Building the Team that Fits

​It is important to build a team that best fits the project needs.  Your professional designer will look at the project needs from several angles when selecting the specialists who will be bringing the job in, on time and as you envisioned it.
 
Of course, skill levels and experience are highest on the list of qualifications.  However, those features alone will not insure a place on a team.   That’s the key word: team.
 
When your Certified Interior Designer is also your Project Coordinator, he or she will be screening the future participants on your project for many other qualities and aspects of experience aside from their specific skill focus.  Individual characteristics, habits and reputation will be very important considerations.

It takes a well-selected, fine-tuned team to bring a successful project into balance and harmony!

​Most professionals have experience and relationships with sub- contractors with whom they have worked on specific projects, in a variety of venues.   It is important to know the individuals who will be coming together for a common goal, and who will be working in the client’s personal space. 
 
Team members must have mutual respect for each other, as well as for the client, in several important ways.  For instance: the value of time, accessibility, appropriate personal habits, dependability, follow-through, and insights on complex scheduling that involves the entire team.
 
When a team meeting is needed and scheduled, the participators invest time, travel, energy and preparation.  Depending on circumstances, those factors quantify variably.   Excepting genuine emergencies, the capricious absence of even one team member may disrupt, delay and compromise an entire meeting – its purpose, goals and progress.  When a team member is difficult to reach, is unresponsive to typical messaging, i.e., voice mail, email, etc., they may be keeping important aspects of project progress “on hold,” unnecessarily.  The client’s investment suffers.
 
Often, these patterns are an indication that the individual may not be up-to-speed with their part of the work.  Staying out of meetings and out of touch can be a sign that a contractor is over-extended, may have taken on more work than they can deliver (possibly with multiple clients), and can’t keep up.
 
Many times, project contractors are working adjacent to the client’s business customers, employees or family members. Poor personal habits and un-professional behavior by one team member can reflect on all.  It can run the range from excessive offensive language to simple poor hygiene or drinking on the job. 
 
Sometimes, a slot needs to be filled with a choice that is an unknown quantity.  That’s when your designer’s network with the industry can be of help.  Within most venues there are referral networks, formal and informal, where professionals depend upon each other’s connections and experience when assembling a project team that includes unfamiliar parties.
 
When assembling your project’s team, it is smart to rely on your professional designer to assemble the right mix of quality team members.   When you as the client have contractors in mind that you know and trust, introduce them to your designer.   Your designer will gladly consider (and usually accept) your recommendations -- when the skill-set fits the need.