Welcome to Change Labs!

I’ve put together these four checklists to help you navigate your first week with us. Go through it at your own pace and email me if you have any questions.

Day 1 checklist: setting up the basics

  • You’ll be working closely with everyone and it’s critical we have a high-functioning team where everyone is familiar with each other's strengths (and weaknesses). This is also a chance for you to get comfy using our internal staff email: change-labs-staff@nativestartup.org

  • Many of our team members are hybrid workers, meaning they work from home as well as the E-ship Hubs in Shiprock and Tuba City. For your home office, find a quiet spot in your house to dedicate to work. Dress it up if you’re able, particularly since you’ll likely be filming content for our clients and our community members! If you need new equipment for your home office, indicate it in your Welcome Packet and one of our team members will get stuff ordered.

  • Create your email signature, upload your photo, and all that good stuff. If you’re not sure about your email signature, you can copy what I use on my signature.

  • You’ll have access to multiple team calendars. Take a look at each and familiarize yourself with the contents of each.

  • Each project has its own folder and Communications & Marketing also has its own folder. Some folder contents are more organized than others. Looking through every folder will give you a sense of how projects are run, what content we have for marketing, etc.

  • I will probably give you some instruction on this, but we want something short and sweet to post to our community. Here’s a good example from Jennifer!

  • Gusto is our payroll platform and you must have all of your information setup before you can get paid. Don’t delay!

  • All new team members are automatically enrolled into our 401k account that invests 5% of your salary into your retirement savings. To opt-out, increase or decrease your percentage, or change what you’re invested in, login to Guideline and make adjustments.

  • You have the choice to opt-in or opt-out of our group sponsored health plans.

  • What do you think is important to learn or accomplish in your first month with us? Share your list with me and your team lead to discuss in your meetings this week and next.

  • Time sheets are due at the end of each month and are critical for our grant reporting and budgeting process. Try filling in your time sheet for today and bring any questions you have to our next session.

Day 2 checklist: Learn to speak “Change Labs”

You’re now one of the primary community ambassadors of Change Labs. We want you to get comfortable and confident talking about our work to the general public, entrepreneurs, and prospective funders.

  • It’s everyone’s role to talk about Change Labs, our programs, and our mission. You are an ambassador for the organization. Our website is the best place to understand how we position ourselves publicly, how we describe programs, etc. We welcome any suggestions you have about changing the website!

  • Read at least five of the stories on our Change Makers blog series about our program graduates: https://www.nativestartup.org/changemakers

  • It’s very common for someone to say, “Elsie has a new startup she’s working on” when referring to someone who’s working on a new business. But the term “startup” is subjective. Some people use it to describe someone who hasn’t started their business yet, but is close. Others use it to describe someone who has just started their business. Others use it to describe anyone who’s within their first five years of business. It’s important that Change Labs teammates use a defined shared language to articulate the stage of business an entrepreneur is in.

    To that end, we’ve established our own E-ship Journey lexicon. Read through it and bring any questions you have to your next orientation session.

  • Get a sense of the big news we announced to our community: https://www.nativestartup.org/news

  • Change Labs launched Build Navajo in 2016 to demystify the steps to registering a business with the Navajo Nation. www.buildnavajo.org

  • Every time we build on our lexicon, we add it to this Google Doc.

Day 3 checklist: Learn more about your team & work

Almost everyone at Change Labs is joining a team, but is still expected to support your other Change Labs teammates, our programs, and contribute to our organizational development. Use day three to get to know your Change Labs team as well as any operating protocols that exist for your team.

  • https://www.nativestartup.org/basics (aka "/BASICS") should be your best friend in the coming weeks. This is the internal page we use to coordinate and document our processes. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the content of this site.

  • On /BASICS, each of your teammates has created a user guide to help you get to know her/him, their pet peeves, how they like to communicate, etc. We have some quirky teammates so make sure to dive in!

  • Your new teammates want to read YOUR user guide. Head into our Shared Drive and click on the "03" Drive (Administrative). Then click on "04_Staff Coordination." Then click on "USER GUIDES." Inside this folder you'll find a blank user guide. Duplicate the blank guide and rename the copy with your name. You'll be asked to walk us through your user guide in the next Team Meeting, which are every Monday at 10am Mountain.

  • Each team has a program folder in our 01 CHANGE LABS PROGRAMS Shared Drive. The operating protocols and procedures, such as the opening and closing procedures for the E-ship Hubs or the lending process for borrowers, are found in the individual program folders. You may need support from colleagues in locating the procedures relevant to your role.

  • If you're not already familiar with Canva, now is the time to start playing with it. Use the Change Labs Brand Kit to build something for our social media. Be sure to request access to our templates as well!

  • We use Hubspot as our primary CRM (customer relationship management). software. Anytime you meet with an entrepreneur, the interaction should be logged in Hubspot. Similarly, all of our loans are tracked through Hubspot. It’s critical that your Change Labs email is connected to Hubspot at all times so that all of your communication with your borrowers and the entrepreneurs you are coaching are logged. Watch this Hubspot tutorial video for an orientation to the software. Then click here to book an orientation appointment with Marian to get your coaching appointments and loan tracking orientation complete.

  • Currently we’re using Hubspot for all appointment booking. Heather will provide more details on the logistics, but we ask each teammate to be available for 8 hours of coaching each month.

Day 4 checklist: a scavenger hunt. :-)

It’s really critical that everyone on the Change Labs team be comfortable navigating our Shared Drive infrastructure. Test your knowledge by completing this digital scavenger hunt. Use this as an opportunity to try searching for a document in the Shared Drive search bar and to familiarize yourself with the content of each folder. There’s LOTS of folders!  

  • Find the “SW Native American Change Labs Vendors” spreadsheet in Shared Drive. Add any vendors you recommend. In 2023, 75% of our annual budget was spent on Native businesses and vendors. We want to continue to increase this percentage so this spreadsheet is critical to us!

  • The visual documentation of the entrepreneurs in our network is one of the greatest assets we have!

  • Similarly, find and review the “Change Labs _ 2022 Strategic Plan” in Shared Drive. (There’s some overlap with the Operational Plan)

  • Finally, find and scan the “Doing Business on the Navajo Nation” report on the Change Labs website

  • As an ambassador of Change Labs, you may get asked about the money we have available for Navajo businesses. It's critical that everyone on the team is able to answer fundamental questions and know how to refer entrepreneurs. Find our "NSBCI Guide for Navajo Elected Leaders" and give it a read.

  • We have a standard deck that we use for almost all Change Labs presentations. Search for it and map where it's located.

  • Find the Brand Guidelines template in our Shared Drive and review all of the info. Bring any questions you have to Heather!