Crazy paving?

From my home office desk I am watching a highly skilled team at work. Three builders are laying a flagstone patio. One manoeuvres the heavy slabs of reclaimed stone onto the site until he has sufficient inventory of possible pieces for this large outdoor jig-saw puzzle. Another team member mixes up grey mortar in a drum, sifting and churning his ingredients like cake mixture. The team leader contemplates the size of the problem, ties string levels and makes scratch marks with his toe on the sand 'blinded' base that the team has already levelled. Planning, resources, roles and a vision all begin to come together without unnecessary words being exchanged.

The first great flag goes down. It is carefully 'spotted' on five lumps of the mortar mixture and gently tapped into place with a rubber mallett wielded by the leader with the percussive precision of a conductor's baton. The second flag is selected and slots into place alongside the first in a perfectly balanced and yet asymetrical relationship. These two founding flags will now never be moved - like many projects this first relationship provides the base line and the axis from and around which all the subsequent patterns grow. From here on it is about fitting in and recognising the hierarchy.

The team works smoothly. New flagstones are identifed, cut and chiselled to fit the emerging pattern of regular irregularity. No two flags are identical in their mineral shades or rectangular proportions. Each appears to have a separate history of weathering, traffic wear and load bearing. Nature, nurture and the environment have treated them differently on their path to serve a common purpose. Today there is no one right way of assembling the pieces and many wrong ways of geting them misaligned. In the end the 'right' configuration is simply the final way - the one that looks good to the eye, satisfies the spirit level and feels right underfoot.

And on the team the roles begin to flex and flow. The team leader gives up his baton mallett and wields a chisel, the mortar mixer plans the next two slab sizes and their positioning and the hod carrier becomes the chief catering officer for the all important morning tea ceremony. Over tea the job is admired and critiqued in equal measure, 'Bit too much sand in the grouting, mind how close you get to the wall, remember the rule of three, I told you we'd ordered too much.' Feedback, continuous improvement, learning on the job, accountability.

Back in my office it's time to talk with my team.