Charting a course for the future

The scale of digital transformation taking place across all sectors, including our own, continues by leaps and bounds.  As mentioned in previous newsletters, the Office of Advancement retained a consultant to develop a technology roadmap to ensure that we are positioned to consider the adoption of contemporary technology going forward.  The primary recommendation to pursue a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool for Advancement timed well with the ongoing work being carried out by the Office of the Chief Information Officer in pursuing an enterprise CRM for the university.  I am pleased to report that the first formal meeting between our two teams took place recently to discuss document sharing and requirement gathering.  While this does not foreshadow a specific outcome at this point, there is a clear path forward to better understand the needs of Advancement in terms of its critical technology requirements. 

With change will come both challenges and opportunity.  I want to thank Rachel Deir for leading us off today with a report on a workshop she organized for her staff on thriving in a change-rich remote environment.

Forming new habits - together

By Rachel Deir

As we approach the second anniversary of remote work and begin our Remote Work Arrangement pilot, I wanted to find ways to support the ITM team and set them up for success. What strategies could we adopt to structure our days to feel productive and energized while making progress against core initiatives? I assessed my workday and surveyed ITM to gather data on how people were fairing in the current work environment. Not surprisingly, the challenges within ITM are consistent with what we’re reading about in other organizations. Some individuals feel overburdened with too many meetings, while others crave more interactions with colleagues. The remote environment has led to increased levels of distraction/disruption, making the need for focus time critical. And there often appears to be more work than time, yet work-life balance must remain a priority. The feedback was clear: new habits are needed to thrive in our new hybrid environment. 

In December, ITM brought in Doug Heidebrecht from ManagingMe to provide a virtual workshop that focused on priority mapping, minimizing distractions, and incorporating self-care into our routines. The goal was to find ways to “lighten the backpack” and explore approaches to leave people feeling energized with a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. 

The workshop was highly interactive, and Doug was a thoughtful and empathic facilitator. He allowed us to share our challenges and provided us with practical, easy-to-use tools and tactics to incorporate into our routines. There was no magic solution, but rather a series of small techniques to help us form healthier habits and be more intentional with our time. 

Feedback from the session was positive, and the ITM team has committed to leveraging strategies that will help improve our day-to-day, specifically:

• Taking the time to organize ourselves and identify top priorities
• Establishing priority maps and using them as a communication tool with your manager
• Scheduling deep focus time, where distractions are eliminated
• Recharging the brain to stay energized, positive, and resilient
• Finding ways to have meaningful interactions with each other and stay connected

Our goal is to learn from one another and form new habits that maximize the benefits of the remote experience. It will take time to adopt new routines and see what sticks – but we will take it one day at a time, together. 

Advancement Data Challenge

By Patrick Galloway

The second-annual Advancement Data Challenge is quickly approaching (April 2022), and we are excited to meet the new data superstars stepping up to showcase their talent this year. For those of you new to Advancement, this challenge provides colleagues from across Advancement an opportunity to share a five-minute presentation on how they use data to drive decision-making. Individual and cross-departmental initiatives are strongly encouraged. Check out the details from last year for an overview of the challenge

If you are interested in signalling your interest, register by Wednesday, Feb. 3. If you have questions about the challenge, please feel free to reach out to Patrick Galloway. 

Office hours

Before the holiday break, a number of us who utilized office space in Summerhill and Old Meds took the opportunity to remove personal items from these areas.  Informed by the outcomes of the Remote Work Arrangement process, this represented a concrete step forward in supporting our aspirations for a hybrid work environment through the Building a Better Workplace initiative.  For me, the activity brought home the reality that our remote workspaces will become a more permanent extension of our program delivery, much in the same way these spaces supported our successes over last two years. 

Our use of Teams and Zoom has certainly given us a window into the variety of remote spaces utilized by staff – and they are all different.  In thinking about your remote space, what changes might you consider to make it the best it can be to support your work?  A new shelf here or there, remove some clutter below the camera-line (me!), a splash of paint perhaps, and even unpacking the boxes from your activity before the break.  All good.   

ALT recognizes the time it takes to not only consider these changes, but to actually do them.  With that in mind, we are delighted to declare Monday, Jan. 31 Remote Office Improvement day!  Please use these office hours to complete some improvements that are meaningful to you.  And, if you feel like sharing your before and after, please feel free to post to the Advancement Teams channel. We’d love to see what you accomplished no matter how big or small.      

Return to campus update - Action required

You may recall that we had to put some of the housekeeping matters on hold back in December. It is now time to turn our attention to finishing what we started and preparing our physical space to test our hybrid working environment. 

• Teams are asked to schedule a time between now and Feb. 11 to go in with a group of up to five people (or up to 10 people after Jan. 31) to start cleaning out your office space. This includes personal items, desks, filing cabinets and hard drives.
• Scheduling can be done with the following individuals:
  • Summerhill East - Kate Bearse
  • Summerhill West - Sarah Blayney-Lew
  • Old Meds - Kelly Colby

Shredding bins and/or boxes, bankers boxes, markers, and painters tape (for labelling) will be available for everyone. Of course, if you have any questions or need anything else, please do not hesitate to reach out to one of the three contacts above.

Employee Spotlight

The Employee spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new staff by profiling responses they share through a fun and informal survey that will help us get to know them better. Be sure to review these profiles and use these fun facts and tidbits to find commonalities, embrace differences and spark a conversation.

This week's spotlight is: Corrine Beckner.

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote the vacancies below with your networks and let’s find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and résumé) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on this posting, please reach out to either Carla Ferreira Rodrigues or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.