What is an Initiative?

Initiatives are the longest-term projects of any organization. They encompass the things your organization intends to do in the years ahead, as it transforms and grows into the best version of itself.

At a high level, Initiatives sit at the top of BRIDGE ONE's strategy-to-execution hierarchy — Initiative, yearly Target, Project — typically spanning 3 to 5 years and connecting long-term vision to the work that delivers it.

Here are the core concepts when it comes to managing Initiatives:

Creating and managing an Initiative

Creating an Initiative

To create an Initiative, do the following:

Open the creation modal. Tap the Add (+) button from the Initiative list. Fill out the Initiative's information. Fields marked with * are mandatory.
FieldDescription
Name*How you will name your Initiative.
DescriptionAn optional description of the Initiative.
Date Range*The Initiative's time frame, from and to, on a month/year basis.
Unit*The Unit the Initiative belongs to.
Owner*The person or people responsible for driving the Initiative.
VisibilityPublic or Confidential. See Visibility and Managing Initiative Members.
Save. Tap Save and your Initiative is added to the list.

Editing an Initiative

To edit an Initiative's Name, Date Range, or Unit, go to More Options and select Edit Initiative. Description isn't edited here — click directly into the description text on the Initiative's landing page to edit it in place.

To delete an Initiative, go to More Options and select Delete Initiative. You'll be asked to check a series of boxes confirming that you understand all of the Initiative's information will be erased, all relationships with other elements will be lost, and all data will be permanently destroyed.

Please note: this action cannot be undone.

Setting a cover image

A cover image gives your Initiative a face. It appears as the banner at the top of the Initiative, and on the Initiative's card in the Initiatives list.

Open the Initiative. The banner at the top is empty until an image is set. Tap Add Cover Image. The button is only visible to Owners and Editors. Choose an image. Your file picker opens — select the image to upload.

Communicating Initiative status

The Status tab shows a timeline of the Initiative's latest statuses. Use it to communicate what state the Initiative is in, and why, so your colleagues and peers stay aligned.

Posting a Status Report

As an Owner or Editor:

Open a new report. On the Initiative's Status tab, press New Status Report. A dialog opens. Set the Status and write a Description. In the dialog, choose the Initiative's status and describe why it's in that status. Submit. Click Submit. The report is posted to the timeline, where others can comment on it. After publishing, a status report can still be edited or deleted.

Charter and Topic Fields

The Initiative Detail page includes a Charter and a Topic Fields tab, both ways to structure the content of an Initiative.

Charter

Charter is a document made up of chapters, each with its own description — a place to lay out the narrative behind the Initiative in as much detail as you need. To manage it:

[TODO] Add a video on the Charter here.

Add a chapter. From the Charter tab, use the Add button on the sidebar. Edit a chapter. Click into it to edit its title and description. Delete a chapter. Hover over it in the sidebar to reveal the more options button, and use it to delete the chapter.

Topic Fields

Topic Fields are categories that subdivide an Initiative into topics that downstream into targets, giving large Initiatives a clearer breakdown of the Targets that fall under them and another way to organize and visualize them. Using Topic Fields is entirely optional.

[TODO] Add a video on Topic Fields here.

To create a Topic Field:

Open the Topic Fields tab on the Initiative Detail page. Tap Add Topic Field on the sidebar. A modal opens. Fill in Title, Description (optional), and Owner, then save. To assign a Target to a Topic Field, do it from the Target itself: once a Target is assigned to this Initiative, a Topic Field selector becomes available so you can (optionally) place it under one of the Initiative's Topic Fields.

Linking Targets and Projects

Linking Targets

Targets are linked to an Initiative from the Target creation flow, not from the Initiative itself. The Initiative's Targets tab shows every Target already linked to it. To learn how to link a Target to an Initiative, see Creating a Target.

[TODO] Add a video on linking Targets here.

Linking Projects

[TODO] Add a video on linking Projects here.

To link a Project to an Initiative, do the following:

Open the Projects tab on the Initiative Detail page and tap the Add (+) button. Choose how to link it:
  • New Project — opens the Project creation modal.
  • Existing Project — opens a list of existing Projects to select from.
 Projects can also appear in this tab without being linked directly — any Project connected to a Target that's already linked to the Initiative shows up here too.

Attachments

To add an attachment, go to the Attachments tab and tap the Add (+) button at the bottom-right of the page. You can then choose between three kinds of content:

[TODO] Add a video on Attachments here.

Upload a file, such as a Word or Excel document. Attach a website or a web file. Fill in the URL and a Title, both mandatory. Like a URL, but without copying a link and coming back to paste it: choose from your existing Wikis and attach them directly, or create a new one.

History

History is a log of everything relevant that changes in an Initiative over time. It's a timeline of the changes, showing who made them and when. To open it, use the Initiative's More Options button and choose View History.

Managing Initiative Members

Every Initiative has a visibility setting and a list of members with different roles.

[TODO] Add a video on managing Members here.

Public or Confidential. Public means everyone in the organization can view the Initiative, while Confidential means only listed members can. See Visibility for how it works across BRIDGE ONE. Owners, Editors, and Viewers. Viewers have read-only access — especially useful on Confidential Initiatives, where you want certain people to see the content without being able to edit it. See Context-level roles for the pattern across BRIDGE ONE.

To add a member, search for their name in the dialog. People who are already members appear grouped by role (Owners, Editors, Viewers); anyone else appears under Other People, where you can pick a role for them as you add them.

To change someone's role, click it and choose a new one. To remove someone, use the more options button next to their name.

Please note: an Initiative must always have at least one Owner — you can't remove or demote the last remaining Owner without promoting someone else first. Owner is the only mandatory role; an Initiative can otherwise have no Editors and no Viewers.

For Admins

There are certain management capabilities that are only available to organization administrators, or org admins. They shape how your whole organization uses Initiatives, rather than a single Initiative.

Categories and Statuses aren't fixed values — they're configured per organization, so what you see (the default four Statuses, whichever Categories your org has set up) may look different elsewhere.

Managing Categories

Managing the available organization-wide Initiative Categories is an administrative feature that requires organization admin access (learn more about permissions).

Open an Initiative's side panel (the panel that opens from an Initiative) and click the Category field. A dropdown of Categories appears. As an org admin, you'll also see an Add New button at the end of the list, and an edit button on each existing Category. Tap either one to open the Category manager, where you set a Name, Color, and Icon.

Managing Statuses

Managing the available organization-wide Initiative Status options is an administrative feature that requires organization admin access (learn more about permissions).

Go to the Initiatives list and switch to Board view. Tap the Add (+) button at the bottom-right and choose Add New Status. A modal opens where you set a Name and Color for the new Status. As an org admin, each Status column in Board view also has a more options button, letting you edit the Status, reorder it (move left/right), or delete it.