New Online Training for Process Improvement
To request an invitation to the training, please send OEI (oei@uw.edu) your full name and UW email address.
UW Activities and Improvements Database
Browse the UW Activities and Improvements Database for ways UW teams can maintain and enhance quality.
Free Consulting Services
Available to all UW units. To request services, submit a request to OEI.
This initiative of the Sustainable Academic Business Plan provides valuable in-house organizational development services to campus groups working to achieve operational excellence through process improvements and innovations. Since the Organizational Effectiveness Initiative (OEI) team is centrally funded through the Provost’s Office, consulting services are offered free-of-charge to UW units.
OEI offers consulting, facilitation, and training on:
- Organizational Assessment
- Strategic Planning
- Process Improvement
- Change Management
- Leadership Development
- Metrics
- Other Organization Development Topics
Vision
OEI’s vision is to strengthen the UW’s infrastructure for the future, through operational excellence in administrative practices, in order to fully support and enable the University to advance its core vision for learning, research, and discovery.
The initiative distilled extensive input from 2y2d focus groups and other sources into the following principles for administration at the UW:
- Operate more effectively and efficiently to focus on core values.
- Collaborate across departments to decrease costs and improve services.
- Create a culture of continuous innovation.
- Demonstrate performance through data.
- Be fiscally and environmentally sustainable.
Read the full visioning document Administration for the 21st Century.
Accomplishments
- From January 2011 through July 2012, OEI provided services to 44 UW units, including consulting, facilitating, and training in organizational needs assessment, strategic planning, process improvement, change management, and metrics development.
- Developed unit-specific training, tools, and templates.
- Enhanced the OEI website, including development of self-assessment tools, templates, and other resources for campus use.
- Administered new employee and customer satisfaction surveys in collaboration with the Office of Educational Assessment (OEA), and provided senior leaders with analysis for use in designing improvements. Survey templates are available on the OEI website.
- Developed on-line modular process improvement training in partnership with the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS).
- Improved the ability to quickly track and report projects and results through creation of a new internal database.
Next Steps
- Continue providing high quality assessment, strategy development, and process improvement services to UW units.
- Continue adding tools and templates to website as a resource for campus.
- Network with organizations similar to OEI in other universities for new ideas and benchmarking
- Work to evolve OEI metrics.
- Create additional on-line training.