Working with friends

We are busy. For the first time, four of us, very close friends, are working together on a web design project. Let’s just say…it hasn’t been a smooth ride…at all. Working with friends is not exactly a stroll through the park, even though to me it was always the ultimate work position to be in. It turns out, working together takes some adjustments.

To start with, coordinating our latest summer plans is not exactly the same as coordinating client files. It takes a little bit of a different maneuver. It is like swimming crawl vs. freestyle. Crawl will get you there twice as fast, but the creative side of the team only does freestyle…usually backstrokes… occassionally a breaststroke…they move with the flow and amazingly they always get to the finish line…a little bit delayed…but still there — with all the client files and pages in perfect order, smiling.

In turn, I, standing alone on the logistics side, had to learn to slow down my lawyerly crawl. I was gently advised to relax and let the freestyling creative side of the team maneuver the project in their own "no stress allowed" ways. I am still in the adjustment phase while the freestyle reigns the project :)

While I am adjusting, the project is coming to an end. The website is looking great, and even more importantly, we come out of this "you don’t know what you are doing" experience knowing how to do it better the next time around. The launch is scheduled for May, and with the Harlem skies finally turning from weeks of rain to sunshine, things are starting to look up, in all respects.