Champions for Literacy

VIdeo Transcript

Hey, I'm Jason Baker, executive director at Champions for Literacy, and myself and our team are really thrilled to work with the Edmonson Berry Group to do workplace team assessments and really, really enjoyed the process. There were two things that I was hoping to accomplish in doing this work—one kind of on a smaller scale, smaller picture, and then one kind of zooming out. So that kind of small, everyday picture: I really wanted our team not just to be smart but to be healthy as well. And so just learning ourselves and learning one another, I think, is the critical step to not only being smart but being healthy. And then as we zoom out 30,000 feet, just wanted to give our folks some PD, wanted to give them something that would last for a lifetime.

And so this really feels like one of those opportunities and experiences that certainly will benefit our work and our successes together, but will benefit them for a lifetime as well. So our team, doing the workplace assess work with Shad, first step was to fill out an assessment. And, you know, it's really interesting to walk through that work because you start to learn about yourself even in answering the questions and seeing where the assessment is kind of pushing you and nudging you. So that was step one. And then Shad met with me as an executive leader to just talk through our big picture as a team, which I already started to see the benefits of—how our team is shaped, kind of some consistencies and themes within our team, and then how we can begin to think about balancing our team in the long haul. And so from there, Shad met with each of our folks individually for 60 to 90 minutes and really let them take a look at themselves and have a conversation about themselves in the workplace. And so our team has continued to talk about this and reflect on it and just share within the team how positive of an experience it was.

So I'm thinking about really positive outcomes. You know, I want to start with myself and just learning myself as a leader. I feel like that's a really, really key and critical step. This is knowledge and wisdom that I wish I would have had 15 years ago. And so started there and have really just tried to do a lot of introspective work since we did the assessments. And then from there, we've given our team a chance to present themselves to the team as they understand it—to put, as Shad would say, to put their own jacket on and to explain that jacket to the rest of our team, kind of from them and their own words. And we've just tried to find ways to keep this in front of our team, not as a way to kind of bash them over the head with it, but to remind us of who we are and how we can continue to win and be healthy together.

The feedback from our team around the assessments was really, really phenomenal. Our folks, you know, it's funny, when we gave them a chance to describe themselves to our team, one of them just said, "Can Shad just talk about me?"—which, you know, we sort of laugh about that. I think it just speaks to the seriousness with which the team takes doing these assessments and then offering that feedback and giving that guidance and that insight to our team members. And so the other question I get is, are we going to do anything else with their team? And so the answer is definitely yes. And so it's been really fun sort of stepping into this unknown process to hear our team saying those things on the back end. Yeah, this experience completely exceeded my expectations and our team's expectations. You know, to have this be an assignment come from me, sort of handed to the team, and then for them to come back and ask to do more is just a relief and not a huge surprise, but I think a really good surprise on the back end for me. You know, there's a pretty short list of products or services, offerings, experiences that I truly would just tell other people about for free, and this really is one of those. So if you're a leader looking to know your people, to know yourself, and to take the next step in being healthy, do the assessments.