By Katrina Shedden, Administrative Specialist
When you work for a landscaping company, the assumption by most people is that we must know everything about landscaping, right? I mean why don’t I know what ALL the botanical name of trees are? Or how to install a water feature? Or what in the world is a ‘Gabion Basket’? Albeit not a great excuse, my answer is that I’m an Admin Specialist (aka Practitioner of the Administrative Arts). Like many of us, I didn’t come to BrightView with any prior landscaping knowledge or experience of landscaping. I don’t even have a plant in my house; at least not one of the “living” variety. When an opportunity arose to do some job-shadowing in our estimating department, I jumped at the chance to sit in and learn more about what BrightView does. What started out as just a bunch of lines and shapes on a piece of paper, suddenly became quite clearly TREES, IRRIGATION, PERENNIALS and MULCH! Thus began my curiosity to actually see, in person, exactly how these one-dimensional plans become the incredible landscaping marvels that our BrightView professionals create each and every day.
It wasn’t until a recent GROW meeting at our office with Kate Douglas Kestyn, that I voiced an idea suggesting the opportunity for some of us ‘office folk’ to take an occasional trip to a job site to spend a little time in the field learning first-hand how irrigation is installed and how trees are planted. Then, Kelly Kolpin, our incredible Maintenance Forewoman (yes, that’s a word), chimed in with even more great reasons to make this happen. With some encouragement from Kate, Kelly and I went to work creating an outline of our idea and scheduled a meeting with our Branch Managers, Operations Manager and General Superintendent to pitch the program. Our branch is now spearheading a monthly “Field Trip” initiative, where a team of two office staff members will partner up with a Superintendent for a ½ day of job-shadowing. This will give our office staff an opportunity to learn, up close and personal, about irrigation, trees, shrubs, sod installation, edging, concrete finishing and monuments. Hopefully, we’ll encounter construction of rock walls, where apparently Gabion baskets are sometimes used. See? We’re already learning!
It’s inspiring to work with such an impressive group of incredibly creative colleagues, led by our very forward thinking branch managers (Will Pereira and Chad Gale) who enthusiastically encourage any new idea that promotes the continuous improvement and growth of every individual in our branch. Our General Superintendent, Todd Donnelly, is now developing the Field Trip Schedule, with our first two office staffers already signed up for their first trip in March, weather permitting! I’ve created a short survey to complete after their Field Trip that will help us to gauge the program’s overall value.
I think that in any industry, you can never learn too much. No matter your position in a company, persistent learning can only be an advantage to your professional growth and personal development. I’m honored to facilitate these educational opportunities and excited to keep learning exactly what makes BrightView the best landscaping company in the country.
