Federation of Master Builders
Representative member voice captured. Governance informed. The feedback loop closed over time.
The FMB needed to understand what members genuinely thought about how the organisation was run, and it needed findings the Board could trust enough to act on. What followed informed governance, then shaped how the organisation onboarded members, closed the loop, and built stronger connection over time.
The question they came with
The FMB National Board wanted to know how members felt about the running of the organisation and the Board election process. The challenge was not simply to gather opinion, but to hear from a broad enough spread of members, across regions and business types, for the findings to be representative and actionable.
What they needed: member sentiment that was representative, not self-selecting.
What they wanted to avoid: findings too broad to use and too cautious to trust.
What happened
Q&R designed a ten-question independent programme distributed across the membership through FMB Magazine and member newsletters. To reach members who would not respond in writing, Q&R also completed 250 telephone interviews across a randomised sample of the membership.
The programme combined quantitative data with qualitative written comments, then analysed the results by region and member type. The Board received a full reporting package, a debrief session, and consultancy advice on what to do with the findings, not just what the findings were.
The outcome
Representative response across all levels of membership. 250 telephone surveys completed. Regional and member-type differences mapped. Ideas for evolving governance captured.
What Changed Because of It
The immediate result was better evidence for Board-level decisions. The FMB could see not just what members thought in aggregate, but how sentiment differed by region and member type, and where governance questions needed closer attention.
The longer-term significance is what Brian Berry names most clearly. Over time, what Q&R surfaced helped the FMB evolve how it onboarded members, how it closed the feedback loop, and how it built genuine connection across the organisation. That is the real shift: representative listening turned into operational change.
Proof Back
Members were told what had been heard and where action would follow. Over time, that loop became part of how the relationship between the FMB and its membership worked.
That matters. When members can see that feedback leads somewhere, the next conversation is easier, and so is the one after that.
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