Haxted Thinking No.18 - 7th December 2024
“The only details that matter are all of them.”
The philosophy that I’ve developed through my work in real estate and development over the last 38 years is underpinned by something John Ruskin, the Victorian thinker and art critic said. It was this:
“We should seek two things of our buildings - they should shelter us but they should also speak to us of whatever it is we find important and want to be reminded of.”
I believe, passionately, that great spaces can be transformational. They shelter us, of course they do, but the best spaces do so much more than that - they nourish us, and they maximise our potential to thrive. To thrive gives us a fair shot at ending up fulfilled or self-actualised, which Abraham Maslow taught us is the epitome of human achievement. And we all want that don’t we?
So this means developing buildings is a real privilege, and consequently comes with a deep responsibility. It’s a responsibility that means we have to respect the very personal and individual impact of the spaces we build, and the spaces we occupy.
Too many people in real estate think they are in the business of developing or investing in buildings purely to generate profits or rental income streams.
In actual fact we are in the business of making spaces where people grow. Where they grow character. Where they grow curious and confident and creative. Where they grow children and extended families and friendships. Where they grow connection and belonging. And we are in the business of making spaces where they grow companies and economies and wealth that benefits society. Where they grow ideas and stories and aspirations.
We forget we are in the business of making spaces where people fall in love, and where they grieve and play and pay respect to ancestors. We forget that we are in the business of making spaces where children are inspired to be artists and astronauts and actors, and where we look after the sick and those in need of help. So really, we are in the business of building community.
The profit or rental income that flows from a good development should be a reward for doing something that leads to growth beyond the material kind. And we must do it to the very best of our ability.
Profit should never be the primary reason to start a project.
So, I think it’s time for real estate people to understand what we really do with a lot more clarity. And we must all do it with more humanity. When the planning and legal work is done, we must design and execute space with great care and attention to detail. And the only details that matter are all of them. Because people’s best lives depend upon it.
Lessons from an old school Italian restaurant No. 5
I believe one of the foundational qualities necessary for successful leadership is adaptability. To me it ranks only just behind curiosity and humility.
Without an adaptable mindset – ie. one that can accommodate volatility and unpredictability and has tolerance to ambiguity – a leader cannot reliably give confidence to those who are being asked to serve in the pursuit of a project’s mission.
Looking after a restaurant might not seem the most obvious way to sharpen leadership adaptability skills, but it did in my father’s case. The thing is a restaurant is a perfect microcosm of society. In a restaurant all the dramas and possibilities play out in technicolour.
And there’s no better example of a place to test you on Rudyard Kipling’s “if” than a restaurant -
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you………
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch………
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same……”
To run a top-quality restaurant well requires continual adaptation to circumstances which are changing at dizzying speed. One minute the Portuguese kitchen porter, whose English is not great, is having a meltdown and no-one can work out why. You need to sort it.
The King of Jordan’s people are on the phone - a table for 4 please at 1300hrs - halal meat dishes only - you’re already full. You need to sort it.
Federico, the head sommelier, helped himself to the three quarters full left-over bottle of Sassicaia after service last night without asking. That’s stealing. You need to sort it.
The tile grout in the wondrous Enzo Apicella designed bathrooms is grubby. Mario, the co-founder of the business, has just called to say he’s coming in tomorrow. So now the grout needs sorting pronto, not next month. Your job.
The Pugliese baker hasn’t had his bill paid and is threatening to quit. He’s an abrasive and proud old goat and he needs to be talked down before tonight’s service. Your job.
I remember coming home from University one weekend and excitedly telling my father we were studying management theory. Charles Handy, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters. I told him I knew what it took to get teams working effectively. I was very confident.
The thing is my father left school at 14 to start work in a hotel that had been requisitioned by the German Army in Naples. The little we know suggests it was a tough gig. His management training was somewhat more hands on than my 12 weeks in a University classroom and 8 weeks on a building site.
He listened calmly.
