Making a difference

Office Excellence Award winner, Crystal Ingram: Making a difference by getting things done

The Office Excellence Award, presented by the Post-it® Brand, is a quarterly award given to an administrative professional who goes above and beyond to keep their office running smoothly, and improve their office environment. This quarter’s winner, Crystal Ingram, is an Operation Specialist for Teach For America in the North Carolina Piedmont Triad.

Teach For America is a non-profit that recruits college grads and professionals to teach in high-need communities and become lifelong leaders in the movement for educational equity. As an alum of the program, Crystal provides operational support to 5 full-time employees, 1 part-time employee, 2 interns, and the 50+ corps members who will teach in the region in the coming year. She gained her organization skills as a teacher and transformed them into systems for her office. And those systems are so amazing; her entire office has adopted them. Crystal uses Post-it® Products “every day, in every room, in every way…whether providing little “Thank You” notes to students, daily reminders or time management tools.

One of the systems Crystal uses is similar to a scrum board. The system uses colored Post-its and photos to help Crystal track the number of admitted applicants who make a final decision to teach in the Triad.

Here is how it works:

Each recruiter is assigned a color of a 3x3 Post-it® Super Sticky Notes. Then, the recruiter attaches a name and image of candidates to their colored note.  They place their labeled Post-it® Note on a larger Post-it® Easel Pad. The magic of the color-coded scrum board is recruiters can move their Post-it® Notes according to which stage the candidate is in (contacted, confirmed, unsure or decline).

Once a candidate has been confirmed, they are placed (with name and picture on a color coded 3x3 Post-it® Super Sticky Note) onto another Post-it® Easel Pad. This board is to show how many teachers they currently have for each subject in the school. That way they know where to fill in the gaps.

Crystal also shared an organization tip to help track, prioritize and organize on a personal level:

Before heading out the door for the day, jot down your to-do list for the start of tomorrow. This will start off the next workday without distractions like checking email or trying to remember where you left off yesterday.

Coming up with these intuitive systems was second nature for Crystal after 3 years of teaching. We know Crystal loves her job (even the challenges). We cannot thank her enough for sharing her insights and offering tips to a more efficient office. Congratulations, Crystal!