Green Teamwork

It occurred to me a while back that teamwork is a term that is heard all day every day but it is not really understood by a large part of the working world.  Not to be gender based but, there are many women I know ( and a few men ) that have never really played on a sports team.  Certainly women in my generation - old - did not have the opportunities that the girls today have in the sports world.  There were no team sports available to play until maybe junior high school when softball was offered back in the day.  I happened to love competitive sports and played softball, field hockey, lacrosse, volleyball and the creme de la creme at the University of Michigan, women's rugby.  I also have an older brother that I spent years chasing and trying to impress by volunteering to be the goalie ( in full pads ) during our winter hockey games.  But what about those individuals that do not really understand that the power of the team is so different from the individual star?  When I use sports analogy in my office, it is only partially effective.  Talking about the full back and the wide receiver don't really hit home sometimes, or talking about running a play without a plan from the quarterback doesn't sound that bad...

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.  When you work as a team, this permeates the whole of the individuals and allows the "specialists" in different functions to collaborate across rigid silos.  When you are building a workspace, it is pretty darn important to work as a team and let the talent be talented all together.  Bringing this back into my little world, our movable wall component to a project isn't just about how the manufacturer makes the panels in a factory, ships them to site and discounts the price the most aggressively.  We touch a whole pile of trades and people on the team.  If the GC ( or quarterback for this analogy )  calls the play for the team and the timeline moves ( oh heavens ) then the whole team needs to flex.  But what if the quarterback doesn't tell the players that he/she changed the timeline?  What if we don't talk to our teammates about how we can resolve the problems?  What if we chose to just do what we want because it is good for us and the client but hammers the project team?  Yikes.

I was talking about style and culture this week with a colleague.  We were lamenting about our dislike for micromanagement.  Now of course there is a time for getting deep in the details and using that hard/soft combination punch that motivates and drives the team however, a collaborative dance can be so much more effective.  Sometimes we see the micromanagement style combined with knowledge is power in our LEED teams and it is definitely not the most effective way.  Typically, we see the start of the project through a LEED checklist of yes/maybe/no.  I was talking to a new green furniture buyer in Las Vegas this week about how this checklist starts the process of points.  We talked about how the checklist is a guideline but it is not the culture of the project.  It is merely the starting place for the team.  We take that list of point opportunities and figure out how we are going to align and add value.  The micromanagement style just asks us to provide information that they want for the points.  The collaborative team gives us the list and asks us to help solve the point puzzle and asks us to add value and help get the points.  Totally different experience and result.

Harboring information as power makes me personally crazy.  There is so much more to creative thoughts and innovative problem solving that experience and expertise bring to the table.  Why exclude that as you build out a space?   We see it all the time.  And oh, it has nothing to do with price.  Wisdom and experience can come at the same price point - you just have to look and want the added value.  Teamwork attitude is also "free", you just have to look for it and want it.