Empowering the Team Through circles

By Kate Hutchinson

At Barefoot, we are continuously striving to improve the quality of our practice to ensure that our work best serves our clients and the communities in which we work. A core contributor to achieving this ambition is ensuring every team member feels empowered to contribute to the development of the practice! We value the unique perspectives and varied experiences that everyone brings to the table, and so practice improvement is facilitated through regular forums in groups we call the ‘circles’.

To foster discussion and development within the practice, we use two key formats: the Barefoot "Circles" and weekly team reviews.

The Barefoot Circles

Every team member is involved in setting goals within one of five “circles,” or areas of the practice; design, community, systems, management, and marketing. This approach empowers team members to take the lead on improving an area that is important to them and contribute to the strategic improvement and direction of the practice. We work in small groups to define and achieve circle goals, reviewing them with the whole team on a quarterly basis.

For example, the current quarterly goal of the Community Circle is to review and refine our methods of communicating fees with our clients to make them as clear and accessible as possible, ensuring transparency.

Reflection and Learning

We regularly reflect on our weekly successes and challenges during our team end-of-the-week reviews with a craft beer or San Pellegrino! During these reviews, team members take it in turns to share current projects, seek input on design challenges, or showcase recently completed projects. This allows everyone to contribute to design projects and celebrate successes. Our clients are able to benefit from the collective expertise of the team and fresh perspectives, which result in more creative and innovative design solutions.

During reviews, each member of the Barefoot team shares a key learning from the week, with the aim of improving the way we work moving forward.

Impact on Our Clients

These forums are aimed at enhancing our clients' experiences, fostering stronger relationships and better project outcomes.

One recent learning from Barefoot Circles and Thriday Reviews led to the development of the Barefoot Project Portal. The use of this shared online project folder provides a more inclusive design process, allowing clients to provide real-time feedback and be more actively involved in the development of their projects at all work stages, whilst also enabling other members of the design team to collaborate more easily and directly. Clients benefit from a more personalised and responsive service, tailored to their specific requirements and preferences.

You can read more about the Project Portal in Will's recent blog post