Lillian Jones - Prompt 1

Collaboration is something that permeates every day behavior and should be implemented in every aspect of work. When collaboration fails, production come to a standstill. There was a situation with my mentor and the several groups he was working with where their collaboration was challenged which led to further miscommunication and misunderstandings. The city of Charleston's design center and the housing authority of Charleston were trying to develop a solution to a public housing problem on the peninsula. The housing authority and their architects were developing one solution and the design center was working on another strategy. No one was on the same page and therefore, nothing was getting done. Eventually the design center called a charrette for all parties involved and actually had conversations and workshops to develop a solution together. The problem was that each group was working in silos without collaborating together and nothing was moving forward. They probably should have had the charrette in the beginning of the process because as soon as that took place, this sort of cross pollination starting happening and the lines of communication and collaboration were reopened. In political situations such as these there are a lot of opinions and egos involved which can can lead to a lack of communication because everyone wants their voice to be heard. But in the end, everyone is working toward one common goal: to serve public. 

This concept can certainly be applied in the architecture profession, especially in the community build studio. Collaboration and communication are key in this situation because there are usually 10+ people working together every single day on one project. If everyone is not willing to fully collaborate or communicate, the whole dynamic of the group as well as the quality of the project can be compromised. We are all working toward a common goal, and sometimes the big picture can be lost in the stress of working with so many people. It makes me think of Stephen Covey's book, The Speed of Trust that we read last semester. In the text, he talks about how trust is the foundation for collaboration and communication. If we do not trust our peers or colleagues, we will not be able to collaborate properly with each other. Learning to collaborate with everyone in the community build studio will translate directly into life after school and I think we will be well prepared.