In our industry, collaboration gets talked about constantly. From mission statements to proposals, collaboration is the cornerstone of every project.
Real collaboration comes from diverse perspectives sharing the same end goal.
To me, collaboration is open dialogue between different disciplines, departments, and skill sets working toward the optimal solution for a project or challenge. It’s the exchange of ideas across varying experiences and backgrounds so that we avoid tunnel vision and prevent a single-minded approach to problem solving.
Without collaboration, innovation stalls.
Earlier in my career, problem solving often lived exclusively with subject matter experts. The technical lead made the decision while others executed. Today, the best outcomes happen when more voices are invited into the discussion. Not because everyone has the same technical expertise, but because different viewpoints strengthen the outcome.
That shift has changed how complex projects succeed.
My Personal Philosophy
One quote has stayed with me throughout my career comes from President Harry Truman. He once said:
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
True collaboration requires a level of selflessness. It requires setting aside ego and individual recognition in service of the collective objective.
When teams focus on the success of the project over personal credit, performance improves. Innovation increases. And the organization grows stronger.
Collaboration is not about consensus for the sake of consensus. It is about aligning diverse expertise around a shared goal and having the discipline to execute together.
Why Collaboration Is A Non-Negotiable
A headquarters or retail project is not one discipline operating independently. It’s architectural, interiors, environmental graphics, furniture procurement, digital, multi-sensory design, and MEP systems all interacting at once. None of those specialties can operate in a vacuum without creating downstream challenges during construction.
On top of that, you layer in space planning requirements from HR, legal, accounting, IT, and executive leadership, then add constructability analysis from the build team to avoid costly field redesigns. See how the complexity compounds quickly?
Success depends on continuous communication across teams.
Not at the end. Not when issues surface. From the very beginning.
Since starting at NewGround, I have seen how significant it can be when collaboration starts as early as strategy. Before a client purchases land or signs a lease, we’re asking questions like:
- Are you in the right location?
- What departments are projected to grow?
- How much space will you need in five, ten, twenty years?
- Are there renovation opportunities that offer better long-term value?
When strategy, design, interiors, and build inform one another early, financial institutions avoid boxing themselves into spaces that restrict their vision later on in the process.
Collaboration at the front end protects the investment.
Breaking Down Silos Starts at the Top
Collaboration becomes difficult when silos form.
Matrix reporting structures can create confusion. A team member may report to a discipline leader but answer to a project lead resulting in conflicting messaging and misaligned priorities.
Being on the executive team, it is my responsibility to ensure silos are broken down before they become barriers. That starts with clear and consistent messaging and requires buy-in from department leaders across all teams.
A build team member may work with three different designers on three different projects. The core collaborative approach cannot change from one project to the next. When it does, confusion and frustration follow.
What Financial Institutions Gain When Collaboration Shows Up Early
When collaboration begins in the strategy phase, clients make better real estate decisions. They avoid purchasing property that limits future growth. They prevent zoning surprises, and they consider sightlines before investing capital.
Too often, organizations lock themselves into spaces that restrict what is possible. When cross-functional expertise informs decisions at the beginning, vision can be fully realized without costly pivots later.
Early collaboration protects design integrity. It protects budget. And it protects long-term performance.
Advice to Executives Building A Collaborative Culture
For executives trying to foster stronger collaboration, one practice I’ve found valuable is occasional skip-level one-on-ones.
The chain of command matters. It must remain intact for efficient management, but taking time to hear directly from project teams can reveal blind spots. It can uncover barriers that managers may not see or feel empowered to address.
Executives must be careful not to undermine authority. But they also must be willing to examine whether policies, guardrails, or structural decisions are unintentionally restricting collaboration.
Sometimes the obstacle is not cultural. It’s structural.
Life Lessons
I remember traveling with Jonathan Meyer, our Design Studio Head in Chicago, and Indri Shehu from our architectural team to visit a client in Colorado. While we were there, we walked a NewGround project under construction that had been developed by colleagues out of St. Louis.
On that site visit, Jonathan and Indri saw real-time construction challenges that had the potential to surface on a completely different project they were designing in Arizona. The teams were separate. The regions were different. But the lessons were transferable.
They were able to adjust immediately and prevent similar issues from stepping into a space outside of their own expertise.
In a company managing dozens of projects across North America at any given time, we can’t rely on perfect communication structures alone. Sometimes collaboration is simply taking the time to pause, observe, and listen outside your immediate project lane.
Moments like that are where the real strength of collaboration shows up. When teams stay connected across disciplines, offices, and job sites, knowledge travels faster than problems do. That’s how better work gets built.