3 Reasons Why a Single Point of Contact is Vital for Designers Part 3

Last week we continued to look at why having a single point of contact (SPOC) for a project is so vital. In part 2 we understand that it helps to ensure that the right changes are made for projects, rather than chaos.

Following is the last reason SPOCs are so important for designers.

3. It empowers responsible decision-making.

The more people on a project, the more disseminated the responsibility. Committees handle issues differently than individuals because there’s less ownership in groups. Think a moment about how group property is managed as a opposed to personal property. For example, which tend to be cleaner — public or private bathrooms? Need I say more?

As a result committees tend to make poor creative decisions. They are good at gathering information, working on a problem, and recommending possible solutions. But they don’t function well in creative decision-making. Why? Because group dynamics, strong personalities, competing agendas, and conflict avoidance produce tepid results.

Having a SPOC doesn’t solve poor committee decisions, but it helps interpret problems identified by committees. Often, if the SPOC is savvy enough, they will realize that committee creative recommendations are best handled by the designer. However, their recommendations are based on serious issues that the designer needs to solve satisfactorily and still meet the objectives.

Photo courtesy David Castillo Dominici of freedigitalphotos.net