Phil and Pete shook hands as Terry made the introductions. “So, Pete, what you do?” Phil asked. “Tell me about your job.”
Pete took a deep breath and began to detail every challenge, every work-around, all the things that slow him down and all the things he had tried in an attempt to solve the problems himself. Phil chimed in with occasional questions or suggestions, and after five minutes of tech-talk, it was as if the two were old friends. “Wow. Pete, you’ve been holding this whole thing together for quite a while, haven’t you?”
Pete smiled shyly. “I do my best. Everyone here does.”
“Well, you work very hard. We know how much you’ve been dealing with—know that you are appreciated.” Kimberly said it with a smile, and both Terry and Pete laughed.
“That’s something I don’t hear often,” Pete said.
“And I should say it more often, it’s true,” Terry answered.
“We can make this work—this space—but it won’t be great,” Phil said. “If you have something bigger, we wouldn’t need a lot more space to make a big difference. This room can’t even support a couch for screening. You’ll have a screening loveseat at best unless someone wants to move a wall.”
Pete perked up, “Move a wall?”
Terry was quick to answer, “Which might be an option, but we’re leasing the office, so I’m assuming it would be easier to pick a different room.”
“But we might move the wall? Really?” Pete was a little too excited at the prospect.
Phil answered. “Anything’s possible. Let’s see the other spaces. I’d rather get Pete out of the closet than make the closet bigger, if that’s an option.”
The second office option was a rather standard ten foot by fifteen foot rectangle with a door and a window into the hallway. The desk and cupboards could be removed, and with a standing desk in the corner, a large screen mounted to the back wall and a couch next to the door, it would be perfectly adequate for the project.
The third space was an open-concept conference room, twice the size of the second office. “This is my favorite unrealistic dream,” Terry said, gesturing to the room. “There’s no way because we’d have to start by building a wall, which totally changes the feeling of the space and would probably be way too expensive anyway, if we could get it approved by the leasing company. We’re probably going to have to go with the other office.”
Phil’s eyes sparkled. “You don’t have to build a wall. You don’t have to lose your open-concept space. Consider your favorite unrealistic dream completely achievable.” He smiled. “This is perfect…and I have an idea.”