Memorandum

To:	Environmental Activist Team
From:	Project Manager
Subject:	How to Succeed at GreenHealth

Succeeding at GreenHealth

To maximize your chance for success at GreenHealth, it is important that you understand how we work and your role within the organization. The GreenHealth Way includes teamwork, tasks, and professional level presentations of results.

We want the same kind of interns as other innovative research organizations want to hire, only better: People who are adaptable, creative problem solvers and independent learners. Professionals who can work well with people and work successfully on teams. In a nutshell, we value people who are professional and know how to get projects done efficiently and effectively.

We hope your experiences over the next months will help you gain confidence in your abilities as a true research professional.  To assist you, we compiled these suggestions from managers surveyed about what it takes to be successful:

1) Be proactive

You must schedule meetings with your manager when needed.  In general, you should come to us if you can't find the answer on your own. The more you put into the process yourself, the more you'll get out of it.  Don't expect us to tell you what to do.

2) Keep in Touch

You are responsible for checking your email regularly; announcements will be made this way, and we will assume that you have read them.

Check with your manager about any available online tools (email, threaded discussions, listservs, etc.). Use these tools to share information, project schedules, agreements, resources, results, and updates with your team members and manager.

3) Manage your time

Time management is essential to your success. You should plan to spent 50% of your time on this challenging project for reading and research. See the Working with Task section of this Orientation for additional suggestions on time management and to learn the process we recommend for completing tasks and presenting your solutions to your colleagues

4) Address performance issues in your team

Teamwork is essential to our success. Review the Working in Teams section of this Orientation to improve your team skills.

Since you won't initially know the full extent of your team's capabilities, negotiate the initial scope of work for each member carefully (i.e., what concrete pieces of the task s/he is responsible for).

If problems emerge, surface them as soon as possible so that you can negotiate them within your team and complete your task on schedule. (This may be socially uncomfortable, but you've just got to do it.) 

If you ever have a problem you don't know how to solve, discuss it with your manager after you have talked to your team.

Good luck.