Featured Guests

Hillary Schlehuber, Senior Associate and Marketing Communications Manager at Lochner
Stefnee Trzpuc, Principal and Operations Leader at BWBR

Summary

In this Synthesis Spotlight, you’ll hear from two intranet champions who are fundamentally reorganizing their firm’s intranet to better support business needs.

Featured Guests

Ellen Bensky, CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours recording features Ellen Bensky, CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects, sharing how their intranet, Newton, supports firmwide learning through Turner Fleischer Academy.

Six years ago, Turner Fleischer recognized it needed a way to accelerate learning in order to bridge knowledge gaps between new graduates and experienced staff.

Three years ago, they launched Newton, their knowledge management platform.

Today, they have a robust firm university program administered through Newton to provide ongoing training and continuing education opportunities.

In this recorded webinar, you’ll learn how Turner Fleischer:

• Accelerates learning in a digital age

• Supports teachers with instructor resources

• Fosters a more collaborative and engaged workforce

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

• Transition to Remote Learning (10:00)

• Using Synthesis to maintain culture and connection in WFH status (37:50)

Featured Guests

Libby Budack, Data Specialist at Schmidt Associates
Matt Richmond, Chief Technology Officer at RCH Studios
Eric Klotz, Principal at ESa

Webinar Summary

In this month’s Office Hours, team members from Schmidt Associates, RCH Studios, and ESa shared how they are using Synthesis to improve information flow across the firm with online forms. 

Schmidt Associates’ Libby Budack shared how they gather internal employee recognition nominations with formstack.

RCH Studios’ Matt Richmond shared how they engage employees in employee & project information maintenance with Microsoft Forms in Office 365.

ESa’s Eric Klotz shared how they use a Smartsheet form to streamline the process of starting up new projects.

In this webinar, you’ll:

• Understand several common business processes that can be automated using online forms

• Learn about a variety of online form technologies that can integrate with Synthesis

• See how forms are displayed on Synthesis

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to three highlights:  

• The Starfish Award Form (10:13)

• Office 365 Forms Tutorial (16:07)

• New Project Request Form (28:28)

Featured Guests

Dawn Moore, Corporate Director of HR at PSC

Webinar Summary

Using their firm’s recent growth as a catalyst for change, Parkhill, Smith & Cooper (PSC) revamped their employee onboarding experience to be more efficient and to connect more deeply with each new team member. 

The new employee onboarding process starts with in-person storytelling on key topics such as firm culture and strategy and continues with just-in-time digital resources hosted on their intranet, RED, throughout the first year.  PSC has successfully onboarded 70+ employees in the new program and is seeing improvements to new employee engagement on and off the intranet.

In this office hours, Dawn Moore, Corporate Director of HR at PSC, takes you behind the scenes of their revamped employee onboarding program. 

You’ll learn how PSC:

• Kicks off employee onboarding with an interactive session using the intranet

• Orients new employees into firm culture and builds community from day one

• Collects feedback from new employees and integrates this into the onboarding process

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

• Onboarding After Red (11:33)

• myPSC Community (17:07)

Featured Guests

Michael Leckman, Principal, Diamond Schmitt
Sam Horton, Administrative Assistant to the Principals, Diamond Schmitt

Ellen Bensky, Principal, CEO, CFO, Turner Fleischer
Peter Frost, Manager - Marketing + Communications, Turner Fleischer 
Marco Marcoccia, Senior Designer/Technologist, Turner Fleischer  

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours featured team members from Diamond Schmitt and Turner Fleischer sharing how they engage their firms in design conversations on their intranets.  

Diamond Schmitt's Michael Leckman and Sam Horton shared how they:

• Brought offline design conversations online  

• Achieved 20% growth in Open and Engagement rates within 6 months

• Use positive reinforcement to mitigate employee fears about this type of sharing  

Turner Fleischer’s Ellen Bensky, Peter Frost, and Marco Marcoccia discussed how they:

• Integrated a new Design Director into the firm

• Changed the conversation to bring design back to the forefront of their work

• Build transparency and understanding through design discussions during a period of change

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

• #DesignMatters Within the Office (14:27)

• Sharing Design Intent (29:18)

Featured Guests

Tony Balistreri, Knowledge Manager, GRAEF 
Shelly VandeWege, Marketing, GMB
Stephanie Eiler, Marketing, GMB

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours features short case studies from GRAEF and GMB, two firms that participated in our Essential Content Review (ECR) Beta program.

Keeping intranet content accurate and current can feel like a daunting task. Following a short introduction of the Essential Content Review (ECR) process by Knowledge Architecture, you will hear how GRAEF’s Knowledge Manager, Tony Balistreri, and GMB’s Intranet Champions, Shelly VandeWege & Stephanie Eiler, adapted this process to meet their needs and create value for their organizations.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how each firm:

• Tactically implemented a regular cadence of ECRs 

• Adjusted Knowledge Architecture’s ECR process to meet their firm’s needs

• Identified gaps and launched intranet improvement projects to meet those gaps

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to three highlights:

• ECRs Then and Now (18:00)

• Discipline Wiki Pages (30:28)

• Q: Do you have any advice for other firms to get started? (46:20)

Featured Guests

Kimberly McVicker, Communications Manager

Webinar Summary

We all know that firm leaders have unique and valuable insights to share with the rest of the organization. This is exactly the kind of content you want to see on your intranet! Yet, many leaders are not confident about what to share, how much to share, or where to share.

Last year, Dewberry set out to change the way firm leaders communicate on their intranet, ID. Over the course of 9 months, they increased the number of firm leaders who post on ID by 33% and realized several unplanned benefits along the way.  

In this webinar, you’ll learn how Dewberry:

• Planned their approach

• Delivered sustainable 1:1 coaching

• Used analytics to reinforce behavior change

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:  

• Prep: Provide Common Topics, Examples, Potential Posts (09:21)

• Lessons Learned and Tips (17:05)