By Bruce Wilson
In property development, the reality is simple: something will go wrong.
Anyone who has worked on a real building understands this. Property development brings together ideas, drawings, consultants, contractors, materials, weather, regulation, and time. Even with experienced teams and careful coordination, projects are beautifully complex human systems.
At BWA, we know that mistakes are an inevitable part of delivering ambitious, commercially relevant projects in the real world. What matters is not whether mistakes occur, but how teams respond when they do.
Excellence is the ambition, and adjustment is part of the process.
The Nature of Mistakes
Most of the errors our clients encounter are visible through technical coordination. A cupboard clashes with a light fitting. A drawing coordination issue appears during construction. These are measurable moments and also the ones most often perceived as “mistakes.”
Other types of errors exist as well. They are harder to see but may also be harder to fix. A communication with council may not land as intended. A decision may be taken a little too early or just too late. A strategic idea may reveal itself to be less effective than originally imagined.
Because architecture is a discipline of judgment and coordination, success and error are always close neighbours. Over time, we have come to believe something quite simple: mistakes are inevitable in serious work. What matters is how they are handled.
How We Respond
At BWA, we approach this difficult reality deliberately and with a clear methodology:
1. Acknowledge the problem transparently
- Scope the problem
- Propose the solution (without defensiveness)
- Maintain project momentum
- And learn from the mistake.
2. Understand the scale of the problem
One of the most useful ways to think about mistakes in the built environment is that their costs grow over time. A one-rand mistake on the drawing board can become a ten-rand mistake on site, leading to a hundred-rand mistake once a building is operational. Equally, even a small issue can sometimes have disproportionate consequences in programme, financing, or coordination. Interrogating the true scale of the issue is therefore essential before reacting.
3. Evaluate the context
Before jumping to a fix, we look at why it happened in the first place. No mistake happens in a vacuum, and we try our best to examine the sequence of events and the specific circumstances that led to the moment. By understanding the context, we ensure that the solution we propose doesn’t inadvertently create a new problem elsewhere in the system.
How We Find a Path to Resolution
Once we understand the scale and context, we follow a simple decision tree to find the most effective way forward:
Is it our mistake? If the error originated with us, the path is clear. We own it, we fix it immediately, and we ensure the project stays on track.
Is it someone else’s mistake? If the error lies elsewhere, we need to take a more careful, investigative approach. We probe where the responsibility lies and how we can contribute to the solution.
This is rarely about blame, but rather about restoring momentum.
Projects are collective efforts involving clients, consultants, contractors, and colleagues. When something goes wrong, the most productive response is almost always to work together to find the most practical solution.
How We Learn From Mistakes
At BWA, one of our internal values is simple: making mistakes is acceptable; failing to learn from them is not.
Every project adds to our experience base, and every challenge should serve as a teaching moment. Knowledge management, internal review, and shared wisdom across the practice exist precisely so that each lesson strengthens the next project. This is how we advance and grow.
Learning from mistakes is also an important step to preventing them.
Experience helps. Systems help. Communication helps.
But the reality remains that construction is a human process, and no system can eliminate every imperfection.
It’s why we prefer to be transparent about something that most experienced clients already understand: complex projects inevitably contain moments of readjustment. The measure of a professional team is not the absence of mistakes. It is the honesty and effectiveness with which those moments are addressed.
In our experience, the best projects are not the ones where nothing ever went wrong. They are the ones where good people worked together to resolve problems quickly and thoughtfully, and where each project left the team slightly wiser than before.
A simple principle holds true: mistakes are part of serious work, but clarity, responsibility, and collaboration must always follow them.