Publishers’ Letter – Winter 2022

New Year’s Resolutions

Building your own design-build team and improving or starting your lighting game plan.

WILDLY IMPORTANT GOALS (OR WIGs) are the few, critically important goals that are vital to an organization’s continued growth and relevancy. If every other area of your operation remained at its current level of performance, what are the one or two areas where change would have the greatest impact? Despite this mindset, WIGs get neglected because of an organization’s focus on the urgencies of the day.

Here are two WIGs we think design-build professionals might consider for 2022:
Building your own design-build team in 2022 and improving or starting your lighting game plan. The first WIG is pretty easy to do. Simply reach out to the other trades in your area and introduce yourself. Have coffee together. Often, design-build teams have a common purpose or design goals – performance homes, conservation remodels, wellness architecture, etc. So look for shared interests and common collaborative ideas which your team can present to prospective clients.

Getting your lighting game on involves several steps, depending on what your trade and profession is: technology designers are embracing lighting design and control, whereas architects, builders and designers benefit from advanced lighting design and the ambiance the category provides. Please take a moment to read Mike Libman’s Final Thoughts that wraps up this issue as he outlines the next steps in the maturation process of this incredible discipline. Everyone has a role to play.

To increase the likelihood of achieving your WIGs your team has to discuss whether the goals are realistic and does the return justify the effort. You’ll need to collaborate and discuss what you’re saying ‘yes’ to, and equally important, what you are saying ‘no’ to.

You have to define your goals with enough clarity and be able to outline your approach, as well as discuss how you will measure your results. Use a visual scoreboard so anyone at a glance can see if the team is winning or losing.

Involve everyone. Regardless of any team members direct involvement, ensure that every team member understands how they might contribute and how they can be a resource if called upon. Meet and plan and lead recurring meetings to evaluate the goals and performance metrics. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

And celebrate! When you knock one out of the park, take the team to dinner. And then get back into your planning mode and ask yourself again, “If every other area of your operation remained at its current level of performance, what are the one or two areas where change would have the greatest impact?”