Learning Organization Survey 2015

Incentivizing innovation via a “Great Ideas Pipeline”
One of the strongest messages we’ve received throughout the My Workplace consultation is that it’s extremely difficult to bring great ideas to fruition – particularly for employees with limited influence, even when these efficiencies may lead to significant savings. A central aim of My Workplace is the empowerment of all employees to effect positive change, regardless of their rank or role. If our employees have good ideas that could decrease costs, increase revenues, or simplify our work processes, we do ourselves a great disservice by allowing bureaucracy to get in their way.

Some organizations invite employees to submit their ideas through pipelines that exist outside of conventional organizational structures. They offer help in fleshing out proposals, and for ideas with great merit, provide support in building a business case to be presented to senior decision-makers. Such an ideas pipeline could lead to efficiencies and process improvements across McGill.

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to examine how other institutions have implemented similar initiatives, and make a recommendation for how to operationalize a Great Ideas Pipeline at McGill.

Empower staff to develop, propose and implement creative solutions
To encourage continuous improvement, many forward-thinking organizations ensure that employees have the time, support and decisional authority they need to develop and implement new ways of working – not simply within their local teams, but in other departments and across their organization as a whole. At McGill though, that spirit of continuous improvement is too often overtaken by rigid adherence to existing processes and entrenched modes of operation. Our employees frequently lack four key elements that would help address this issue: 1) the time needed to find new solutions and better processes; 2) the authority needed to implement them; 3) an understanding of how to further those solutions within McGill’s administrative structures; and 4) recognition and other incentives for implementing improvements.

As a result, our staff are not currently empowered to use their judgment, skills and knowledge to full effect. Improvements in this regard would make McGill more agile, more responsive to client needs, and more receptive to good ideas.

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to study how other institutions empower employees to conceive of, propose and implement creative solutions on the job, and propose an appropriate action plan based on that exploration.

More orientation, training and on-going support to better equip academic administrators for their supervisory roles
Currently, when faculty members take on administrative positions, they must learn new supervisory skills on the fly, with no formal management training available to them. Our employees tell us that while these new administrators may excel in their fields, they typically have little or no experience in day-to-day supervision and management of professionals. They often struggle to empower their staff or provide constructive feedback and manage their teams effectively.  Empowerment in the workplace begins with one’s immediate supervisor. Well-trained and supported academic administrators will help to create an empowered and engaged workforce.  

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to explore the training offerings at McGill and elsewhere for academic staff appointed to positions with supervisory responsibility for administrative and support staff, and propose an action plan, in cooperation with the Office of the Provost, based on that exploration.

Engage McGill’s administrative and support staff supervisors in a process of continuous learning to enhance their capacity for managing people
Despite the vital importance of supervisory competencies, and their key role in determining the quality of all that we do, including our workplace culture, they go largely unaddressed. As a result, poor people-management has a negative impact on the workplace environment.

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to study how other institutions encourage continuous learning and development with respect to people-management skills.  In consultation with Organizational Development,  propose an action plan, in consultation with Organizational Development, based on that exploration, including the possibility of conducting pilot projects in willing units.  

Avenues of Escalation for Staff
Many of McGill’s administrative and support staff members expressed feelings of isolation and inequity in their work environments and how they are supervised. This results in individuals feeling ‘stuck’ and powerless with no avenue to voice their concerns.   

ACTION:  Prepare an inventory of current avenues of escalation provided in the McGill workplace and promote these via the HR website. 

Reward and reinforce good management practices
The University’s current approach to budget management incentivizes the wrong behaviours within and between units, including hiding of funds and short-sighted financial management. This is particularly harmful in the current budget reality. Administrative units that undertake to look at their practices and streamline their processes with measurable financial success should be rewarded.  

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to explore the creation of a framework for rewarding units that demonstrate cost-efficient management practices.

Leverage opportunities to connect with and support projects with significant implications for our administrative workforce, such as the R2R project  
One of the main objectives of the My Workplace priority project is to enable a shift in the workplace culture at McGill to better reflect the traits of a learning organization.  The My Workplace project is taking place concurrently with the implementation of the Recruitment to Retirement project which will substantially modify and streamline how we carry out all of our academic personnel and HR processes across the University, directly impacting the day to day work of many administrative and support staff.  It makes strategic sense to support cross-fertilization between these two major change initiatives at McGill.

ACTION: Create opportunities for collaboration and information-sharing between My Workplace and R2R.   

Job shadowing and employee mentoring
Our employees have told us that significant barriers exist between various McGill areas and units, impeding collaboration and hampering work. Increased interaction, job shadowing, staff-to-staff mentoring and networking across units would help build mutual trust and unblock communication lines, as well as provide a cost effective avenue for career development.

ACTION: Mandate the My Workplace team to explore the feasibility of a program that could provide either job shadowing, staff-to-staff mentoring or work rotations, consulting appropriately with Organizational Development. 

Change the tone, change the narrative
Our staff have told us – through both the Learning Organization Survey and the five Discussion Groups that followed – that their senior leaders seem distant, bureaucratic, and disconnected from employees’ local realities. That narrative is reinforced by our tendency to communicate through excessively formal, complex language – the tone of a message can convey as much as its content. If we as leaders aim to appear accessible, we can begin by making our language accessible as well.

A more conversational tone, simpler phrasing, the elimination of jargon, and the increased use of contractions can make messages easier to digest and significantly more effective. Just as important, simpler messaging can help to create the impression that McGill’s leaders and its employees all speak the same language.

ACTION: Indicate to senior administrators that McGill’s messaging should be clearer, simpler and generally more conversational in tone. Considering the fact that language has to be accessible explore the option of targeted communication dependant on the audience.

Make McGill courses more accessible to our administrative and support staff
Many administrative and support staff members expressed frustration at the inability to take advantage of the many valuable and highly relevant courses offered through the School of Continuing Studies and McGill’s Executive Institute.  McGill’s School of Continuing Studies' non-credit courses do not qualify for the staff tuition waiver. Courses in the Executive Institute, even though offered at a 50% discount to McGill staff are still inaccessibly expensive for most.  An idea proposed during our Macdonald Campus summer discussion group was for Continuing Studies and the Executive Institute to offer courses to McGill staff members at a discount when they are not fully subscribed.  This plan has the advantage of enabling courses to take place with a full student complement for fulsome class discussions and high student engagement, while giving staff an opportunity to participate in these courses without paying full tuition out-of-pocket and ensuring that the knowledge gained by the staff member would benefit the University.

ACTION:  Explore the feasibility of offering undersubscribed School of Continuing Studies and Executive Institute courses to McGill’s administrative and support staff at a discount.