Innovations

The GCA Reorganization Is Upon Us!

by Lily Gebrenegus

You’ve heard about it. People have talked about it. The suspense has risen to its peak. Now the time is here to actually see it happen. The GCA reorganization took place on January 3, 2005. Our office has worked for the last year to change the way we serve customers to give the best service possible.

In the spirit of the knowledge-driven worker, GCA is moving toward employees understanding all three of GCA’s major processes:

• Setting up new accounts
• Invoicing
• Reporting

Prior to the reorganization, employees were familiar with only one process. Now, there are six teams that can answer questions about any of those topics. Each team has three or four people that act as one point of contact for a set of schools and colleges. Our goal is to facilitate relationships with our process partners and customers and also create consistency for people who get confused about where to go when they have questions about their grants.

For more information about the way things used to be at GCA, take a stroll through the FIN Man 101: GCA article or the first article about our reorganization.

Our entire office has had a hand in aligning ourselves with this QI concept. Teams were established earlier this year to address issues that were important to accomplishing our goals.

I know, I know. You’re thinking: “How could all these people go from knowing one process to knowing three in just one year?” That’s a good question! Fortunately, all the people involved in the reorg have undergone intensive cross-training during the last several months. A training team was assembled to address the issues related to such an extensive effort. All three processes have been introduced and presented to the staff by those who currently know them best.

I know what you’re going to say: “I hope each process was sufficiently documented to ease the transition for everyone at GCA.” Thanks to documentation software named Procarta, we are working on documenting all the major processes in which GCA participates. Not only does it serve as a way of creating consistency among the six teams but is also a reference tool for newcomers and veterans alike.

Let me guess what your next thought might be. “You’ve covered the technical side but what about the human perspective?” Am I right? Not only is the new year upon us but this reorganization changed who works with whom within our office. We’ve had team building workshops hosted by some of FM’s best facilitators, Ruth Johnston and Karl Kraber, to help establish good working relationships with our new teams.

For further information about the reorg or to contact GCA, please visit the website below. There you can answer all your questions about who works with which schools and colleges:

http://www.washington.edu/research/gca/office/gcacontacts.html

Stop by and visit us at GCA to see how the new reorg works!