[quote=“wdimagineer2b” post=4449]Personally, I’d probably have cut out the opening ‘fidget and readjustment of genitalia’. :dry:[/quote]I think it was kept in to suggest the guy has a pair!
In other news, elsewhere on SharePoint:
[quote]ACO IC REVIEW- EXTRACT FROM INTERIM REPORT FOR COMDT ACO DATED 31 JAN 13
- On 5 Dec 12, Comdt ACO initiated a review of ACO internal communications.
AIM
- The aim of the Review is to examine and assess the effectiveness of ACO internal communications (IC) and to make recommendations as to how the ACO might enhance IC at all levels.
TIMELINE
- A final report is required by Mar 2013 but an interim report was submitted to the Comdt on 31 Jan 13 highlighting the emerging issues and making some early recommendations. An extract from the Interim Report summarising some of the key issues identified and recommended solutions is below.
DEFINITION
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For the purposes of the Review, IC has been defined as the sharing of information within the ACO for business purposes. Internal communications within the Organisation can take place using a whole variety of methods, techniques and channels which include verbal/spoken communications, telephone, post, e-mail, social media such as Facebook, text, websites and bespoke information management systems such as BADER, WESTMINSTER and DII.
SUMMARY OF TOP 10 ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS -
To date the Review has identified a high number of issues but I have produced a list of what I believe are the Top 10 issues and have recommended a solution for each issue. Not all of the issues that made the Top 10 are strategic in nature or the most important but they have been included because in my view addressing them or taking steps to ensure that personnel were aware that their concerns have been heard at the most senior levels may produce the quickest results with improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of IC within the ACO.
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Issue - Responsibility I could not identify a post within HQAC that felt that they were responsible for IC other than SO1 Co-ord who believed he was responsible for the strategy, policy and plans associated with IC but not the decision-making, generation, management or delivery of IC.
Recommendation It is recommended that COS or one of the HOBs is given the authority and responsibility for the timely, coherent, focused and integrated delivery IC across the Organisation. -
Issue – Need to Share There is a strong sense of ‘need to know’ as opposed to ‘need to share’ or a ‘desire to share’ that pervades the HQ and wider Organisation which compounds the widely held but inaccurate view that staff external to the HQ prefer ‘information pull’ to ‘information push’.
Recommendation Consideration should be given to making ‘Communications’ a standing agenda item at HOBs and the ACO MB to ensure the importance of IC is reinforced, situational awareness is improved and proactive and timely IC is encouraged. -
Issue – Standard Procedures and Rules There do not appear to be any bespoke rules and procedures for communicating within the ACO. ACP 24 simply gives generic guidance about the use of e-mails etc. This results in duplication, miscommunications and ultimately an increased workload and administrative burden for the permanent staffs and volunteers. Whilst some Regions and Wgs have been proactive and generated their own policies, SyOps and user guides, regrettably many of these have added, or retained out-of-date, restrictive policies or practices which are now creating difficulties and increasing workloads.
Recommendation I would recommend setting up a small working group to generate an ACO-wide User Guide for BADER and a set of ACO-wide rules for IC. These products should be for the volunteers, by the volunteers with appropriate command input and should also incorporate best practice from across the Organisation. Clearly to be effective, these ACO-wide publications will need to supersede any local documents/rules/procedures/ SyOps generated at Regional, Area or Wing level and all levels of Command with the ACO will need to embrace the new rules and procedures. -
Issue - Immediate Action ‘How To’ Guide As with any new information management system that has been developed bottom-up and rolled-out on a largely self-help basis, BADER is still struggling to meet the needs of such a large and diverse Organisation which has significant differences, at all levels, in IT literacy and experience, training and the regularity of use. However, there is a significant level of misinformation, incorrect information and a widespread lack of knowledge about BADER functionality and capabilities.
Recommendation Whilst awaiting the generation of a BADER User Guide and ACO-wide rules for IC, I recommend that a short aide memoire is created that provides the end-user with clear and unambiguous information and instructions enabling the common issues and misunderstandings about communications and BADER to be resolved or mitigated. For example, the aide memoire should cover how to set up alerts, how to set up mail groups within BADER e-mail, clarification of SyOps issues relating to auto-forwarding of BADER e-mails, accessing the generic e-mail account and BADER SMS site and the policy relating to communicating with cadets using social media or texting to name but a few. The BADER team is probably best placed to lead on this activity but will need volunteer input to ensure the communication is clear and unambiguous. Clearly to be effective, this Aide Memoire will need to supersede any local documents/rules/procedures/SyOps generated at Regional, Area or Wing level. -
Issue – Non-Standard Sharepoint Sites Linked to the 2 previous issues, there does not appear to be any standardisation across the different Sites within BADER SharePoint in terms of structure, terminology or working practices. There is also little or no evidence that the Sites have been generated or are operated with the volunteer in mind. This results in volunteers and the command chain reporting that there are mixed levels of confidence that personnel are able to readily and easily find the most up-to-date policies, forms and procedures and many volunteers report that it takes far too long for them to find anything on Sharepoint.
