Operational systems make or break landscaping companies. You can have pretty marketing materials, an expert sales team, even talented horticulturalists out in the field: you can't scale up successfully without operational systems in place to guide your team as they complete the work.

We're just nine days away from our Field Trip at Landscape Workshop in Birmingham, AL on June 11-12, and there may not be a better company to learn operational systems from in the country. Due in large part to the systems they have in place, they've successfully scaled up and integrated their acquisition targets. I'm excited they've agreed to share their secret sauce with all of our attendees when we're at their facility later this month. 

Their team has a relatively simple philosophy they consider when they create their systems. Here's what it is:

Define "Good"
Setting expectations is the first step to success: your team needs to understand where the goalposts are if we expect them to score. 

Make Performance Transparent
Teams need to know and understand how they're doing, and it's vital that this information is communicated in an easy-to-understand way. 

Close the Feedback Loop
The team must have what it needs to be successful and then be accountable for that success. If a change needs to be made, or if they've done a good job, that needs to be clear. 

Constant Improvement
Teams should generate, prioritize, and implement improvements to stay on the cutting edge. Systematically getting better is critical.

The Landscape Workshop team will go into more detail on each of these steps, the specific ways they execute them for their teams, and will even share the 13 steps their crews follow on each maintenance visit. You don't grow to $140M without the right systems in place: not too many, and not too little. That's what they'll be showing us how to do. Will we see you there?

As you examine your role this week, I challenge you to make sure you have a plan to address each of these four areas yourself. It's always best to start by looking in the mirror and asking:

• What do I have control of where I could set clearer expectations?
• How can I make the metrics we're following easier for others to understand?
• Are we holding everyone, including ourselves, accountable to doing what we said we would?
• How can we get better?

Start there, and I know you'll have a great week ahead. I hope to see you in Birmingham on June 11-12!

Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.