Monday, November 10, 2008

UQ3 HR Newsletter

Guys, here is the newsletter as published for UCG HR folks re: UniQuest 3. It only took 3 versions to get it right...
0810_hr-newsletter_2.doc

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

L'Orologio Logistics

If you are here for more than 1 month, ask for the same price for 1 month of internet connectivity for your whole stay or it will be 8 euros/day after the month.

Get a monthly bus pass. It is for the calendar month, so time it appropriately. Get it at Porto Nuova near the Center.

Ask for a) a kitchen towel and b) a rack for drying your clothes (if you don't plan to use the very epensive service at 8 euros/blouse and much more for other items.

Ask Maurizia Gibbone at the Center to arrange transportation if you are flying in-out of Malpensa. It is far cheaper than a cab or the car service the Town House Hotel uses.

Try to stick to bus #12 at the stop at Vespucci. It runs frequently in the mornings. The evenings are more tricky. The 58 and 58b come to our stop, but not consistently and I haven't figured it out yet.

Share a cab with Carmela and Artur on late event nights. They are on your way home. Carmela will reimburse you for the fares and then she will be reimbursed by UNM.

If our contract is back on for sure when I leave in Feb., I will leave some things for you: decent knife, cutting board, tongs, veggie pealer. I'll leave them at the Center and let you know where to find them.

Work with Paola Sera at the Center. She is an angel and you will love her instantly. They don't speak much English here at L'Orologio so she can help you work through any interesting situations like a lack of hot water or lots of water leaking from underneath your tub. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place. But, like most multi-tennant buildings, it has its challenges.

Ok, brain drain just set in...

Team Dynamics

Call me at home at 407.240.7414 when I get back (10/26).

Typical work tasks

In the last 5 weeks I have been asked to:

Document
Review others' documentation
Provide coaching on others' documentation
Write/review assignments
Design
Review all kinds of stuff for English: brochures, UNM's new web site
Share thoughts on how UNM can improve efficiencies
Share thoughts on how UNM can rise to the next level
Explain the philosophies behind certain of our methodologies
Recommend music for play lists for events
Brainstorm themes for events
Run production
Process facilitate
Create training materials (for event roles like "development advisor"
Create and maintain the straw dog (using UNM's template)
Help create reports (select pix, clean pix)
Review reports for creativity and English
Find articles and/or studies for pre-read and assignments
Help clean up the production area after events
Find quotes
... I'll let you know if I remember more.

Learn the Language...

... or at least try....

Everyone here really appreciates it if we attempt to learn Italian. I have a monster dictionary and a decent CD set that wasn't very expensive. It has helped tremendously with not only my survival, but also with bonding with our colleagues.

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Final Report Sample

Documentation

Here are some tips for documentation and a sample.

(These are in addition to the notes I added previously.)

Note the day, module, title and speaker at the beginning of each new section. Sometimes they want the sections in separate files. You'll have to figure it out event-by-event.

They do 1 space after a period, but I'm old fashioned and still do 2. Only Oli notices so now I do it just to bug him.

Of course you need to step up for other roles as needed, but everyone understands if you prefer to review your documentation after each round while your memory is fresh. They love having it immediately following an event so they can do their reports.

If there are other documentors who are not native English speakers, you are invited and expected to correct their work (efficiency) as the native speaker and then give them feedback (effectivness). Wait for the invitation to give feedback. Some welcome it more than others.

You will be asked to review every assignment to make sure the English is correct. This gives you a great entree to join the design process if you don't have one already. Michael, based on what we have told them about you, they expect you to give input on design. They didn't expect me to design when I first came here, but assignments gave me an opportunity to open my big fat mouth and, of course, I did.

Fix the English. As non-native English speakers, it takes some many, many, many words to make a point. Just get the point. They appreciate it. I try to leave in a bit of the speaker's personality...

The well just went dry, I'll upload the final report that the sample (attached) documentation was used in so you can see it.

GAM%20Documentation%20Final.doc