UTPB: Building a Team through Experience

Situation

The Division of Enrollment Management at UTPB was expanding to incorporate the Registrar’s Office. This came at a time of intense pressure on the division to grow the size of the incoming class. Prior to this change the division consisted primarily of the Admissions and Financial Aid operations, so the team was looking for a way to lift and strengthen morale while incorporating staff from a new office.

Solution

We devised an internal marketing and promotional event to serve both as a morale-building exercise and a professional development opportunity. We announced that the offices would close one afternoon to allow all staff to participate, and that the event would be a training “movie” (with emphasis on the tongue-in-cheek nature of the reference) taking place in the campus theater, complete with movie snacks (popcorn, boxed candy, soda and water). As we worked to find a college-based movie with a lighthearted theme, we had actually identified the movie Accepted (2006), a generally innocuous comedy about a group of high school students who aren’t admitted to any college so they create their own “on-paper” college and tell their parents and friends that they’re enrolled there. Hijinks ensue! All staff were notified that they would have the option of participating in a friendly competition, and as they watched the evolution of the fictional institution, they should write some kind of rule, policy, or procedure that would help the institution be legitimately successful. We also announced the three-person panel of external judges: a leader from Student Affairs, Athletics, and Marketing.

Success

This event proved to be a successful and popular launch to the newly reorganized division. Staff appreciated immensely the opportunity to take a break from the relentless pace of the work. Almost half of the division submitted competition entries, and we gave university-branded prizes (provided by Athletics, always a good source of swag!) to the winners selected by the judges. We also gave consolation prizes to all submitters. To extend the fun and the exercise, along with the announcement of winners we shared the entire anonymized list of submissions, and invited staff to a secondary competition in which they could indicate whether the submission had been made by a staff member from Admissions, Financial Aid, or the Registrar’s Office. We then offered a final round of prizes to the top guessers. The event served as a perfect activity to energize and strengthen the unity of the team, and staff talked about it for months afterward.