#552 navy or taupe

Since our budget is in good shape this year, a mid-year renovation project was just approved.  It involves a substantial amount of carpet in a prominent area so the choice of pattern was an important decision to be made.  But who decides what carpet is laid in a public thoroughfare in a building?

The flooring company representative had one opinion based upon the popularity of one color trend; the facilities person had another point of view based upon maintenance, the marketing folks had yet another perspective as it related to extension of campus identity and branding, and the user in closest proximity to the project added yet another view.  

In this case, we gathered two vice presidents and five directors to make a recommendation to our president.  Fortunately it was very amicable and the choice was finalized in under 15 minutes, but the human costs still add up.  I am a huge advocate of having all these voices heard, yet we agreed that such a process could be streamlined for future projects.

So we are going to take the time to create a context under which future decisions can be made by those most impacted.  Instead of having unspoken parameters and a history of independent decisions, we are going to develop a sample board that outlines the color palette that can be used for paints, materials and carpeting.   With such guidelines, we won't need our designer at every meeting where decor is decided, senior administration can stay out of it and we can give those closest to the project more latitude and input.

Is there something in your organization that could use a boost of up front clarification to keep you out of the details later?  Sometimes investing time in the beginning saves much more time in the long run. 

-- beth triplett
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