Spontaneity

It has been a while since I have written on this – not even sure who is still “watching” out there, but I thought it could use some new words of wisdom!  This semester is my last and I am only taking one class – the capstone course.  It has definitely been a roller coaster ride from the get go!  We are working with a local independent radio station as our client and have found that consulting is not as easy as it seems in class!  The client approached us with what they thought was the problem – committed listenership – which was defined as people who both listen and donate to the station.  Well, after some further investigation it seems there is an underlying problem of communication and management.  Unfortunately, we have not had much access to volunteers, management, or listeners…so we have had to be very creative with our data gathering.  Yet, it is amazing how much we have learned from simple observations regarding interaction between us and the client, interaction among station members, listening to the station, and viewing the website.  We have also collected some research from outside sources and even managed to gather data from other similar radio stations in Colorado, Nebraska, and New Jersey.

There have been multiple points in which we (my team) were extremely frustrated, and it seems that a lot of it has to do with poor timing!  It is also very difficult to track members of the station down since the are volunteers themselves and have other jobs, responsibilities, etc.  But, we have pulled together in a strong way and feel we have plenty to offer in our final presentation to the client.  We hope they take our findings to heart and use it to benefit the station in some way, shape, or form.  The most important thing, though, is how much we have all learned from this process.  We have all grown stronger in multiple facets and continue to develop as HRD practitioners.

I will follow up in about 3 weeks with a full blog recapping the entire process in detail, along with our final presentation success