Rehab Med administrative team on board with Top 20 by 2020 vision

When the Dean of Rehabilitation Medicine went to the U of A President's Retreat last year, he didn't think it would result in his administrative support team playing with Lego months later.

"I took Indira's message to heart-the quality of our services to students is pivotal for the U of A to attain a leadership position among publicly funded universities and become one of the world's Top 20. Our administrative team is at the frontline in terms of interaction with students and their families," says Martin Ferguson-Pell, PhD. "We need to cultivate a strong service culture, cut out unnecessary bureaucracy and find out how we can better support our admin teams to provide the best services for students, faculty and families."

So he approached U of A Human Resources' Staff Learning and Development team, a resource for all faculties at the university.

"Dr. Ferguson-Pell wanted to identify strategies to further strengthen the culture of service within the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine," says Cara Jones, senior advisor, Staff Learning and Development. "Every faculty has its challenges; he wanted to find solutions to barriers within and outside the faculty."

Jones and Melissa Stahl, a fellow member of the Staff Learning and Development team, spent weeks assessing the needs of the support staff and the faculty's goals. They developed an Administrative Support Retreat to specifically meet the objectives of the faculty.

"We create a unique plan for each faculty or department, outlining purposes and specific desired outcomes," Stahl explains.
About 20 administrative staff got together at Lister Hall in December and began the day by establishing ground rules like, "Everyone's ideas count," "It's OK to disagree," and "Have fun!" Ferguson-Pell shared his thoughts about the faculty's commitment to support staff and building an environment where people want to work, learn and be part of the excitement.

The staff then discussed the positive things that were already happening at the faculty and university. They wrote these down and put them on colourful building blocks (large Lego pieces), creating a foundation. Then they identified the challenges to a unified service culture and saw how these challenges can break down that foundation.

"Then everyone brainstormed solutions to these challenges, coming up with ideas like more transparency, focusing on improving existing services instead of introducing new ones, learning from mistakes and getting together more often," Jones smiles.

These solutions were written down and each member signed a solution they would personally commit to. The solutions were put on building blocks and added to the overall structure, a structure that was made to represent Corbett Hall, the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine's building.

Admin support staff left the retreat feeling refreshed, desiring more time together for team building in the future.

"It was overall very positive. I didn't expect the day to be as fun as it was, but the facilitators (Jones and Stahl) made it relaxed and informal," says Judy Sara, student records and admissions coordinator.

"It was good to get together with other staff in the faculty, chat and feel connected," says Angela Libutti, grad studies and research assistant. "And we got to play with Lego!" she laughs.

The Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine's admin team plans to have more get-togethers in the New Year to ensure that they follow-through with their personal commitments in creating outstanding administrative support for students and faculty.

Photos by Melissa Stahl. Special thanks to Anita Yates and Carol Ebert for their organization.