Planned project kickoff date: 09-01-2005
Target completion date: 09-30-2006
Actual completion date: --

Promoting Continuous Improvement through Enhanced Communication Opportunities.

Improving the coordination and alignment of strategies and actions plans with our mission, vision, and values is our primary goal. In so doing, we hope to enhance employee understanding of our various initiatives while providing additional opportunities for individual input into our planning processes. Expanded communication mechanisms will be pivotal to this Action Project.

Primary Category: Planning Continuous Improvement

Edison Community College is at a key juncture in its continuous quality journey. Many positive things are happening on our campus with broad-based involvement of stakeholder groups. But even so, some faculty and staff perceive little if any responsibility to promoting our initiatives or understanding their contributing roles. We believe more opportunities for learning and offering input into our planning processes will encourage individual buy-in and advocacy, as well as reduce misunderstanding of our organizational goals and objectives.

All organizational divisions, departments, and personnel will be impacted.

Organizational Learning—opportunities for information sharing and discussion via electronic discussion boards. Professional Development—increased understanding of Edison’s overarching goals and what roles individual’s have within specific areas. Employee Satisfaction—supporting of individual’s and their “need to know” and feel a part of organizational operation.

We hope to have designed and deployed a multi-facted communication repository that will provide multiple opportunities for inter-active communication throughout the college community. We plan to have this repository available by November 1, 2005, and will monitor access and effectiveness throughout the remainder of the academic year. At that point decisions will be made as to the repository-concept and its future use within the college.

Effectiveness of the project design and its use will be monitored directly by the number of "hits" to the various pages of the repository site and the general calibre of discussion that ensues. The six-member, cross-functional Action Project Team assigned this project will monitor project results.

We will measure its effectiveness through changes in the category-related responses to the "Are We Making Progress?" survey based on the Baldrige criteria of Strategic Planning, Human Resource Focus, and Process Management from February 2005 to February 2006.

The AQIP Action Project Team will champion the communication respository. All line administrators will have key responsibilities in postings and discussion interactions at the divisional or departmental levels. Expectation of participation by these line administrators is supported by the college president.