Welcome to 4boxes, a development and performance platform designed to capture your important Development and performance commitments.&nbsp; As a new user of 4Boxes, we want to make sure you get a great start with 4Boxes so you can maximise what you get out using this tool for yourself.
Whether you&rsquo;ve been asked to set up an account by a manager as part of your organisation&rsquo;s development and performance process or whether you are on a personal learning journey like coaching or a program with Oasis, 4Boxes can sharpen your focus and help to breathe life into some of the growth and improvements you want to see in your personal and professional future.
Your journey with 4Boxes begins with a blank canvas rather than a long form to fill.&nbsp; We want to encourage you to be the master of your own learning journey and take some time to think about what is important to you.&nbsp; This may be informed by some important inputs like a manager&rsquo;s priorities or a coach or mentor&rsquo;s suggestions as well as consideration of some other key resources and tools that might prompt you to take action on your own development or performance.
So, think inside the box.&nbsp; Your journey starts here!

Welcome to 4Boxes

As a development and performance system within your organisation, 4Boxes is a tool we have been refining for a number of years.&nbsp; Unlike many of the performance systems on the market today, 4Boxes breathes fresh life into your development and performance conversations.&nbsp; It puts you in the driver&rsquo;s seat of your own development and offers an empowering way to generate new possibilities for your role and career.
There are 4 domains of development and performance that are being transformed to make this process work better within your organisation:
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Organisational and Leadership Responsibilities &ndash; traditionally, most performance appraisals have just focused on work output and results.&nbsp; In this approach, we also reflect on how relationships are working and what development is needed.&nbsp; These responsibilities all contribute toward a healthy workplace culture.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Intentional Structure &ndash; by committing to regular cycles that are made up of both formal and informal check-ins and also include a focus on what we&rsquo;ve been doing in the past as well as a focus on what we plan to do in the future.&nbsp; Most importantly, the ongoing nature of these conversations means there are no nasty surprises at the end of the year.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Conversational Competence &ndash; We are all on a learning journey towards doing development and performance better.&nbsp; That including your managers and leaders as well.&nbsp; There are important skills that we can all learn that make our conversations with one another work better.&nbsp; At Oasis we say that &ldquo;human interaction is a core business process&rdquo;.&nbsp; Accountants have accounting systems.&nbsp; Tradies have hammers.&nbsp; People in your organisations are learning how to better use conversations as a technology to help them coordinate action and get things done.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Dynamic Documentation &ndash; 4Boxes is like the &ldquo;container&rdquo; that holds our commitments.&nbsp; It is the place where we can document what we say we are going to do and reflect on what we&rsquo;ve been experiencing.&nbsp; As a collaborative platform, your manager can support you in the way you document your commitments.&nbsp; It then becomes an important reference point to come back to.&nbsp; You can check on how things are going against what you wanted to achieve and make updates as things change.&nbsp; Your manager might also have some encouragement or feedback which they can document in your 4Boxes for you to see as well.</li>
</ol>

Development and Performance Done Differently

So you&rsquo;re beginning a development program with Oasis.&nbsp; You might be receiving coaching or beginning a learning program or both.&nbsp; Congratulations on making this important investment in yourself.&nbsp; 
4Boxes is a unique and important element in the total learning design.&nbsp; At the beginning of your learning journey you will be invited to consider what changes you would like to make&hellip;what shifts you would like to see come about as a result of this program.&nbsp; You might even refer to these as learning goals.&nbsp; By documenting these shifts and commitments in 4Boxes, you create a reference point you can go back to, to see what is changing as you progress through the program.
We have some great resources to share and some amazing tools but it will amounts to nothing if you don&rsquo;t do something with them.&nbsp; Action-based learning requires you to take action on what you learn.&nbsp; It requires you to try something different, to road-test a new practice, to courageously take a step.&nbsp; It is only when you apply new knowledge that learning actually takes place.&nbsp; 4Boxes provides a place for you to document and follow through on your actions and commitments, no matter how large or small they might be.
Your coach or facilitator has access to your 4Boxes screen.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll refer back to this and maybe review it together at regular times during the program where you can update it as you go with progress or new actions.&nbsp; It is a great central hub to record any reminders for things you need to do after a session so you are prepared and organised for the next meeting.
You might like to try out the journal as a space for personal reflections as you learn.&nbsp; This confidential area is only seen by you and offers a space to write down your thoughts, experiences, feelings about things that are important to you.&nbsp; Click here to find out more about how to use the Journal to enhance your learning experience.

