Miscommunication at Work

In my time working for an architecture/engineering firm in Charlotte, I've seen several different versions of one particular type of miscommunication. When coordinating all of the engineering drawings with all of the architectural drawings, one will always find an instance or two where a light is overlapping a vent or pipes run through a doorway... This boils down to a failure to exchange updated drawings between the architect and engineer; one will move a door or a pipe without informing the other. When it is time to plot all of the drawings and send them off to the client or the contractor, you find conflicts between engineering drawings and architectural drawings. Then you have to chase down the people responsible, convince them to fix the problem immediately, listen to them grumble about how little time they have or how it wasn't their fault, and print all the drawings again.

This is the most common manifestation of the social divide between architects and engineers. Their constant need to collaborate on projects only lends itself to scapegoating and general disdain. Bottom line: if you have a personal relationship someone, you're more likely to successfully collaborate on a project.