Welcome to vantage point onlineAt Volunteer Vancouver, our mission is to inspire & build leadership in the voluntary sectorOne of the ways we do this is through Vantage Point — our issue-based newsletter. This edition draws on the experience and expertise of Valerie Lambert, Executive Director, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and Aryne Sheppard, Manager of Volunteer Services at David Suzuki Foundation. The edition also profiles a corporate perspective on organizational culture with a piece from Erin McKinley, Corporate Communications at Coast Capital Savings. Your comments are welcome — please email us at vantagepoint@volunteervancouver.ca. Remembering our RootsI was listening to a long-term staff member the other day as he reflected on his first months here at the David Suzuki Foundation. He said the organizational culture was infused with a sense of working together for something important – and that volunteers could not be distinguished from full-time staff. Fostering a Strong, Diverse Culture at Big Brothers…in being responsive to the community we serve and defining it in broader terms than we did before, we will redefine our organization and accept that, in order to be strong, Big Brothers’ culture must also be diverse.Culture from the Inside Out: How Coast Capital Savings Turned Employees into Fans“When employees love coming to work and are invested in seeing the company succeed in reaching its vision, they transform from an employee into a fan”… A Culture of LearningBy Colleen Kelly Many effective companies seek feedback and turn the answers into changes that are good for their business. However, as individuals, do we seek feedback to turn the responses we receive into changes that make us more effective in our workplaces? I think that is what a culture of learning is all about.
Brian's BookshelfEdgar H. Schein, The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999. Edgar Schein is the pioneer in making sense of organizational culture and how to exercise leadership within it.
About Volunteer VancouverThe mission of Volunteer Vancouver is to inspire & build leadership in the voluntary sector. This publication is intended to be a medium of communication and information for the many organizations active in the volunteer and not-for-profit sector. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect official policy of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Vancouver. Volunteer Vancouver |
