The opportunity I feel my organization could improve in is their communication. There are 11 employees at the Arizona Museum for Youth and they are all in a small area, but what they tend to have troubles with is their communications. Of course they have their different departments with different ideas and goals, what I have experienced is that they get stuck in that and don't bother to inform others of their goals and ideas and on going projects. For example, the FamilyZone that we are working on improving (which by the way we just got our proposal approved and we are working on getting it underway! Exciting!), my mentor (curator of education) decided that the area really needed fixing up so she assigned me and another intern to that project. So we started to design and get ideas, but when we all met as a staff to talk about what was going on, it turns that the marketing department already had an intern starting on that project. So of course we just joined forces, but still, they have their marketing ideas and we have our designing ideas.
Along with that, they were setting up for the next exhibit and the design team was working VERY hard to get it done. Well my mentor was working on getting the kid activities done for the same exhibit, but they didn't talk about both their goals and try to work some time out...they just decided that it was a great time do it and it was good in their schedules. Of course at that time (so close to the opening within hours) tempers flared because of the lack of communication and it did get done but with mintues left.
The museum is such a great place and they accomplish so much and have so much going on in their schedules with such a small staff list. I feel that if they were to start communicating between the different departments then things would happen better and smoother. The education department has a department meeting every week, the staff only has a meeting once a month if even that.
I will give credit to the Marketing Head because she just recently noticed the overlapping of projects and no communication and so she is now pushing for a weekly newsletter that will have the various projects going on and who is over seeing them.
If I were the boss, I would really support the weekly newsletter. I know that days can be busy and so there's not always time for weekly meetings, but the newsletter really would not take any more time out of their schedules and would actually save them time in stopping the project overlap.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Hi Katy, I am Michelle Johnston. I just love your internship experience. I would love to get to work at that Museum. My kids and I have enjoyed memorable times there. With that said, I am going to try to take a stand point on your communication issue at your work place. In family studies we talk a lot obout communication and conflict resolution. I like the quote "It's easier to prepare and prevent, then it is to repair and repent." To me this means that if everyone works together to prevent comminication flaws, then things will run much more smoothly. I think that the newsletter is a great idea. Also, other forms of communication would be handy, like a mass email, updating on project progress, weekly, or more. That way, others can read them at their own convenience, and respond with questions, rather than work their time around a weekly meeting. Good luck with the rest of the semester! Enjoy!
Hi Katy,
Gini here. I can totally understand your frustration with communication. My center has the same issues and we only have 2 employess and a Board of Directors. Although in other places I work, USG and Panhellenic, similar things happen. People start working on things that other people were already doing and sometimes that can be hard because they may have very different ideas for the project.
One thing that PAB does, I used to work with them too, is have a huge calendar that lists all upcoming events and projects. You could even color coordinate them per department. The newsletter is also a good way to do it. For USG we have to submit a staff report each Monday. We say what things we have been working on the last week and what we will be working on this week. That information could be compiled into the newsletter. Conflict resolution could also be something explored if their are more issues with that. How to communicate the best with each other, maybe one of those "how you communicate" quiz things. I also think that more staff meetings is important too. For Panhellenic we meet once a week and for USG we don't always and I think it definitely hinders us as times. Maybe with your encouragement they will learn to understand this. Good luck with everything!
Hi Katy, that is interesting about the conflicts of communication. In politics this reminds me of two countries with in the E.U. both strategizing their own plans, just to see them collide in the collective. Communication is always the thing that lacks in situations like these. The thing is, people, organizations, and even countries sometimes do not communicate because they do not want to deal with it. I think people think that they are avoiding conflict when they pretend they forgot to communicate!
Sounds like you have a bunch of egos working against each other! Good luck, maybe you can be a mediator of sorts.
