Building Bridges

EnVision at 27: Part 2 of 9

Posted on by Irene Stern Frielich

EnVision turned 27 in November 2025.

In celebration, over a series of posts, I am sharing 3 examples for each of 3 factors in each of 3 areas (3 x 3 x 3 = 27!). The areas are: what led to success, what I wish I’d known, and what’s next.

Last month, I shared three examples about Success Factor #1: Building and maintaining relationships. This month, I am sharing another success factor.

SUCCESS FACTOR #2: Bracing for and Embracing the Slow Times

EnVision has weathered recessions in 2001, 2007-2009 (which coincided with my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment), and 2020 as well as many periods of economic uncertainty, including this year. They come, they go. Sometimes they leave us changed. I’m always nervous about them, and I keep moving forward.

I’d like to share some of the strategies that helped us work through these tough and uncertain periods:

1. BUILD AND REIMAGINE: I’ve embraced and even enjoyed the challenge of creating new services to fill our clients’ needs in the difficult times.

  • When our client didn’t have the budget for hiring us to create essential courses, we developed our custom Mentoring services, helping the client to become self-reliant. We also created the BRIDGE Solution® in which we work with the client’s content expert who collects and organizes the material and then we apply instructional design principles to their work.
  • When Covid hit, we learned the intricacies of Zoom and Microsoft Teams and developed our EnVisioning Virtually workshop to support trainers in creating and delivering engaging courses in the virtual environment.
  • We recently started offering an Instructional Design Bootcamp for Emergency Managers, filling a need that might otherwise be left unmet.

2. BE AGILE: I’ve set up EnVision to be agile, and thus able to provide our clients with excellent value. If they don’t need a full-service solution, that’s great! We have become expert at fitting in where our client needs us most, often working as part of their team. Recognizing that each client has varying capacity and capability, we aim to round out their team as works best for the situation.

3. UPSKILL: When things are, um, “quieter,” we use those times to upskill. Is there a new (or older) technology we’ve been meaning to learn and incorporate into our offering? Can we improve our skill or speed at something we already do pretty well? There’s so much to learn as technology advances with the speed of light. The truth is, we should always be upskilling. However, the quieter times are the ideal times to further enhance our skills.

Sometimes it’s hard not to get discouraged when uncertainty surrounds us. But together, we can get through an awful lot of challenges. Keep in mind that, while some of the new services I shared helped us through those uncertain times, they’ve become mainstays of our work even in the busy times. Our long-time clients regularly ask for our Mentoring or BRIDGE Solution® services—or some of our other non-traditional offerings.

How do you use the quieter times to reimagine yourself?

Coming next for attributes contributing to EnVision’s success:

  • Keeping up with changing technology