I’ll never forget the knowing look he gave me, the wry smile as he took my excited over-confidence on board. Patiently he let me blow myself out and then slowly said something like:
“Yes I’m sure the books are good. Read the books. But never forget that learning to adapt to crazy problems daily means you need your eyes on the people not on the books. And you need eyes in the back of your head.”
It was my first lesson in practical leadership. From a grizzled, adaptable old Neapolitan with eyes in the back of his head. I’ve never forgotten it. A love of books and reading is never going to be an adequate substitute for ‘in the trenches’ adaptability when all the messy human reality of life is unfolding in the world.
Leadership
I recently finished a multi-year advisory commission. In working on an after-action review one thing became increasingly clear. A crystal-clear objective is always essential. Re-reading that, it seems blindingly obvious, but it’s so often ignored or glossed over. Lucian taught me that. Being brought in to lead in untangling a failed development project for an equity investor, is always a stiff, and complex challenge, so clarity is utterly necessary. I proposed to the client MD that the objective should be “Get all of Client Inc’s money back.” A stretch goal given the project history, but the right goal.
Objective set and agreed, I suggested the project strategy should be: Absolute control of all future development expenditure and revenue. We don’t need to get bogged down here in the process that followed but the point is a clear strategy would allow us to review and ratify every one of the tactical decisions taken, against the test - ‘does it support our strategy and in turn our objective?’
The interesting challenge that followed was that the developer’s OST - objective-strategy-tactics – was fundamentally different to ours (and was always going to be frankly). Our stewardship of the project was going to meet resistance, objection and probable sabotage. That’s what makes impaired project scenarios so nuanced and so challenging. And consequently those are the projects that require the boldest leadership approach.
In February 1942, Winston Churchill was under extraordinary pressure to fundamentally rethink the constituency of his War Cabinet. Malaya had just been overrun by the Japanese and the Allies had suffered a dreadful setback in the Western Desert where Rommel was running amok. Churchill was crystal clear that he needed to obviate any unnecessary dissent or prevarication. In his diaries he said:
“More difficulty and toil are often incurred in overcoming opposition and adjusting divergent and conflicting views than by having the right to give decisions oneself. It is most important that at the summit there should be one mind playing over the whole field, faithfully aided and corrected, but not divided in its integrity.”
Sometimes leadership needs to boil down to one person making hard decisions day after day and having the courage to stand by them. Whenever I work on those projects, the way Churchill conducted the Allied war effort is forefront of my mind.
Fearless creativity
I love making photographs. It can be so many things, and for me the most powerful are its cathartic and therapeutic qualities. Like any artistic endeavour it can encourage us to wrangle with deep-rooted aspects of self. Making a photograph is a declaration of self in the world.
“Every photograph is a certificate of presence”
Roland Barthes said that in Camera Lucida. Photographs as evidence of our being.
But I’m not sure photographs contain answers. Diane Arbus said:
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”
Boxes of physical images become boxes of secrets. Folders of digital images become folders of confidential information.
I also think, somewhat paradoxically, that photography is invitational. It is about personal disclosure, and done well, it invites the viewer to join in. To bring all of their own experiences, beliefs and meaning. In a considered image the photographer reveals something of themselves. Equally, in contemplation of the image, the viewer reveals something of themselves. A beautiful pas de deux.
The act of photography changes us. The wonderful photographer and essayist, Robert Adams said:
“At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands before our camera, to honour what is greater and more interesting than we are. We never accomplish this perfectly, though in return we are given something perfect – a sense of inclusion. Our subject thus redefines us, and is part of the biography by which we want to be known.”
Whatever your preferred creative medium, go in search of artistic fulfillment. We must all ignore the noisy voice inside our heads urging us to stay safe and sound by leading an artistically unexamined life. I know, I did that for nearly thirty years, and it made me unhappy and unwell. Be courageous. Write, paint, sculpt, knit, photograph, draw, sing, dance. Whatever it is do it. Who cares what others might think? The fruits of these labours give us gifts that we can only appreciate later, sometimes many years later. You need your creative output, and the world might just need it too.
