Last week we were all very excited to welcome Lisa Brochu, Associate Director of NAI, for a day and a half of company-wide training. Interpretation is at the core of what we do every day, so we wanted the Interpretation Guru (which Lisa insisted she was not, but we all know she is) to come in and tell us how to do it better.

We asked her to come and train everyone on how to effectively apply the principles of interpretation to interpretive planning, design, project management, marketing, and even fabrication. Lisa was the perfect person to bring in for this, as she has extensive experience in many different areas, including marketing and client relationships. She also provided valuable insight into what our clients want and what frustrates them.

As one of TSI’s three interpretive planners, I was allowed to sit in on all of her training sessions. She provided plenty of question/answer time, and it was great to be able to ask her questions that we have been discussing internally for a long time. I learned a ton, but the most beneficial part for me was when she reviewed some of our past interpretive plans and provided feedback. I was relieved to hear that we are doing a good job, and also very interested in the recommendations she made. She brought a fresh perspective on our processes and we will definitely be implementing some of the things she suggested in future interpretive planning projects.

Have you had any great training experiences lately? If you had the chance to pick someone’s brain for a day and a half, who would it be?