4Boxes for a Development Program

New Article

Introduction to 4Boxes

The dashboard is your launchpad to 4Boxes.&nbsp; It summarises any important news from 4Boxes so that, at a glance you can see monthly indicators of goals created or completed, journal activity, whether recent comments have been made on your Items and goals.&nbsp; The dashboard also links you quickly to important reminders or the learning centre.&nbsp;&nbsp; Managers can quickly view their employee&rsquo;s 4Boxes activities from the dashboard.
<img src="https://4-boxes-dev-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/journal_image/image_data/57/mceclip0.png" width="834" height="452">

Understanding the 4Boxes Dashboard

To create a new item:
<ol>
<li>Select My 4Boxes from the Main Menu</li>
<li>Click + in the top right of one of the 4 Boxes</li>
<li>Enter the Item description or goal statement</li>
</ol>
<img src="https://4-boxes-dev-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/journal_image/image_data/58/mceclip1.png" width="630" height="271">
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">To Update or Edit an Item:</h3>
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">In the My 4Boxes Menu</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on the &gt; to the right of any item</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">From here you can edit the text of an item; and you can&hellip;</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Update the item&rsquo;s status from In Progress, to Complete or to Archive (where it is filed away from the main 4Boxes screen)</li>
</ol>
Note that Complete status is symbolised with a tick when you return to the main 4Boxes view.
&nbsp;

Creating and Updating Items in your 4Boxes Screen

<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click directly on an item</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click into the Comments space and add comments.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Save comment.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">When you click on an item that already has comments, you&rsquo;ll see these comments displayed.</li>
</ol>
Commenting on 4Boxes Items can be important for employees to make notes on their own items to remind them of evidence of progress against a goal or to make a note to discuss something with a manager at a later time about that item.
Managers can follow this process to make comments on an employee&rsquo;s Items when they view an Employee&rsquo;s 4Boxes account (see how to view an Employee&rsquo;s 4Boxes account).
When Items are updated with comments, they become bold and a dot appears on the left hand side of the item to symbolise for the primary user that an unread comment has been lodged.&nbsp; It disappears once opened.
<img src="https://4-boxes-dev-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/journal_image/image_data/59/mceclip2.png" width="877" height="257">

Commenting on a 4Boxes Item

If you are assigned as a Manager in 4Boxes and have Employees allocated as reporting to you, you will have restricted access to view those employee&rsquo;s 4Boxes Accounts.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on Settings from the Main Menu</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select Employees</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Identify the Employee who&rsquo;s account you wish to review</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on Assume Role</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">You are now in a restricted version of the employee&rsquo;s 4Boxes account as an &ldquo;Assumed User&rdquo;.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">This allows you to view, edit and comment on an employee&rsquo;s My 4Boxes screen.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">It also allows you to load or edit resources in the Resource Menu on behalf of the employee.&nbsp; This is useful if you have learning materials, documents or personal assessment reports you want to share with an employee.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Return to your own account by selecting &ldquo;Return to My Account&rdquo; from the Setting Menu.</li>
</ol>
Note, Managers can search and select their employees directly from the Dashboard as an fast shortcut to this function.
&nbsp;

How to View an Employee's 4Boxes Account (Manager)

Changing the status of an Item or goal to Archive moves it off the main 4Boxes screen into an archive version of this view.&nbsp; Archived items are accessed and viewed by clicking on the Archive button on the main 4Boxes Screen.&nbsp; 
You can toggle between the Current and Archived views by pressing the Archive button again.
In the archive version, a filter date range can be selected to help filter and identify records from a particular period.
<img src="https://4-boxes-dev-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/journal_image/image_data/60/mceclip3.png" width="903" height="316">

