Collaboration is at the core of my work. It is the essence that makes a good project even better. Historically, people worked in silos on distinct parts of projects that were specific to their specialty and then those parts were fit together to make the project complete. Individuals were working in offices with doors, surrounded by others in the same department, surrounded by a complex of other departments in the same company, set in a matrix of sprawling industrial and urban wheels of isolation.
Work is still done this way in so many places because it is ingrained or because it is believed to pull the most focus and creativity from a single source on their single piece of the project. But there continues to be an ongoing movement towards collaboration and its benefits. Extending beyond the ‘teamwork’ concept of the 90s and early 2000s where people would use meetings, just another form of an isolated group, to try and bring together liaisons from other departments and companies.
Now, people are moving out of their offices, past the cubicles and conference rooms, and into shared workspaces. New platforms are being created every day, which allows us to share and work together online and in real-time - skipping the tedious circular process of working, presenting your work, hearing feedback, implementing changes, and presenting again. And, this evolution has brought about dynamic changes in the design and use of workspace.
As a real estate developer and as a consultant collaboration is a must, ensuring we grow an idea together, and that we shape a project through an interdisciplinary approach. By evaluating the many perspectives and harnessing individual expertise, not only of key players but of all who will touch the project, we increase our collective intellectual capital and gain insight to improve the project in ways a single specialty could not accomplish on its own.
Drawing people and organizations together across a vast array of backgrounds and interests in ways that maximize contributions makes real estate projects the very best they can be. It takes an understanding and drive to develop and cultivate the big ideas where concepts and dreams are created, as well as a desire to work in the details where the day-to-day work is completed. It takes persistence and stamina and a genuine passion to bring people and resources together; to harness the benefits of collaboration that create excellence and take a project from good to great.