Site Visit to AKT II

Yesterday we spent the morning at AKT II with Stuart Sagar and Carolina Lamerias. They shared their corporate organization and strategy. They also showed us examples of their projects.  Andy, Laura, Spencer, and Morgan asked the 9 Communication in the Workplace questions at the end.

Overall, the site visits have been a valuable part of the program. Unfortunately, since this last visit was so late in the program, the results were not integrated into the students' final report. However, the students created an additional appendix to hold the results from the AKT II site visit.

Site Visits

The site visits for our program have been very beneficial while at the same time being problematic. The goal was to spend a day each week at an international company and ask questions about their communication based on the Professional Writing Committee's Communication in the Workplace (CIW) report. 

In the planning stages, AIFS agreed to arrange two visits and I was responsible for two.  Over the last year, I networked with my contacts and corresponded with multiple companies and got agreements from four locations. Unfortunately, one fell through before we left the US. And two, Detica and SAS, had to back out once we arrived in the UK. At this point, we have finished two successful site visits to Keane (that I arranged) and Ramboll (that AIFS arranged). Despite the changes, we are able to readjust our schedule and make changes to our assignment while still maintaining the integrity and rigour of the course.

We were scheduled to go on a site visit this morning arranged by AIFS. However, it has been rescheduled to next Wednesday. On Tuesday, we are going on a behind the scenes tour of the Olympic site thanks to Dylan's father. We are counting the Olympic visit as our fourth site visit.

Although our visits may not have gone precisely as planned, they have been and will continue to be a valuable part of this program.

Site Visit to RAMBOLL's London Office

This morning we met Jena from AIFS at the Gloucester Road Tube Station and we followed her to the Ramboll office which is between Soho and the West End.  Ruth Johnson gave us an overview of what Ramboll does and took us on a tour of their office. All employees--from HR to engineers to the CEO--sit at tables in an open floor plan.  After the tour, we had tea and Ruth presented the students with a case study: examining and evaluating two possible building sites. Even though my 8 students are not civil or structural engineers, they used their critical thinking skills to approach the problem. 

Luke and Dylan asked the interview questions and Ruth provided great information for the students. Best quote from Ruth: "If you can't design a good report--how can you design a good building?"

Site Visit to KEANE's London Office

We had our first site visit this afternoon so we met in the lobby and walked to the Gloucester Road tube station together. When changing trains at Notting  Hill Gate tube station, one of the students did not make it on to the train. She was too far away to get to the train before the doors shut and the rest of us were too far into the train to get out before the doors shut. We waited at our final stop and her train arrived just a few moments later.

We went to KEANE located at the Royal Exchange in the City of London . We met with Ian Miller, the executive VP, and Julie Downing, the VP of HR for Europe.  They graciously shared their time and expertise with the students.

Page and Emily took the lead today and they asked 9 questions from the Professional Writing Committee's Communication in the Workplace report.

Communication in the Workplace Questions:

1. Are oral and written communication a part of your performance appraisal?
2. What percentage of your work week do you spend writing (planning, drafting, revising)?
3. What percentage of your time is spent working with others to plan and write documents?
4. What percentage of your writing time is spent composing the following: Email, Chat, IM, Text, blogs, wikis, short internal documents, short external document, long/formal documents? Other?
5. What type of documents do you write?
6. What percentage of your time communicating on the job is with people from other countries?
7. How did you learn to do the writing you have to do in your work – on the job, workplace training, college course, etc.?
8. In what ways has technology changed the way you communicate at work, especially over the past five years?
9. Please describe any examples of the consequences of effective or ineffective writing within your organization.

Page and Emily added some context to each question and Ian Miller answered each one and provided examples from his experience at Keane and EDS and offered helpful career advice.  Julie Downing discussed the importance of following codes of ethics and how international communication can be complicated due to regulations and laws.

It was a successful site visit. Mr. Miller was engaging and even funny at times. It was a worthwhile experience for the students and for me!