Hello team, I hope you’ve all been enjoying the summer! I can’t believe the start to the academic year is just around the corner! I’m looking forward to my first full student intake this fall and seeing our campuses come alive with activity.
When I joined UBC in March, I shared a bit about myself, including my views on connected leadership. I genuinely believe in the power that people and relationships have to move organizations forward and that the best working relationships are founded upon meaningful personal connections.
One way I hope we as individuals can improve our connections is by better using our collaboration tools. To begin, I’ve asked Communications & Engagement to help better align our tools for instant messaging and video calls in the portfolio. Keep your eye out for more information about how we will better adopt MS Teams in the VPFO. Actively choosing to use the same tools will help us find, connect and work together across the portfolio.
Another way I’m looking to build connections in our portfolio is by reaching out across our campuses. Later this month, the Vancouver members of our Senior Leadership Team and I are going to visit our team in the Okanagan to explore what meaningful collaboration and engagement can look like between campuses.
I’m looking forward to meeting with our full Okanagan team to hear their thoughts, and to discover our opportunities to connect our campus communities. But I’d also like to encourage everyone in the VPFO team — regardless of your location — to think about the cross-functional relationships you can build in the portfolio. Let’s invite connection as a way of working. If you hear about a team running a similar project, reach out to them to see what you can learn. If you have an aligned unit on another campus or at another UBC site, reach out to them to hear how they work and the opportunities you have together.
Why is this important? Supporting the academic mission and vision of UBC is our shared goal. We achieve together what we choose to do together. Being connected helps us see how we are all part of one team: each success is our shared success, and each challenge is our shared challenge. Together, we can use our connections and relationships to improve our work life while improving our work. I look forward to seeing you come together in new and exciting ways,
Frank Laezza
Vice-President Finance & Operations