How Libraries Make Tough Choices in Difficult Times: Purposeful Abandonment

hdavid.stern@gmail.com

Introduction

The intention of this book is to serve two distinct populations of library staff. The first group of readers are those unfamiliar with basic management techniques in libraries, be they staff members or new administrators. For this group the book provides some considerations and techniques that have been developed through years of management training and sometimes painful experience. My hope is to offer guidance to both those being supervised and beginning supervisors. This information may also be helpful for newly appointed middle managers moving into more administrative positions.

The second group of targeted readers are experienced managers. My hope is to help busy managers perhaps discover some new tools and remember considerations that they may not always keep in mind as they work through their daily business. Perhaps browsing this book will remind them to see the larger aspects and incorporate particular elements of continual service reviews that are important to employ in order to develop and maintain a high performing organization.

This type of overview is offered as a practical guide for managers operating under difficult financial pressures. It concentrates on selected methods to identify priorities and to revise operations. The goal is to demonstrate sensitivity to user needs and to demonstrate the value of creativity and participatory decision making in allocating limited resources. No attempt is made to mention all, or even a full range, of the management tools and techniques that exist. To obtain a more complete coverage of the much larger suite of management techniques I would suggest reading management texts designed for librarians. I have included just a few relevant example materials within the book as Suggested readings. By no means do these few suggestions provide an adequate overview of the best materials to be reviewed. For serious reading on the topics mentioned in this book there are many journal articles, business case studies, and books about general management techniques. There are also entire sets of published materials about specific tools and techniques for the various aspects of communication, planning, project management, assessment, and personnel concerns that are discussed in this book. Plan to make professional development a career project, and continue to seek out new tools and techniques through the literature, professional development training, and through mentoring relationships.

We all dream of having a seat at the Round Table in Camelot, or at least of listening to the conversations like a fly on the wall. Everyone wants to be in the know, if not directly involved, in important decisions that have an impact on their life. Most people do not want to sit in meetings that provide meaningless outcomes in relation to their own personal interests. Concerns arise when people are not certain of what is being discussed and how these decisions might impact them directly. There will be fewer requests to sit at the big table if your organization has transparent meetings and adequate employee involvement in day-to-day decisions. If systems are developed that generate trust and respect there will be far fewer conflicts and barriers to progress. The goal of good management is to increase participation in decision making whenever and wherever it is advantageous so there are few surprises and excellent group dynamics. The camaraderie that develops will allow you to work together in difficult times to accomplish more than the bare minimum by consistently concentrating your efforts and resources on clearly defined and understood user-oriented priorities. This book contains suggestions that might help to create such pleasant and productive work environments. It also reminds managers to focus on outreach to users and stakeholders to obtain essential feedback as well as support and advocacy.

Case examples are included throughout the text to serve as demonstrations of these tools and techniques in practical situations. These examples describe how shared analysis and deeply considered service modifications have occurred and have resulted in improved services and demonstrated effective management and leadership.

I hope this book serves you well as a learning and stimulation tool, and as a reference tool, as you embark upon a successful and satisfying career as a fully engaged participant within a high performing organization.

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Considered and effective leadership

Abstract:

Difficult fiscal scenarios can be seen as opportunities to make difficult but necessary choices. External pressures can create a climate that will spur your organization to become more flexible and agile. Use unintended and undesirable circumstances to move your organization further along the path toward becoming a high performing organization, developing a culture that is even more responsive to user needs and expectations. Undertaking a complete organizational review can be time intensive and unsettling, but if done correctly, it can also be cleansing, invigorating, and helpful for staff morale. The result of incorporating purposeful abandonment will be a more effective organization, with an appreciative clientele and a realistic set of priorities and operations.

Key words

high performing organization

purposeful abandonment

external pressures

service reviews

financial difficulties

opportunities

enhancements

Why undertake a review?

As the economist Paul Romer stated, Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.

Consider your current difficult fiscal scenario as an opportunity to make difficult but necessary choices with less emotional resistance. Utilize the pressured climate to spur your organization to become even more flexible and agile. Use this unintended and undesirable impetus to develop a culture even more responsive to user needs and expectations. In reality, these are all desirable traits of a high-performing organization.

Undertaking a complete organizational review can be time intensive and frightening, but if done correctly, it can also be cleansing, invigorating, and helpful for staff morale. A well-conceived organizational review begins with considering and determining the ultimate intentions. Will the organization be satisfied if it continues to for the most part operate and perform as before, simply saving money after an efficiency re-engineering process? Or is this the right time to perform a more transformational evaluation and redesign, possibly abandoning less important operations while supplementing and/or enhancing existing services? A thorough organizational review should at least consider implementing transformational changes rather than merely modifying existing operations; even more so when resources are limited and new services are still expected. Purposeful abandonment of selected operations will be the logical consequence of intentionally using tough times as a driving force to examine, re-evaluate and drop certain historical but not recently re-evaluated tasks.

Organizational reviews may be initiated due to both internal and external factors. Changes in local conditions and priorities may result in reduced resource levels, or uncontrollable external costs may drive efforts to review and revise existing operations. Often it is both local competition and outside influences that pressure the organization, and the best ways to combat these factors are to be aware of potential stresses and proactively offer solutions that demonstrate your awareness of other competing claims on resources and concurrently enhance your services in important areas. Justifying budgets to simply maintain the status quo will not be as successful as offering better services with the same budget requests. Be seen as creative and entrepreneurial rather than conservative and safe.

Managing expectations, not operations

A library is a service organization, and success should be measured by the quality of the services provided. Quality can be measured in many ways – efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, creativity, and flexibility and agility to adapt in changing times. The most important element of success is the generation of user support and advocacy. In the highly competitive resource allocation negotiations that occur during challenging financial times, administrations often consider testimonials very highly … perhaps even more importantly than raw numbers which carry no inherent values. Powerful justifications and requests for additional or continuing resources should include important and informed stakeholder