Using Change Management to Transform Your Library (April 2018)
1. C AT H E R I N E S O E H N E R
J . W I L L AR D M AR R I O T T L I B R ARY
U N I V E R S I T Y O F U TAH
AP R I L 2 0 1 8
Managing Change:
How to keep your sanity
in an ever-changing world
2. Scenario: New Library Director
Close the main reference desk.
Incorporate reference into the circulation desk.
Put a coffee shop where the desk used to be.
Photo by Catherine Soehner
3. What would you have liked me to do differently as your
new director when delivering this message? Select all
that apply.
A. Provide reasons about why you are making this decision.
B. Provide an opportunity for feedback before a final decision
is made.
C. Help us understand how this is good for the library.
D. Give me a chance to tell you why I think this is a bad idea.
E. Other, please describe.
Photo by Stefan Baudy, CC BY
4. Objectives
Leadership
Apply a set of tools and best practices for invoking change
Least amount of upset
Most amount of getting to goals
Employees
Tools to survive and keep your sanity in an ever-changing
environment
Your power in an organization
Where you have and do not have control
5. Outline
My background
Change Management Resources
Systems Theory from Barry Oshry
Feedback
Transparency
Communication – what, when, how much
Re-thinking resistance
6. My Background
20 years of leadership and management experience
Photos by Elizabeth Skene, from http://library.ucsc.edu/science, by Mlibrary, and Catherine Soehner
7. What type of library do you work in?
• Academic
• Public
• School
• Government
• Special – Private Company
• Other, please describe
8. Change Management Resources
Eckel, Peter, Green, M., Hill, B., & Mallon, W. (1999). On Change
III - Taking Charge of Change: A Primer for Colleges and
Universities. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.
Kotter, John. "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.”
HBR Articles, 2007: 1-10.
Hanleybrown, Fay, John Kania, and Mark Kramer.
“Channeling change: Making collective impact work.” Stanford
Social Innovation Review 20 (2012): 1-8.
Judge, William Q., R. Steven Terrell. “Navigating the White Water
of Organization-Wide Change.” Chapter 4, 51-72. In: Carter,
Louis. Change Champion’s Field Guide: Strategies and Tools for
Leading Change in Your Organization (2nd Edition) : John Wiley
& Sons.
9. Common Features
Kotter; and Judge & Terrell
• Create Urgency
• Form a Powerful
Guiding Coalition
• Create a Vision
• Communicate the
Vision
• Empower Others to Act
• Plan for and Create
Short-term Wins
• Consolidate
Improvements
• Institutionalize New
Approaches
Eckel, et.al.
• Create the Context
• Lead with Teams
• Develop Change
Strategies
• Engage the Campus
Community
• Deploy Resources
• Provide Evidence of
Change
Hanleybrown, et.al.
• Backbone Support
• Common Agenda
• Continuous
Communication
• Mutually Reinforcing
Activities
• Shared Measurement
Communication is Key!
11. Systems Thinking
Typical = Internal Warfare
People respond based on their place in the
organizational structure
Photo by Ryan Roberts, CC-BY,SA
12. Bottoms
We see negative conditions
We believe others (higher ups) could fix these
conditions if they chose to… and, they don’t
It is a world in which our lives and the organization’s life
are in the hands of others, higher-ups, and they are
making a mess of it.
Photo by Nathan Rupert, CC BY-NC-ND
13. Middles
Between two or more people in the organization who
are in disagreement
Or have differing priorities or perspectives
It is a world in which we get little positive feedback from
anyone
Photo by Nathan Rupert, CC BY-NC-ND
14. Tops
We are responsible for some operation or a piece
of it
We suck up all responsibility to ourselves and
away from others
Leads to feeling burdened
Photo by Nathan Rupert, CC BY-NC-ND
16. Q&A
How many of you recognize the “Us
Against Them” or “Internal Warfare” in
your library?
• Yes
• No
Photo by Ryan Roberts, CC-BY,SA
17. Q&A
For those of you who answered “yes” in the last
question, how many of you would like to change
this dynamic?
• Yes
• No
18. The Way Out
Individual choices
Recognize how we contribute
Freedom to act differently
Hope = Partnership
Photo by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC-BY
19. Outline
My background
Change Management Resources
Systems Theory from Barry Oshry
Feedback
Transparency
Communication – what, when, how much
Re-thinking resistance
20. Feedback
What do we expect or hope will happen when we are
asked to give feedback?
Example: Food and Drink in the Library
21. Feedback – Food & Drink
A. People will leave a mess
B. Food leads to pests
C. Food and pests damage books
D. What about Special Collections
E. The smell!
F. Libraries are not cafes
G. I don’t want to be the food police
H. I want to have positive interactions with users
I. This is a good idea
22. Response – Food & Drink
Thank you
Plan is to move forward with allowing food and drink
Not in Special Collections
23. Feedback – Q&A
For those of you whose feedback was not
incorporated, did you think I considered your
ideas?
