Situation: Prior to the construction of the $115 million Westin La Cantera Resort, the developers and partners first had to agree on the guiding theme of the property. Unfortunately, much like the proverbial “Blind Men and the Elephant,” they each saw it from different perspectives. They needed someone who could listen to each of their thoughts and distill them into a simple mission statement upon which they could all agree.
Action: Having previously worked with a Dallas-based development company on the opening of another major resort destination, I was flown into Dallas to help. After meeting with a group of some 20 individuals involved in the project (from landscape architects and interior designers to the vice presidents of the partner organizations), I was given the task of coming up with the “beautiful words” upon which the resort would be designed and built.
Result: The end result is shown above. It was submitted to the managing partner who, in turn, submitted it (virtually unedited) to everyone involved. She did, however, append a short note in which she stated that she felt the copy was perfect as it was. What’s more, she urged that they not “committee it to death.” Per request, the copy was accepted without change. A complete consensus was achieved. And the design on the multi-million dollar project began.
TomJonesNBTX 