Gangplank shared office space synergy
My very first “real” tennis racquet was Synergy from Prince. With that oversized, topspin-strung piece of equipment, I could topple more skilled players with my athleticism, overcome more athletic opponents with my topspin forehand and outreach all but the most talented shot placers. That racquet, combined with my desire to improve, made for a pairing far greater than we’d ever have being apart. From that moment on, now a half a lifetime ago, synergy has been my favorite word.
The idea that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts repeated itself over and over. Sometimes my basketball team would execute a perfect fast break, other times my journalism class would produce an issue far better than any of us had thought possible before; but it wasn’t until I discovered Gangplank in Arizona that I understood exactly what it took to achieve synergy.
Synergy requires collaboration. It’s not something that can be achieved through traditional trade (either goods, services or money) and certainly isn’t possible via unfriendly competition. True, lasting collaboration that changes lives is only possible when both sides gain and grow from the experience.
At Gangplank, headquartered in Chandler, AZ, collaboration is part of daily life. The HQ itself provides space for anywhere from 7-15 companies — from freelancers to small businesses of up to 8-10 — and charges no rent. Funded through a private-public partnership with the city and founders Jade Meskill and Derek Neighbors (whose company Integrum works out of the space), Gangplank wouldn’t work unless everyone worked together.
In the past three years, Gangplankers have helped run city programs, offered space for religious groups, produced world-class tech events, hosted networking parties, constructed slingshots, live-streamed Microsoft events and built companies and products from scratch.
But there’s no set system or framework facilitating such things, each person simply speaks up when they overhear something worth doing. Need staff to work an out-of-town event on short notice? That’s how I started working with EventDay. Want a write-up on a small, but complicated, healthcare piece? That’s how I partnered with Marketing Press.
There are no NDAs, few secrets and zero soundproof enclosures at Gangplank; true collaboration requires openness. While I couldn’t take any Gangplankers with me when I moved away from AZ and to Portland, that same mentality has opened up doors faster than possible through traditional business means.
Good things happen when people and groups don’t worry about who gets credit.
(Hello! I’m new here, and excited to be writing about collaboration and cooperation here at Coop.org. Above is my audition piece that got me the gig, and serves as a background of sorts for who I am and what I’ve been up to. If you have any questions, ideas, story pitches, criticism, grants, kind words, mean comments or just want to talk, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be writing Tuesdays and Fridays from today on. Thanks for reading.)
