The Unified Group held its Annual Meeting and Owners' Forum November 8th - 12th in Santa Fe, NM.  Guest Speaker Carla Fugit from Platinum Business Strategies kicked off the meeting and spoke to the group about Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team; absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.  She gave the group ideas and examples of how to work through each of these dysfunctions within their workplace to create a better team environment and to  enhance productivity throughout the organization.  Bobby Grimes of A&G Piping said “The highlight of the day for me was learning about setting rules of engagement and conflict norms as well as setting meeting agendas and staying consistent with meeting days and times.”

James Sandoval of J&J Air Conditioning facilitated a discussion on Alignment in a Mobile Environment where he shared what J&J does to keep connected to their team.  Many members chimed in to share what they are doing to keep their service techs and office aligned.  Paul Gosserand of CMC Corporate Solutions shared how they are holding people accountable; their team has accountability conversations to stay moving forward and on the same page.   “We all seem to have the same issues.  I like the discussion on the different ways each company handles these problems.”   Alan Knowlton Noyes Air Conditioning 

Shane and Melissa Dick from Atlas Consulting and Accounting spent a half day on Friday with the group.   They presented The Unified Group benchmark, trends that they are seeing within the group, KPI’s and what to measure and members shared what they are measuring weekly/monthly and why it has made an impact.  They also facilitated discussion around safekeeping of assets and shared some internal controls that business owners should have in place to help them sleep at night ie. Reviewing bank statements carefully, background checks, solid internal controls.  It’s important to understand that every company is vulnerable for fraud.  It’s not IF it happens, it’s when and how much it will cost you.   "It is great to be reminded of the necessity to always be protecting your assets and to learn some of the do’s and dont’s.” Ryan Jorgensen, Mechanical Service & Systems

On our final day together Tyler Jeffrey of Air Comfort Corporation presented information on differentiators and marketing to the group.  Marketing is the process of deciding WHO you want to talk to, WHAT you want to say, and HOW you say it. We then had breakout groups to solve each attendees biggest challenge followed by John Hobbes from Midstate Energy discussing Finding the Zone; Keeping Motivated which is tough to do sometimes. "The best part of the meeting for me are the relationships that are built. All of the members are of outstanding character and the meetings strengthen the relationships." Paul Gosserand, CMC Corporate Solutions

Throughout the session best ideas that members have implemented over the past year were shared so that others could learn and benefit from them.  We finished off the session with a Unified Business discussion including business opportunities shared among the group and how to leverage more of them, working with purchasing partners and the success members have had, training sessions from 2017 and the offerings for 2018. "It is valuable to collaborate with colleagues, sharing struggles and wins. This makes us all stronger.”  Jim Blauch, Blauch Brothers, Inc.

J&J Air Conditioning was presented with our 2017 Making the Difference Award!  This award is given to a member company each year who embodies The Unified Group’s core goals of assisting the membership in growing their businesses and improving their bottom line profits, raising the level of excellence in the HVAC industry, providing members with the opportunity for continued improvement in all aspects of their businesses.

Special thanks to our task force who worked hard to plan a very successful meeting; Chris Schaff, Air Controls, James Sandoval, J&J Air Conditioning, Paul Gosserand,  CMC Corporate Solutions and John Hobbes, Midstate Energy!