Box: Creating a Culture of Collaboration and Innovation

Lean staffing models are the norm in independent schools because budgets are small. This means that administrators and teachers alike have to learn to do more with less. The pressure is always on for IT Departments to provide more than just support but also solutions that promote productivity. Enter Box. I decided to take a risk and migrate the school's entire file server to Box five years ago knowing it would solve a variety of operational challenges. I had a hunch that it would also provide tremendous value in ways that no one would have imagined at the time and that we wouldn't know for sure until the platform was fully adopted.

I spent the first two years evangelizing the solution in order to maximize value as our staff slowly embraced the platform. Fast forward to today and our success story with Box has even caught the attention of the Box Marketing Team. Whitby has blown through industry benchmarks for usage and adoption of the product.

But this isn't the best part. Through features like file versioning, commenting, assigning tasks, email notifications, asynchronous content creation and browser-based access, Box has facilitated the creation of an organizational culture where collaboration and innovation can flourish. Employee productivity has gone through the roof and the staff's comfort level with having their work be visible early on in the ideation process has created more opportunities for feedback and inspiration - both of which are key to innovation.

Constructivism Through Deconstructing: Our Journey to Promote Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills Through Access to a Makerspace

I recently spearheaded an initiative to build a Makerspace at our school. Although there were other areas we could have funded, we felt that the Makerspace would give us a better return in the long run. The idea of a Makerspace is still very new for most staff, students and parents so I've had to spent a lot of time promoting the value of the space.

The thinking behind the space is that in providing access to equipment, tools and materials that students don't ordinarily have access to, it will prompt curiosity-driven exploration. This in turn creates opportunities to build, tinker and take things apart. These activities when unconstrained promote creativity and help students develop collaboration and problem-solving skills.

We've only had the space open for a month and it is already incredibly popular with our students. One of the things that has surprised me is how much students love to take things apart. We've provided them with a variety of broken objects from door handles, to bookshelves to laptops and they clearly find great joy in taking them apart. As educators, it is exciting for us to see deconstruction play a role in constructivism.

Reimagining Onboarding and Performance Appraisals: 3 Steps to Accelerate the Organizational Acculturation Process, Create Joy and Fuel Performance

You get better results faster from new hires the sooner they buy-in to your organizational culture. In an effort to promote quicker buy-in from new hires, I developed a three step program for department heads to manage that could be run in addition to the standard HR orientation. The logic being that managers are positioned well to understand the specific needs of the role so they can develop a meaningful plan of action.

Step 1 - Immersive On-Boarding - This step lays the foundation for a new hire's understanding of the scope of their responsibilities, the scope of the responsibilities of people in other functional areas as well as the thinking behind the organization's mission, vision and strategic plan. It is a three week process designed to provide opportunities on a daily basis to interact with people across the organization in the hope that new hires begin to learn skills and develop key relationships. Day-to-day activities are tracked with the new hire's direct report in a shared document. The document provides suggested areas of focus for each activity and can be categorized into seven areas. Here is an example taken from the IT Department:

Step 2 - Weekly Check-Ins

This part of the process is not unique. Weekly check-ins are becoming more common in many organizations because they provide opportunities for new hires to share their thinking or concerns, confirm their understanding of responsibilities related to their role and prompt reflection and growth.

Step 3 - Professional Growth Process

This is the final step in the process and is done over the course of a year. It is a reimagining of the typical performance appraisal process found in many organizations but with a laser-sharp focus on the kind of growth that leads employees to love their work.

Employees are prompted to identify areas of interest that they'd like to explore more in depth that are related to their role or the organization. Under the guidance of their manager, employees turn their interests into goals. They are told that they should spend a certain percentage of time each week working towards achieving their goals. They're provided a template which prompts them to define the goal, to give background, to explain the benefit to the school, to define an action plan and then to consider what metrics will be used as evidence of success of achievement of the goal. The employee is given 2-3 weeks to complete these prompts and is expected to go through multiple iterations with their manager.

This part of the process is key for developing the ideas and, when its done right, holds tremendous potential for professional growth. The final section of the template prompts them to list actions and outcomes. This part of the document is completed over the course of the year as the employee pursues their goals. Managers schedule periodic check-ins on a need basis. The most important part of this step is the learning journey not the outcome. The thinking is that if the outcomes adds value then it is even better for the employee and the organization where applicable.