The best thing about the "Working" training program is
that it's led by Waterloo staff members, not by outsiders.
     Or, the best thing about "Working" is that it gives staff
a chance to meet people from the other side of campus and dis
cover that they have all the same aggravations and conflicts
that you do.
     Or, the best thing about "Working" is the skills it
delivers about getting along with co-workers and customers,
building teams, making things happen on the job.
     Or maybe the best thing about "Working" is the happy expe
rience of those who introduced the program, roaring into its
second year on all thirteen cylinders.
     "I don't know when I've ever worked on a committee that's
been more pleasurable," says Catherine Scott, UW's director of
personnel. "There's been nobody working at cross-purposes."
     She chairs the staff training and development committee,
which manages Working as well as the Front-Line program for
supervisors, which offers them similar ideas and skills suited
to their work.
     Other training programs ranging from "street-smart"
attitudes to a creativity workshop are also offered under the
committee's auspices.
     A brochure outlining what's available this winter term is
to be distributed this week, Scott said.
     Most of the staff training and development programs are of
fered to non-union staff; the budget for them was a part of the
staff salary settlement several years ago. "Working" is for
unionized staff as well.
     Talking about the program as a whole, Scott couldn't stop
singing the praises of her colleagues on the committee, as well
as the volunteer leaders for Front-Line and Working.
     More specifically:
     ù The staff training and development committee has five
members besides Scott. One is a personnel department colleague,
Katrina Maugham. One is a senior manager - until recently
Murray Shepherd, the university librarian, whose successor will
be announced soon.
     The other three are appointees of the staff association.
Ending their terms in December were Jane Richardson of computer
science and Kim Elliott of the environmental studies media
centre. Continuing is Mark Walker of earth sciences.
     Scott had high praise for Richardson and Elliott. "They
have been so representative of staff needs and wishes," she
said, calling them "thoughtful, intelligent members" of a busy
committee.
     Their successors haven't been named yet.
     ù The six senior managers who regularly lead sessions of
Front-Line. They include Scott herself, provost Dr. Jim
Kalbfleisch, treasurer Dorothy Battae, associate provost
(general services) Bob Elliott, Shepherd of the library, and
Dr. Gary Waller, chair of the psychology department.
     ù The thirteen staff volunteers who took special training
to become Working leaders. "Those people are so dedicated!"
said Scott, noting that it's not just the hours they spend
"facilitating" sessions but the preparation time beforehand and
even the effort they sometimes put into hanging up flip-charts
and moving furniture to get things ready.
     "I couldn't begin to say enough about what they've con
tributed to the university," she commented.
     They had a refresher course January 5, the better part of
a year after Working got started, and "I could see so much
confidence in how they presented themselves," the personnel
director said. "I thought they were great in March and April
when they were trained, but they've got eight months under
their belt and they're terrific!"
     (She added that thanks are also due to the managers they
work for, "for giving them the time to do these sessions and to
get ready", although there are endless night and weekend hours
as well.)

Learning: When Working was introduced, Scott said, "we wanted
to open up the doors, and we wanted people to be a part of the
whole university."
     She said one hope was that the staff who took the sessions
would come out saying "what a terrific staff group we have!
They have the same problems that I have, and I'm learning so
much from them."
     And response from the staff members who have taken Working
so far suggests that it's been a big success, Scott said. One
other indication: there's a big waiting list.
     But as more Working sessions are scheduled, more spaces
open up, so she's encouraging everyone interested to sign up
when the winter brochure comes out and gives the details.
     There's also a waiting list for Front-Line, she noted, at
least for the first module, "basic interpersonal skills". In
the fall term there was some difficulty scheduling the more
advanced modules that had been announced, but they'll be on the
winter program again and perhaps also offered in the spring.
     Something new is on the program this term also: "Core
Interpersonal Skills for Non-Management Professionals". It's a
cross between Front-Line and Working, with some material from
both programs, and it too developed an instant waiting list
when it was announced last fall, Scott said.
     For all these programs, she noted, the basic materials -
videos and workbooks - come from the American firm that de
veloped them. UW pays on a royalty basis for each person who
takes the programs.
     "But at its heart it's U of W," Scott said, because the
leaders are UW people, not outsiders, and they can encourage
discussion that focuses on UW's realities and the way things
are done here.
     That internal focus is very much to the credit of the
committee members who did the work as UW introduced Front-Line
and Working over the past three years, she said.
     Previously, the staff training and development program had
consisted mostly of one-shot seminars by outside experts, and
there are still a few of those. On the program for this term:
     ù "The Organized Employee."
     ù "Up-to-the-Minute Minutes".
     ù "Creativity Workshop."
     ù "The Phoenix Program", for "staff members at a plateau in
their lives either personally or professionally".
     Also planned is a monthly series of brown-bag lunches at
which the popular management videos by comedian John Cleese
will be shown.