{"id":567602,"date":"2023-01-16T19:59:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T03:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=567602"},"modified":"2023-01-13T11:13:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T19:13:59","slug":"make-your-gis-team-proactive-not-reactive","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/make-your-gis-team-proactive-not-reactive","title":{"rendered":"Make Your GIS Team Proactive, Not Reactive"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1041,472991,10992],"tags":[196042,238351,351,192792,11052],"arcnews_issues":[483512],"class_list":["post-567602","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration","category-gis","category-managing-gis","tag-gis-professionals","tag-gis-team","tag-planning","tag-relationship","tag-urisa","arcnews_issues-winter-2023","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"Stop fighting fires all the time. Learn how to establish boundaries and grow as a department\u2014and begin to look forward to new projects.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The two key differences between being reactive and proactive are timing and control. When we\u2019re reactive, we respond to something that\u2019s already happened and that isn\u2019t under control. When we\u2019re proactive, we cause something to happen and control the situation. Of course, you can\u2019t control everything\u2014such as legislative requirements or other people\u2019s behaviors\u2014but you can control yourself and how you act.\r\n\r\nWhen I took over as the department head for my local county GIS program in 2018, I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. I spent the first six months dealing with problems, hoping things would calm down. Fast-forward a year, and it still felt like fighting fire was the norm.\r\n\r\nIn dealing with so many emergencies, I realized that the more fires you put out, the more burned out you become. I was stressed out, worn down, and tired of complaining about how the GIS team wasn\u2019t involved in other departments\u2019 projects. I felt like I couldn\u2019t accomplish my goals for the GIS program. It was also my first supervisory role, and I didn\u2019t have the experience or tools to communicate what my team and I needed\u2014particularly because I didn\u2019t understand internal processes, and other departments didn\u2019t understand what GIS could do. To them, the GIS department just made maps. Does that sound familiar?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":566302,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"I realized that something had to change, or my team and I would break. So I took some steps to move from a place where fires and emergencies were the norm to where my team and I have established boundaries that protect us so we can grow as a department, and we now look forward to new projects. Here\u2019s how you can do that, too:\r\n

Step 1: Write Down Your Goals<\/h2>\r\nTo be proactive during fires, you must plan for them to happen. Part of this planning process involves figuring out your goals and your team\u2019s desired end results. Goals are important because they communicate intent while also giving you something to strive for. Any goal-setting method can work, from generating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and performing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analyses to sitting down and writing out your objectives. Just do something to set your intentions.\r\n\r\nSome of my goals were the following:\r\n