Professional Practice for Interior Designers. Christine M. Piotrowski

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      1 Marilyn has been working very hard for the past nine weeks with a very difficult client, Mr. Norton, owner and developer of a facility for Alzheimer patients. He constantly challenges her suggestions and has already demanded four major changes in the specifications of products and three changes in the equipment plans for the common areas for the facility her firm is designing for his company. His primary argument is that she is overspecifying materials, using “expensive” products when cheaper ones would do—at least as far as he is concerned.“You have not even come close to staying within the budget we discussed at the beginning of this project. I insist that you find something besides that expensive cubicle curtain and drapery fabric and find me a cheaper chair for the dining room,” Mr. Norton exclaims. “It's not that the cubicle curtain and drapery fabric is expensive, but it must meet a certain level of code compliance, which this one does. Less expensive chairs will not hold up to the special needs of the residents who need an armchair,” responds Marilyn. “I don't care about that!” explodes Mr. Norton.

      2 Sandra was hired by Hayden Residential Designs four years ago. She started as an intern and was promoted to designer a year later. Because of her exceptional sales results, she was promoted again just six months ago to senior designer. A month ago, Ms. Mill, the design director, discussed with Sandra some problems that clients had been expressing about Sandra's performance over the past several months. Sandra was told at that time that she needed to correct the attitude that clients complained about. Yesterday another client called the owner, Jim Hayden, and was very angry about some things that Sandra said at a meeting.

      3 Mark made a point of setting and reviewing his goals every three months. He even took a day during a weekend to go through the effort. Yet, Mark felt like he was not getting anywhere. He finally took a long look at what he was doing and his goals and discovered that he started many things to get moving toward his goals, but never seemed to finish up what was needed to fully accomplish them.

      1 1. Covey, 1989, p. 106.

      2 2. Tracy, 2003, p. 7.

      3 3. Canfield et al., 2000, p. 61.

      4 4. Covey, 1989, p. 97.