Jul 20, 2009
Inreach
by Jerry Jaker
We all know what Outreach means in terms of constituents, stakeholders, consumers, clients, and all those we serve out there. Among the things we’ve learned here at MIPH are, You’re NEVER done doing outreach, and often in addition to doing a good job, you need to make sure people know you’re doing a good job! That’s part of Outreach.
Recently I’ve heard the creative and descriptive term “Inreach”. It’s a strategy for making sure that those inside your organization know what’s going on, preferably before the outside world does. There is also significant data to indicate that when staff and volunteers have a clear vision of their work environment big picture, it brings context, meaning, increased productivity and perspective to their important everyday work tasks.
For a relatively small organization, MIPH is pretty complex. We still maintain over 40 grants and contracts to do our good work with funding clients and end-user communities, and so if we are not deliberate about it, we can confuse and confound each other by failing to communicate internally about what’s going on. So, we’ve worked hard at communicating within, or at Inreach. We’ve taken the lead from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota with whom MIPH is an unbranded affiliate, and who communicates well and regularly with its employees, particularly during times of change.
MIPH has a staff Intranet that includes, staff info, calendars and meetings and project activities for each week, info about proposals being developed, events and activities of projects, special in-house guests, red letter date deadlines for the week, news that staff need to know and news that’s just nice to know. There is a very intentional attempt to tie projects together for leverage (while honoring all unique contract and work scope), to connect day’s and week’s activities to the big picture, and to the Strategic Plan. So far, that’s a win-win for all concerned. Emails, memos and staff meetings are critical not only in serving for mini-deadlines to get things done, but to serve as a thread connecting our diverse and hectic work into a singular mission: to provide high quality and culturally sensitive prevention services and products worldwide.
There’s a lot to be said for good and timely Inreach.
So, how do you handle Inreach within your organization? What works, and what doesn’t? Let us know.
-JJ
Recently I’ve heard the creative and descriptive term “Inreach”. It’s a strategy for making sure that those inside your organization know what’s going on, preferably before the outside world does. There is also significant data to indicate that when staff and volunteers have a clear vision of their work environment big picture, it brings context, meaning, increased productivity and perspective to their important everyday work tasks.
For a relatively small organization, MIPH is pretty complex. We still maintain over 40 grants and contracts to do our good work with funding clients and end-user communities, and so if we are not deliberate about it, we can confuse and confound each other by failing to communicate internally about what’s going on. So, we’ve worked hard at communicating within, or at Inreach. We’ve taken the lead from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota with whom MIPH is an unbranded affiliate, and who communicates well and regularly with its employees, particularly during times of change.
MIPH has a staff Intranet that includes, staff info, calendars and meetings and project activities for each week, info about proposals being developed, events and activities of projects, special in-house guests, red letter date deadlines for the week, news that staff need to know and news that’s just nice to know. There is a very intentional attempt to tie projects together for leverage (while honoring all unique contract and work scope), to connect day’s and week’s activities to the big picture, and to the Strategic Plan. So far, that’s a win-win for all concerned. Emails, memos and staff meetings are critical not only in serving for mini-deadlines to get things done, but to serve as a thread connecting our diverse and hectic work into a singular mission: to provide high quality and culturally sensitive prevention services and products worldwide.
There’s a lot to be said for good and timely Inreach.
So, how do you handle Inreach within your organization? What works, and what doesn’t? Let us know.
-JJ
Posted on July 20, 2009 - 8:13am by Jerry Jaker
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