Not long ago, I toured an apartment complex with two friends; one was the architect who designed it and the other, the developer who built and owns it. The exterior was gorgeous and appropriate. The amenities were unique and clever. The units appeared to be attractive and reasonable for the market…that is until we entered the kitchen. This room was comprised of dark hardwood floors, rich wood cabinetry, stainless appliances and a builder-grade white laminate counter (that stuck out like a sore thumb). I winced. I looked to my architect friend- who gave me the ‘this isn’t the time’ slight head shake. We continued the tour.
Later, I took the architect aside and asked ‘What the f@*k was that?’ He explained that there were originally granite counters spec’ed, but that they were lost in the V.E. process. To me, this was yet another example of the bad results of not training our young developers to know the difference between a good and a bad decision. It’s the problem of not teaching them that development happens in the real world- not on a spreadsheet. Which brings me to our theme;
‘Whenever there is a decision, there is always a good decision to be made.’
Now I’m not saying that every decision has an option which is ideal, just that there are always better and worse choices. When, as developers, we accept the opportunity to reshape the world around us, we also take on the responsibility to understand the ramifications of the decisions we make. In part, this knowledge comes from experience…but more significantly, it comes from respect.
I’m referring to respect for each of the complex and mani-varied components that go into creating a single building. Currently, we train our youth to be masters the simplest aspect of our job- the financial component. As I’ve said before ‘You can teach a monkey to work a proforma in three months time.’ But it takes years to teach a young developer how and where to assemble land, why some dirt is better than other, how to lead a team through vision, how a building goes together and why, how to use amenities to make a community (and not just a series of disjointed boxes), how to align marketing efforts and how to be an exceptional salesman.
As developers we make a hundred decisions a day, so there are always going to be mistakes. We expect eighty percent of those decisions to be right and twenty percent to be wrong- and we can fix those twenty percent tomorrow. Of our inevitable mistakes however, our goal needs to be to eliminate the stupid ones.
So what should our young and under-supervised Development Manager above have done when presented with a budget shortfall in the kitchen? The answer is simple: He should have understood that ‘countertops’ is more than an excel line-item. The counter is component of a complex kitchen composition comprised of floor, cabinet, counter, appliances, backsplash, fixtures and lighting. He should have known that they all must work together for the composition to achieve harmony. Even though it would have taken more work, he should have down-graded them all slightly, rather than one dramatically.
So as we approach our own training and the training of those we lead, we need to make sure that we learn to find the challenge and the beauty of every aspect of our wonderful profession. It is only through a respect for the totality of our work that we learn how to make good decisions. And remember- there is always a good decision to be made in every situation and at every price point.