At the Faculty of Medicine, we should always take the opportunity to regularly review and improve our business processes. One way of doing this is by participating in communities of practice.
What are communities of practice?
Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning or problem solving in a shared domain, such as a group of administrators working on similar cost-savings initiatives, departmental grand rounds exploring novel techniques, or a gathering of first-time managers helping each other cope.
In a nutshell, communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. In an administrative business environment, this is often referred to as continuous improvement.
Improving Faculty business processes and reducing costs.
With recent budgetary restraints, the Faculty is looking at several cost-savings initiatives where communities of practice can provide invaluable input towards streamlining and managing costs. Communities will focus on business improvement goals such as:
- Understanding and resolving administrative or business process issues.
- Generating new ideas and solutions for improving services.
- Facilitating re-use of ideas and solutions across business units.
- Networking and building cross-business unit relationships.
- Developing thought leadership and guidance to others.
- Capturing, implementing and transferring administrative best practices.
Learn more about communities of practice at the BTO website.
The Business Transformation Office helps the Faculty of Medicine streamline business processes and create more efficient workflows. BTO projects are identified and approved by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). Recent projects have focused on reducing the cost of XEROX printing by limiting colour impressions, eliminating telephony costs related to fax machines and automating resident on-call stipend claims.
