Welcome to the March 2020 Newsletter

What times we live in! In March last year four hundred colleagues gathered at Work Smarter Together 2019, our biennial showcase and celebration of the dedication and commitment that is a core strength of UCD. What changes a year has brought, this last month has brought. The creativity and collaboration WST celebrates is now, more than ever, to be seen …

WST Spotlight

Introduction to Change Management

At a higher education conference last summer I came across a change management framework developed by a group called Prosci (https://www.prosci.com/). Prosci stood out because so many of the folks at the conference used Prosci in doing their day to day business in university administration – it was simply part how they approach change. We …

PRINCE2 Project Management

Project Management is a term very much in the zeitgeist right now. Whether you hold the title of Project Manager or not, there is a growing expectation on people to successfully deliver projects as part of their role. With this growing demand for Project Managers there is also an emerging, seemingly ever-growing, supply of Project …

Community news

Working Remotely – How do we do it?

Working remotely is new to most of us and it is fair to say we are all still finding our feet. Over the past few days, I spoke to some colleagues about how they are approaching remote working and now I am sharing what I have learned with you. The table below provides some examples …

Green Belt Awardees 2020

Becoming a Green Belt (GB) is an opportunity to gain valuable tools and experience to successfully lead and complete improvement projects. Last year we had 10 very impressive projects from across UCD and the GBs were awarded their certificates and parchments at the UCD Work Smarter Together February 20 2020 event. Let's give a round …

Presentations from WST February Event

Work Smarter Together February events always focus on UCD community projects and stories and this year event, was no exception. We met in Moore Auditorium in O'Brien Centre for Science on 20th of February 2020 to listen to our colleagues project stories, Communities of Practice news and other smart ideas aka Smart Cards. We also …

Continuous Improvement

What is the climate impact of international education?

The intersection between climate change and international education is becoming an increasingly important area of discussion. Indeed, the UCD Strategy 2020-2024 Rising to the Future identifies sustainability as its first strategic theme, stating that "as a matter of urgency, humanity must learn to live sustainably without degrading its shared planet." With the support of my Project …

Have you seen UCD Smart Cards yet?

We all know good ideas come along all the time in all shapes and sizes and help people solve problems in daily work. A Work Smarter Together Smart Card is a simple one-page card that showcases what you did or used in your workplace to make things better for you, your team, your unit or …

USM Continuation Common Process Review

On October 22 2019, as part of the Unified Support Model (USM) rollout, we ran an Rapid Improvement Event focused on the implementation of the Continuation & Readmission Policy. Our focus was to agree & implement a common interim process for local operation of the Continuation Policy, and to identify an ideal process for future …

Communities of practice

Latest News from Community of Practice for School Managers

The Community of Practice for School Managers is continuing to contact each other, to discuss the developing challenges in the unique circumstances UCD now finds itself in. We have been able to discuss ongoing concerns re: IELTS scores, new arrangements regarding expenses sheets, and also in a general sense the capacity …

URMAN CoP Update

URMAN (UCD Research Managers and Administrators Network) is a Community of Practice which was established in UCD in 2013. Our objectives include providing a forum to share knowledge and best practice in areas of interest to our members. We also seek to improve recognition and identity for the profession of research management and administration. We have over …

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