Friday, September 7, 2012

Values Survey Results!

The Values Survey Results are in and I am proud to report that our overall division results show we are sustaining satisfaction, even in these challenging and turbulent times. I thank you again for your comments and look forward to sharing more information with you at our Fall Division Meeting. Over the next couple of months, your managers will be sharing your department’s results with you and I’ve asked for each department to develop 3-5 action items for improvement or continued success.

I thank you again for taking part in this survey and appreciate the detailed and honest feedback you have provided. This data helps me gauge the overall health of our division, and I take this feedback into consideration as I plan for our division throughout the year. I hope you will take time to review our results and consider opportunities for improvement or continued success for your area in this upcoming year. The results may be found on our Quality Improvement Web page at http://www.csusm.edu/qi/measures/vs.html.



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Values Survey Results Coming Soon!

The FAS Values Survey Results are in and I am excited to announce we achieved an 81% response rate this year! Thank you to those of you who participated in the survey and for providing your thoughts and perceptions about your department and the FAS Division. Your valuable feedback helps me to set our direction in the upcoming year and ensure we are on track to meet our goals.

Over the summer, I will be busy reviewing the data and comments and developing themes for improvement. I want to thank you again for sharing your feedback with me – I read every comment provided in the survey and take them into consideration as I plan the year ahead. This year, we received over 400 comments, so I will be busy reading!

After reviewing the data and comments, I will provide general themes and recommendations for improvement to managers to help them develop action plans for improvement. I thank you for your trust in me and appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts about our division.

Once I finalize my review of the survey feedback, I will share a general overview with my leadership team and distribute the data to the entire FAS Division so that we may all work together in the spirit of continuous improvement and continue to transform the workplace to make FAS the finest division within the CSU!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Annual Values Survey: Provide Your Feedback!

By now, I hope you all have received an invitation to complete our annual FAS Values Survey. As you all know, I spend a great deal of the summer reviewing the data and comments shared in the survey and considering our opportunities for improvement in the upcoming year. I encourage you to take the survey and provide your honest and thoughtful feedback – your comments help me shape the year ahead, give kudos and coaching, as well as provide me with a window into how things are going in your departments and subdivisions. Once the survey closes, survey reports and general themes for improvement will be provided to department managers and available on our Web site. As a reminder, this survey is completely anonymous. Additionally, managers will not see direct comments; all comments will be viewed by me only, and I will provide general themes regarding areas of success and opportunities for improvement.

This survey should take no more than 15 minutes, so I ask you to take a few moments within the next couple of weeks and provide your feedback. Let’s achieve 100% response rate this year!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Time for Innovative Thinking!

I can hardly believe it is May already; however, I am excited about this month’s guiding principle: Innovation.

Over the past few years, I have heard things like, “it is hard to be innovative in challenging times” and “how can we be innovative when resources are scarce”, so I want to flip this kind of thinking on innovation. Instead of letting these challenges limit our innovation, why not use those challenges to our advantage – these challenges of budget, scarce resources, and time are simply a test of our innovative abilities.

Within FAS there are many great minds, creating an enormous potential for innovative thinking. One of the greatest ways in which we can show our value of supporting student success is by finding creative solutions and innovative ideas to address not only the problems that exist but to also streamline and enhance our processes and make us more efficient. We must overcome the obstacles in front of us and push the envelope of progress toward a more innovative university.

I look to you for your creativity and expertise because you are the ones who utilize the processes – ask yourself:
  • how we may improve what we’re already doing;
  • how we may cut unnecessary or repetitive steps out of our daily work;
  • how we may better serve our campus community
You are our greatest experts to identify these opportunities. I ask you to take time today, this week, or this month, and use your imagination to find ways to enhance our services, streamline our processes, or leverage our resources to maximize our incredible capabilities. In the words of Tony Robbins, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”, so let’s start thinking about things differently and find creative ways to get better results!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Communication via Social Media

In honor of this month’s FAS guiding principle, Communication, I wanted to share the following photo with you, which provides a brief example of each of the different forms of social media. It’s a good visual way to demonstrate all of the different ways that students, prospective students, and the campus community may be communicating about our campus, services, programs and processes. It also breaks down the social media to make it more understandable so that we can see why there are so many different forms – I don’t know about you, but trying to getting a handle on all of the different forms of social media can be a job in itself. These days everything is being tweeted, posted, photographed, and tagged, so I show you this to remind you all of the different ways in which communication is happening every second and to remind us all how important it is for us to ensure we are communicating the right messages, providing exceptional customer-service, and developing value-added processes. 
What are your favorite methods for communication and how do you prefer to receive information? 

