Page 44 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

NARRATING VALUES, SHAPING VALUES, CREATING VALUE 23

days. We collectively celebrate birthdays, visit with each other on weekends. We
counsel one another with regard to love gone right and love gone wrong and love per-
haps heading in a positive direction. We hire each other’s kids for summer internships
and see them in a slightly different light than their parents (our colleagues) do. We ring
a brass captain’s bell to celebrate when good things happen and SMS (short message
service) and e-mail and BlackBerry each other at ridiculous hours of the night and
weekend when we are concerned. We try to stay out of each other’s hair and probably
do a lousy job of it. But the effort is appreciated nevertheless. Like the members of a
family or kinship group, we verbally beat up on each other day in and day out, but get
defensive and supportive when someone from outside the company even slightly crit-
icizes one of our colleagues.
The sense of belonging within an organization encompasses a code of engagement
that nurtures intimacy. Things like mutual respect, civility of behavior and discourse,
empathy, trust, and transparency are all necessary components of the type of commu-
nity we collectively shape and share. So, too, is the expectation that each of us is
involved and needed. 37 Things easily stated, but much less easy to deliver. In an inti-
mate setting such as ours, oftentimes it is more convenient to push contentious issues
under a rug rather than address one another directly. No one likes confrontation. No
one wants to unnecessarily make it awkward for oneself and other colleagues by prac-
ticing the type of straight talk we feel is necessary for our code of engagement to
work. And so we struggle with being open and honest with one another all the time.
It’s a continual work in progress.
The concept of belonging we try to foster extends beyond our company into the
community at large. Over half of our staff sits on nonprofit board or is otherwise
involved in civic organizations. It’s not mandated, but it’s encouraged. We match
staff members’ charitable contributions and allow for a week’s paid leave to anyone
wishing to volunteer services to a civic organization. Wherever feasible, we provide
pro-bono consulting on projects where our knowledge of sustainable practices can
come in handy. And we try our damndest to ensure that everyone strikes a good work-
family balance—not always an easy thing to manage. Our culture is definitely not for
everyone. But it is for those for whom everyone else matters. We cannot be good
stewards of our land and community if we are not, first and foremost, good stewards
of one another.

3. Craftsmanship: Most of us are probably familiar with the scene in the movie
Modern Times where Charlie Chaplin literally becomes a cog in an assembly-line
operation. While comic on film, it’s not a life circumstance any of us are likely to find
appealing. If there were one thing I wish I might benefit from at work, it is the devel-
opment of a particular craft I was really good at. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I’m
an English major who runs a real estate company, a generalist who wears lots of dif-
ferent hats at a small company, pitching in wherever help is needed. If I had to look
for a job today, I’d be in a peck of trouble. I don’t want that to be the case for the rest
of my colleagues, who by and large feel the need to have a craftsman-like expertise
for some facet of our business. It is, I feel, our obligation, to meet that need.