Field trips aren’t just for students: Some remodeling companies find organized trips away from the jobsite to be an excellent way to stretch the legs and minds of production staff.
At Titus Built, for instance, a 12-employee design/build company in Wilton, Conn., “a few members of our design, production, and support staff rarely get out to see the finished project or those under way,” says Jeff Titus, general manager. “We periodically take them on tours so they can see first-hand our finished product,” thereby creating “a cohesive image of what we do as a company and how each person’s role plays a part.”
The Titus team also attends seminars and industry events. And recently, production and financial staff visited another remodeling company to review its approach to job costing and estimating.
This past July, Titus set the field trip bar exceptionally high by taking his entire company to the nearby 47-acre campus of the Philip Johnson Glass House, a modernist icon designed by architect Philip Johnson and completed in 1949.
It took a year to get the highly sought-after tickets, but “we were all inspired by the vision and ingenuity of [Johnson’s] modern designs,” says Laura Koellmer, office/marketing assistant. Visiting significant residential buildings “enhances our understanding of design and inspires us to create great architecture.”
