I was asked to speak at the first-ever Architects Forum at Glassbuild Tuesday afternoon. My topic was:

“How to avoid Risk, and avoiding Litigation”

My off-handed comment was: “if you want to avoid risk, you might as well stay in bed.” I then said, “If you breathe you take on some form of risk; the key is not to avoid risk, but to manage risk.” Some of the key points I covered to managing risk included:

1. Establish, communicate and deliver the expectation;
   
2. Start with a good team; and
   
3. Be realistic about what limitations, if any, you’re facing with regard to plans, location of the project and complexity of the design.

After the conference, several people asked me to expand on the number one item, “establishing the expectation.” In its most basic form, in any relationship, any one of the two parties is only disappointed when reality does not equal the expectation. Let’s face it, when you have a customer, you have a relationship! And it’s your job to create, define and communicate the expectation to your customer. This should also be expanded to your employees, your boss, your kids, your spouse and, in large part, everyone.

Learning to have realistic expectations with everything is the first step to living a more peaceful life. My mentor use to always say, “I want everything, expect nothing, reality falls somewhere in between.”

Stay grounded my Friend…