Challenge & Selection   Part of my role as Program Partnership Development Specialist includes developing tools and processes  to create operational efficiency throughout our team. My team is comprised of 5 managers, 1 senior  manager, 7 staff members and 3 interns. We seem to have issues adopting and committing to new  processes or tools for accomplishment reporting. Our work requires various forms of reporting to  various audiences through multiple media, such as internal reports to leadership, newsletters to  external partners, public social media posts, program advertisements to university faculty and students,  etc.

As a corporate requirement, teams meet weekly to discuss updates, project progress, accomplishments,  any risks or issues, and current work. I decided to utilize this corporate reporting tool as the main source  for our accomplishment content. However, we were not receiving the type of relevant information we  typically need, or team members were not reporting accomplishments at all.

In order to best determine the path forward for our team, I decided to use the Visualization tool to  create a flow chart to map out the flow of our inputs, activities and outputs to present to the team.  Creating a flow chart allowed me to list all the existing tools, meetings, reporting mechanisms, and  communications products we currently have, and how they are all connected. My team is comprised of  mostly analytical members, so I hoped that seeing this flow visually would assist them in understanding  the importance of each tool and its usage.

Application  I started to create the information flow by first listing our communications products and reporting  requirements. These included items such as newsletters, Annual Collaboration Reports, press releases,  management assurance reports, etc. From there, I listed our current sources of information, or inputs. I  organized these into high-level categories, such as information from researchers, outcomes of on- campus events, and engagements with other programs. I broke those inputs down further to show the  specific sources where we gather this information. I added our mechanisms (or tools) for how we collect  this information and because our program has members that fulfill multiple roles across teams, I  highlighted the area where high-level tasks lie, and marked specific actions those members would take  for reporting purposes. I then added arrows to connect all these pieces together to create the actual

flow. Finally, I added the activity through which that tool is used, such as meetings or actions a specific  team member takes to share information.

Figure 1. Information Flow. Specific information removed for example/ sharing purposes.

Insight  Through applying the Visualization tool to address my challenge, I realized the problem I was trying to  address was not accurate and that my goal needed to be adjusted. Instead of creating a new process or  tool, I needed to convince my team members to begin to use each tool that already exists in a unique  way, and rely on all members of the team to report within their own role, which cut down on duplicate  requests for information and data calls. This also streamlined the way our Communications team  collects accomplishment information to use for our reporting products.

This was the first time I have used a tool like this in this capacity. Of course, I’ve drawn on white boards  during meetings to solve a problem or provide clarity to team members, but I haven’t ever exerted this  much effort to understand all working parts that feed into a challenge or issue. Generally, my team will  jump into making changes to our processes or tools as a quick fix. By using this tool, I was able to  address the challenge and determine a path forward that didn’t require any extra work on anyone on  the team, rather just a shift in operations.

Approach  When I presented this to my team, they received it well. However, they did ask for additional charts  breaking down the different pieces of the flow (inputs, outputs and mechanisms) and an explanation of  their function and purpose in relation to our program as a whole. I plan to continue using visualization  tools in the future to address challenges, but I would prefer to work these charts out as a team rather  than individually. Although I enjoyed gaining an understanding of the big picture, I believe this would  serve as a great collaborative tool and the entire team could benefit from the activity as well.