• Yes
• No
24. Response – Food & Drink
A. People will leave a mess
B. Food leads to pests
C. Food and pests damage books
D. What about Special Collections
E. The smell!
F. Libraries are not cafes
G. I don’t want to be the food police
H. I want to have positive interactions with users
I. This is a good idea
25. Feedback – Q&A
For those of you whose feedback was not
incorporated, did you think I considered your
ideas?
• Yes
• No
26. Feedback Toward Partnership
Employees
Included in the decision making process
Not everyone will see our opinions as we do
You are still valued, respected, and appreciated
Leadership
Not everyone is going to agree with you
Listen without judgement
Be prepared for passionate and strong opinions
Be ready to adjust the original idea
27. Feedback to the Boss
Is the decision final?
Do you have new information?
How important is it?
Connect feedback to organization’s and manager’s goals
Provide actionable suggestions
Curiosity is your friend
28. Feedback from Others
I don’t know what is going on!
Library Administration isn’t listening to the people on the
front lines.
You really could have done that better.
You should have told my group first.
All the work I’ve done in my career is not appreciated.
29. Feedback
What do we do with all this feedback?
How do we work in partnership?
Photo by Virtual EyeSee, CCBY
30. Evaluating Feedback
Stone, Douglas, and Sheila Heen.
Thanks for the feedback: The science and
art of receiving feedback well. Penguin
UK, 2014.
31. Tell Me More
Move from “That’s just wrong” to
“Tell me more.”
--Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen
33. What Was Meant
“I don’t know what’s going on!”
What she really meant:
1. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
2. I’m confused about a decision and the timing of the
announcement.
3. I just don’t like it.
34. Feedback Toward Partnership
As often as possible ask for feedback
Use “Tell me more” and similar questions
(Curiosity is your friend)
Listen without judgement or defensiveness
Take time to think
35. Outline
My background
Change Management Resources
Systems Theory from Barry Oshry
Feedback
Transparency
Communication – what, when, how much
Re-thinking resistance
36. Transparency
What do we expect or hope will happen when our
boss says they are going to be transparent?
37. Transparency
What do we expect or hope will happen when our
boss says they are going to be transparent?
• Example: We will be closing the main reference desk
because of reasons A, B, and C.
38. Communication is the Key
When
How much
What
Jick, Todd D. “Recipients of Change.” In Organization change : a comprehensive
reader. Edited by W. Warner Burke, Dale G. Lake, and Jill Waymire Paine, 404-417.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Photo by Catherine Soehner, CC-BY
39. Communication - When
First, managerial secrecy
probably has no positive value…
Greenhalgh, Leonard and Todd Jick, “Survivor Sense Making and
Reaction to Organizational Decline,” Management Communications
Quarterly, 2, (February 1989): 305-327.
40. Communication – How Much?
First drafts
Feedback and more drafts
Decision making process
41. Communication - What
Clarify expectations
What is and is not changing
Listen for where your employees will have to take big
risks
Jick, Todd D. “Recipients of Change.” In Organization change : a comprehensive
reader. Edited by W. Warner Burke, Dale G. Lake, and Jill Waymire Paine, 404-417.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Photo by Jason Eppink, CC-BY
42. Re-thinking Resistance
An indicator that change is already underway
Important information can come from resistors
Unearth core values
Working toward change
Jick, Todd D. “Recipients of Change.” In Organization change : a comprehensive
reader. Edited by W. Warner Burke, Dale G. Lake, and Jill Waymire Paine, 404-417. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
43. Conclusion
It is a fundamental tenet of participative
management that employees are more
likely to support what they help create...
Jick, Todd D. “Recipients of Change.” In Organization change : a comprehensive
reader. Edited by W. Warner Burke, Dale G. Lake, and Jill Waymire Paine, 404-417.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
Dealing with the nay-sayers, freak-outs, and doomsday predictors
Even when I’m at the top of the library organizational chart, I am a peon in the overall University. I sometimes find myself sounding like someone at the bottom.
Snow not plowed
Coke vs. Pepsi
What are your examples of where you fit in?
Even when I’m at the top of the library organizational chart, I am a peon in the overall University. I sometimes find myself sounding like someone at the bottom.
Snow not plowed
Coke vs. Pepsi
What are your examples of where you fit in?
Even when I’m at the top of the library organizational chart, I am a peon in the overall University. I sometimes find myself sounding like someone at the bottom.
Snow not plowed
Coke vs. Pepsi
What are your examples of where you fit in?
First, managerial secrecy probably has no positive value, even when management is undecided about the details of a forthcoming change. . . . [I]t seems better to share top management’s thinking about prospective changes than to attempt to conceal them. Given the propensity for such information to leak, and the strength and dynamics of rumor networks, attempts to conceal are likely to have limited success at best, and will most likely result in uncontrolled message content.”
clarify expectations; desc
Jason Eppink
ribe specifically what is and is not changing; and listen to where employees feel the biggest risks will be involved for them