BYU's Intramural Program--Aligning for the Better
BYU has one of the largest intramural sports programs in the country. Students can be involved in over 30 sports year-round, and can join the 12,000 other students, faculty and staff, and BYU ward members that sign-up each year. Compared to other programs in the country, BYU obviously has become more aligned with the 7-S model because they need to in order to accommodate all the participants. I have worked for BYU Intramurals since September of 2008; first as an official and now as an activity supervisor. I really love the intramural program, and I know that many participants take the program for granted. Over these past couple of years, I have seen some ways that the program could be improved, ways that they could become more fully aligned with the 7-S model, specifically with style and shared values.
Shared Values. Other than the fact that BYU programs already expand on BYU’s mission to create an experience that is (1) spiritually strengthening, (2) intellectually enlarging, and (3) character building, leading to (4) lifelong learning and service; BYU intramurals does not, to my knowledge, have their own shared values. If Intramurals had a specific and known set of goals that the employees could all work towards together, there would be more synergy, more satisfied participants, harder working employees, and a better overall program.
Style. Intramural employees are very segregated, with the officials never interacting with the supervisors except when working—and even then, the officials are mostly in the game, while the supervisors are on the sidelines. Supervisors have their meetings, luncheons, retreats, etc.; while officials have their own meetings, retreats, and parties. As an official, I always felt that the supervisors were above us, but they were being paid the same as us, and my boss always felt the need to remind us that we were all on the same level. Another aspect that bothered me as an official was the fact that the supervisors went on an annual weekend retreat to Sundance. The officials went to a 3-hour ropes course activity. Besides the fact that officials need to have a stronger relationship with their co-workers than supervisors do (because they frequently work in pairs, whereas supervisors work individually), providing a much better retreat for supervisors creates a disconnect between the groups. If intramurals were to create an operating style that fostered better relations between the two groups, similar outcomes to creating shared values would occur—more synergy, better understanding of each other, and a better overall program.
I really do feel that BYU Intramurals is a great program that is already aligned in most of the S’s of a great company, but I feel that if they did look for ways to improve, they could definitely find some.
