Toolbox Talks Workshops

As part of our internal training and upskilling process, Ellie Smith, Senior Design Manager, has been seconded from the London Office to our Cape Town office. Ellie has been with Plan A for over five years, is part of our Technical Group, and brings significant project experience.

Over the last few months, we’ve implemented monthly Toolbox Talks workshops for our team in Cape Town. Each session focuses on a key tool we use or a challenge we face as design managers. Run as interactive workshops, these have been valuable opportunities to consolidate lessons learned and apply those insights to improve our tools.

To date our sessions have focused on:

1. RFI’s – Raising an RFI and effectively tracking closure, where answers may not be able to be provided quickly.
2. EWN’s – How to write an effective Early Warning Notice, tips for getting these to land well, and steps for following up and mitigating the risks raised in EWNs.
3. Deliverables – Protecting the team through a thorough deliverables list, and reporting on progress to help the team get paid.

Over the next few months, we are planning on having sessions on managing client decisions, reading the contract to highlight early risks and design freezes.

Discussions held in these workshops so far have been incredibly valuable, and a great way to tackle big topics in a digestible format.