Twin Study
(Note: Best viewed in Landscape Mode.)
Tom and Tim – twins - each bought identical homes in separate-but-equal condominium projects on opposite ends of town. Each project had sixty-eight units, all facing inward toward a central gathering space called “The Commons.” Tom and Tim each paid $350,000. Each sold his identical home four years later. Tom got $375,000. Tim got $400,000.
Why is Tim’s identical home worth $25,000 more?
Nine professionals once met to come up with an answer. This story describes what they discovered.
Meet June and Jane
June and Jane – twins - are special. Each is the kind of person others are naturally drawn to, the kind of person whose own personal beliefs tend to become the shared beliefs of whatever group they’re in. Each also loves taking cruises to distant places, which is probably why each tends to use a cruise-ship analogy when explaining how they believe “the real world” works.
As fate would have it, June and Jane each bought identical homes at identical prices in the same separate-but-equal condominium projects as Tom and Tim, respectively. Naturally, their stories about their condominiums start off the same. Each then charts a separate course.
June and Jane Board Separate Ships
“Moving here was like booking a lengthy cruise on a ship with 68 cabins, only to find a thick binder sitting on the bed, and a letter taped to it saying: ‘Congratulations! Our cruise company now gives you and the other passengers ownership of our cruise company and this ship. This binder tells you how to run the company and an appendix explains how to operate the ship. Bon Voyage!’ Here I’d paid for a cabin, only to find that I now co-own a company and a ship with 67 other passengers I’ve never even met!!”
June Charts One Course
“The Binder gave the 68 of us a place to start. Studying it, we came to understand the business and to embrace its mission of caring for the ship in ways that will enhance its value.
We learned our cabin doors are important. Behind the cabin door, each passenger was the captain of his cabin, with the right to pretty much do as they pleased. Life outside the cabin door was a different matter, a place where each passenger had a specific role to play and specific tasks to complete.
The Binder held the answers to most questions about who was supposed to do what. We created rules that provided answers to questions the Binder didn’t address, and we clearly described what the consequences would be for someone who simply ignored the rules. We elected a board and it governed transparently, so we always knew what they were up to.
Ask any passenger what being on board this ship is like and she’ll tell you we run a tight ship. To keep things that way, we go over the Binder in detail with each new passenger, so they’re on the same page as us about what’s expected of him. Were you to ask me what word best describes how a passenger feels upon boarding this ship, I’d have to say ‘secure.’”
Jane Charts a Different Course
“Learning I co-own this ship with 67 total strangers made me think of an ‘arranged marriage,’ that old custom of uniting strangers in matrimony. My gut told me that the quality of my life during my time on this ship, and our success in caring for this ship, would depend on how well the 68 of us got along. I decided to do whatever it took to create a healthy marriage. Forming strong bonds soon became our shared mission.
We started by sticking those binders under the bed. No marriage license comes with a ‘how to’ binder attached. Instead, we chose as our compass the Golden Rule.
We next did away with believing that our cabin doors were moats that protected us from our shipmates. ‘It’s our ship, and not my cabin, that keeps us afloat,’ is how Tim aptly put it. Of course, we left the 68 doors where they were, but I stopped seeing my cabin door as something to separate me from the others. We came to see the ship as our cabin and its main entry way as the door to this cabin we shared. That drove home to us the simple fact that we were all in the same boat.
The Golden Rule reminded us that each thought, choice and act is a cause set in motion. And it reminded us that we get what we give. I cannot control another passenger; ‘free will’ sees to that. But I can influence someone’s behavior by how I myself behave. My compassionate act stirs another’s compassion and the chain reaction begins.
We eventually found that this current of cause and effect deepens over time, forming norms for how we should treat one another. We also learned that it is generally three times harder for a stubborn passenger to resist the ‘pull’ of a norm than it is to resist the ‘push’ of a rule. And as these norms took hold, our bond grew stronger.
But the biggest surprise was the way we seemed to invent a new faux-title each time a new need emerged. ‘Cook’ now keeps gathering us to break bread together, so friendships deepen. The ‘Justice of the Peace’ now settles minor squabbles that would otherwise escalate into ‘pick-a-side’ battles that could split us in two. (On that particular one, Atticus had to help us change the binder so that it matched the role we’d created.) The ‘Designer’ now cures potential eyesores before the paint goes on. The ‘Caretaker’ - our board - now concentrates on caring for our ship and on safeguarding the money we set aside to pay for the things we need. And the ‘Historian’ now records our still evolving story to share with new passengers, so they too can feel a part of the experiences that have brought us to where we are right now. Were you to ask me what word best describes how a passenger feels as she reaches for our entry way door, I’d have to say ‘happy.’”
Sarah Decides to Buy
“Before deciding what to buy, I looked at both units, Tom’s and Tim’s. The units themselves were actually identical. The only real difference I could tell between the two condos was the feeling I’d get as I walked into The Commons of each. At Tom’s condo, I felt like I was walking onto the campus of a small, private college. And at Tim’s condo, I felt a little like I was walking into the locker room from Ted Lasso. Tim’s condo just felt more like home to me, so I ultimately decided to buy the unit that Tim was selling.”
