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

  • Until our new Tuba City HQ is up and running later this year, our team members operate primarily from home. 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

  • 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

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 for each team should live in the 01_PROJECT MANAGEMENT folder for each team. You may need to ask your teammates where it is as teams often put things in different places.

  • We have an all hands team meeting every Monday @ 10am MDT and the Incubator and Kinship teams also have their own weekly standing meeting as well as coordination meetings. Reach out to your team leader to make sure you’ve been added to all the meetings for your team.

  • 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!

  • Currently we’re using Google Appointments. 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!