Easing into the 'newer normal'

Whether it is day-to-day work or our in-person quarterly gatherings, the Advancement Leadership Team (ALT) has been thinking and talking about the impending start of increased in-person work for months. 

I had the opportunity to tentatively ease into working more in-person this past fall. Kate and I discussed our impressions of what we were experiencing regularly during that time so, as the Office of Advancement prepares to transition from working predominately virtually, we thought we would share reflections on returning to more in-person work from our respective perspectives.

We intentionally did not compare notes.

Kate's reflections

Have you ever done something one way for so long that doing it another way seems impossible? I bet we all thought that way before March 2020, but then, on a dime, everything changed. It feels like now we are easing into a new realm, moving back to having some aspects of our jobs be in person. 

After almost 18 months of fully remote work, Karen and I started discussing her being on campus more in the fall and potentially having some in-person meetings. I must admit I was nervous; we had been doing everything remotely for so long that going back now felt like the new situation. Karen wanted to have some meetings in restaurants and needed reservations. Easy enough; I used to do that all the time. But not so. I called the restaurant and immediately forgot how to make a reservation. The hostess and I shared a good laugh. What that situation taught me was that this transition was going to be bumpy. There were going to be mistakes, and I was going to have to go a little slower than I was used to.

Another example was from a time when one of those meetings was going to be on campus. I wanted to make sure the room was ready for Karen and her guests, so I made my way to campus dressed in my nice clothes and fancy shoes and parked far enough away that I would also be able to get a good walk in (walking through campus was a favourite pastime). I highly recommend not putting yourself in a situation where you might need to walk far in work shoes for the first time in well over a year. I was winded and my shoes were cutting into my feet. When I got home it hurt to walk and I needed band aids.

I share these learning opportunities with you because I want you to know you may feel out of practice, you may get tired after talking to someone in person for 20 minutes, and you may make a mistake or forget how you used to do something in an in-person setting. I want to you know this is okay. Be kind to yourself and others as we are all doing our best to navigate in the new, new-normal.

Karen's reflections

I have told many people that I found the resumption of some in-person advancement work food for the soul, but it was also far more difficult than I ever would have imagined. 

I was nervous. Of course, there were the obvious nerves about increased exposure to COVID-19 through public transit. For my first trip by train to Toronto since late 2019 — remember the train blockades in early 2020 made train travel challenging — I also feared I wouldn’t remember how to pay, or the entire system would have been overhauled and my Presto card would no longer work (Presto is the payment system for Go Trains in Ontario and the subway system in Toronto). While out running other errands, I made my husband, Kelly, stop at the train station on Sunday before my trip so I could confirm the system was the same, check how much money was on my card, and do a walk-through of the station so I would be ready for Wednesday morning. 

I was out of practice. During my first in-person donor meeting on campus, I was out of breath while I walked with donors and campus partners from one location on campus to another while masked. Apparently, I could no longer walk and talk at the same time.

I had entirely new things to maneuver. There was a virtual meeting I wanted to join during a day of in-person meetings. And I didn’t want to just phone into the meeting as I would have done before the pandemic. The amount of energy I spent assessing how to do this in a common space – including whether the subject matter was confidential and, if it was, whether the images of those discussions be as protected as the transcript – was significant. 

I forgot basic things. At the end of an in-person donor meeting in a restaurant, the donor said goodbye and departed. Patrick Deane and I finished our coffee, and then also left the restaurant. Fortunately, we were still in the same building, but we were out the restaurant door before one of us turned to the other and asked, “Did anyone pay?”

I was awkward. Homecoming was my first opportunity to see Advancement colleagues in person and some colleagues hired since the beginning of the pandemic that I had never met in person approached me at various locations throughout Kingston. I am embarrassed to admit I did not immediately recognize some people behind masks and my greetings to “new” colleagues felt strange because we had already worked together virtually for so long. 

Don’t even get me going on my impulse to hug everyone because I was so grateful to see them in person (at least after I recognized who they were), but the awkward moment at the beginning of your in-person encounter when you are trying to silently assess if you should hug, rub elbows, or wave awkwardly from across the room was excruciating. This was hard. 

Overall, my return to some in-person advancement work in the fall demonstrated how challenging this is. I realized how important it will be for us all to accept and acknowledge that challenge, to learn or relearn how to do things, and to laugh at ourselves and embrace the laughter of colleagues when we inevitably get it wrong.  

Because the potential upside is enormous. In our Building a Better Workplace staff surveys, staff identified the opportunity to creatively collaborate and social interactions with colleagues as two areas of in-person work they missed and were compromised the most by working virtually. When our ALT met in person for the first time on Oct. 21, we personally experienced how true that was.

As a bonus, however challenging this first was, we also had fun. We took some pictures that day so you can also see the potential. 

