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ARC Academy / Operations

Connected Operations Foundations

Map the systems, handoffs, and reporting rules your organization needs before selecting or implementing new technology.

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Course brief

Foundation75 minutes5 lessons

By the end, you can:

  • Create a one-page map of your current operating system.
  • Define a source of truth for the records your team uses most.
  • Choose one workflow to simplify before automating it.
  • Build a practical 30-day implementation sequence.
0115 minMap the system you have

Objective

Make every tool, spreadsheet, form, inbox, and manual handoff visible on one page.

A useful systems map follows information, not software. Start when a person or animal enters a workflow and trace every place their information is copied, changed, reviewed, or reported.

Do the work

  1. Choose one high-volume journey: adoption, foster placement, volunteer onboarding, or donation follow-up.
  2. Write the trigger at the far left, such as “application submitted.”
  3. List every system the record touches, including inboxes, paper, shared drives, and individual spreadsheets.
  4. Draw each handoff between people. Mark a handoff whenever ownership or the system of record changes.
  5. Circle duplicate entry, waiting time, and any step that depends on one person remembering what to do.

Leave with

A current-state workflow map with systems, owners, delays, and duplicate-entry points labeled.

Reflection

Where does the team lose the most time: finding information, re-entering it, waiting for approval, or correcting errors?

0215 minName the source of truth

Objective

Give every important record one authoritative home and a clear owner.

Connected operations do not require one tool for everything. They require an explicit answer to two questions: where is the authoritative record, and who is accountable for its quality?

Do the work

  1. List the five records your team relies on most: animal, person, application, donation, and task are common examples.
  2. For each record, name the system that wins when two systems disagree.
  3. Assign a role—not an individual—as the data owner.
  4. Define the minimum fields required before the record can move to the next stage.
  5. Write the update rule for connected tools: real-time, scheduled sync, or intentionally manual.

Leave with

A source-of-truth table with record, authoritative system, owner, required fields, and sync rule.

Reflection

Which record currently has more than one competing source of truth, and what decision would remove that ambiguity?

0315 minSimplify before automating

Objective

Remove unnecessary work before technology makes the workflow faster.

Automation scales the process you give it. A confusing process automated at speed is still confusing. Use a simple eliminate, combine, clarify, then automate sequence.

Do the work

  1. Eliminate fields no one uses for a decision, service, or required report.
  2. Combine repeated reviews when the same person checks the same information twice.
  3. Clarify each status so staff, volunteers, and applicants understand the same next step.
  4. Define exception paths for urgent medical, safety, or eligibility concerns.
  5. Automate only stable triggers and actions with a named human owner for exceptions.

Leave with

A future-state workflow showing fewer steps, explicit exceptions, and only the automations worth building.

Reflection

If the automation failed for one day, could the team still understand the workflow and recover safely?

0415 minDesign the operating dashboard

Objective

Turn reporting into a short list of decisions leaders and program owners can make.

A dashboard is useful when every measure has an owner, a definition, a source, and a decision attached to it. More charts do not create more clarity.

Do the work

  1. Choose one outcome, two leading indicators, and one capacity measure for the workflow.
  2. Write the exact definition, timeframe, and data source beside every measure.
  3. Set a review rhythm: daily operations, weekly program, or monthly executive.
  4. Add a threshold that prompts action, such as application age above 48 hours.
  5. Assign the person or role responsible for explaining changes and proposing the next action.

Leave with

A dashboard specification with four measures, definitions, sources, thresholds, owners, and review cadence.

Reflection

Which number would change a decision this week? If none would, revise the dashboard.

0515 minBuild the 30-day sequence

Objective

Move from analysis to a bounded implementation with a clear definition of done.

A first implementation should prove one connected workflow, not attempt to replace the entire organization at once. Sequence people, data, process, and technology together.

Do the work

  1. Week 1: confirm the current-state map, source-of-truth rules, and success measures with the people doing the work.
  2. Week 2: clean the minimum data needed for the selected workflow and document exceptions.
  3. Week 3: configure the future-state workflow, test it with fictional records, and train a small pilot group.
  4. Week 4: run the pilot, review errors and time saved, then decide whether to expand, revise, or stop.
  5. Name a go-live owner, a rollback plan, and the evidence required to call the pilot successful.

Leave with

A 30-day pilot plan with weekly outcomes, owners, success evidence, and a rollback decision.

Reflection

What is the smallest implementation that would create trustworthy evidence for the next investment decision?

After the course

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