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Intentional Collaboration: Elevating the Power of Collective Effort

By Derek Stahl, AIA, NCARB

February 4, 2025
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The word collaboration has admittedly almost become a cliché in the design industry.

Design teams talk about collaboration, celebrate their collaborative prowess on social media, dream about what collaborative space looks like, and some even incorporate a variant of the word into their company name. The more I have thought about this throughout my career, the more I realize that collaboration comes with the territory.
Design Collaborative Team Meeting
Design Collaborative Team Meeting

The Nature of Collaboration: Built Into Our DNA

Humans are built to collaborate; it’s part of what it means to be in a community and to work together toward common goals. When given the opportunity, we’re all collaborators. Collaboration is embedded in the very fabric of human civilization.

But does that make collaboration less significant? If everyone collaborates instinctively, can it really be a differentiating factor? For much of my career, I wrestled with this idea. It always seemed like it should be a differentiator, but the more I looked, the more I found evidence of collaboration everywhere, even discovering that Orca whales were collaborating to sink vessels off the coast of Spain. If they could work together to achieve a shared goal, what was keeping us from realizing the full power of collaboration in our own work?

A New Perspective on Collaboration

It wasn’t until the Fall of 2024 that I had an experience that reframed what collaboration could achieve when approached with intentionality. I was invited to participate in a client-hosted symposium with one simple objective: to gather internal and external (consultant) resources to share insights and learn how to collaborate more effectively. I agreed to join, with the usual expectations for a client event, and headed to the venue. What I experienced was something entirely unexpected.

From the moment the 300+ attendees settled into their seats, it was clear this was no ordinary gathering. This client spent the first half of the session sharing their story—the why of their organization. Speaker after speaker took to the stage and shared what part of the work they were responsible for, how the work they were doing served their mission, and how the architecture that facilitated it changed the organization’s trajectory. They went into detail and with much conviction, outlining how the work that people like us, the consultants, is helping them in this mission and, in turn, helping the people they serve, helping the communities they coexist with, and helping improve people’s worlds.

It was inspiring and empowering, and most importantly, it gave me a profound understanding of their mission. What would have taken months (or years) of routine charettes and project meetings to uncover became stunningly clear in just a few hours. I wasn’t just a hired consultant anymore—I felt like a member of their mission team.
First Merchants Bank Conference Room First Merchants Bank Conference Room
First Merchants Bank Conference Room First Merchants Bank Conference Room

Collaborative Workshops: A New Kind of Dialogue

After those introductory sessions, the client moved us into team workshops, pairing us with other internal and external consultants from all aspects of project design and delivery. I found myself in a room with design directors, project managers, interior designers, superintendents, and contractors. The goal? To explore how we could truly work better together.

We tackled open-ended prompts like:

  • What’s holding you back from doing your best work?
  • What’s gone well—or poorly—on our projects together?

These questions led to honest, unfiltered discussions. Within that space, true collaboration flourished because we weren’t just working together; we were understanding each other—sharing insights into what had been hindering productivity directly with those who could someday be responsible for those stumbling blocks.

The Power of Intentionality

What I learned in these work sessions from would-be collaborators left me with a renewed perspective on what collaboration could achieve. And I’m not talking about the token collaboration that naturally happens when humans congregate. It proved what’s possible when teams aim higher than just “working together” and seek to understand the greater mission, be transparent about challenges, and know that each voice matters in creating something better.

This experience reminded me that collaboration should never be taken for granted or treated as a given. When approached intentionally, it becomes a force that drives progress, connection, and success in meaningful outcomes.
MedPro Lobby - Community Meeting Space
MedPro Lobby - Community Meeting Space

I challenge you to ask yourself: what could your team achieve if you moved beyond the status quo of “token collaboration” and embraced a new standard of intentionality? What obstacles could you remove? What transformations could you inspire?

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