Monday, February 27, 2012

On the Horizon . . .

Thank you all for joining us at the FAS Division Meeting last week! We hope you enjoyed Sarita Maybin’s keynote and were able to take away some useful tips for Adapting, Succeeding, and Thriving in the Workplace. As I mentioned during the meeting, we have been busy working on our initiatives and improvements in order to respond to the feedback we received on the Values Survey.

Our initiatives for improving the workplace are targeted at the four main themes from this year’s survey:
  • Accountability
  • Coaching/Feedback
  • Communication
  • Conflict Resolution

Accountability:
Each year, accountability shows up as an opportunity for improvement. This year, we have a creative solution for improving accountability in the workplace. I’ve asked the Bridgeworks Company to present to our division on “Bridging the Generational Gap” and help us work across generations. With different generations working together, it is important to have an understanding of the different opinions around us, so that we can effectively bridge the gaps related to accountability, communication, and conflict. This FAS Training event is scheduled for April 11th, so mark your calendars and be on the lookout for more information!


Coaching/Feedback:
To help FAS Managers & UARSC Directors improve their coaching and feedback skills, I will be transforming the FAS management meetings. This year, the quarterly meetings will focus on training and developing our leaders. Recently, Susan Gerke presented on coaching employees and providing effective feedback for successful outcomes. The training provided useful tools and resources to help us be more effective in providing feedback to employees.


Communication:
Communication is an important component of the FAS Culture – so important, in fact, that it is our March Guiding Principle. Communication will always be at the forefront to ensure we utilize the latest technology and find ways to capture your feedback for a successful two-way communication approach.
  • I will continue the VP’s Coffee Hour meetings on a monthly basis.
  • The FAS Connect has been updated to expand the scope beyond FAS Quality Improvement to share updates regarding the division, campus, and system, as appropriate.
  • I will blog more frequently. As part of my commitment to FAS, I will be sending a monthly blog.

Conflict Resolution:
Conflict Resolution will be addressed in a variety of formats. Sarita’s keynote to the division on “Adapting, Succeeding, and Thriving in the Workplace” was the first piece of this process. We understand the challenging environment we are operating in and reminding ourselves of the three P’s may make a big impact on how we handle situations and resolve conflict.
  • Am I taking it personally?
  • Is the situation really permanent?
  • How important is this in the big picture?
Bridgeworks will be presenting on the “Working Across Generations” and will be providing additional tools for conflict resolution, communicating and working together.
We’ve got a lot on the horizon and I look forward to another exciting and productive year.



“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Laugh. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” - Maryanne Radmacher




Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Ready, Set, Go . . . 2012 is Here!

Just as I was getting used to writing 2011 on documents, 2012 arrives.
If this year moves as quickly as the last couple of years, we’ll be looking at a new year in no time, so let’s buckle up for another busy year. Over the past few years, our campus has seen a lot of change and growth, as we have matured into a strong campus, full of student life, opportunity and development. Our division, in particular, has been increasingly busy over the years, as we not only serve over 10,000 students, but over 1,500 faculty and staff members as well. In the upcoming year, we have some exciting projects on the horizon, so I know we’re all eager to launch into the New Year full speed ahead, but before we do, I ask you to take a few moments and consider your goals for 2012.

Here are a few of my thoughts for making 2012 the best year yet:
  • Remember our purpose.  We support student success by delivering valuable services to the campus community.
  • Maintain integrity.  “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently” – Warren Buffett
  • Focus on Accountability. Overcome obstacles and achieve results through a few simple accountability principles: “see it, own it, solve it, and do it”.
  • Always strive for excellence, but do not fear failure.  “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
  • Change the Conversation.  Keep things positive. Avoid gossip and negativity. Focus on turning conflict into collaboration.
  • Strive for the impossible. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination” - Tommy Lasorda

Whether it is January 1st or June 1st, it is never too late to make a resolution. One of my resolutions this year is to blog more frequently, so be watching your inbox for my blog updates.

Welcome back and I wish you all a happy and successful New Year!