McGill Management

Internal Communication

Preliminary White Paper

Constituencies:

Faculty

Students

Staff

Issues:

Communication both up and down and across the organization is not as effective as it could be.

There is a desire to build a greater sense of shared community.

Implications:

Strongly affects the Faculty’s ability to attract and retain quality people.

Mixed/unclear messages and or lack of information about the Faculty’s achievements, direction and priorities undermine the effectiveness of our efforts.

Implications (cont.):

Missed opportunities to build synergies (areas of mutual interest and collaboration for faculty.)

Students want to feel that they are a more integral part of the Faculty. Until we succeed in fulfilling this need it will be very difficult to establish a lifelong relationship with them.

Objectives:

To strike a balance between the Faculty's culture of independence and autonomy and the need to build and nurture a sense of community for those who want it.

To provide more and better opportunities for rich interaction among Faculty members and between Faculty members, students and staff.

To develop effective ways of communicating information about the Faculty to Faculty, staff and students.

Some Successes to Build On:

ConsortiaOB Area student-faculty get-togetherRedesigned Faculty newsletter MUS student-faculty pizza nightFinance research seminarsPhD brown bag lunches (soon to be

underway)

Some Recommendations: Create a formal mentorship program to support new

Faculty.

Provide a more extensive and structured orientation for new faculty and staff

Clearly define and disseminate information about administrative roles and responsibilities so that information and assistance can be obtained in an efficient, timely fashion

Revive tradition of Friday research seminars.

Some Recommendations (cont.): Recognize faculty member’s achievements within the Faculty

at large. (eg. An intranet website for announcements about grants, awards, etc.)

Find ways to encourage Professors to work as second authors with PhD students.

Transform room 502 into an inviting “common room” where Faculty and PhD students can chat informally.

Provide Faculty members with a small budget so that they can host their first BCom &/or MBA classes of the semester in their homes. This could be on a voluntary basis initially.

Some Recommendations (cont.):

Organize several special events throughout the year where Faculty, students and staff can mingle.

Hold a weekly/monthly “coffee and donuts” drop-in hour for Faculty and students on the sixth floor.

Set aside a slot on the course timetable during which no courses would be scheduled to facilitate these types of events.

Some Recommendations (cont.):

Make more effective use of Faculty Council as a forum for information & discussion about core & private programs, student placement activity, fundraising etc.

Reserve an area of the sixth floor lounge for use by Faculty and staff.

Next Steps:

Prioritize initiatives

Identify required resources (financial and human) for top 3 to 5 initiatives

Implement