Week 8 at LifeCare Alliance was filled with preparations for our upcoming half-day session and further development of ideas for the Customer Journey project. The week began with the Advancement staff huddle where each team shared updates and priorities. I spent much of the day reviewing and preparing the physical materials for next week’s event: printing graphics, organizing large-format sticky note sheets, and beginning to assemble visuals for the group activities.

On Tuesday, I met with our Customer Journey Core Team for a planning session. We walked through the slide deck for the half-day event, revised language on the activity guides, and talked through facilitation strategies. I also shared key takeaways from my (now 24) completed interviews so Claire and Leah could better understand the staff experiences we’ll be exploring next week. Later that day, I interviewed the head of LifeCare’s Chief Human Resources & Inclusion officer, Andy Nowlin and created a playback sheet using the interview recording and transcript. Andy had some great insights, especially around volunteer branding ideas that could double as marketing tactics for LifeCare. Some of these ideas included magnetic car signs or branded gear for volunteers. I also began creating visual mock-ups for journey maps on a platform called Mural to guide participants during the event.

Midweek, I continued designing activity visuals, created a large printed agenda for the event, and explored Operational Excellence materials in preparation for my next project. I reviewed tools like DMAIC, Kaizen, and root cause analysis frameworks including Fishbone Diagrams and the 5 Whys. These frameworks will help inform process improvement strategies for the Meals-for-Kids program and the Frozen Choice meal packages.

I ended the week by visiting Conference Room 2 at Harmon, the space we’ll use for the session. We evaluated the setup and started mapping out where printed materials would be displayed. The week was a strong balance of creativity, logistics, and planning, all tied to the larger goal of improving the Meals-on-Wheels program experience for both staff and volunteers. I’m excited to see it all come together in the upcoming event.

Until next week,
Kat Jolley