Interior Designer Resources Directory :: Interior Design Article

Ethics Is Not Just A Choice

For most of us, making a living as design professionals is probably not something we come by out of sheer necessity. It's something we chose to do for what ever the reasons or circumstance. Yet despite attempts to do it with high standards or practice, we can drift away from the highest levels of professional performance. And when we do, it is often an issue related to ethics.

We don't have to travel very far from our door step to find all sorts of individuals that we once trusted, organizations we donated time and money to or companies we supported by purchasing their products apparently committing acts that violate those public standards of loyalty, honesty and fairness.

In the global picture, ethics is all about values and the choices we make. It is the reasons people give for acting in a certain way. It is about innocence and guilt, right and wrong and what it means to live a good or a bad life. It is about the dilemmas of life, death, sex, business, science, religion and money. And when we study ethics ever further, we explore the core virtues and vices of society.

For those of us who make interior design and architecture a career, ethics plays a significant role. The capabilities to shape the built environment, the motives behind our pursuits and our conduct as design professionals are inseparable from the rules of ethics. By the practice of our profession, we are ethically and some might say morally obligated to our clients and to the end users, to our vendors and suppliers, to our peers and to the public.

Ethics expects us to act responsibly in all our dealings with others, to perform in good faith when executing our designs, to provide counsel or services to clients without prejudice and to specify and provide the proper and appropriate materials and products to our customers.

Ethics requires that we trust the man on the street, to take him at face value, to be trustworthy with family, friends and co-workers. In return, to expect that we shall be trusted in the same and equal manner.

Ethics demands that we be loyal and supportive, to be honest and open when making decisions that affect the lives of others and to be fair and balanced when having to make tough choices, choices that may not necessarily be in our own best self-interest but in the best interest of the majority.

Ethics expects us to practice beyond just the golden rule,… Do unto others in just the same way we would want to be done unto without hidden agendas and everything out on the table in full view.

But in a complex world, we can slip. We discover situations that are not as black nor white but in a shade of “grey”. Sometimes it is important to re-examine and re-explore what we know about ethics and what we believe.

In practical terms, choosing to practice a high standard of ethics can offer two things: •First its helps to understand and appreciate the choices others make; to evaluate the justification they give when making certain choices. •Second, it sharpens our awareness of what we believe and provides a conscious examination of the values and choices that guide our personal and professional lives.

In this day and age where the public’s knowledge of current events are often shaped by the media, all of us in the design community need to be more vigilante than ever to maintain a high standard of excellence, in order to shape and re-shape the public’s opinion about the design profession.

It in necessary to build a higher trust in the minds of the consumer and clients. As state after state adds a title or practice act governing interior design, there is an obligation by law to serve the welfare of the public. Ethics is no different an obligation.

But each day of work presents new obligations that require us to re-consider our ethical beliefs.

––Can a design professional really assist a client in evaluating alternative designs or potential solutions and remain totally objective?

–––When the designer specifies, supplies and purchases product, are we able to set aside the need for profit in order to come to the best decision?

–––Can we resolve a dispute fairly and equitably with a contractor who consistently provides us with referrals of projects and revenue?

–––Are we able to bring other team players into our projects without creating hidden agendas ?

–––Should we take into account a project’s impact on the natural environment when the client has no desire to address it themselves?

When it comes to questions like these, making choices about what is the "best" or "right" solution requires more than sound technical knowledge and strong design talent. It demands a solid understanding of the ethical issues that lie at the heart of interiors practice.

• First is an ethical obligation to the client: to be objective, honest, trustworthy but also to establish a clear scope of services based on the job criteria, clearly defined in a written letter of agreement outlining the services to be rendered and compensation to be charged.

• There are ethical responsibilities to our peers, to other interior designers and colleagues. This means not taking credit for work completed by others nor say something that unjustly injures a designer’s reputation or business

• There are obligations to the profession. These include maintaining standards of personal and professional conduct and encouraging, sharing and upgrading the knowledge and information among our peers, other disciplines, industry and the public.

• There is a responsibility to our employers including not taking drawings, data, reports, notes, client lists nor any other confidential information without written permission.

• The codes of ethics requires its members to comply with all laws, regulations and codes and at all times consider the health, safety and well being of the public.

Daily decisions we make in the course of our projects have a range of other ethical issues embedded within them and they can’t be ignored.

• Business Choices ( marketing, deciding on which projects to take on, which clients to work with. • Design deliberations and considerations ( establishing the criteria of the work, addressing function, aesthetics, concepts and budgets.) • Interactions with Clients, suppliers and contractors (honoring commitments and contracts, fairness, trust and proper consultations. • Establishing the Contracts ( equitable conditions, providing value for compensation charged, mutual respect and duties. • Public information ( who has the right to know and be advised about projects; who has input to design. ) • Staff development and recognition ( giving credit where credit is due. ) • Business Organization ( sound use of resources, creating successful business environments.

