Members of the Robertson/Sherwood/Architects team.
This is another in my series of posts inspired by 1000 Awesome Things, the Webby Award winning blog written by Neil Pasricha. The series is my meditation on the awesome reasons
why I was and continue to be attracted to the art of architecture.
The myth of the heroic, lone architect
at odds with philistine clients persists even though the reality is much
different. Almost every building project today is the product of teams of many
people working together to realize a shared vision. Architects operate not only
with design partners but also with owners, users, contractors, craftspeople,
and the countless others necessary to realize something as complex as a
building. Teamwork is an indispensable and essential aspect of the process of
creating architecture.
Numerous tomes on business
management have expounded on the virtues of teamwork. When done properly, teamwork
stimulates communication and sharing of ideas. Teamwork engenders a broad sense
of ownership in a project, increases efficiency, and leverages multiple
talents. Effective teamwork also fosters learning, creativity, and innovation. A productive team shares a common vision and a
commitment to success and its associated expectations.
The 1996 Chicago Bulls (photo source:
The best teams aren’t made up of
people who all think alike, or who all have the same skillsets. Michael Jordan may
be the most talented basketball player of all time but his 1990’s Chicago Bulls dynasty would never have been as successful if he wasn’t surrounded by precisely
the right teammates and coaches. Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, Dennis
Rodman, Phil Jackson, and the other key members of those championship teams
provided a diversity of personalities and strengths that perfectly complemented
Michael’s.
Despite the necessity of teamwork,
there’s no doubting the indispensable genius of individual architects. Like Michael
Jordan, their brilliance has often been the genesis of truly dazzling achievements.
The many great architects we can cite are too numerous to ignore; however, their
work unquestionably bears the marks of many hands. Even Howard Roark, the hero
of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, would rely upon assistants—a team—to
pursue his rational self-interest.
Gary Cooper as Howard Roark in The Fountainhead.
The master architect is most
successful when he or she is also a consummate team player. The most successful
firms value teamwork because they understand that a whole is greater than the
sum of its parts. The empirical evidence is clear: What one can do, many can do
better.
Effective communication is
critical to achieving the goal of wholeness in teamwork. Architects are
fortunate today to have powerful collaboration tools at their disposal. For
example, far-flung team members can share a common, cloud-based BIM model
around the clock, a virtual embodiment of project synergy and the compounding power
of group effort. As the complexity of architecture inexorably increases, the
value of teamwork and tools to facilitate it will likewise appreciate.
When a great team is on its game, it
can win at anything. When the game in play is architecture, and the results are
some of the greatest buildings and places humans have ever created, the AWESOME
power of teamwork is undeniable.
Next Architecture is Awesome: #14 Harmony
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