In previous years we've tried to look both inside and outside of IRM, focusing on a specific question to help us assess progress and lay the groundwork for future work. This part looks at our internal processes, assessing what makes us tick. In addition to describing some of our cycles, this document references other written materials that describe those cycles in more detail. Writing helps us retain information over time. Writing helps us accumulate information across time.
Writing introduces the possibility of reflection and improvement in a process.
This part of our self-study is organized from the inside out in the sense that it looks at how we organize ourselves and eventually gets to the question of how we deliver a service that is important to the University. This emphasis is partly due to the belief that knowledge is a social artifact and partly because it's fun. Our staff meetings are an opportunity to train ourselves, coordinate and plan. The description of our current practice emphasizes a number of internal cycles to improve performance over time. We take each other out to lunch on people's birthdays.