My biggest challenge in the Leo Love project was my independence. Leo Love is a growing initiative. Although it is supported and has proved to be successful, it did not have a primary team surrounding it. Its growth and management came directly from Michelle or volunteers that she recruited.

As I sat at my desk, pulling together information and thinking around how to develop a strategy, I realized that I was alone and taking on quite a big project.

Within this nearly 2,000 people agency, I felt like the heart of their social mission was forgotten. The thought behind Leo Love was to bridge the gap between the internal community and those who are underserved in Chicago. Even though I was technically part of the Leo Burnett community, I felt like an outsider.

Leo Burnett is stocked full of talent and drive. How could I bridge the divide from their internal culture to the external community? How could I tap into this reservoir of resources and teamwork to alleviate my loneliness and lack of connection? I decided to restructure my focus. New ideas, more interviews, researching the community and management were the topics I chose. Michelle was hungry for change, but quite busy, and I was eager to make a difference.

Along the way:

• I spent my days researching and analyzing the possibilities of what Leo Love could become.
• I explored the options of using external vs. internal software to meet our needs.
• I concluded that curating a talent specific team, that has a deep understanding of our goal, is critical to supporting a new strategy.
• I mapped out the experience of an employees as they engage with Leo Love, as well the experience from the internal side.
• I sat with Michelle to really understand what her hopes were for Leo Love. Since she has the best insight and the most involvement, it was important that her pain points and needs were seen and highly valued.
• I met with and interviewed employees to see if their skills matched up with what we were looking for in our team and to discover more information on their internal culture. I wanted to know how they received information best at work, what they did with their free time, and what types of causes and organizations they care about.

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