spends her life on conference calls. And so then I got sequestered out to the living room and after about three days wondered why my back hurt because I was using a laptop and my coffee table. And so, you try to find the best workspace and for me, it was coming in and getting out of the office and being able to say, you know what, I'm going to do my work, and then I'm going to go home and get out of work. So for us, those were big steps and it's working for us. I don't know that it would work for everybody. I don't know that it will work all the time. But we also have really put forward the notion of open communication. We share just about everything with the employee. The only thing people don't know is each other's salaries. Everything else is an open book. So you want to know what we made last year. You want to know what this project is earning. Do you want to know what the schedule is? All of those things are open information, so for us, we believe that that fosters open communication. I had those days over the last several years. So I was like, you know what, I can't function. I need to get on my bike. I'm taking tomorrow off to get on my bike and clear my head. And people go, okay, cool, do it. We got you. That's the kind of atmosphere that we've created, which has really helped with those things.
Randy Wilburn [25:17] I love you saying that. Mark Zweig has been touting open-book management for years. I can remember in the 90s when it was almost heretical to mention that in some circles, but now you see more and more design firms embracing open-book management and just really being transparent with the whole team so that there aren't any surprises and everybody feels like they're part of the solution?
David Shove-Brown [25:44] Not only that if you don't have all the information you can't properly function, right? We worked for those firms that they said, okay, we want you to be more profitable. And you'd say, okay, well, what are we charging for the project, or how much time have you allocated? And they’d go, oh, I can't tell you. I know what the rules of the game are so I don't know how to compete. And so now, it works twofold. We can say, okay, here's the schedule, here's the proposal. Now, here's what we're spending money on so that we can say, yeah, we're going to have a better holiday party, or we're giving X more in bonuses and raises this year, or whatever it is so that everybody goes, yeah, okay, we're all in this together. And they're going to turn around and give us more money at the end of the year if we're profitable. I’m in.
Randy Wilburn [26:34] There's nothing like that. When you're able to do that, that level of transparency I think is so important for a thriving and growing organization. Any
Made with FlippingBook Annual report