Compensation

We invite Brick & Wonder Pro and Council members to join us in person in New York City for a Roundtable on the topic: Compensation.

Compensation plays a critical role in shaping an organization’s culture and success. In this Roundtable, we invite members to share their approaches to setting compensation, the challenges they’ve faced, and their success stories.

Sales & Selling

We invite Pro and Council members to join us for a Roundtable on the topic: Sales & Selling.

Pithy sales wisdom abounds. CRM tools are everywhere. Yet neither gets us far when it comes to the delicate dance of sales and selling.

Survival and growth in business depend on sales and selling, but, for many, the process is exhausting, emotionally fraught, and a distraction from the satisfaction of doing the work we’re required to sell.

Growth & Culture

We invite Pro and Council members to join us in person in New York City for a Roundtable on the topic: Growth & Culture.

Goal Setting

We invite Pro and Council members to join us an Austin roundtable on Goal Setting.

Goal setting is crucial for translating vision into achievement, but it requires continuous effort and adaptation. In this Roundtable, we’ll explore effective strategies for setting and pursuing goals, and listen to the group’s varied perspectives and experiences with goal setting.

Goal Setting

We invite Pro and Council members to join us for global roundtables on Goal Setting for 2025.

Goal setting is crucial for translating vision into achievement, but it requires continuous effort and adaptation. In this Roundtable, we’ll explore effective strategies for setting and pursuing goals, and listen to the group’s varied perspectives and experiences with goal setting.

Hiring & Firing

Whether hiring for growth, for a niche skillset, for diversity, or for a new strategic initiative, the process can be time-consuming and even overwhelming.

For small businesses (and especially for service providers) knowing the right time to hire, and making time to get the process right is a difficult balancing act, but one that has the potential to yield transformative results over time.

In this discussion, we’ll hear from our seasoned co-leaders as they share insights gleaned across hiring markets and different geographies, with companies big and small. We’ll reveal some of the common pitfalls with recruitment (and firing), and some of the tools and techniques that can accelerate the processes and improve outcomes.

Hiring & Firing

Whether hiring for growth, for a niche skillset, for diversity, or for a new strategic initiative, the process can be time-consuming and even overwhelming.

For small businesses (and especially for service providers) knowing the right time to hire, and making time to get the process right is a difficult balancing act, but one that has the potential to yield transformative results over time.

In this discussion, we’ll hear from our seasoned co-leaders as they share insights gleaned across hiring markets and different geographies, with companies big and small. We’ll reveal some of the common pitfalls with recruitment (and firing), and some of the tools and techniques that can accelerate the processes and improve outcomes.

Joy

Joy can often lead to better project outcomes, and it can certainly lead to a more satisfying work process. It’s alternative, a joyless slog up an unscalable mountain, seldom leads to lasting success.

In this roundtable, titled Joy, we will explore the role of joy in creating highly-motivated teams and successful projects.

We’ll discuss strategies and insights for fostering a supportive, inclusive, and positive workplace, and the role of leadership in setting the tone for a joyful work environment.

Building People, Building Teams

How to you ensure your employees are on a continuous growth curve that shows you are invested in their career and professional success?

How to you motivate and reward employees who provide training, skill development and coaching to junior team members?

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss strategies and insights for internal workforce training and development.

The Specialist vs. The Generalist

Most are familiar with the adage “jack of all trades, master of none, ” and you’ve likely debated the pitfalls of specialization or generalization in your business and personal skill set.

Whether project types, services offered, or clients cultivated, it can be hard to choose between perfecting your niche or expanding your offerings.

In this Roundtable, we’ll explore how real estate and design rewards and punishes specialization, generalization, and the area in between.

Why Should Anyone Follow You?

Designing and communicating a compelling vision for your company is an essential aspect of entrepreneurship.

How do we convince other people to put their faith in us, work hard for and with us, and stick around the the going gets tough?

How do we inspire the people we lead to do their best work, and to believe in our plan for where we’re going and how we intend to get there?

Seeding Innovation

We invite Brick & Wonder Pro and Council members to join us in San Francisco for our Roundtable titled Seeding Innovation. 

Innovation in the ways we work, and in the products and services we produce creates opportunity. Yet innovation is an ongoing proposition – it’s not enough just to innovate once. In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss approaches to seeding innovation in your field and nurturing the capability to innovate in your teams – even among the consultants you hire.

Mentors and Mentees

We invite Brick & Wonder Pro and Council members to join us for a Roundtable on Mentors and Mentees. 

Do you have a mentor? Do you have a mentee who looks to you for guidance?

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss the nuances of mentor/mentee relationships and the value of both having a role model and being one to others.

Making Great Decisions

How do you make critical decisions? Do you use a values-based decision-making framework, or another framework to check your instincts?

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss strategies and insights on how to make better decisions and ease decision fatigue.

How to Handle Client Relationship Breakdowns

Though we enter new client engagements with energy, enthusiasm, and high hopes for what the future holds, the reality of realizing any built project is that it places stress on the clients, the project collaborators, and on the original vision for the project.

We are wise to counsel clients (before we engage!) that there will be ups and downs, and that this process can often be additive, though it seldom feels like it at the time.

Many projects survive or even flourish in the crucible of getting the work done. Others, for a variety of reasons, do not.

The Power of Collaboration

We’re delighted to welcome Brick & Wonder members and select guests to our inaugural London Roundtable, generously hosted by Brick & Wonder member firm, Hayes Davidson.

Intuitively, we know that we go further together. Collaboration may help us do better work, and it can even increase the joy in the work we do, but in the crucible of doing our best work, things can sometimes get heated…

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss strategies and insights for developing and sustaining collaborations that unlock new opportunities in business growth.

The Sustainable Building Imperative

The built environment contributes up to 42% of global carbon emissions. These emissions take the form of embodied carbon needed to build and repair buildings, and the operational carbon that buildings consume to stay warm or cool, connected, and productive.

As professionals designing and building the places people live, work, and play, we are both part of the problem and part of the solution.

This Roundtable will explore the imperative to build better, more sustainable buildings. Our lives and the future of life on our planet depend on it.

Forging a Team of Leaders

The Power of Collaboration

Intuitively, we know that we go further together. Collaboration may help us do better work, and it can even increase the joy in the work we do, but in the crucible of doing our best work, things can sometimes get heated…

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss strategies and insights for developing and sustaining collaborations that unlock new opportunities in business growth.

Performance Under Pressure

Entrepreneurship, leadership, and management all create great stress and pressure on those who lead, but we don’t always succeed in managing these moments well.

In this Roundtable, we’ll discuss strategies and insights for navigating intense workplace pressure, avoiding failure, and supporting those we lead and manage to do the same.

Intelligent Risk

Risk is an essential dimension in business (and life!), but it can be the making or undoing of businesses, ideas, partnerships, projects, and teams.

How do you manage and take risks in your business? What are the qualities or factors you weigh in taking risks? What is the course you are plotting with the risks you’re taking?

We invite Brick & Wonder Pro and Council members to join us in Austin for a Roundtable on Intelligent Risk.