Indigo’s Experience with the ImpACT! Leadership Program

Last December I applied for the ImpACT! leadership program and was selected to join I joined 17 other TDM professionals from across North America in a 10 month leadership program culminating in the presentation of a group project to the ACT Board of Directors. To kick-off the program, I went to Atlanta for a 3-day seminar. There we learned how to utilize our leadership strengths, through the Clifton Strengths Assessment, and worked through scenarios learning how to work with people with different strengths to solve TDM and workplace challenges. I found that my top 5 strengths were Woo, Positivity, Developer, Empathy and Communication. These skills are set in the relationship building and influencing domains (the other domains included executing and strategic thinking). At the end of this seminar we were assigned groups and projects to work on for the next 10 months. These groups were made to have a balance of strengths in order to create a robust and comprehensive team. My group members Lesley and Kat’s strengths were much more focused in strategic planning, analytics and project discipline, whereas Luke and I focused on connection, relating to each other and the survey takers and communication (sometimes over communicating).  

With this group we worked to relaunch ACT’s employer benchmark survey. The last survey was sent out to ACT members in 2016 and took over 30 minutes to complete. In revising the survey my group and I cut down the survey to approximately 7 minutes to complete and streamlined the questioning. Through bi-weekly zoom calls and countless emails, my group and I redesigned the survey, sent it out, collected and analyzed the data and created a report that detailed our process and findings. We included recommendations and ideas for future surveys and worked on making the data usable and digestible for ACT leadership to get a better understanding of TDM practices at employer worksites. 

In October, this project and leadership program culminated in a presentation to the ACT board on our project and findings and a graduation ceremony at the TDM Forum in Portland. I’m very proud of my group and the work we did alongside our usual work responsibilities, and I’m so grateful for the interesting people I met and places I got to go during this program. TDM is such a broad field where folks have numerous backgrounds and ideas to share. This diversity creates a rich fabric of ideas and programs all with the purpose of making our communities more livable and inclusive for all individuals.