s board of directors decided to widen its candidate pool to a national field when it sought to fill the roles of outgoing President Robert Pulito and Chairman Richard Connell, both of whom operated out of the company’s Glastonbury headquarters.

That line of reasoning underscores a trend since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Businesses are increasingly advertising remote positions to candidates across the country – even if it means top leaders will be in different time zones.

Last month, SLAM announced the appointment of Gregory Coles as president and Terri Finucane as the first woman to serve as board chairman.

Coles operates out of the company’s California office, which SLAM established in 2018 with its acquisition of Los Angeles-based Frank Webb Architects. Finucane, a 39-year company veteran, is based out of the firm’s Glastonbury headquarters.

Although COVID-19 wasn’t the impetus for the strategy shift, it proved a point: “We don’t have to be in the same room together,” Coles said.

It also aligns with SLAM Collaborative’s efforts to be a more national player.

The concept of virtual collaboration is nothing new for the design firm, which for years has been holding virtual meetings to allow employees outside its Glastonbury headquarters to participate.

“It was a real seamless move for us to continue to use and leverage that technology,” Coles said.

‘One firm’ approach

Coles’ sleep-restricted schedule makes him an early riser and a night owl. When SLAM’s employees in Glastonbury start checking messages each day, he might not even have had his first cup of coffee.

But one of the benefits is that he’ll have responses to emails he sent late at night by the time he wakes up. Coles said he flies in for quarterly board meetings and occasional powwows, but he’s accustomed to appearing on a virtual screen.

Coles and Finucane meet virtually every week. He oversees the firm’s core team, which manages day-to-day operations, based in Glastonbury. She manages the firm’s strategic arm.

“Together, we share in the responsibility of moving the best strategies forward beyond the offices,” Coles said.

Coles previously headed Frank Webb Architects. The purchase gave SLAM two offices outside of Connecticut, which it built upon in 2020 with the acquisition of five CBRE | Heery Architectural Design studios, giving it the national footprint it has today.

The company has about 280 employees.

SLAM offers architecture, planning, interior design, landscape architecture, site planning, structural and civil engineering, and construction services. It has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Iowa City, Iowa; Orlando, Florida; and Providence, Rhode Island.

Coles said the firm’s Los Angeles office is undergoing a redesign to accommodate on-the-go remote workers. No longer does SLAM assign seats to its employees; they can choose their workspace in the office, whether it’s in the cafeteria or an acoustically-isolated focus room.

The model is in line with the company’s “one firm” approach, which draws on expertise across all nine offices.

“The big change for us is that, as we’ve grown our leadership-thinking, our model has changed with that growth to represent more of who we are and how we operate, which is one firm with a national presence,” Finucane said.

Across the company, employees are asked to come into the office at least twice a week. The flexibility gives them the ability to interact in person, while also reaping the benefits of working from home.

Ahead of the curve

Greg Reilly, professor of management and department head at the University of Connecticut School of Business, said that virtual meetings tend to be more efficient because they eliminate the time wasted traveling between meetings. In addition, remote work can empower businesses to make better hiring choices.

“I think that it’s part of a bigger trend,” Reilly said. “In many ways, what’s happening in the executive suite is happening everywhere in terms of being more remote and living where you want to live and people hiring folks who aren’t necessarily in their geography.”

Are there benefits to in-person meetings that can’t be achieved virtually?

Coles and Finucane both paused when asked the question.

“I don’t believe there is anything you can’t do virtually,” Finucane said.

While there may be fewer spontaneous social interactions during work hours, SLAM has found a solution: design socials and happy hours via Microsoft Teams.

Employees are asked to bring their design ideas and thoughts on leadership and innovation to the informal get-togethers. They used to pin their ideas on a wall. Now they share screens.

Reilly said there are benefits to the small talk that occurs at office watercoolers, such as the building of trust and a company culture. Employees are more likely to follow a leader, and are less likely to challenge the logic of their decisions, when they’ve built a relationship by discussing topics like sports and family, he said.

“I’m not going to say nothing is lost, but there’s a lot gained, fortunately,” Reilly said.