Course Resource

An Average Day at Mi-ORG

Source: Pexels, Pixabay.

April 25th:

(Morning)

You make it to work at your typical 8:35 a.m. Traffic was a little heavy this morning, but you made it
safe and sound. You pull out your badge and present it to security as you walk in the front doors
and head to the elevator. You make it to the fourth floor and step out into the newly renovated
open floor plan already buzzing with morning calls, conversations, and the hum of the printer.

Once you’re finally at your desk and checking your email, you notice an announcement from the VP
of Communications and are reminded of your 10 a.m. staff briefing. You’re presenting a new
workflow for collaborative project development to your team and have invited several colleagues
to give feedback on the new process design. While you’re considering this you get a call:
"I know it’s early, but I’m going to need you to send over the latest client prospect list you’ve been
working on," says Director Sandra Collins. "Based on our projections, we’re going to need to begin
working on those no later than the end of the week. Thanks a lot, hope the rest of the day goes
well for you." She hangs up, and you fumble through your files to find the document to send.
You’re glad to report on the two new nonprofits, the three government agencies, and the
corporate conglomerate groups that have reached out for Mi-ORG services. After you’ve completed
this unexpected request, you make your way down the hall for a cup of coffee.

You’re greeted by the VP of Annual Giving and you wish him the best in his upcoming retirement.
"Yes, looking forward to it," VP Bensworth says. "I know a lot of us are leaving the company, but I’m
sure that will only lead to the next era of Mi-ORG. I’m sure some of the newer staff like yourself will
make a great impact here. Looking back, I think the only thing I would have liked to see is greater
perspective on some of our bigger initiatives. It’s always better to have a diverse set of minds
collaborating." You conclude the conversation and head back to your desk with your coffee.

You prep for your 10 a.m. meeting with only minimal interruption, which is good because you don’t
quite have all your slides together and you want to live up to the Mi-ORG principle "There’s no
excuse for a problem that has time for a solution" and you wanted to make a good impression for
your new team.

When you make it into the meeting, you see that the employees who have been with the company
the longest are already in the room, but a few others invited to the meeting are not present yet.
"Do we have anyone calling in to the meeting by phone?" you ask. Several of the members shake
their heads as they check the meeting invite. With three managers and two associates in the room,
you begin your presentation at 10:05 a.m. Three minutes later, the others (an associate and two
specialists) enter the room. "Sorry," one of the associates interrupts. "Don’t let us take away from
the presentation; we’ll just grab the meeting notes to catch up." You wonder about the reason for
their tardiness, but proceed with your discussion of the new collaborative approach to project
management. Just before you conclude, one of the specialists, who has been on her phone, looks
concerned as she leaves the meeting early.

Finally, you ask the others for feedback and questions, and soon the meeting concludes. It’s 11:30
a.m., and you grab an apple from the free fruit bin the company supplies every other day. It should
go great with the power bar you brought for lunch; you know that you probably won’t have much
time for a lunch break today. You get back to your desk and consider the circumstances in the
meeting and whether to discuss tardiness with the employees involved. You take a few more
minutes to clear your inbox of the deluge of daily messages generated by Mi-ORG's web task
management system. Unfortunately, you have been subscribed to notifications for several projects
outside of your direct supervision, so you often miss important emails that get mixed in.
(Afternoon)

It's noon. You're thinking about lunch when one of your direct reports comes in and asks if you
have a few minutes to discuss the quarterly review. The management system for the employee
evaluations is multifaceted and requires each employee to answer 20 questions each quarter about
their performance, achievements, and benchmarks. This process is cumbersome, as it then must be
reviewed with a supervisor. However difficult it may be, the quarterly checks are the primary
informant for promotions and pay increases, so everyone takes them very seriously.

By 12:45 p.m., you finish the chat and then have 15 minutes to eat your apple and snack bar and
guzzle a little more coffee. "I gotta start drinking more water," you think as you make your way to
the next two-hour meeting. This meeting is with executive management and Director of Human
Resources Kevin Sheridan. The new company initiatives are repeated, and everyone gives reports
on their ideas for improving the use of new technologies; social media activity; and employee
morale, engagement, and satisfaction. You mention how the military is incorporating some of these
components into its infrastructure, and everyone seems impressed. Kevin Sheridan challenges you
to apply those practices and other best practices in the field to your team’s initiatives.

As you head back once again to your office, you pass an informal birthday celebration in the open
space; you appreciate the spontaneous comradery, but it looks like some of the other members in
the open space seem frustrated by the noise. You wonder if everyone got the memo. You're not
sure if you were not invited or lost it in your email. Regardless, you have to get back to your desk
for a few minutes to grab your printouts on a new candidate you’re interviewing with a committee.

"Room 3344... 3344," you mutter as you try to find your way through the still-unfamiliar hallways.
You find it and join the committee. You notice that the rest of the interview committee is composed
of older white men; although they are some of the best employees you’ve met at Mi-ORG, you
know it’s not a good representation of the company, especially after so many older members have
retired and new recruits had taken those positions. The candidate, a middle-aged Peruvian woman,
arrives and showcases her organizational knowledge and skill sets. You are pretty impressed with
her background, but some of the other members on the team insist on a few more interviews.
"All we’ve seen thus far are women," says one of the committee members.

(Late Day)

Looking at your phone, you see that it’s already past 4 p.m., and you haven’t even gotten to the
bulk of your actual work today with all the meetings. At this point, you know that you’ll probably
have to work until at least 7 p.m. to finish another presentation for tomorrow and complete some
of the pending reviews. You also need to remember to request time off for a medical checkup in a
few weeks; Mi-ORG is fairly structured, so it is important to get time off on the calendar. Feeling a
little pressure and craving another cup of coffee to keep you going, you make it to your office to
find one of your reports waiting for you. "Oh, great," you say in your frustration. "I’ve got a lot to
do; can this wait?" Your subordinate, who you now notice has been crying, says, "never mind, it can
wait" and leaves quickly. You feel bad about that decision and decide you’d better follow up with
her immediately, so you head toward her cubicle to see if you can patch things up. "All in a day’s
work at Mi-ORG," you think, feeling the pressure of the presentation getting heavier on your mind.

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