You may have seen these office posters.

• “Collaborate to Elevate”
• “Better ideas, together”
• “Join forces, build futures”

Any corporate office with a moral committee worth its salt has these slogans plastered everywhere. People may see them go up, but they are quickly and quietly ignored.

That surface-level motivation just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not saying it pushed me into my own practice. Let’s just say my firm doesn’t have any posters on the wall.

It’s not that I don’t like working with other people. I love helping my clients and other professionals thrive. There’s something deeply satisfying in doing good work well. I love applying a specific skill to a specific problem and watching the pieces click into place. It’s matching my niche knowledge base and skillset to the right problems.

That’s the kind of pairing I see in specialists like Elizabeth Turner, a sustainability consultant whose work continues to advance the frontiers of architectural practice. She works with energy modeling, material research, and climate-responsive design. These tools require constant research and study. Staying at the forefront requires a sustained investment: conferences, self-funded research, grant applications, and testing. It requires targeted partnerships with university programs or forward thinking clients who believe in the possibility of change even before it may be profitable.

This kind of work looks like the collaboration of a honeyguide.

The honeyguide is an African bird and has specific knowledge about the location of certain bee hives. Although it knows where to find the hives, it can’t act on that information alone. The hives are guarded by bees and often a protective crust. So the honeyguide seeks a partner. It calls to a honeybadger or human to guide them to the hive. These partners are able to break off pieces of the honeycomb and share the sweet reward. Often honeyguides develop a familiarity with local tribes through repeated whistles and communicate the time to find a new hive.

As architects and designers, we too have very specific knowledge that we can’t act on alone.

We need to utilize our unique call to guide clients towards a sweet solution.

I find it professionally satisfying to advance in a unique knowledge base. But that knowledge doesn’t do any good unless it can be used to advance a certain project. Sometimes it is a detail, or maybe a new product or a process that makes the project go smoother. These skills are that much sweeter when they are shared with my clients.

Advancing a specialty is meaningful work. Deep focus sharpens our skills, expands what’s possible, and pushes the profession forward.

But skill, on its own, is incomplete.

Expertise isn't complete without applications. Knowledge gains value when it moves beyond personal mastery and into the service of our clients. We then apply our skills to a team, but that doesn't devalue our unique contribution.

In Originals, Adam Grant writes, “High performers don’t succeed by fitting in. They succeed by contributing something distinctive.” Distinctiveness is the point. Teams don’t grow stronger by everyone knowing the same things. They grow stronger when each person brings a different piece of the puzzle—and offers it freely.

The honeyguide acts upon this instinctively.

It doesn’t become valuable by knowing everything. It brings value through its expertise in one thing. And then guiding others to act on that knowledge. The reward is a shared outcome.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins reminds us, “No one wins alone. Even the most brilliant performance depends on others playing their part.” Architecture is no different. Buildings don’t emerge from singular talent. They emerge from coordinated effort—designers, consultants, builders, clients—all contributing their strengths toward a common project goal.

We can bring deeper value to our teams, by

• guiding with what we know
• leading as experts
• sharing in the sweet success

When we use our skills to solve real problems—when we guide rather than guard our knowledge—we create work that lasts. Healthier buildings. More resilient communities. Teams that trust one another because each member is doing the work they are best equipped to do.

The honeyguide doesn’t hoard insight. It offers direction. It calls others in. It understands that the sweetest outcomes are shared.

Lead with generosity and courage to put your knowledge into action.

Keep Flying! Katie Kangas

Flying Solo Podcast

Listen to the full interview with Elizabeth Turner of Precipitate on Flying Solo Episode 19 | Elizabeth Turner (Honeyguide).

And check out @precipitate on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or their Website.

​Check out the Flying Solo Podcast on your favorite platform.​

​Alli's Journey​

An African proverb goes like this:

Collaboration shows up a lot around Flying Solo. It’s almost an inside joke how often we talk about it. And no, it doesn’t mean suddenly building a huge team inside a one-person firm. It also doesn’t refer to the times we talk to ourselves.

It’s a conscious choice to shape even a solo practice around a collaborative culture. And that choice shifts how we work.

Daniel Coyle, in The Culture Code, describes strong cultures as places where people feel safe to contribute, where roles are clear, and where progress comes from shared effort rather than lone heroics. That applies just as much to a sole practitioner as it does to a corporate studio.

The honeyguide understands this instinctively. It holds valuable knowledge, but doesn’t bother hoarding it. On its own, it can find the hive—but it can’t reach the reward. Only by sharing what it knows does the work actually succeed. Then it can share a sweet victory with its team.

When we practice this way, architects can act as a guide to a new future that our clients can’t achieve alone. And we need the rest of the project team to contribute to the purpose, funding, and action of a successful project.

It may feel like it slows us down. In the end, we make it farther by working together.

Winged Wisdom

African Proverb

Daniel Coyle The Culture Code​

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