|
Brandon is out of the office this week, so I will be writing the newsletter along with some additions from our awesome intern Alex Leeper.
Over the past 6 months I was part of the Ignite Louisville Fall 2019 class. What’s Ignite you ask? A program developed by Leadership Louisville for emerging leaders. Our class met once a month for a day full of instruction and discussion with leaders across a range of industries. At the beginning of the program the class was split into six teams using our Predictive Index scores and over the six months we worked on a service project with a local non-profit. Our projects were varied, but the basic idea was to apply what you learned on the classroom days while executing the project; and demonstrate all of this in a bang-up final presentation. One more fun twist, it was a competition. The winning team received $1,500 dollars for the non-profit they worked with.
My team worked with Doctors and Lawyers for Kids, and although we didn’t win, we learned a lot, worked our butts off, and had deliverables that we were all proud of. The organization’s original ask was for a video to help attract new donors and increase community awareness on an extremely limited budget. While we were able to deliver on this, it was apparent that they needed much more for the video to be an effective marketing piece, so we created several other tools to help them out. The first was to a new website on a platform they could update themselves, as well as a guide on how to do so. The second was a Roadmap for Success, which included an annual report (and a template to recreate in future years), a story telling guide to help pitch the organization to potential donors, a grant writing guide and a guide to organizational development and board best practices.
So how is what I learned relevant to what we do here and how does it help me do this job better? Leading isn’t just about being the boss, its about bringing people with you. Well, perhaps I already knew that, but this program helped me understand what works, and what doesn’t, and in turn, how to make the office and the projects we work on run more effectively. I understand what innovation and change really takes, as well as the importance of looking outside of our normal streams of thinking and exploring related worlds for inspiration and freshness. Another focus of our project was sustainability, and I’m not talking about the environment, although obviously, that is important too. In our project we wanted to create a plan for the organization to allow them not only to continue their mission, but expand on it in the future. Sure, there were symptoms of what needed improvement, but you have to do more than just treat the symptoms. You have to go to the root of the problem to really effect any kind of sustainable change, so I’ll definitely be thinking about what that means for our office, as well as metro government as a whole. It’s a nebulous takeaway, and maybe I left the program with more questions than answers, but it’s important to stay curious and strive for how to do better and be better, and that’s just what I’ll do. I also met a lot of kind and smart people across a wide range of professions that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise met, and I’m grateful for their friendships and perspectives.
For breaking news and information, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you have a question or comment, please call me at: (502) 574-1108 or email: brandon.coan@louisvilleky.gov (and copy jasmine.weatherby@louisvilleky.gov). If you have a service request, please call Metro 311 or visit Metro 311 online. Visit the District 8 Strategic Plan page here.
|
