Who’s the Boss? Who is next in line behind the Boss? Do department Managers have equal authority across the board? Who makes recommendations, and where do those recommendations go? When and how do suggestions, policy changes or recommendations get considered for decisions? Then, who decides?
That web of organizational structure can wrap itself around an outside contractor – such as your Interior Design team – and compromise everything from simple initial choices and decisions all the way to negatively influencing the desired turn-key date! It can make your contractor want to run for the hills!
Understanding a commercial client’s “organizational chart” is more significant and important (to the Interior design considerations) than one might initially think. Department heads, managers and assistants take their roles very seriously, and consider the condition of their Interior environments to extend to and influence that area’s “personality!” Making changes? Re-designing? Changing traffic patterns? Count them in on the ideation and planning, or be prepared for possible turf wars!
Believe it or not, it can bring serious problems into the path of your Interior design project if your designer and team are not informed concerning your “in-house pecking order.”
In the beginning stages of planning your Interior design when there are divisions, departments and levels of authority, it is an excellent investment of time and money to paint the whole picture. Remember, your Interior design team will be coordinating the areas of design from multiple angles.
There will be very specific considerations where adjoining spaces are contiguous in their design factors, and others where they adjoin unlike functions and involve unlike design considerations. To create a harmonious final result, area to area, the function within the space is as important a consideration as are the aesthetic design choices that will enhance function. Most of all, the individuals in charge of each “department” know it best.
Will they be empowered to participate, opinionate and make choices?
Your Interior designer needs to know who manages the buck, and where the buck stops. Time spent trying to determine where authority lies, to what degree and with what assurance, is wasted time and money. Your Interior designer does not need (or want) to become enmeshed in company turf wars!
At the front end, in the negotiation stages, your Interior designer will want to know – clearly – who is authorized to authorize what. Once given authority from your designee, your Interior designer is off and running, placing orders, scheduling deliveries and moving on to the next challenge. If the wrong individual gives the wrong green light… well you can imagine how upsetting and expensive that can get!
Make it clear between yourself and your staff leadership exactly what part you are authorizing them to handle: color schemes, equipment preferences, floor plan and traffic patterns? Do as much clarifying between yourself and your leadership team as possible before you inform your contractor.
Then, of course, comes the toughest part! Can you cleanly (and with trust) delegate? Or, do you really plan to micro-manage? That is another one of your Interior designer’s pet headaches! There is a decision…but not really! Let’s forget about the part where the department manager who was given authority learns they really were not; that’s their internal matter. The part that is trouble is the part where your Interior designer cannot move forward until you deal with your own authority issues!
It helps to know the pecking order, yes; but please be sure it is wrinkle-free when you transfer authorization information to your Interior designer. The best friends of any project are efficiency, economy, accuracy and compliance! They are best served when the paths are clear!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
