Priming the hand grenades
I have thought about my honors project subject area for some time since writing this on the 8th of September. The area of research I would like to create and complete a project on is
"What are the barriers and motivators to internal communication within a large organisation and what are the routes to improvement?"
If I learned anything from my last creative research project (and I did learn a lot, thank you Brian Robinson and David Lyon's) is that this aim/question will change as the project is carried forwards. I have always been a realist and thanks to that I have learned to quickly weigh up the issues that I may run into and what are the potential successes with most projects not just games related. I think it's important for me to try and answer as many questions in my first post that I have had and others.
Origins
The origins for my idea have a shaky start, so I want it made clear that it is not my intention to embarrass or insult any of those involved or implied, I will try my best to keep people anonymous to the best of my ability. On June the 1st, 2016 I was hired to be Dare to be Digital 2016's Intern which proved to be one of the best professional experiences I have had. On my first week I got to learn a lot about what goes on behind the scenes within Abertay University. Perhaps I am alone when I say this but when I wore my student 'hat' I didn't much of the university beyond my own studies. Thanks to those within the External Communications department I was quickly brought up to speed. My first task given to me was to introduce my self to all the participants of Dare (Dare to be Digital) and to find out what software and hardware they required to develop their games on when they attended the university just four weeks ahead of my start date. Yet this is where I fell into my first pitfall. The agreement between the Dare and Information services departments was not acceptable by myself and I 100% assumed for the participants. The agreement in question in short only allowed for network accounts and data storage to be set up for the participants but it would not allow for any software to be installed on any of the computers used by them! For those tech savvy may have realized that this had to be overturned instantly. Sadly for myself at the time I was told that this agreement was already signed and agreed by both parties months ago and there was nothing I could to change it and to make the best arrangements I could. At this moment I sensed that familiar tone I had heard at so many different work places, politics was at play.
I learned early on in my working life that unless you are a manager you are best to just go with the flow as you are always replaceable. Call me sentimental but I have grown to be proud of Abertay, especially the AMG department the lecturers there have helped bring out my best qualities. One of which might be annoying to some people now, is that I could not let this go down without trying to fight it. So I didn't follow my supervisors advice and I carried on speaking to those I viewed may have more information on this. After two weeks of water cooler chats with people and emails. I found out the cause of the situation and I also found out who held the solution.
Thankfully I had been doing so well with my other duties that Jackie McKenzie the Director of External communications asked to speak to me about a future plan she had unrelated to Dare. I decided that this was the opportunity to inform her about my current issue with the challenge. Thankfully Jackie agreed that it didn't matter what the office politics were, it was about the Dare participants and this speed bump would severely damage the reputation of the university. Within one week I was sitting in a meeting with all parties making plans for a new agreement, Jackie taught me a very important lesson that day. Office politics should not affect the reputation or progress of any work being carried out by staff. As the damage this can cause affects every department and the brand as a whole.
I think it's important that the work I want to carry out is beneficial for a career in the games industry and stray away from taking on the role of an human resources manager.