How to build a team culture through annual planning
I think a lot about our business. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise, now, should it? But Formada is constantly on my mind. The financial health of the business, the quality of the services we’re delivering to our clients, our ability to engage new prospects in our sales pipeline — it’s not a constant state of worry, but it is a constant state of awareness.
And if I’ve learned anything from the last six years as a business owner, it’s that none of the above happens in the ideal state if our team isn’t positioned for success.
As leaders in the business, Garrett and I are consistently looking for ways to best support the team and their needs. This, I believe, is how any organization should operate, but it’s especially true for fully remote businesses like ours.
Achieving this means that we’re providing them the right resources, whether that means hardware, software, project-related meetings, or one-on-ones, where we can focus specifically on their goals.
It also means creating opportunities where our entire team can get together in person to discuss the state of the business, our successes, our challenges, and how everyone — separately and collectively — can contribute to our improvement and build a team culture that is sustainable.
This is precisely how we use our annual planning time, and it’s sincerely one of my favorite meetings of the year.
Build a team culture: The Formada approach to annual planning
When we host all-team meetings, we often rent a dedicated space, and the greater Portland area is abundant with venues perfect for meeting, meals, and capturing video and photography.
However, the day prior we had hosted an all-day meeting with one of our favorite clients, and Garrett and I decided that the team deserved something a little cozier, so Nathan and I organized for the team to spend the day in our home.
And while the atmosphere of these meetings matter (we have an activities committee that handles things like refreshments, entertainment, and team swag), the most important thing that Garrett and I need to deliver is a clear message of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going in the future.
In the weeks leading up to the meeting, we put together a deck that gave our day structure and our team the focus we need in order to end the year strong and start 2025 with clear intentions.
Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like.
Revisiting our mission and vision statements
Revisiting mission and vision statements is the perfect way to start an annual planning session, in my opinion.
It doesn’t need to be a drawn out exercise. But reviewing them together sets the tone. It focuses our energy and provides clarity on who we are, why we exist, and where we’re going.
Revisiting our guiding principles
Some organizations have brand values. We have guiding principles. Historically, Formada has operated under the guiding principles of “Transparency, Simplicity, and Autonomy.” These guiding principles served us well.
But when we zoomed out and assessed our business as objectively as we could, we realized that the guiding principle of “Autonomy” wasn’t serving us quite in the way we needed it to any longer.
Does this mean we’re headed into an era of micromanagement? Of course not! What we realized is that the concept of autonomy — both for ourselves and for our clients — already lived under the guiding principle of Simplicity.
What Garrett and I discovered as we were revising our guiding principles is that organizational transparency and simplicity are still very much driving our business, and the third principle driving our business forward is Growth.
Yes, financial growth for our clients and for ourselves, but also:
- Making choices, proactively, that lead to growth
- Coaching, training, and supporting our team
- Championing new services, processes, and opps
- Educating clients so they can take action
Recognizing and celebrating our accomplishments
We don’t like to dwell. I’d like to think that we’re always moving forward. But to build a team culture that’s healthy, winning, and driven, we need to take a moment to celebrate our successes.
2024 has been an incredible year for Formada. Shifting our industry focus to medical, healthcare, and wellness has done wonders for our business, as have things like rethinking our approach to project management and taking an SME-Led approach to client service.
These, and many other accomplishments, have made our business stronger and our products and services more effective.
Recognizing and learning from our challenges
You can’t have one without the other, right? We’re human, and we don’t do everything perfectly. It would be foolish of us to pretend that we do, especially since there are so many lessons to be learned from the experiences, good and bad, we’ve had this year.
And, to be honest, most of them have been really good. But still, things like a cumbersome project management system have been tough, particularly when it comes to project prioritization.
In that same vein, we’ve come to realize that some of our own sales and marketing language isn’t quite as clear as we had intended, so we’re making strides to simplify our message and create better connections, sooner. Live, experiment, and learn.
Providing financial transparency
This is important for the health and growth of every organization. I’ve worked in organizations that were committed to providing their teams financial transparency, and I’ve worked in others where I was given very little insight into the financials. Guess which ones taught me the most about being a business owner?
Garrett and I want our team to understand what’s happening in the business financially, how their work impacts our bottom line, and how we’re using our revenue to invest in the long-term growth of them and the business. It’s not just for our benefit. It’s for theirs, as well. Yes, it’s so we can improve our service delivery, but we’re also doing it in an effort to educate everyone so that they can take greater ownership over their day-to-day contributions in the business.
It’s the transparency that leads to simplicity, which in turn leads to growth.
Painting a clear picture of the coming year
Our 2024 is laying the foundation for the upcoming year, but in order to paint an even clearer picture, Garrett and I created a detailed (though still flexible) roadmap for 2025.
This road map includes our:
- 2025 revenue goal
- Monthly billing goal
- Sales focus
- Service delivery updates
- Internal process refinements
You’ll notice that these goals are kind of like nesting dolls, where each one feeds into the other. In order to succeed, our goals cannot be disparate. Each one is connected to the next, incrementally getting us closer to our bigger, loftier long-term goals.
And so we drilled down even further into these subcategories, but we didn’t stop there. We wanted absolute clarity for the entire team, so we spent the last section of the meeting discussing specific topics that affect the team’s daily tasks and priorities, things like process documentation, reporting, team meetings, and our project management system — all the unsexy but no less important things that keep us running smoothly.
We wanted to know: What works? What doesn’t? And how could it be better? In order to build a team culture that feels heard and understood and excited about doing great work, these frank, open discussions are essential. But these aren’t just discussions. They’re turned into action, where Garrett and I take the team’s feedback and work to improve our internal processes and make Formada an even better place to work.
Build a team culture: Create a space to enjoy each other’s company
After the meeting, we still had two activities ahead of us: An escape room, and dinner. And while I won’t get into the details of the escape room (wouldn’t want to give too much away!), I will tell you this: The level of intelligence and teamwork this group possesses meant that we worked together, solved a billion puzzles, and got out with time to spare.
But what I noticed most was how much genuine fun everyone had together, a sense of community that extended throughout dinner. No one was in a hurry to leave. Everyone was living in the moment and enjoying this thing that we’ve all built together.
It makes me incredibly proud. It tells me that we’re doing something right. And it makes me incredibly excited for the future. Here’s to an incredible 2025!
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