EP 195 | Building a Strong Interior Design Team Culture with 3877

How do you build a compassionate, high-performing interior design business during challenging times?

In this episode, Kimberley Seldon speaks with business partners Dave Shove-Brown and Dave Tracz of 3877 about leadership, workplace culture, and creating an award-winning team environment through transparency, accountability, and trust.

Strong leadership is about more than managing projects — it’s about creating a culture where team members feel empowered, valued, and motivated to contribute. Dave and Dave share practical insights on communication, hiring, collaboration, and the realities of managing interpersonal dynamics within a growing creative business.

In this episode, we learn:
• Why transparency helps foster autonomy and accountability within a team
• How understanding the stakes helps team members contribute more effectively
• Why encouraging every employee to develop expertise builds stronger businesses
• How shared responsibility strengthens workplace culture and collaboration
• Why business owners cannot avoid managing interpersonal relationships
• How informal meetings during hiring help assess cultural fit
• Why corporate culture depends on personality dynamics, environment, and innovation
• How strong leadership creates healthier and more resilient interior design businesses

Design Intervention

Always read the newspaper. In other words, be knowledgeable about the world around you, beyond the weather and politics, so that you can carry on a deeper, more meaningful conversation with a total stranger. By doing this, you will be engaged and present and not focused on only making a sale.

About David Tracz and David Shove-Brown

In the fall of 2010, close friends David Tracz and David Shove-Brown began the process of realizing their decade-old dream of forming a professional architecture and design partnership. With over two decades of experience, the duo developed goals of not only working with clients interested in the design process but also teaming with partners who can help provide the highest levels of design, construction and presentation. After months of planning and development, Washington, D.C.-based //3877 was born.

//3877 is a multi-disciplinary architecture and design firm specializing in restaurant, hospitality, single-family, multi-unit residential, and commercial projects. The award-winning firm has been featured on the Washington Business Journal’s ‘Best Places to Work’ list for three consecutive years, and in 2020, became the first Washington D.C. design firm to become B Corp Certified.

www.3877.design

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