Collaboratory executive priorities
From The Collaboratory
Priorities for Organizational Development
- Cultivate joy in our work
- While the work of the kingdom of God requires significant commitment and sacrifice on the part of Christ's followers, when we submit our lives to Jesus' cause and care we are promised that we will receive far more than we could ever give (Matt. 6.33; 10.39; 11.28-30: 13.44-46), and that the joy of the Lord will give us strength (Neh. 8.10). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit and therefore a mark of a fruitful Christian life, a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in us (Gal. 5.22). Because we are aware that joy must be nurtured in order to be a part of our everyday experience as Christ’s approved workers, this year we will be providing a series of Monday night meetings focusing solely on facets of joyful Christian service in practice.
- Implement Member Achievement Portfolio (MAP)
- MAP is an instrument created by the Collaborator’s Information Management (IM) Team that will allow our organization to record and track member participation in order to facilitate greater accountability, professionalism and quality assurance. We recognize that our members reside in a culture that encourages over-commitment, and will use MAP to assist our members in following through on their good intentions. MAP will provide a tangible record of accomplishments in the Collaboratory to help build members' resumes and assist advisors in writing letters of recommendation. It will also provide the Collaboratory’s administrative leadership with a tool for tracking global statistics that will enable better-informed organizational vision-casting and decision-making.
- Documenting our project work and processes on the Collaboratory Wiki
- We are an organization that experiences nearly 100% turnover of our personnel every four years. Quality assurance and continuity of project work across generations of students therefore require world class documentation of our project work and core processes. Leaders will focus on keeping their Group and Project Articles up-to-date, with their project proposals and yearly project plans clearly posted with personnel records, project summary information, and internal root articles. Our core processes will be documented in two types of pages on the Collaboratory Wiki.
- Event Planning Guides (EPGs) are resource wiki pages that document step-by-step instructions and other information for persons in charge of everything from producing the Collaboratory budget to sending a Site Team to managing an Application Project.
- Task Calendars are wiki pages that contain a chronological listing of recurring tasks assigned to Collaboratory leaders and advisors, with links to related EPGs. These pages will be attached to the job descriptions of Collaboratory leaders and advisors.
- Encourage sustainable excellence in a culture of over-commitment and distraction
- “Sustainable excellence” was the over-arching executive priority for 2008-09. We will continue to promote a culture of careful decision-making and prioritizing in the Collaboratory, where members are able to follow the admonition of Jesus: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’" (Matt. 5.37). We will encourage members to do the hard work of prayerful obedience and faithfulness to our commitments in every area of our lives.
- Engage in strategic planning
- Dr. David Vader, the Director of the Collaboratory, will be on sabbatical for the 2009-10 academic year. Dr. Vader, in cooperation with Collaboratory leaders, will be working to focus the identity and scope of the organization and to create a business plan for fiscal sustainability.
