Spring Cleaning: Time to Tidy Your Data, Processes, and Vision
Spring is right around the corner! Now that you’re done Marie Kondo’ing your closet, it’s time to think about tidying your workspace. But we don’t just mean tossing the pile of old documents under your desk or finally abiding by your organization’s file naming rules (#2019goals). We mean “spring cleaning” your work processes to help you and your team work more efficiently and with a shared vision.
Using these strategies as part of your spring cleaning can set you up for a more efficient, productive, and joyful rest of the year.
Data Sweep
Data collection can be tricky. Whether it’s department or program metrics, databases of key contacts, or employee surveys, each of these take time and resources to collect, update, and report out. We’d recommend taking a spring-cleaning approach to your data practices. Here are some key questions for consideration:
Do you know what data your organization is collecting and how often? Do the data actually measure what you intend to?
Can you pull the data into the format you need and do your key staff know the steps to do this? Do the data look the way you hoped it would?
What’s missing? Are there key metrics or data points that are not being tracked, somehow lost in cyberspace, or not integrated into working databases or systems?
Do you actually need all this data? Often, data continue to be collected long after the initial purpose was forgotten. Is it time to say thank you and goodbye?
Are they actionable data? And are you acting on it? Gathering community feedback that you will never analyze is likely not the best option for you or your constituents.
Are there smarter ways to answer the same data question?
Document Processes & Successes
The #1 goal and benefit of documenting processes is to get all the things floating around in your brain out of your head and onto paper. This primarily includes documenting steps involved in your regular job activities (e.g., setting up the annual fundraiser), but also ideas for the future (e.g., contact partner organizations), and successes and failures of the past (e.g., annual chili cookoff did not bring us joy). Having some of these major processes and ideas documented means (1) they can stop swirling around as you try to fall asleep and (2) you have them to refer back to for goal-setting, annual reviews, or to share with your team. Here are some key questions to consider when documenting processes:
Are there absolutely critical organizational or team processes that have not been documented? How many employees use these processes? Would they benefit from documentation or standardization?
Are you ready to frame up conversations to make sure employees feel comfortable thinking about documenting processes? When many people are asked about gathering institutional knowledge, the knee-jerk reaction might be suspicion. Employees take pride in all of their organizational knowledge and have a natural concern that they might be easily replaced if they document everything they know. But what we’re suggesting as part of your spring cleaning is not to reproduce knowledge for someone else, but to supplement their own work and make it more effective.
What are some team successes that usually go unrecognized?
Where do you tend to undersell your own accomplishments or expertise? Another unexpected benefit to documenting successes is that it helps combat our tendency to undersell ourselves. For example, how will anyone know that you’ve met with 30 community leaders across the state in the last three months if you don’t tell them?
Check Your Vision
The last part on your spring cleaning to-do is to revisit your organization’s strategic plan, mission, and vision. Whether or not you’ve looked at these materials since your planning session two years ago, it’s time to dust them off and think about the rest of the year. Here are some questions to consideration as you think strategy:
Is my team aligned on what these goals/mission/vision mean for us? Are there other steps we could take to create or nurture a shared vision?
Do we view our strategic planning materials as the foundation of our daily work versus a checklist of a bunch of new stuff to do? It should be the former.
Are there organizational goals or important changes stuck in “hibernation”? Why?
Are our key performance indicators motivational, de-motivational, or basically irrelevant? Do we need to reconsider targets?
Do each of the individual contributors on my team understand how they play a role in fulfilling our goals, mission, and vision?
Using these strategies as part of your spring cleaning can set you up for a more efficient, productive, and joyful rest of the year. If you would like additional support with your own organizational tidying, feel free to reach out!