Pat's Update/Discussion
Pat wanted the group to be aware of a couple of items:
- Senior Staff is working on some IS&T policy updates that will be communicated in the next several weeks
- Topics such as: travel, food, professional development, equipment purchasing, vacation reporting (approval, how & when)
CSS All Hands Meeting Feedback/Discussion:
- People liked format but some people felt that the questions were not clear
- Some people felt it was not well organized and there were last minute requests for anonymity
- If we stay consistent and keep doing these types of activities, we will get better at it
- Might be a good idea to randomly sign people to tables so the "usual" folks don't sit together. Could get new ideas flowing.
- People struggled with understanding some of the question topics
- Provided an opportunity to explain what you or your group does and what your mission is
- People brought up the concept of Speed Dating that was once used at an IS&T Leadership meeting. Some liked it and some hated it. Good professional activity.
- People did not contribute between tables
- People did not understand what the bag on the table was for
- Some facilitators felt that they received useful feedback and have already acted on it
- The Leaders group that we should share that with the entire CSS Organization. We often have these activities but do not share what the outcome was. Marck Wiklund has already taken action and maybe some people have also.
AI: Collect data and add it to the wiki and also share with the organization some of the "Action" that has been taken since that meeting because of that meeting. Irina, Pat & Elaine will work on that. This is what you said and this is what we have done.
Marilyn's Communication on 2/9 discussion:
- Staff want to receive communication as soon as dates are available..dates are not set right now
- Stay open and continue to communicate
- People are becoming very sensitive, tough to manage, over reactive
- Its become challenging for team leads to get work done because of the interpersonal relationships
- People are feeling scared and nervous
- Some people feel that we do not need an IS&T All Hands because there is nothing new to report
- Task Force reports have conflicting messages and are causing stress
- We need to pay attention and continue to communicate positive change
- We need to move forward with the work because the worst thing that we can do is just wait and do nothing
- We need to get past the mind set that this does not happen at MIT because it does
PM Discussion - Steve Wining Facilitated
Initiating Projects in CSS and "What People Want":
- Who looks at projects in Daptiv?
- What is the current attitude of Senior Staff towards Daptiv? Are they aware that there is work outside of Daptiv?
- Gap between IS&T projects that CSS supports and Capital "P" projects that go into Daptiv. How do we track/report on that work?
- We should not just about the tool, tool much time is spent on the tool
- As on organization we need to be clear about what goes into Daptiv
- There needs to be an organizational awareness of beyond people who are doing it
- People are involved in project based work all the time but it does meet Daptiv requirements
- If you take the 80/20 rule - Daptiv covers only the 20 of the work for CSS
- Can we develop a list (check-list) of guidelines for the accidental project manager - it should be a short list/low effort/with clear & obvious benefits for using it
- The check-list would have: 1) outcomes, 2) time-line, 3) deliverable
AI: Steve Winig volunteered to lead a sub-group to work on some of these ideas. People who are interested should contact him.
AI: Pat will start to send the Daptiv project reports to the CSS Leaders mailing list.
Possible Meeting Agenda Items
- Present results of what Steve's group has accomplished or the direction that they went in
- Share with group the CSS Resource conversation and work
- Action Items from the CSS All Hands
- Overview of CSS Projects
- AUX presentation on their process