Hi, Kathy. This is Lisa Graves. Your idea of a weekly bulletin or news for employees and volunteers would be helpful in resolving the situation that you described. Currently, it seems that many of the different teams are almost working against each other, although unintentionally, rather then working in a collaborative effort. Another suggestion would be that department heads consult other departments on their involvement before moving forward with their plans. This will help them to identify if they will be overlapping with another department’s efforts and if all departments are thinking along the same lines. By taking a few minutes to consult other departments, everyone’s time will be better spent in the long run. It may also be wise if the organization can develop a team comprised of members from different departments that can meet regularly. This group can analyze upcoming projects and coordinate efforts between the different departments. Developing a team comprised of people who have first-hand knowledge of each project and how each department needs to plan and carry out tasks will allow everyone to be more efficient contributors to the organization. All employees will feel empowered and know that they are contributing in a positive manner to project planning and implementation with less frustration caused by conflicting and redundant efforts.
Hi Katy. This is Latonya Smith, Marketing Director for the Arizona Museum for Youth. It has been a joy working with such young talent like you, Elizabeth, and Pamela. You guys are talented breaths of fresh air! I just wanted to add a bit more insight into our organization so that everyone participating in this noteworthy blog is able to gather a more "comprehensive understanding" into working for our museum and a non-profit, in general. First, your fresh eyes will tend to capture what I call "snapshots" of our internal structure and processes. That's a big part of what interning is about, so that you'll have an idea as to what you'll be getting into should you pursue a career at a museum. You'll experience wonderful ideas that you'll want to replicate in your own career, here or somewhere else, while putting some additional thought into other challenges seen. But because it's a snapshot, it's often difficult to completely grasp the "full context" of the situations you've been exposed to. So, please allow me to add a bit more information. Wow, there are so many inherant complexities to working for a "non-profit" versus a "for-profit" organization. First and foremost, the profit margin---there isn't much of one in non-profits. :-( That's why it's so difficult to operate at full capacity and maintain ideal staffing requirements to accommodate all the desired services and products to serve the public. Money is very important but pretty hard to come by for non-profits in general. Therefore, we rely very heavily on volunteers, that may or may not show up (although the work must still get done), public donations, etc. Please be aware that the museum's staff was cut nearly in half about 3 years ago, and we just underwent another 40% budget cut last week, meaning we're losing even more necessary staff to maintain about the same level of service. So time, resources, team members, funds, and so many things are rare at the museum. But this is more common than not, as a non-profit, in general. When economic times are tough, most companies feel pressure but non-profits get hit, almost always, first and the hardest. We're already operating, have been and will continue to, the best we can with very little of what we need to put our best foot forward for our patrons. That's where true heart, leadership, initiative, and plain old "outside-the-box" innovation and thought comes into play. In for-profits, there's usually a team of people to accomplish tasks, but here, YOU are the team for your department. It's not fair, it's not ideal, but it's a big part of working for a non-profit. It's not for everyone, but for those who choose to serve in a non-profit, it's hard work but extremely gratifying. Everyone here finds creative ways to communicate but some things do get overlooked and overlapped at times, just like in all organizations. But listen, when that happens, we simply decide how to avoid that in the future and move on. It's a choice to live in the solution or to get bogged down in the problem. We decided as a team to avoid "more meetings" because of the enormous amount we already have, daily, with the rest of the city and other organizations. Your entire day and week can be overtaken by meetings very easily. We're a part of a much larger organization, so the little of what you see here isn't representative of the entire equation. That's why we decided to limit the number of meetings--- so that work could actually get done by the few people we do have on staff. :-) We communicate mostly through an online community calendar, email, bulletin boards and even a few interdepartmental meetings, in-house. That works for us, most of the time. You'll also find that everyone works way more than what's required but there simply isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done---and that's okay. Still, we're always looking for better ways to communicate and to get even more things accomplished. We really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions and those of everyone else. They're creative and will certainly add to the pool of solutions already on the table. My final thought for you, Elizabeth, and Pamela as you venture out into the great abyss of corporate America is that you take with you the idealism that's always helped me to excel in all things: heart and passion will keep joy in your life and move you through difficult times so that you are able to keep standing, leadership happens in the midst of the storm and challenges (never in the absence of such), and innovation is discovered outside-the-box (never in). Stay brilliant and beautiful! :-)
Post a Comment