Your work = The work of UND LEADS
New LEADS Activity Inventory shows ‘the many ways work across campus is bringing UND LEADS to life’
By Ryan Zerr
How should we measure the progress of LEADS Implementation? This question has been front-of-mind for the members of the LEADS Implementation Team for well over a year. And the answer, of course, has been part of updates reported in the pages of UND Today over the past several months.
Now, as part of the Implementation Team’s ongoing work, a significant piece to the puzzle has fallen into place: the LEADS Activity Inventory.
Although the inventory has existed in nascent form for a number of months, a critical milestone was reached in mid-November. The Activity Inventory is now available to view on the LEADS webpage, along with key components to facilitate usability. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page to see examples of the many ways work across campus is bringing UND LEADS to life.
The inventory itself provides an opportunity to see LEADS implementation in action. Activities and initiatives are front and center, both as individual items and through the way they tell an aggregate story of how different aspects of LEADS have become woven into the fabric of UND. Of particular note are the indications of how different stages in activities’ “life cycles” give a sense of both current work and future potential.
The LEADS Activity Inventory is dynamic, and meant to be updated continuously to reflect work that is in stages ranging from “envisioning” to “mature.” The Inventory should be seen as a resource – something that can help everyone gain a sense of the landscape of implementation and to assist their work by helping to identify connections and collaborative opportunities.
As a resource, the inventory will grow in value as the UND community adds items. In fact, the LEADS Implementation Team extends an open invitation to contribute to the inventory. Ask yourself, What is happening in my area that advances our institutional mission and vision? Answers to this question should be added to the inventory.
To do so, notice the submission link and “how-to” module buttons on the Activity Inventory website. The submission link itself provides a quick and straightforward way to contribute items. For those who would appreciate a preview of the submission process that contains prompts to help think through how activities might fit, follow the link to the how-to module.
As new initiatives and activities are submitted, the inventory will be updated quarterly to reflect the growing momentum of implementation activities. Updates will also incorporate changes to existing inventory items based on feedback the Implementation Team receives from those involved in the work.
To provide updates, a link on the Activity Inventory website makes it very quick and easy to send the relevant information to the Implementation Team. In this way, as things change the matter of making sure those changes are reflected in the inventory becomes straightforward and something that can be done in the moment and with only a few minutes time.
So please – Please! – consider how your work and the work of colleagues reflects the vision articulated in the UND LEADS Strategic Plan. Then add it to the inventory. Why? Partly because it will help give all of us an accurate sense of our collective contributions. But also – and most importantly – it will help ensure the work everyone is doing receives the notice it deserves.
As a campus, we are contributing to our shared educational mission in multiple ways. Let’s ensure those contributions are part of the narrative that tells the story of UND LEADS.
About the author:
Ryan Zerr, department chair and professor of mathematics, is associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation at UND.
