Part 1: Be Proactive
Part 2: Begin With an End in Mind
Part 3: First Things First
Part 4: Think Win-Win
Part 5: Understand and Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
In a world rife with self-improvement gurus serving up endless clichés about concepts that will revolutionize our lives, it’s hard to tease out terms that can actually be of use.
Synergy is one of them. An excellent example is the strength in numbers achieved in a good old fashioned team tug of war.
Architecture and design in general is often viewed through a lens of vanity but in reality it is typically the product of dozens of people working together, so why not do the obvious and WORK TOGETHER.
Synergy starts like making a snowman. You have ideas, you bounce them off of people. Some people are critical, but listen to what they have to say.
Then you talk to an architect or designer, who should listen to you, and they will have thoughts, and again, listen to what they say.
Then you and your architect will talk to a builder, or two or three, and the same process takes place.
Synergy thrives on open-mindedness, transparency and trust. When those things are achieved it is a very beautiful thing, and reaps rewards in any project including your Renovation Projects
OPENMINDEDNESS: This may seem obvious, but in order to be open-minded you need to suppress your insecurities. Don’t be afraid to say what you like. Don’t be offended if your friends, or your designer don’t share your opinions, but still listen to why they don’t. If it is as simple as they do not like that color, that’s their opinion. If it is something more subtle like your idea would require that the bathroom open directly into the Family Room, it might be worth hearing them out.
TRANSPARENCY: Unfortunately the business aspect of all of this places all parties at a point of negotiation. In order to keep a strong hand in negotiation you do need to hold your cards close to your vest, but after you have negotiated with both your architect and contractor you should be enabled to be almost completely transparent with them, and in turn they should be with you.
TRUST: When transparency has reached a certain level between the primary project players, (The Owner, Architect and Builder) trust is enabled, and when trust is enabled the soil is ripe for Synergy to kick in, and when that happens your project flows lie a great piece of music.
When all of this happens there is just one thing left and that is to keep it happening. We’ll get to that in the next and final blog of this series Habit 7: Sharper the Saw.