At Berry College, the Staff Advisory Committee regularly schedules staff development sessions. I attended one of these yesterday; the topic was improving customer service through process improvement and was given by Dr. John Grout. I’m not going rehash the seminar here, but basically the point was that we (staff) should evaluate our current processes and see if we can eliminate ‘waste,’ thereby making the processes improved.
We were supposed to be thinking of ways that we could improve customer service of our department (in my case, the Center for Instructional Technology). However, in my position I think one of my main functions can be defined as helping faculty improve processes and improve customer service (i.e. teaching). I came to this conclusion by looking at the different types of waste (information, process, physical environment, and people (not that kind of waste hehe)) and realizing that many of the faculty I work with are trying to eliminate one or kinds of waste from their teaching.
Not too long ago I had a discussion with another instructional technologist who was very adamant that I should not use what she called ‘convenient factors’ when talking to faculty about emerging and useful technologies. I disagree with her because I think that faculty can eliminate waste from their teaching and teaching preparation processes by using technology, hence giving them more time to focus on teaching and learning (and maybe some other technologies).
Waste that instructional technologists can help faculty eliminate:
- redundant input and output of data – create audio/video podcast to explain theories that cause students issues
- incompatible systems/converting formats – different systems in classrooms and office that cause headaches for faculty
- noise – maybe not physical noise, but interruptions and the like
- faulty office furniture/tripping hazards/use of chairs and tables as ladders/unbalanced or unsecured shelving and file cabinets – ok, maybe not a CIT issue here, but an issue nonetheless
- multitasking – help faculty speedup process, so they get finished quicker and there is less of a need for working on more than one task at once
- under utilization of talent – I think this applies to everyone
- lack of strategic focus – too much time spent on administrative tasks, and not on the broad/big picture
Dr. Grout referenced the book Flow in the Office by Carlos Venegas during this seminar.
