How can I encourage people in my department to follow a brand standard without making the standard mandatory?

Getting voluntary compliance with any sort of standard is always difficult. The Wall has 2 suggestions: 1) Have a carrot. Find a way to reward those who do follow the standard without punishing those who don’t. 2) Start ’em young. Students, junior faculty, and early career staff are far more receptive to the idea that presentations and work need to follow standards, even if it’s not a requirement. The more that brand standard pops up around the department, the more normalized it will be such that anything different looks strange. Good luck!

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.