How AEC Practices Can Stay Resilient as Projects Scale

Large-scale projects have always come with complexity, but today’s AEC firms are facing something else entirely: constant volatility.

Planning delays, paused projects, changing scopes, fee pressure, and resource bottlenecks are no longer occasional disruptions. They are increasingly becoming part of the day-to-day operating reality for architecture and engineering practices.

During a recent webinar hosted by RIBAJ in partnership with Milient, industry experts explored how firms can build resilience, improve visibility, and reduce decision lag when scaling projects.

One message stood out clearly:

“The question isn’t whether disruption will happen. It’s how you plan for it.”

- Jules Olivier

The discussion brought together perspectives from software, practice management, and project leadership research, revealing that successful scaling is no longer just about winning larger projects. It’s about building organisations that are prepared to adapt when projects inevitably change.

Why Project Disruption Has Become the Norm

According to Jules Olivier, many firms are now operating in an environment where project pauses and delays are expected rather than exceptional.

Projects are being:

• Delayed
• Descoped
• Put on hold
• Rephased unexpectedly
• Extended without proportional fee increases

Combined with Gateway 2 pressures, longer timelines, and continued economic uncertainty, this creates a ripple effect across:

• Resource planning
• Profitability
• Staffing
• Cash flow
• Project delivery timelines

Rather than trying to eliminate uncertainty entirely, firms increasingly need to improve how quickly they can respond to change.

As Jules explained:

“Projects will pause. Scopes will change. Slow response is the real problem.”

Professor Jennifer Whyte reinforced this idea through the lens of project leadership and resilience research. She described projects as inherently future-oriented, operating in environments shaped by uncertainty, technological change, and shifting stakeholder pressures.

Her comparison of project leadership to firefighting captured this mindset clearly:

“You don’t go into work hoping there’s going to be a fire, but you need to be ready if there is one.”

Preparedness, rather than prediction, became one of the webinar’s central themes.

The Hidden Cost of Reactive Resource Planning

One of the strongest operational themes from the session was the strain caused by reactive resourcing.

When projects suddenly shift direction, many firms respond by rapidly reallocating teams without having full visibility into:

• Commercial impact
• Resource capacity
• Forecast changes
• Pipeline risk

As Jules Olivier explained, this often leads to “resource distortion”, where teams are effectively held in limbo while practices wait for clarity around project timelines or approvals.

The result is often:

• Margin erosion
• Delayed fee recovery
• Overloaded project managers
• Slower decision-making
• Restart and remobilisation costs

A recurring point throughout the webinar was that many firms are not necessarily under-planned, they are under-informed.

Without connected visibility across projects, resources, and financials, firms struggle to make fast, confident decisions when conditions change.

Platforms such as Milient Project Flow are designed to bring project, resource, and operational visibility together in one place, helping teams respond faster when project timelines, staffing needs, or commercial conditions change unexpectedly.

Why Visibility Matters More Than Ever

The webinar repeatedly returned to one challenge: decision lag.

When project planning, resource management, and financial data sit across disconnected systems, leadership teams often struggle to see the full operational picture quickly enough to respond proactively.

Connected visibility allows firms to:

• Spot commercial risks earlier
• Forecast more accurately
• Reallocate resources faster
• Identify pressure points across teams and projects
• Respond proactively instead of reactively

As Jules Olivier noted:

“It’s not about eliminating uncertainty. It’s about reducing the gap between a signal coming in and forming a response.”

Jennifer Whyte also highlighted the importance of visibility in complex project environments, particularly where multiple stakeholders, systems, and governance structures interact.

She referenced a phrase from her time working in systems integration:

“Buildings leak at the interfaces between contracts.”

In other words, operational issues often emerge not from a single failure, but from disconnected teams, fragmented processes, and unclear communication between different parts of a project ecosystem.

Connected project management systems can help practices:

• Identify project risk earlier
• Understand resource availability in real time
• Track project progress more consistently
• Reduce decision lag across teams

Designing More Resilient Project Organisation

A major theme throughout the session was that resilience is not accidental, it must be designed intentionally into the organisation itself.

Jennifer Whyte encouraged practices to think not only about designing buildings, but also about designing adaptive organisations capable of handling uncertainty and complexity.

This includes:

• Building preparedness into operational processes
• Improving collaboration across teams
• Creating clearer decision-making structures
• Developing continuous learning practices
• Reviewing projects proactively rather than reactively

She also introduced the idea of “socialised leadership”, recognising that on increasingly complex projects, leadership and decision-making cannot sit with one individual alone.

As projects scale:

• More stakeholders become involved
• Technical coordination increases
• Timelines lengthen
• Risks become more distributed

That complexity requires organisations to think more dynamically about how decisions are made, communicated, and acted upon.

Lessons From Rapid Practice Growth 

One of the most practical sections of the webinar came from Rohan Kempadoo of John McAslan + Partners, who shared the realities of scaling rapidly after a major project schedule changed unexpectedly.

Originally planned as a phased programme, the project timeline was suddenly compressed, forcing multiple large project stages to run concurrently.

The result was rapid operational expansion.

The practice grew from 42 to 82 people within ten months.

That growth created immediate pressure across:

• Recruitment
• IT infrastructure
• Office space
• Software licensing
• Onboarding
• Team culture
• Facilities management

Kempadoo explained that onboarding alone consumed more than 112 hours of work.

What stood out most was how many scaling pressures were operational rather than purely design-related.

There were practical issues around:

• Desk capacity
• Access control
• Hybrid working
• Remote infrastructure
• Cleaning costs
• Bike storage
• Software licensing
• Maintaining cultural cohesion during rapid hiring

One particularly valuable insight was the importance of maintaining standards even when programmes accelerate:

“You can collapse schedules, but not standards.”

The session also highlighted how quickly culture can shift during rapid growth if practices are not deliberate about onboarding, integration, and communication.

Smaller Practices Face Similar Challenges 

Importantly, the discussion also acknowledged that these challenges are not limited to large firms.

For solo practitioners and smaller studios, scaling can feel equally overwhelming — particularly when operational knowledge lives largely in one person’s head.

Jules Olivier offered one of the webinar’s most memorable reflections:

“Psychologically, not think about it as you being the infinite resource.”

Instead, he encouraged smaller practices to develop:

• Basic planning habits
• Repeatable processes
• Simple routines
• Risk mitigation practices

Even lightweight operational structure, he argued, can help practices scale more sustainably over time.

Jennifer Whyte added that collaboration networks can also help smaller practices take on larger opportunities without needing to scale internally at the same pace.

Continue Resilience Starts Before the Crisis  

The webinar reinforced that project volatility is no longer a temporary issue for AEC firms, it is becoming a core operational challenge.

The practices best positioned for growth are not necessarily the ones avoiding disruption altogether, but the ones able to:

• Respond faster
• Improve visibility
• Reduce decision lag
• Build adaptable systems and processes
• Learn continuously from projects and operations

As projects become more complex and timelines continue to fluctuate, resilience increasingly depends on preparedness, connected visibility, and proactive decision-making.

Or, as Rohan Kempadoo concluded:

“Resilience comes through preparedness.”

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