Stuck between a rock...

... and a hard place. The world is consumed with ego sometimes. Now granted, everyone needs to have some ego and self-esteem in their personal and professional lives to exist and thrive. You need to be proud of who you are and what you do, and be able to humbly express that to the rest of the world. You'd never be able to successfully get through a job interview or a first date without it.

But there comes a time when people need to put aside some of that ego for the good of the cause. Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) my boss is not very good at that. Quite incidentally, I'm beginning to learn architects in general are not good at this at all. Hence we come to that precarious place between the proverbial rock and the proverbial hard place. The architects refuse to copy my boss on any correspondence, whether he needs to know the information or not. So, he refuses to go to them for any information and skirts the established protocol to get what he needs. Since he skirts the protocol, they won't work with him. I think you can see the self defeating circle they've created for themselves.

Now drop the people, myself included, who are actually on the ground and trying to get things done into the middle of that circle. I need my boss to keep moving on the items he's working on to keep the project on schedule. I need the architect to keep the flow of information moving smoothly so both the Construction Manager and I can keep doing what we need to do in keeping the project on schedule. At this point it has become a pissing contest to see who's ego is bigger than the others and who gives in first. We're not quite at an impasse yet, but it is just a few blocks down the road on the right hand side of the street.

In some aspects it is just childish. When egos get in the way, things deteriorate. It happens with sports teams all the time. Just look at how many good teams Terrell Owens has ruined in his career (49ers, Eagles, Cowboys) with his enormous ego. We'll hold it together here in Bemidji and get things done right. We'll play schoolyard monitor, counselor, babysitter and mediator to the bulging egos in Houston and Iowa. I only wish that some people could be a little more flexible in their thinking and a little less driven by their egos.