Last month, I wrote about the design team’s commitment to making a profit on each job. This month is a very special month for the team — the time to come together and look back at the year’s performance, and to look forward to next year’s performance.
Each November, I’d have a team meeting to do just that. We’d meet in a conference room for about three hours and discuss what we knew and what we projected/forecasted for the upcoming year. There were several reasons why I did this, beginning with the group learning there needed to be a business plan and each year’s plan should update what had been documented in the past. This, along with getting all members to participate in developing our business goals for the upcoming year, was very important to me. I wanted to achieve “buy-in” from all participants so that this would be our team plan and not just my plan.