Q. How can you unearth
underlying concerns?
We have a monthly meeting
with all of our staff to get
everyone on a videoconference from all the offices. We
ask people who are involved
in our different market sectors
to talk about the new work
they are pursuing or work that
we have been awarded.
That level of communication
addresses a fundamental
issue, which is, ‘Do we have
work coming in and what is it,
and does it sound like something I want to do?’
What we do is I turn the mic
to people in each one of our
offices; I say, ‘Jim, give us an
update on what your studio is
doing in Orlando. Dan in
California, what are you guys
working on?’
It’s effective when it’s not
just the president of a firm but
many voices are communicating. That’s really important for
companies to have multiple
voices communicating single
messages of what’s going on.
Q. How do you get buy-in?
The buy-in starts by the asking. Every time we do a new
strategic plan or update our
strategic plan, we conduct
internal surveys.
We invite people at many different levels to participate. We
try to get a number of voices
that contributed to the effort so
that they are not feeling left out
and not part of the process.
You build a plan that’s communicated well by first asking
people what’s on their mind,
what’s their pulse, what’s their
sense of the market? What’s
going on in their part of the
business or part of your
organization?
As it emerges, it may not be
exactly what everyone wants
to do because it can’t meet all
needs, but at least they felt
like their voice has been heard
and that they’ve had an opportunity to help shape it.
HOW TO REACH: Morris Architects, (713) 622-1180 or www.morrisarchitects.com