Adam Teterus joined Alex Hillman to discuss Indy Hall’s move into a new home.  They talked about choices and priorities, and evaluating pros and cons.

Timeline

The odds were that no place would be move in ready within their price point.  Renovations were going to be needed. This started to put their timeline at risk.

When starting out, most people invite a timeline.  Unfortunately, there were outside constraints that applied to Indy Hall.  Their lease is expiring so the new space needs to be ready for them. In addition to the outside constraints, they applied a constraint on themselves.  This constraint being that they wanted to stay in the same neighborhood.

Size and Location

The new location was still around the 10,000 square feet.  However, not all square feet are equal. There are a lot of things can be attributed to it such as location and layout.  The layout affects the functionality of the space. When a space is laid out a certain way, there are structural limitations to how much you can do.  On the other hand, a space you can build from the ground up allows you to make decisions on how flexible an area can be.

When restarting, you can take what was learned from previous experiences and apply it to the new space.  There is a certain advantage that comes with being wrong and learning from it. Alex and Adam learned about how valuable constraints are.  As they move, they have made the constraint more malleable.

Community

It is not about implementing what everyone wants, but understanding what people want and getting a sense of their priorities.  Once you get a good sense of these, you can use the community to inform the decision making process.

However, keep your community’s expectations in check.  Invite people into the process but make sure they know it is not a vote.  It is suggestions and recommendations, not a guarantee. Decision making should be based on core values that have already been expressed.  

When people do not understand the priorities of the community, culture falls apart.  It is important to make sure everyone understands what page they are on.