Back to campus this March

The ALT is excited to confirm that our in-person week beginning on March 21 will proceed.

The changes recently announced by the Ontario government will make this in-person week possible. Changes to those plans could still occur, and exactly how the evolving guidelines are implemented will impact what is possible, so our exact plans for meetings larger than 25 people during that week are still to be determined.

As always, virtual options to participate will also be available for anyone who is unable to do so in-person.

Given the evolving public health guidelines, we will also refrain from organizing large social gatherings for this inaugural in-person week.
We can look forward to social aspects being incorporated into in-person weeks in the future but in the meantime, we hope everyone is excited about the prospect of an in-person week the week of March 21. 

Read more about our safe-return to campus.

Remote-first guidelines

The ALTogether Now last week referenced tools that have been in development to support our return to campus. One of these tools is the Remote-First Guidelines.

Our new Remote-First Guidelines outline our practices, provide guidelines for working in-person versus working off-campus, how to manage confidential work while working in-person, and recap our meeting guidelines. 

The Remote-First Guidelines replace the Meeting Guidelines previously released.

We expect these Remote-First Guidelines will continue to evolve as we learn more during our pilot year, so the ALT is counting on all Queen’s Advancement professionals to help build on these. Please speak to any member of the ALT if you have any questions or recommendations.

Next ALT Q&A

The ALT will host its next Q&A session at 11 am on Thursday, Feb. 24.

For those of you that are new to Queen’s Advancement, the rules for these open Q&A sessions are as follows:

• attendance is optional;
• anyone is able to ask any member of the ALT any question on any topic; 
• there will be no pre-set agendas so the Q&A session will last as long as attendees have questions (the optional Zoom meeting already in your calendar is booked for up to 50 minutes). 

We understand that some people may not be comfortable asking their questions out loud in front of the group. If you would prefer to submit your question(s) via an anonymous survey that option is also available. Kate Bearse will manage these anonymous questions and ask them on your behalf at the ALT Q&A. Submitters will not be identified to Kate through the survey.

You are still welcomed and encouraged to personally pose a question(s) at the meeting.

Please consider questions you would like the ALT to answer. We look forward to the discussion, and we will do our best to answer your questions Feb. 24.

Becoming more effective leaders

Advancement professionals with direct reports have now all received their Everything DiSC® 363™ for Leaders profiles. Part of our commitment to leadership development, you will recall that the 363 is designed to give leaders a better understanding of how their colleagues see their leadership behaviour — both strengths and requests — and to get direction on how to become more effective leaders. 
 
The Office of Advancement partnered with The Learning Edge Inc. to ensure the confidentiality of the 363 process. Coaches from The Learning Edge have also now met with all our leaders to review their profiles and consider their professional development plans.

I can personally attest to how my own profile provided instructive insights into how I am perceived and what my raters are looking for from me.

While this initiative is undoubtedly helpful for Advancement leaders, it is also to our collective benefit to continuously develop our leadership team to support the advancement of the mission for Queen’s Advancement. For this reason, I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who participated in this exercise. Thank you to all the leaders who welcomed this feedback. And thank you to everyone who acted as a rater and provided feedback to one or more of our leaders – which is almost 100% of Queen’s Advancement professionals. Feedback has been incorporated into the profiles for each leader and will now be the basis for individual development plans.

Reminder: Office clean up and clean out

On Friday, Feb. 11, a small team went through Summerhill and some teams still have some cleaning up and packing to do. We understand that this can be challenging to pack everything up, but we are so thankful for all the work you are putting into getting Summerhill ready for our hybrid environment.

Please note that all desk drawers and cupboards need to be cleaned out and all garbage disposed of. If you have excess garbage, you can leave the bags in the hallway with the garbage units and PPS will pick these up. Please make sure all items in the offices are boxed up and labelled filing or storage, this helps the moving team know where to put the boxes. Additionally, there is a lot of stuff in some hallways and, if it is left, everything will be thrown out. 

There are ample bankers’ boxes in the front halls of Summerhill East and West Wing with packing tape to label and pens.

Super star alert: We wanted to send a huge thank you to Marnie Girard for the stellar job she has done packing and labelling her office. It is not lost on us that you dealt with 12 bags of garbage and more recycling that can be counted on two hands. Well done!

The deadline to complete this is Friday, Feb. 25. Please scheduling with the following people: Summerhill East - Kate Bearse; Summerhill West - Sarah Blayney-Lew; Old Meds - Kelly Colby.
 

Employee Spotlight

The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of new and existing 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 feature includes:

Zabrina Testa is in the position of Development Office in Queen’s Law. Learn more about Zabrina and their favourite hobbies.

Rosemary Cook is in the position of Development Co-ordinator in Queen’s Health Sciences. Learn more about Rosemary and what they love most about their role. 

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.