The Ember Sessions III
Lakeside. Northern England. Late May 2025
An invitation to drink from a deeper well. An exploration of richer possibilities. Forging connection.
Story. Fire. Nature. Zen.
James wrote some generous and heartfelt words about last year’s gathering:
“I’m not the sort for retreats and self-reflection. The exposure - to others as well as myself - gives me terrors and I’d much prefer to sit at the edges watching and supporting rather than be in the spotlight. Plus, I’ve always held to the maxim that it is better to keep your mouth shut and allow people to think you’re a fool, than to open it and prove it. So, when Carlo invited me to be a part of the Ember Sessions, I had a lot of trepidation and baggage I had built for myself, about what it would be and how I would feel. But I also trust Carlo entirely, and I love the way he thinks, and the passions he is driven by. I love his knowledge, and his magpie-like collecting of wide-ranging snippets of reading and thought and ideas, and his weaving of those into something new and surprising and beautiful. The time in the woods, sleeping under the stars and the boughs of the trees, by the still calm of the lake, and with the hills beyond changing hourly with the light, were some of the most magical and uplifting days of my life. The opportunity to stop, to listen to others, to be prompted with questions that allowed you to surface some of how you really thought and felt in a welcoming peaceful space, left me lighter and better understanding of myself, of who I was and what I really thought and why. And a better understanding of those around me – who and what they were, and why they were, and how to approach all of that in a loving and understanding way. Talking aloud about things I haven’t shared before, and articulating things I have been scared to say out loud for fear of making them more solid, instead made it easier to forgive myself for some things, and to have the support of the others on that pebble beach beside that reflective water helped allow me to let them go and float away.”
Only two spaces remaining – for further information please email me: carlo@carlonavato.com
Finds from this month’s excavations
Design: The Pantone Colour of the Year 2025 is Mocha Mousse 17-1230. Pantone describe it as “a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort.” I don’t know about that but I do find it strangely alluring. What do you think? There’s more from Pantone here.
Comedy and philosophy: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Jim Carrey film but I do know he’s a comic genius and a wonderful philosopher. I recently heard him respond to a question about whether a rejection from a Saturday Night Live Audition was a ‘tremendous defeat’ for him. His response:
“No I have a psychotic belief system that goes something magical is going to happen. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. If there’s no way in, a new way will be created.”
Jim really does make the world a better place. Some years ago he gave a commencement address at the Maharishi University of Management. He’s planting seeds, it’s wonderful. It’s here.
Music: I recently found myself watching the brilliantly leftfield and totally original Talking Heads, in their video for Once In a Lifetime. Those of us of a certain age will never forget that moment in 1980 when David Byrne popped up on Top of the Pops with the exhortation that life will be the “same as it ever was.” Oh how I love that song. If you want to excavate what’s behind it here’s a great piece of writing.
I think the subconscious draw was reading Same as Ever, Morgan Housel’s brilliant latest book, over the past few weeks. I highly recommended it. It’s stuffed full of wisdom about seeing the world as it really is.
And don’t forget:
“……you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"
Architecture: I saw my old friend John Pardey recently. His work is always beguiling, and I highly recommend his books on housing - 20 Great Houses of the 20th Century and his beautiful love letter to the amazing Jørn Utzon – Two Houses on Majorca. in particular.
John mentioned a recent trip to Bangladesh to pay homage to the great Louis Kahn. I’m now obsessed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Music: You can always count on the Modfather to tell it how it is.
Zen: A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a University scholar who arrived to learn about Zen.
Nan-in served his guest tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflowing cup until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is over-full. No more will go in. Why are you still pouring?”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
If you’ve got this far thank you for your attention. If you haven’t thank you anyway. I’ll never take your time or attention for granted. Please drop me a line to share any thoughts or ideas on these ramblings - carlo@carlonavato.com