Can I buy you a coffee? The perfect blend for managing a pan-University project
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Lightning Talk at the Relationship Management in HE Libraries Group event 'People Skills for Positive Relationship Management' on 11 April 2019 at the London School of Economics
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Can I buy you a coffee? The perfect blend for managing a pan-University project
- 1. Can I buy you a coffee? The perfect blend for managing a pan-University project Helen Clough, Senior Library Manager helen.clough@open.ac.uk @helenalex TITLE
- 2. Communications on a pan-university project Formal papers Presentations Workshops Emails Intranet
- 4. 1:1 chats with key stakeholders in an informal setting Listen and learn Clarify Build rapport Inspire trust Humanise
Editor's Notes
- Hi my name is Helen Clough from the Library at the Open University. At the moment I’m leading a project to change the university’s referencing style from our own bespoke version of Harvard to the Cite Them Right version. I’m not going to talk about the detail of that project, but I’m aware that it may be of interest to some of you, so please do feel free to contact me if you’d like further information What I am going to talk about is how informal chats with key stakeholders over coffee have been incredibly helpful in pushing the project forward
- Changing the university’s referencing style is obviously a big project that requires communicating across the university I’ve written formal papers for university committees; I’ve presented at meetings all over the university and asked my colleagues to do the same; I’ve run workshops; sent a load of emails (some of which I’m sure haven’t been read) and also put news items up on the university’s internal websites. All of this can lead to information overload and crossed wires.
- I’ve seen various versions of the power/interest grid for identifying and managing stakeholders – some use “influence” instead of “power” But all agree that the stakeholders with the highest power or influence and the highest interest are your key stakeholders In my experience, the heads of faculties are in the Keep Satisfied grid – they have a lot of power, but with everything else on their plate, referencing is low down on their priority list. They will often delegate these things to the people who are going to have to implement the change and those who have the highest stake. And anyway I’d find it very difficult to get a meeting with a Dean of faculty. Some of my coffee chats were reactive – in one case I’d heard from a colleague that someone with a lot of influence had voiced concerns, so I got in contact with him and offered to buy him coffee and listen to his concerns Some were proactive – so my new referencing policy needed to go to a couple of university committees for comment and approval. I found out who was on those committees, emailed them with some information bout the project and offered to buy them a coffee and listen to any questions or concerns they might have.
- Informal setting Informal setting is key – people will say things face to face that they won’t in an email. For most of us who work on university campuses – the informal setting that’s most convenient is a coffee shop or refectory, so I offered to buy then a coffee. Listen and learn Obviously prepare well, but don’t jump straight in with ‘selling the benefits’ - listen first. I’ve learned so much from these chats by just being open to learning from other people’s experiences It helps that this is the first pan-university project I’ve lead – I’ve been very open about this, and that has worked in my favour because so many people have shared the benefit of their experience, given tips, key people to contact and how to get things through governance. Clarify People skim read emails, listen to rumours, jump to conclusions – this is an excellent opportunity to clarify the scope of the project and the benefits you’re aiming for. It’s a great opportunity to ask them questions too – what do they want out of the project? Don’t let sleeping dogs lie – bring it out in the open and talk about it Build rapport and inspire trust Just by the simple act of offering to take time out of your day to buy someone a coffee and listen to their concerns, you’re building rapport and inspiring trust. Humanise This goes both ways. From their point of you it can help them to see you as a person just trying to realise the benefits of a project, not an email address trying to impose yet another change. From your point of view it can help you see them as not someone who’s deliberately putting blockers in your way, or being difficult or resisting change – often their reservations are perfectly reasonable. If all goes well, you’ll gain knowledge and understanding and have key advocates and allies for your project.