Forums are small peer-to-peer groups made up of a mix of Members and Partners that meet virtually and in person. The key to the Forum is absolute confidentiality, enabling members to delve into issues ranging from business to personal and receive feedback and support.
Below Members of DLN Forums share conversation topics they’ve found especially illuminating:
“Hiring processes. I had the (unfortunate) occurrence of a lot of turnover in a 12 month period, so I had to develop a vetting, hiring, and onboarding process that was streamlined. We discussed it at a forum and people had their own practices for onboarding and hiring. Everyone benefits from those conversations regardless of firm size or discipline.”
–Laura Bindloss, Nylon Consulting “Forum J”
“We just had a very good forum meeting where Zoe Feldman spoke with us on growing her business. It was a great discussion.”
–Cindy Simes, Simes Studio “Forum G”
“I moderated a conversation on core values. Didn’t get to give in as deep as we would have hoped, but definitely raised some thought provoking issues.”
–Josh Levinson, Artistic Tile “Racquet Forum”
“We’ve had two very good conversations back-to-back lately. One topic was looking at creativity, where it comes from, how to develop the conditions that promote creativity, recognizing barriers to creativity. The other discussion topic was about identifying our personal core values and then examining how our core values can inform/influence our work and the way we run our businesses. As a group we’ve decided to take turns moderating discussions and each time we have a group call that session’s moderator is tasked with choosing the topic and leading the discussion. Those last two topics were from Ruthie Allen and Josh Levinson, respectively.”
–Sam Mitchell “Racquet Forum”
“It became apparent during our monthly check-ins that a lot of us were having problems with speaking to and dealing with new hires and in particular younger (Gen Z) staff members A friend of mine is a university communications professor and we had had conversations on just this topic. I invited her to our group where she gave us a 45 minute lecture on the characteristics of the different generations: how they think about the world and work, what they want, and what motivates them. It was fascinating and everyone found it extremely informative and helpful.”
–Stephen Bernstein “Forum F”
“Generalists versus Specialists. At what point — or state –in the growth of an organization does it make sense (or provide advantages/efficiencies) to bring in employees who have a narrow focus, whether it’s an expeditor (who perhaps doesn’t design) for an interior design firm, a field supervisor (who perhaps can’t design his/her way out of a paper bag) for an architecture firm, a supply chain manager for a manufacturer, etc. Or, given the often volatile and cyclical nature of the design industry, is it better practice to stay with generalists who can run projects from start to finish, regardless of phase?”
–Joan Craig “Better Than 10”
“We have had some incredible discussions around books where we all read the same book and one of us acts as moderator for that meeting. A few of my favorites have been around the books The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck and From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks. We also watched Stutz, a documentary about psychologist Phil Stutz, and read his book called The Tools. So many of the takeaways I got from these discussions continue to influence me well after the sessions have passed.”
–Cari Berg “RAD pac”
“Some things that come up a lot for us: fees and contracts (I don’t know why this is still so much a thing, but I’m not even happy with ours!), marketing and social media , dealing with difficult clients, finding any sort of life balance (I’ve given up!), dealing with employees, and getting out of the business and working ON not in it (eg. Succession)”
–Kati Curtis “Gotham Forum”
“One topic that has been resonating with our group lately has been around legal ramifications and exposure / risk for our firms. We’ve had a pretty consistent conversation around this in our group for the last several months and it has impacted a lot of our firms.”
–James Wheeler “The Guild”
“We recently did a session on our ‘Lifelines,’ which was a lot of fun and very emotional at the same time. The lifeline is a graphical chart with happiest moments in your life up high and your saddest/ worst moments at the lowest. Any memorable moments that have shaped you or are simply memorable moments of your life are intervals. Each member had an hour to share theirs, and then we all hugged each other (we had had a box of tissues going around the entire time, which we joke about now!). It was really really interesting to learn the who, what, and why of everyone’s life. When we do our monthly updates now it puts everything into perspective for us.”
–Rosario Mannino “Forum J”
“The Lifeline exercise was great. It was very emotional and brought us all much closer together.”
–Michelle Trout “Better Than 10”
“We have gone really deep on fee structures which is interesting as our forum draws from all different areas of the country, fee structures chats have led to talks about contracts.”
–Lindsay Anyon Brier “The Guild”
“In our first forum meeting, one participant said they had to leave to terminate an employee who was taking advantage of the firm’s resources and property. Immediately there the whole group asked a series of illuminating questions: if there was to be a witness present, written documentation, a termination agreement for signature, and a series of other questions geared at protecting the owner’s firm.”
–Dana Lyon “Medici Forum”
“One of our great topics was on Clients of the future (in five, ten, and 20 years). We brought in an AD Pro guest speaker for this conversation.”
–Shea Soucie “RAD Pac Forum”
“Death and Taxes. In our forum, we’ve discussed both. We recently lost a very talented and deeply loved senior leader on our team. In my shock and grief, I felt ever so fortunate to be able to turn to two of my forum colleagues who had suffered recent losses. They coached me through both some very practical steps (develop a communication plan and launch it immediately, telling the team, valued partners and clients in immediate succession. Expect that clients, even those who were close to the deceased, will quickly ask “and what’s the plan for my project?”) and some meaningful advice (take a short time for yourself, then find your way back to lead the team even if you don’t feel ready. Mourning together will help.)”
–Joan Craig “Better Than 10”