Strategic and Organizational Communications
Intro
For my senior project, I wanted to make a difference, something that would outlast my time here at BYU-Idaho. For almost four years, I have worked at the David O. McKay Library. Currently, I serve as Administrative Assistant. I love the library and the people that work there.
Project Summary
Recently the Library has undergone major changes, forcing the different departments to work in close proximity to one another. This, in turn, has revealed how little is truly understood about the inner workings of the Library. To combat this issue, I designed a handbook and a library-wide training. These resources bring the departments together, illustrate the interdependence that each department has with one another, and create unity among all of the teams at the library.
Handbook
Every department at the library shares the same goal: “To provide available and easily accessible resources for students, teachers, faculty, and community members to help them further their professional development.” To better understand this, I interviewed each of the Librarians who run a department. I asked them about how their department functions and what their goals were. This gave me a clear top-down view of the Library team.
I was also able to talk to several students in each department and get their perspectives. This bottom-up point of view brought to light feelings they had towards each department as well as new ideas on how to bring the departments together more cohesively to achieve the same goal.
I then compiled all of the information I acquired and created a handbook that provides a detailed rundown of each department, their goals, tasks/responsibilities, and what a day in the life looked like for each department.
Training
Using the handbook, I created a training for the various library departments. I collaborated with the librarians, organized a time and place for said training, and gave the training on March 13th to employees from all of the departments in the library.
This was such a fun project, and I learned so much about how to facilitate change and effective communication within an organization as well as the nuances of creating and giving trainings to help an organization flourish.