Recommendation I would recommend setting up a small working group under the leadership of the OSG, but with appropriate additional member(s) to represent the HQ and HOBs, to generate a new common structure and layout for all Sites on BADER SharePoint. However, to be successful in standardising and simplifying IC and raising confidence levels that the volunteers can find the most up-to-date information, all levels of Command within the ACO will need to embrace the new structure and it will need to be actively managed and policed following implementation. -
Issue – Lack of Understanding of the Volunteer’s Experience There is a widely-held perception across the Organisation that there is an ‘understanding gap’ between permanent staffs at Wg, Region and HQ level and the volunteer staffs which manifests itself as no real appreciation of what it is like to be a volunteer usually juggling a primary career, family and responsibilities within the ACO and often results in unrealistic deadlines and a workload more appropriate to a fulltime member of staff.
Recommendation HOBs, Regional Comdts and other permanent staffs should be made aware of the widespread complaint and concerns relating to unrealistic deadlines and everyone should be encouraged to challenge any unrealistic deadlines imposed external to the Organisation and to think carefully before setting a deadline. -
Issue – ACO-wide Communications There is a strongly and widely held view that urgent and important Organisation-wide communications should not be cascaded down the chain of command but should be sent out by HQAC to the whole Organisation, similar to the Internal Briefing Note system in use within the RAF. There is a need to increase the level of assurance that the majority of personnel are receiving the same information in an easily accessible and digestible format and timely manner. In addition, initiatives that reduce the number of duplicate e-mails or ineffective communications (attachments missing, links that don’t work) are required.
Recommendation With immediate effect, the majority of urgent and important ACO-wide communications, that do not require interpretation or amplification, should be sent out direct from HQAC using the ACO Announcement system within BADER SharePoint. In addition, the BADER Team and/or i-Hub should be directed that all urgent and important ACO-wide Announcements should be accompanied by an immediate alert that is e-mailed to all BADER users (information push). Of course, this is no guarantee that everyone with a BADER e-mail account will receive it immediately – some may if BADER e-mails are forwarded or duplicated to their work or home e-mail accounts or mobiles but the majority of volunteers do appear to log in to BADER e-mail at least once a week. In parallel, we would need to communicate to Regions, Areas and Wings that we are making this change to the ACO Announcements to reduce the number of, or eradicate, duplicate e-mails sent. -
Issue – Regular Routine Announcement/News Digest Many personnel have complained about information being communicated in a non-standard format or using non-standard methods, admin overload which results in them missing key information, communications arriving with or without attachments and embedded links that do not work or do not take them directly to the document/information.
Recommendation I recommend instigating a general or routine HQAC Announcement/News monthly digest (similar to the MOD’s monthly digest) which is sent out directly to all BADER accounts and includes links to all the key documents, policy changes etc which have been saved appropriately on the HQAC BADER SharePoint Site. Whilst BADER cannot currently automatically generate an appropriate monthly summary of announcements and news, I understand, from Wgs that already provide this service to their sqns on a weekly basis, that an ACO Monthly Digest could be readily prepared with minimal staff effort. OC Greater Manchester Wg has already volunteered to take on the task of preparing an ACO Monthly Digest, on behalf of the HQ, for a trial period. -
Issue – Military Language and Jargon Many volunteers find the military language and jargon used in e-mails and on SharePoint impenetrable.
Recommendation All permanent staffs should be encouraged to consider the audience that they are communicating with, to translate communications into plain English and to avoid any assumptions that their audience has any prior military knowledge or experience. -
Issue – Communicating with Cadets and Parents Communicating with parents/guardians is significantly more difficult than communicating with cadets. Most sqns report that sending hard copy information home with the cadet or sending information through the post is really the only effective method but complain that BADER will not allow them to run reports to access the home address or e-mail address information in such a way as to allow them to mail merge a letter or send a group e-mail thus making communications slow and laborious. Conversely, many CCFs have fewer or no problems as the School allows them to produce mail merged letters or send group e-mails using the School’s database. However, by far the biggest challenge is a lack of interest or complacency from the parents meaning that communications are usually one-way only.
Recommendation Consideration should be given to prioritising a change request to allow the generation of a report from SMS that would allow contact e-mail addresses and home addresses to be easily selected into a single list or used to create a group e-mail list or a mail merge letter.
CONCLUSION
- The complexity and diversity of the requirements for an effective IC system for the ACO should not be underestimated. IC now needs a strategic vision, leadership and commitment to enable the coherent development of BADER and other information management systems, communications channels and supporting procedures and rules to better meet the needs of the permanent staffs and volunteers and provide them with simpler, clearer and more effective communications and support.
N J Loveday
Special Projects Officer
ACO IC Review[/quote]
It’s somewhat telling of the state of affairs that I stumbled upon that document - rather than having it anywhere useful/usable!