Operation Blue Sky (Sample)
Operation Blue Sky
West Virginia University Health Sciences strives to create a community that feels safe, remains curious and knows how to have fun. Research shows that communities featuring these three pillars increase levels of innovation, develop stronger bonds, are not held back by fear, have a greater sense of purpose and increase productivity.
WVU’s pursuit of strong working communities reduces symptoms of burn out, increased retention from students to faculty and all around higher levels of happiness.
Curiosity
One of the biggest barriers to enabling curiosity is the lack of time people have at work to be creative - thinking about new ways of doing things and innovative solutions to problems. The “Find 4” initiative challenges everyone to find four hours a week to be curious and challenges leaders to encourage and support this creative time.
Find 4 hours per week
- Find 4 hours a week to dedicate to being curious
- Do this without adding additional time at work
- Use the creative time to consider innovative solutions, read, learn something new or simply reflect.
What can leadership do?
- Eliminate unnecessary meetings
- Create a “meeting free zone” or day/week that non-essential meetings are discouraged (“First Friday”)
- Reward people for new ideas
- Hour meetings = 50 minutes
- Want your ideas (Ideas Cards at each seat)
Safety
Trust is an essential component of psychological safety to empower people to feel safe to contribute their ideas, opinions and beliefs. The “2gether” initiative aims to increase the sense of community and belonging through relevant seminar series, book clubs and social gatherings to bring people together and build relationships.
Seminar Series
- TEDalk style
- Invite external and internal experts to speak on various topics
- Psychological safety
- Trust
- Resilience
- High-functioning teams
Book Club
- Highlight a book each semester
- Offer small group discussions with a facilitator (grad student experiment)
- Conduct online group discussion
- Social media posts – key quotes from the reading that resonated
- Opportunity for people to give input on next book
Social Gatherings
- Schedule two pop-up events a quarter that bring people together across Health Sciences
- Encourage leaders to informally spend time with their faculty, staff and students - lunch, student rec room, sitting outside, etc.
- “Getting to know us” where the agenda is connection and informal - by the department
- “Happiness Lab” podcasts (Laurie Santos - Yale) - informal hosting of lunch and podcast - just chat
- “Women at Work” podcast (Amy Bernstein - Harvard Business Review) - an informal space for women to connect and share experiences
Conversational Space
Create living room style spaces throughout the Health Sciences Center that encourage conversations and relationship building.
Fun
People spend more time at work than practically anywhere else in their life – so why not make it fun? The “Let’s Play!” initiative will focus on creating dedicated space for fun and offer fun coaches that can help plan group activities. By identifying specific spaces that are dedicated to relaxing together, the value of having fun becomes a more tangible priority.
Let’s Play
People spend more time at work than practically anywhere else in their life – so why not make it fun? The “Let’s Play!” initiative will focus on creating dedicated space for fun and offer fun coaches that can help to plan group activities. By identifying specific spaces that are dedicated to relaxing together, the value of having fun becomes a more tangible priority.
Space for Fun
- Create a “makerspace” environment where people can meet to do crafts, play games, relax, listen to music, etc.
- Provide a mobile art cart for pop-up events
Fun Coaches
Train coaches that can help groups plan activities. Coaches can be available at a makerspace during certain hours to help facilitate activities.
Organized Fun
Organize at least four activities a semester
- Gaming tournaments
- Crafts
- Concerts
- Painting
- Dance classes
- Tie-dyeing