The Devil Wears Bootcut

March did not start out as how I would want it.
The 1st working day of March was almost over when my boss decided to inspect the Super Thematic Room we are working on for the quarter.
As he entered the room, he finds the flooring repulsive. He again made the analogy of a person wearing a suit in slippers. He thinks that the wood finish ceramic tiles is not authentic to the 1900's circus theme. We made so much effort in making the walls beautiful but neglecting the floors
I told him, that this is how it looked like in the working drawings, and that the budget only allowed us for a 0.6m x 0.6m ceramic tile.
He wants the floor replaced. He asked me how much the flooring material cost, which is his way of telling me that i have made a 35000php worth of mistake. He feels that the metal works are missing some elements, and that the room lacks something that makes it cohesive.
When I got back in the office, I was made to come up with a mistake list and to include the cost of each project. I came close to a million excluding labor and opportunity loss.
The next day, My boss met me again and tried to clear things with me and my Assistant Manager. He wants us to find the root cause of all these mistakes. He was asking us if he was not clear about his expectations, and how did we disconnect.
I told him about how the project started, that his initial instruction was build it at 1M. We downgraded our design to accommodate the budget keeping the important elements intact, the bleacher arena, stage, and the carousel center. We compromised with the finishes. He asked us, "Does that mean that if its cheap its ugly?"
Well what's beautiful and ugly is very subjective. The ceramic tile might not be authentic but its not ugly.
The next day, we analyzed the root cause for the ugly tile of the circus room. We did the fishbone matrix asking ourselves why to every answer until we exhausted ourselves.
In the end, we concluded 5 major causes.
1. No coordination with the Boss
2. We were boxed on the idea of the 1M budget that we did not push the design
3. We were given limited time to design and look for materials
4. We are afraid to actually approach the Boss.
This only shows the controllable causes.
It took us another day to find solution to these causes.
Actually, we already know the solution but we still went through the reverse process of asking how to every answer until we find the perfect answer.
In the end, we need to coordinate everything with the Boss.
We need to have a scheduled meeting for approval and inspection.
We cannot make assumptions without informing him.
Right now, the work for the room has stopped until we find the flooring material. I'm adding more moulding to make it more cohesive to the classic revival style.
Tomorrow, we need to seek approval for the flooring material.
May the force be with us!