Archiving Items

The journal provides users with a free space to document their personal learning reflections and to capture what thoughts, feelings or experiences are important to them.&nbsp; Journalling as a practice has been known to help learners develop greater self-awareness and improve their emotional intelligence.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on Journal from the Main Menu</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Use the free text space to make notes</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Use the WYSIWIG Editor to add your own style and formatting</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">You can also attach images and links to your journal entries.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Don&rsquo;t forget to click Save to save your journal entry.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">For inspiration and structure to your journalling select from a range of Templates by clicking Use Template in the top right.&nbsp; </li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select from the range of template options.&nbsp; This imprints a journal template into the journal for that date.&nbsp; You can then add your own text in response to the template prompts in your journal.&nbsp; New journal templates are being added to this library regularly.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Once again, don&rsquo;t forget to click save</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">If you would like to share a journal page with someone else, click Share.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Copy to copy the URL</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Paste the URL into an email to the person you want to share the page with.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">They will only see that page as a single except from your journal.</li>
</ol>
<img src="https://4-boxes-dev-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/journal_image/image_data/61/mceclip4.png" width="1062" height="333">

Understanding the Journal

The Resources area is useful for storing important documents, learning resources or information related to the user&rsquo;s job, performance or development.&nbsp; It may be a central hub for any records related to the employee&rsquo;s own reference to be stored.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on Resources from the Main Menu</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Upload</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Either drag a file into the Attachment box or click on the box and select the file from it&rsquo;s current location on the computer.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">You can assign tags to documents to help search for documents later</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Save</li>
</ol>
To organise files, you can create a folder structure to store documents of different types together.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on the folder button next to Folders</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Specify a folder name and click on the tick button to save</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Open this folder before uploading files to this specific folder</li>
</ol>
To access documents you've uploaded:
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Locate the document from the list of resources</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click the download button to the right</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">The document will download into the Browser&rsquo;s download area</li>
</ol>

Using the Resources Area

The Vault is a private space where you can store confidential notes that you do not want others to view at this time.&nbsp; No one other than the user themselves can view content in the Vault.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select Vault from the Main Menu</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Add Log</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select an Employee (either Self or the email address of a reporting user if it relates to one of these users)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">In the Log Detail, enter notes as required.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Save to return.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Notes can be searched or filtered by name or keywords</li>
</ol>

Understanding the Vault

Reminders and Check-Ins are important prompts to help Users take action on Development and Performance commitments. &nbsp;Reminders might relate to taking action in relation to specific Items and Goals.&nbsp; Whereas Check-Ins are a form of reminder for managers and employees or coaches and employees to get together for a meeting (or a check-in).
In both cases, the information required to create the reminder or check in are the same.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Clicking Add Reminder or Add Check-In to open a dialogue box</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select the Employee this relates to (may be self or an employee)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Select the scheduled due date and time for the reminder or check-in</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">If the Reminder or Check-In is to recur more than once (eg. a Check-In may be required once every three months) then establish the routine on Repeat.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Give the Reminder or Check-In a Title and a description if necessary</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click Save</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Check-Ins and Reminders can be adjusted by clicking on the Edit button</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">As an helpful addition to ensure they doesn&rsquo;t get missed, Reminders and Check-Ins can be downloaded from 4Boxes and embedded into your Microsoft Outlook Calendar as an ics file.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Reminders will appear on the Dashboard as Reminders.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Next Check-In dates appears next to the Employee&rsquo;s Name on the Dashboard and if the date passes without the check-in being confirmed, the user will be alerted.</li>
</ol>

Setting Reminders for Check-In Meetings and Actions to be Completed

In addition to the user being notified of comments or reminders via the Dashboard display and notification reminder in the top corner of the screen, an weekly email is sent to the user advising of unread notifications.&nbsp; Users can unsubscribe to this service in the link at the bottom of the email itself.
<ol>
<li class="MsoNormal">Clicking on the notification bell in the top left corner of screen will list all current notifications.&nbsp; </li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click on the notification message to go to the item the notification is in reference to OR</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">Click &ldquo;X&rdquo; next to the notification message to delete or clear any notification</li>
</ol>
This email can also be adjusted to a daily email service in the User Profile.&nbsp; Click the &ldquo;Daily Notification Email&rdquo; checkbox in the Account Details section followed by clicking the Save button.