What is a THEME you may ask? Instead of running our business year to year or quarter to quarter with a random list of 300 things to do, we pick one over-arching focus around which all our team focuses activities and results.
This year (August to July) our over arching focus is "BUILDING FOR GROWTH." Then we break the year into 3-4 THEMES. Themes are an energizing way to rally the troops and get everyone focused on the same page by reducing our strategic plan to a single-minded focus. It starts with a simple question, "What is the biggest opportunity or challenge facing our business, and how are we going to address it?"
A typical Costless theme consists of:
1. A fun THEME
2. A core focus based off our Current Year Strategic Plan
3. Decorations, Score Boards and Key Performance Indicators KPI's
4. Celebration and FUN at the end.
Here is our current theme 01/12-03/12 :
1. Theme - SESAME STREET
2. Core Focus - It's all about LEARNING
3. Score Boards in each department showcasing the top 3 most important KPI's we want to improve + lots of Sesame Street decorations and even an Elmo waffle maker for the kitchen!!
4. Celebrate with a Beer, Pizza and LASER TAG party!!
Ernie crashed our Theme Roll Out Meeting. He gave everyone rubber duckies.
Even Cookie Monster is involved in our theme and has taken a permanent position in our front office as the new Director of First Impressions.
A tradition at our TROM - "Theme Roll Out Meetings" is our Banner Brain Storming. The question was "what things do you want to learn during this theme? It is an incredibly valuable exercise during each TROM that has uncovered some really great ideas. Our staff holds the keys to our success with all their experience and wisdom - they have fun writing down their ideas.
Hope you enjoy seeing a bit about our THEMES.
Cheers,
Calvin
