267: Making Your Company a Classroom

Ellen Bensky, Principal, CEO, and CFO at Turner Fleischer Architects, joins us for episode 267 of Art of Construction and the first episode of our series recorded live At Digital Built Week Americas 2022. Ellen and many of her Turner Fleischer team members were at Digital Built Week sharing their story. One of their talks, the topic of this podcast, was titled: Who is Responsible for Learning and Teaching and How is it Accomplished? Its description reads: "Graduating can no longer be the proverbial line-in-the-sand where formal learning ends and practical experience takes over. Examining an industry amid a total disruption, the question must be asked: who is responsible for teaching and learning after formal education ends?" In our first episode with Turner Fleischer back in 2019, we discussed how, as a mid-sized firm, they leveraged their workforce to focus on research and development, despite the human resource and financial concerns that accompany this choice. Much of this revolves around their "TF Academy," a series of courses taught and attended by their employees that cover a range of topics. Since we last spoke, Turner Fleischer has grown their firm by over 100 new team members, a fact we think symbolizes a giant victory for their business strategies and philosophies around constant, active learning. While many struggled with employee development during Covid, Turner Fleischer thrived! Join Devon and Ellen as they discuss the glory of being back in person at Digital Built Week, the core values of Turner Fleischer that allowed their firm to achieve massive growth, how and why small and medium sized construction businesses should foster an active learning environment for their employees, why ROI can't always be measured in dollars and cents, and what it means to master knowledge and data amid an industry facing total disruption.