I’ve never built a house before. I don’t know what others’ experiences have been. What I’m learning, though, is that we won’t be successful on this build without working as a team. Or, I should put my lesson in its more positive context: we are working together as a team in order to make sure we complete this build and end up with the house we’ve dreamed.
We started as a team of 2: Nick and I. We had an early lesson in teaming, a story I’ll share quickly called “The 40’ Ladder.” 20 years ago, we painted the trim on the outside of our MD house. We were working with a 40’ extension ladder to reach 2+ floors up to the trim along the roof, moving it around from one spot to another. Nick’s an engineer by training. I learned to work ladders and to paint from a professional painter. He knew how ladders should behave; I knew how ladders often behave. We had to listen and cooperate and compromise to move and plant and hold and climb that ladder. When we finally washed up the last paint brush, we laughed that if we could survive that 40’ ladder, we’d survive anything. In the earliest days of dreaming a house in 2007-2008, we had to practice the same skills.
In 2008, we found our architect. We had talked to a couple of other professionals: the first would only work on his own without input or cooperation—we would buy the land and give him a contract and get outa the way; the second could talk but couldn’t listen—his idea of dreaming a house was 2 hours over coffee and he was ready to draw up plans. You know the saying, “Three strikes and you’re out.” In our case, we swung three times and the third was a home run. We were lucky in finding our architect for a number of reasons; high on that list was that he listened. So our team became 3. Give and take, imagine and erase, until we had the house that felt like home. And it looked almost nothing like we had first envisioned, nothing like the previous designer had sketched. Then the architect was perfectly content to let us find the land and let the land dictate the final design.
Next to join the team was our builder. One of the first things we did once we had a contractual relationship was to hold a charrette. Here’s the Wikipedia definition: The word charrette may refer to any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem…for…dialogue. Such charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution while integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people. The architect and the builder and his foreman/partner spent 2 days working together with us on the design. The goal was to find cost savings because the design as bid was going to cost more than we could afford. Nick’s experience in low-income housing development back in DC suggested that a charrette would be a good way to brainstorm alternatives. The builder brought in his major trades: the prime contractor who would do the framing and other critical tasks, the electrician, the plumber, the solar (pv and thermal) expert. Again, the goal was to get the input of all the trades on ideas, savings, alternatives; a secondary goal was to get their buy-in into the BGNM requirements which are far beyond what they had probably built to, to date. Also, the BGNM rater came up from Las Cruces and spent one of the two days reviewing with the builder, his foreman and his primary contractor the BGNM requirements, answering questions and making suggestions.
As we’ve moved along on the build, the team has only strengthened. The builder went to a National Home Builders conference in Florida specifically to attend the sessions on building green. He came home not just with a better understanding of what needs to be done with our house, but with enthusiasm and heightened commitment! He joked that he and I would be racing each other around the house with caulk guns to seal up every crevice and seam to meet the BGNM requirements.
We—the builder, Nick and I—hold weekly meetings. One week we review the progress of the build and discuss problems and what’s next. The opposite week, we go through our BGNM spreadsheets to make sure we’re not missing anything. When BGNM, design or construction questions come up, the builder and the architect are in contact and questions are also directed to the BGNM rater as appropriate. But Nick and I are included in these discussions and solutions. I have found that my suggestions and problem solving have been not just solicited, but incorporated. Now THAT’s a good feeling!
I have spent 20 years teaching team building. Theoretically, I know how teams develop – all the stages they go through, many of the pitfalls they encounter. I have designed classroom activities to push learning teams through experiencing each stage. I have coached teams in real time, mediating – or attempting to mediate their stuck-ness. I can tell you that the key to teams of any type collaborating for any goal is trust. With trust, teams can achieve whatever goals they set for themselves. Without it, they don’t get past talking.
I’ve come to see that this team has come to trust each other. What a concept!
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