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New Employee Orientation (NEO) Foundation Sessions


New Employees to the Libraries and Center for Creative Photography are required to complete four UA Libraries' NEO FOUNDATIONS SESSIONS within their first year:  Sessions I, II, III and V, in order to receive basic orientation to the UA Libraries and CCP around the mission, vision, the Libraries' team-based organizational structure and associated systems. Ideally you would complete these sessions between your third and ninth months of employment to provide you with further understanding and skills for working in a team based environment. The five Foundations sessions have been offered as group sessions in the UA Libraries approximately twice a year. 

HOWEVER, the sessions are currently under transition to new facilitator(s) so you should proceed on your own to review session materials by accessing the tutorials, powerpoint presentations and/or reading materials below.  If you have questions, ask your team leader or contact the Libraries HR office for assistance.  When group sessions are offered again, the Libraries' HR office will contact you to register.  You can expect your team leader to work with your schedule to facilitate your attendance.  Group sessions do not have to be taken in numerical order.

A sixth session, Preventing Sexual Harassment, is a UA requirement and offered only as an online tutorial only (no classroom) from the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE).  You should plan to complete this session within your first 3 months and provide your team's admin assistant with a copy of your certificate.

Contact the Human Resources and Organization Effectiveness Team (HROE) 621-6425 or lawrencee@u.library.arizona.edu if you have any problems accessing the material or if you have any other questions.  If you wish to attend but haven’t been here as long as three months, check with your work or team leader; it is better to attend than to miss the cycle.

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SESSIONS
GOALS/AGENDA
ADDITIONAL READINGS (Most are Optional)

CLASSROOM SESSION I:  The Big Picture:  Understanding the Systems Model and Library Vision, Mission and Principles

3/23/09

(Covers the first three tutorials #1-3 below)

  • Understand how the Libraries are connected to a larger system and affected by changes in the environment, in order to speed up engagement in decision-making and project staffing requiring contextual understanding of systems.
  • Understand that the Libraries are customer and future oriented.
  • Understand Library Vision, Mission and Principles and their impact on your performance of duties
  • Become acquainted with colleagues in other teams

 

 

Required Reading:

Optional Reading:

 

(vs. (3/18/09)

 

Pre-session Tutorial #1:
The Library and Center for Creative Photography Tour

  • Goal: Provides an introduction to the facilities and service sites in use by the Libraries & CCP
  • Behavior: Explore with an assigned buddy different sites in the UA Libraries/CCP
Pre-session Tutorial #2:
The Library Mission, Vision, and Principles

  • Goals:

    • Introduce the Libraries' Mission, Vision and Principles
    • Describe how the M/V/P's influence work at the Libraries/CCP

  • Behavior: Assess how current assignments relate to mission, vision, principles of Libraries/CCP.
Pre-session Tutorial #3: The Big Picture: Systems Thinking
  • Goal: Introduce the concept of systems thinking, and relate it to project planning and process improvement at the Libraries/CCP.

  • Behavior:

    • Recognize the difference between balancing loops and reinforcing loops
    • Apply concept of system feedback relationships to a problem-solving situation

CLASSROOM SESSION II: 

Processes, Team Structure and Systems:  Organizing in Response to a Changing Environment

4/6/09

                

  • Understand how we organize in response to change:
    • Frames and structure: ways of perceiving the complex, dynamic and living nature of the current organizational structure and team responsibilities
    • Deciding and Committing: the forces that compel change impact the decisions we make about how we organize our work.
    • Teams: the role of Functional Teams, standing Cross-Functional Teams and Project Teams.
    • Systems: the systems for sharing responsibility for planning, budgeting, decision-making, communication and performance management.
    • Direction: How the parts work as an organic whole for present and future customers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(vs. 12/18/08 mod. 4/2/09)

CLASSROOM SESSION III: 

Working in Teams

4/13/09

                

 

  • Understanding how team effectiveness increases the quality of decision-making and the rate of learning.
  • Learn Teamwork Skills
  • Review the activities of teams:
    • Improving and implementing new processes
    • Planning
    • Problem-solving
    • Learning
    • Assessing
    • Accountability sharing
    • Decision-making
    • Evaluating

 

 

 

(vs. 4/8/09)

CLASSROOM SESSION IV:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - Clarifying Individual  Preferences; Appreciating Individual Differences

4/20/09

 (Optional Session)

 

  • Introduction to personality type and understanding preferences
  • Includes self-assessment with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and personalized results of your preferences and type
  • Applications of type preferences in a team environment
  • Do What You Are, by Paul D. Tieger & Barbara Barron-Tieger (Little Brown & Co, 2001) available at Pima County Public Library

 

 

(vs.07-23-08)

CLASSROOM SESSION V:

Gaining Facilitation Skills

4/27/09

  • Introduction to facilitation skills
  • Best practices for effective meetings
  • Ground Rules
  • Team Norms

 

 (vs. 07-28-08)

SESSION VI:

Preventing Sexual Harassment Education Program

(Self-paced tutorial; no classroom session)

Completion of the Online Tutorial is a University of Arizona and Library Requirement

(Please retain of copy of the certificate for your records.)

  • The primary goal of this course is to enable you to identify sexual harassment behaviors.
  • Harassment based on any characteristic protected by UA policy is prohibited.
  • Once you can identify harassment of a sexual nature, i.e., sexual harassment, you should be able to recognize other forms of harassment.

This session was developed by the UA Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EO/AA). 

Taking approximately one hour to complete, the program can be accessed from any computer with Internet capability.  Those who do not have ready access to a computer, or who might be more successful receiving the information in another format, should consult with their supervisors to make alternate arrangements.

If you have problems with the system, call the Office of EO and AA at 621-9449.

(vs. UA EO/AAO Presentation 03/09)

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