Administrative Task Force Project

A team of students was asked to help a University strategic planning group work more effectively to imagine the future of the University of the Arts.

Working with the Administrative Task Force of the University, a team of students was able to examine how to facilitate administrative decision-making through visualizing flows of communication and work. Using the practice of dialogue mapping, a specific technique that maps comments in a meeting to help groups regulate the conversation, the team was able to come up with interventions to help the Task Force members guide themselves to consensus and solutions. Visualizing workflows for special projects, conducting interviews, and researching effective collaboration in higher education helped the team suggest further large-scale interventions, including a centralized knowledgebase of administrative information, a social event for staff to network and build informal relationships that would serve as a foundation for further collaboration.