EP. 002 Developing Leaders from Within: RATIO’s Project Management Journey
Introduction
A few years ago, the leadership team at RATIO asked a question a lot of firms are quietly wrestling with:
How do you transfer knowledge across offices, across teams, against busy deadlines, and prepare next generation project managers to lead with confidence?
In this episode, we explore how RATIO, an architecture firm headquartered in Indianapolis with offices in Chicago, Denver, Raleigh, Champaign, and Milwaukee, turned training into a strategic pathway for building firmwide culture.
Those questions sparked a multi phase partnership between RATIO and Apostrophe Consulting, beginning with the creation of a firmwide project management program. I still remember that first conversation when Heather and Allender invited me to lunch. What started as a discussion about training quickly revealed the opportunity to shape something far bigger for leaders across the firm.
The work moved through assessment, curriculum design, and program management, but it also opened deeper conversations. Conversations about leadership standards, shared language across generations, and how learning actually shows up in day to day practice. After the project management program wrapped, those conversations expanded into additional support for technical leaders across the firm.
In this episode, you’ll hear from Heather Worrell, Allender Contarino, and Lora Teagarden as they reflect on 18 months of work together. What it meant for the firm, what it changed, and how it shaped them as leaders.
Heather’s bio:
Heather is a Principal and the Director of Design Delivery at RATIO. She leads firmwide initiatives around BIM technology, project delivery, and professional development. A registered architect with more than 20 years of experience, Heather has been a driving force in RATIO’s adoption of digital design tools and training programs. She’s passionate about improving workflows, building collaboration across teams, and shaping the next generation of technical and project leaders in architecture.
Explore More
RATIO is a multidisciplinary design firm that “connects people and place to shape environments of purpose, beauty, and meaning.” They work across sectors — from higher education and K–12 to civic, workplace, parks, mixed-use, health, and more.
Their teams bring together architecture, interior design, historic preservation, landscape, and urban design to create integrated solutions.
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No Exceptions Taken is produced by Apostrophe Consulting. We help AEC firms lead with clarity, strengthen their culture, and navigate transformation with intention.
