ABSTRACT
NOW THAT WE HAVE ADDRESSED the value creation and value delivery phases of projects, attention turns to how we interact effectively within temporary project environments. Design managers need to be able to build, maintain and develop relationships with designers and constructors. They need the skills to hold honest and open conversations with fellow project participants to enable maximum value to be created and delivered. This is about people trusting the design manager and the design manager behaving in a consistent and professional manner to earn that trust. This is particularly important when projects start to go wrong; people start to behave differently, more senior people become involved, behavior becomes defensive and it is too easy to drift into a blame culture, which is counterproductive. It follows that the design manager must give attention to how people behave in a challenging project environment. Learning to value interactions will be instrumental in helping to deliver design value to the building sponsor, users and society.