The designer’s responsibility is to effectively mesh all of these diverse pieces into the highest and best design that effectively answers the needs of the client while securing a successful design practice for its principals.

So what are the most common design practices that can slip us up?

1. No contract or a poorly written letter of agreement; 2.` Undisclosed compensation; 3. Claiming special knowledge or experience; 4. Using copyrighted material or designs.

But according to Alan Siegel, Esq, the legal counsel for ASID, “Communication is a key tool to overcome what might be potential ethical violations. Clients who can’t or don’t comprehend the diverse parts to a project cannot image all the tasks involved in specifying the interiors, getting it ordered, shipped, delivered and set up.”

So good communications with the client, augmented with effective listening and supported with accountability can take the sting out of any potential conflicts and affirm relationships between designer and client.

So now we have had have a deeper understanding of how ethics fits into the interiors practice. But where do we go from here when we are faced with issues that may affect our practice?

The first thing that you can do is to be pro-active. Set a company standard for ethical practices. Recognize that ethics is a major player in what we do.

Designers handle a lot of diverse constantly changing assignments and priorities, wear a variety of hats, assess evolving job conditions and assign responsibilities between clients, contractors and vendors. With so mucg going on, it can be easy to slip up. So the design principals, owners and business managers should establish ethical norms that all other team members are to follow.

Norms can be as simple as just setting down during business discussions and staff meetings defining how ethics plays a role in taking certain kinds of work or client projects. It can be reviewed in a company’s strategic planning meetings. It is a great idea to create a one page company policy that defines such scenarios, that staff members sign agreeing to abide by a code of ethics such as those of ASID and IIDA and that determines the consequences for any violations.

Most ethics issues are pretty much black and white. But what happens when you fall into that shady area of grey… when it’s just not so clear.

Here are some guidelines to follow: The first is: It’s All Ethics. There should be no double standard between what you do in your personal life and what you do in your business life. What guides you personally is what should guide you professionally.

The second guideline is a simple one. It is The “Pillow Talk” Principle. Always perform your work in an honest, fair and trustworthy fashion so that when you lay your head down on the pillow at night, you have nothing to be ashamed of nor worry about the next morning.

The third guideline is called, “Oh How I Hate To See My Name In Print” If you are doing something in the practice of your profession that if discovered you would not want to see in the headlines of the paper, that’s probably a good guideline that you have a potential ethical violation on your hands.

The fourth standard is simple, too: The Butterfly Test. It is what it feels like to be doing something you don’t have a full faith or conviction in. You get a certain butterfly feeling in your gut. And should you do gives you a case of “butterflys,” perhaps you shouldn’t be doing it.

The fifth standard is simple. If something you did were to get out, Would You Want My Mom To Know. Call it Mom’s law. Call it drive-by guilt. Call it what ever you want but when you might have to stand up to mom and look at her in the eye, you should feel good about the things you’ve done.

The last guideline is “The Platinum Standard.” It’s a step above the golden rule. You remember the gold one…. do unto others? The platinum standard says to do unto others better than they treat you. It means to go the second mile for a client. It means keeping your promises even if it hurts occasionally.

Ethics is a practice and a policy. Its a belief and to be believed in. It will allow you to feel good about what you’ve done in the past, feel great about what you do today and feel excellent about what is yet to come.

Ethics is not a law by some government or commission. Laws constitute only the minimum standards of performance, the smallest amount we can get by with. Ethics steps well beyond the law of man. It is the laws of mankind. .

When we became designers, it was a choice and desire to make things better. And now today, more than ever, choosing anything less than a total commitment to a high standard of ethics is a violation of the core element of a successful interiors practice. Ethics makes it better for all.

Michael A. Thomas, FASID, CAPS The DESIGN Collective Group, Inc. Michael A. Thomas is the president of The DESIGN Collective Group, Inc., a multi-faceted design/build firm in Jupiter, FL with special interest in resort residential design/build projects. Holding memberships in ASID, NAHB and NKBA, Michael is a licensed interior designer in Florida, has passed the NCIDQ and is a “Certified Aging In Place” specialist. His varied passions include creating safe, healthy, practical environments to the study of Frank Lloyd Wright to facilitating numerous peer-to-peer workshops on such subjects as ethics, time and business management. Michael is a dedicated volunteer, joining ASID in 1983, He has been an ASID Chapter President, CST Chair, chapter strategic planning counselor and currently Chair of the Council on Aging In Place. In 2004 he was honored by ASID with the designation of Fellow of the Society. Michael’s work has been published in many magazines and newspapers, has written numerous articles about the profession and in October, 2004, was the cover and feature story for Interiors + Sources Magazine. Contact Info: Michael A. Thomas, FASID, CAPS The DESIGN Collective Group, Inc. 337 East Indiantown Road Showroom E-16 Jupiter, Florida 33477 V 561.745 . 4146 F 561.745 . 0361 Email: Michael@DesignCollectiveGroup.com