Picking up a copy of the FT while travelling back from Asia last week, I was struck by the notion of the editor. To secure the front and back pages, and inside cover with an announcement that our system and markets need to change deeply resonated with me.

I have long been the custodian of my own beliefs that we need to do better, and real estate has always appealed to me as the perfect place to do it. Our industry, and the skilled people, trades and professionals who work in it, are the owners of such influence in socioeconomics.

In that FT article the editor tells us we have done a good job exploiting resources and creating huge distrust in the time since the global financial crisis. How do we compensate? Well, in my mind it’s not difficult at all. We are called to arms by being good facilitators of sound practice, with high degrees of moral responsibility.

What does that mean in simple terms? It means being a decent, normal person. Respecting our fellow people, considering the environment, our colleagues, associates as equals. We’re really no different, risk management comes from the balance of trust and control, and creating a system of well balanced, open, communicative people will solve many of our problems through the simplest of methods…intuition.

Self awareness, collective development and communication, apply to this great industry of real estate, and what do we have? A solution. I believe this makes work a better place to be for us all, it produces better solutions for our customers, better relationships with our suppliers, and better outcomes for the environment. Who’s in?