At this year’s OPEN MINDS Technology & Analytics Institute, I attended a session that captured exactly what we try to help organizations achieve at ThreeWill.
Jerel Wilson, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Monarch, shared how her team used analytics to make smarter, faster decisions about which funding opportunities to pursue. Her talk, “Using Analytics to Streamline Your Funding Opportunities,” wasn’t just about data. It was about creating alignment — between people, process, and purpose.
It Started with Culture
Before Monarch talked about dashboards or scoring systems, they started with values. Their mission — to provide hope, promote wellness, and empower people — set the tone for every decision that followed.
That focus on culture gave them unity and trust across leadership. In ThreeWill’s language, that’s Culture Comes First. It’s the foundation for everything that follows.
When people share the same purpose, structure becomes easier to build. Monarch used that shared purpose to define four pillars for their strategic plan: Provider of Choice, Financial Strength, Employer of Choice, and Growth & Innovation.
Those pillars guided how they worked and how they measured progress.
Defining the Core Process
Like many organizations, Monarch had more opportunities than capacity. Good ideas were getting lost, and teams weren’t always sure which ones to chase.
To fix this, Jerel’s team created a clear, repeatable process — what we would call a core process in The ThreeWill Way. They named it the Opportunity Review Committee (ORC).
Every new opportunity, from RFPs to payer contracts, flowed through the ORC. Using a simple rubric with twelve categories — things like market potential, alignment with mission, and regulatory risk — the team could score each opportunity and decide whether to pursue it.
The key wasn’t software or spreadsheets. It was clarity.
Bringing the Process to Life
Once the process was defined, Jerel brought it to life with the tools they already owned.
- monday.com handled tracking and scoring.
- Microsoft Lists and Power BI gave visibility into progress.
- And a short bi-weekly review meeting kept the process moving.
That rhythm turned their plan into a habit. It mirrors what we teach through The ThreeWill Way: define the process, give it a home in Microsoft 365, make performance measurable, and meet regularly to improve it.
By doing this, Monarch created consistency. Everyone knew what to focus on and how decisions were made.
The Power of Scorecards
With everything flowing through the ORC, Monarch could finally see patterns. They knew which types of opportunities led to growth, which were too costly, and which markets were changing.
That visibility made strategy measurable. Their dashboards weren’t about decoration — they helped leaders focus on what mattered most.
At ThreeWill, we call that the Scorecard layer. When you can see progress, you can guide it.
From Culture to Clarity
Jerel closed her talk with a reminder that applies far beyond analytics:
“This is more about change management and leadership than it is about data.”
That line stayed with me. Because what she built at Monarch wasn’t just a funding process. It was a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
That’s exactly what our Productivity Manifesto calls for:
Culture first, process second, technology last.
Monarch’s story proves it works. Their leadership aligned around shared values. Their team created structure around how work gets done. And their tools made that alignment visible.
Taking the Next Step
What Jerel shared was more than a success story — it was a roadmap. She showed that you don’t need new software or big budgets to create order. You need clarity, consistency, and a rhythm that keeps people connected to purpose.
That’s what we built the HCBS Productivity Toolkit to do. It helps organizations like yours document their core processes, track results, and use Microsoft 365 to make improvement measurable — the same principles that made Monarch’s story possible.
Because productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters most — together.
Let’s make the future of work better, together.
