Today was a good day.

The culmination of cycle 3 - "Celebrating Teamwork with Frozen Treats"... Our Ice Cream social (to recognize and sincerely thank all the teams that worked with us to release 50 learning events (a series of synchronous online "web conferences," a variety of self-paced online courses, and one week-long classroom seminar) all in time for the GA release of our newest version update for our laboratory product. It took the efforts of the entire education department as well as technical and subject matter expert help from a variety of people in about six other departments. We've worked for over a year (closer to two years) on this project from envisioning to "publication." We could not have done it with out the help and support of a lot of other people. Due to the current "disconnect" that I've noticed (the company "policy" is to encourage teamwork and collaboration across departments... but typically individual efforts and competition are what are recognized and rewarded...) - I wanted to find a way to demonstrate how much we (as a team) value collaboration and I wanted to find a way to recognize and celebrate collaboration.

I had really hoped that people would come enjoy the ice cream (and other "treats" and hang out for a little while in the Fun Room... enjoy each others company, socialize, etc. I was partially successful in that. Our company is split up in two different buildings that are actually about 3 or 4 miles away from each other. At the other building (where our sister department Technical Publications is located) - that is exactly what occurred. Nearly everyone who was at work this afternoon made their way to the Fun Room, enjoyed the frozen treat of their choice, and hung out for a while and enjoyed the company and the relaxed atmosphere. At our building, The majority of people came for the treats, took what they wanted, a then went back to their desk because they had "too much work" and "didn't have time" to hang out. They were happy with the treats and many said thank you and that they had really been looking forward to it (we announced the event last week on Friday by putting little posters up all over the building). I even received a couple of personal thank-you emails from a few people who knew that I was the one who organized the event. All in all, I think people liked it and I'm very happy about that - but I'm also a bit disappointed that the majority of people in our building felt that they could not spend a little while on a Thursday afternoon away from their desks. It became very obvious, based on some conversations I had with the few people that did hang out, and other conversations w/ my teammates that there are a large number of people in our office who don't really know the people that work in other parts of the building. They know the people who sit in the cubicle next to them, or somewhere in the same quadrant on the same floor... but they don't know very many people beyond that geography. This is not true of everyone - there are some who know a lot more people... some of this is because of their specific job. For example the lovely lady in the shipping and receiving dept who brings us our mail... but how many people know the other guys that she works with down there... the only reason I know them is because I have many personal packages [like school books] delivered and I don't think it is fair to ask her to bring those to me on the 4th floor... so I've asked them to just call me when such things arrive and I go down and get them. It's been fun because I got to meet everyone in Shipping/Receiving, they are a really good group of people.

This makes some real sense - it is an example of the ideas of hubs and connectors in networks... But - I think if our company is to succeed in changing the culture to be one of collaboration over [internal] competition then we must all get to know each other across teams and departments. It is funny, but now that I think about it... there are several of us in education that do that... partially because we teach people in other department and partially because we need their assistance to design valid training (we need those SMEs).... but I think there may be more to it than that. There are several of us that just want to know people. We spend some time actually getting up and visiting other people - not just emailing them or calling them on the phone. We talk to them about business, but we also tend to be interested in what television shows they are watching or what their kids names are... that kind of thing. Maybe the education department could become (or already is) a hub/connector in our corporate network.

Ok - the other really good thing that happened today. For cycle 1 I worked with a colleague to help him achieve his goal of presenting at an online professional conference. That in turn inspired me to write a proposal to make my own presentation at a national conference. Late last month (May 23 to be exact) I submitted a proposal to the eLearning Guild to present a session on interactive demonstration and simulation design/development for online courses focused on application training (using tools like Captivate). I wasn't sure the proposal would be accepted... as I've never presented at a national conference that wasn't sponsored by a company that I worked for. Today, I was interviewed (via the telephone) by the gentleman who is managing the organization of the presentations for the conference. He was very interested in my proposal and at the conclusion of the interview he told me that they would indeed like me to present. The conference is in November - so I now have a little personal project to occupy my time after I graduate. :)

observations and mixed feelings

I find myself rather frustrated lately, on several fronts, all at work.

The peer reviews I requested have been returned to me by several of my colleagues. The responses are all very positive and, from what I can tell, very genuine. I've received some valuable suggestions from a couple of people too, for which I am most appreciative. The frustrating part is that three of my five immediate colleagues (team members at the "peer" level) have not responded and two of those three definitely don't intend to respond. Although I indicated that I very much value their feedback and any suggestions they have for me, they feel that they have "contributed enough by filling out the survey a for my last cycle." Neither was hostile in any way, they are just not interested in participating in the process and don't feel that it is part of their job - which is certainly true. I have not pressed the issue, but it does make me sad and I think it speaks to a lack of trust (although it is not clear who or what it is that they don't trust since the overall atmosphere at work these days is one of insecurity, fear, and suspicion).

For Cycle 2 - I did make significant progress in my revised approach to formal critique and feedback. For myself, I've succeeded in turning the editorial critique process into something I honestly value and look forward to rather than just a "required step." I think I've also come to not only view the process as a dialogue but also demonstrate to others in the department that approaching the process as a dialogue is valuable. One drawback to this new approach is that I can tend to be disappointed when I don't receive content centered feedback (when I only receive editorial-grammatical type comments). Now that I have all the peer reviews that I think I'm going to receive, I need to finish writing up Cycle 2. As much as I love to write, in this particular situation I do find that the action and reflection comes much easier than the formal writing. I'm not sure if this is because it is such a fundamentally personal project or if there is something else at work there - I'll have to think on that further.

Cycle 3 is nearly done too - so it looks like a may be writing up two cycles this weekend. The event to celebrate interdepartmental collaboration was approved, I was given a budget of $150, and I was given the freedom to plan the event with out too much oversight. The colleague who I worked so closely with in cycle 1 helped me to create the "publicity" for the event (fliers and a little something to had out to anyone who attends). He did a wonderful job with it too. Another colleague made the excellent suggestion that rather than thank individual people (all the people that impacted the project in any way), we thank entire departments (and everyone in them). After all my talk about encouraging and acknowledging collaboration - it is funny that it took someone else to see this approach (I was ready to list dozens of names). I think the intent of the suggestion was inspired by a desire to not hurt anyone by accidentally leaving them off the list of names. But I see another level - for each of these people to take the time to work with Education on this project, others in their department had to "take up the slack" (even if that just meant answering a couple more calls or waiting a bit for their colleague to return and collaborate with them on something). So - in fact - it really did take the effort of entire departments and not just some individuals in those departments.