Tag Archives: planning

CMLE, Podcast

Episode 309: Building Organizational Culture

The Three Circles Model Scheme eng
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This week we discuss Building Organizational Culture.

Joining us is Guest Host Karen Pundsack, director of the Great River Regional Library system here in Minnesota.

The Basics

You know the difference between being in a workplace with a terrible organizational culture, and one that supports you and your professional development. If you have worked in a terrible place, you know how hard it is to get motivated to work – or even to come to work. We talked about this in our Season Two Bonus Episode on Stress Management.

When your culture is good – that’s great! People generally enjoy their job, they like to come to work, and their colleagues and patrons are generally a source of good feelings. As a leader in this environment, you main job is not to mess it up. Keep the lines of communication open, keep sharing positive ideas and energy, and stay out of the way.

On the other end of the spectrum are too many libraries that have a toxic work environment. People who work in these places are frustrated by these bad working environments. Giving their best efforts is not even an option; getting through a day relatively unscathed is pretty much all they are trying to do. Managers are terrible, patrons are mean, colleagues are either not doing any work or focused on back-stabbing instead of working for success.

Overcoming a toxic environment is not easy. But there are a few steps managers can do to help to make it better. Everything will require buy-in from your staff, but here are some places to start.

  • Model the behavior you want. If you want people to be polite, helpful, friendly to customers and each other, and generally positive – it has to start with you. It does not end here, but there is no chance anyone will demonstrate better behavior than yours.
  • Change things around. Move the physical environment, put desks in new places, bring in brightly colored folders, paint a wall. Make things look different and more cheerful. Bring in a few plants, offer healthy foods or candy.
  • Ask people what they want. It is not always a straightforward and helpful as you might want. But taking time to ask people what they want from their job and from your library can give you some sense of issues. And, you get a feel for the people who are going to refuse to cooperate with any changes or improvements. (Refer back to Episode 305, on discipline and termination, when these problem people are not solvable.)
  • Make some plans and just dive in! Try some things, see what happens. Talk with staff as you make plans and put them into play; try to work with their thoughts and feedback as much as you can. Even if what you try to do to make the environment better crashes and burns, staff will at least see that you cared enough to do something.

“Good” means whatever you decide it means, so creating a definition of a good culture in your specific library is an important start. It cannot be just your vision of a good workplace – it needs to work for everyone. Then this is a valuable – and hard – topic for a staff meeting. After everyone gives ideas on what “good” is, what gaps do they see between today’s reality and that definition? How do they see being able to move from here to there? What can everyone do to make things easier on each other as you transition?

Set realistic goals for improving the culture. It did not become toxic overnight, and it will not get better that fast. But keep repeating your determination to make it happen, keep emphasizing the importance of a good work environment.

This is a quick look at building a good organizational culture. You can think of this like weeding your collection, or garden: if you keep on top of problems, the rest of it will be much nicer. So pay attention to your culture, and keep working to make it positive.

Thanks to our Guest Host Karen! And check back in with us next week to discuss Communication.

CMLE, Communication, Podcast

Episode 308: Budgeting

Introduction

Welcome back to Season Three of Linking Our Libraries! We are Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to share information with all types of libraries, archives, and other nonprofits working to build their skills. This season we are working through the tools you can use to be a better manager and leader.

This week we discuss Budgeting.

Joining us are our Guest Hosts Karen Pundsack and Aron Murphy from Great River Regional Library System here in Minnesota.

(Check out our full information page for all the info and links to books!)

The Basics

It is a scary word, and a scary concept, for some. To make it worse, too many people come in with the idea that it’s not polite to talk about money or to ask about it; so they do not even want to get started. We never have enough of it, it’s tough to figure out where it comes from, and it flows right out the door really quickly. But we know we need to understand it and to handle it – and the pressure can be immense.

For many libraries, our traditional sources of money – tuition, property taxes, grants etc. – may be less certain or actually drying up. Working out some strategies for bringing in other money may be a nice thing; or it may be vital for your continued existence. Listen to our episode from last season on Grant Writing for more ideas there. Just remember that money can come from all kinds of sources; if you do not have enough – it’s time to go hunting for more.

It may be easier to remember that budgets are planning documents. You already know about planning – we discussed it last week. Budgets are plans with dollars.

The basics are pretty clear. Money comes in. You write that down as revenue. Money flows back out. You write that down as expenses. From your planned total numbers in the budget document, you can add the first and subtract the second. Try to hit the end of your timeframe without running out of money. And pretty much, that’s it! (See? Not so scary!)

Even when things are tight, and the budget is tough, you will be a better leader when you really know about the flow of money in and out of your library.

This was a very fast overview of a complicated subject. Money is important, but budgeting is planning and making those plans reality. So as you prepare your budget, look back at our episode from last week talking about planning, and think about the plans you want for your library, and put some numbers to those ideas. Just follow it along, make changes as needed, and bask in your success.

It does not matter how big or small your budget is; working with it to make your library a success is important to help you build your skills as a leader.

Thanks to our Guest Hosts Karen and Aron! And check back in with us next week to discuss Building Organizational Culture.

Podcast, Training

Episode 307: Planning

Old English Garden, Battersea Park - geograph.org.uk - 286969

Introduction

Welcome back to Season Three of Linking Our Libraries! We are Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to share information with all types of libraries, archives, and other nonprofits working to build their skills.  This season, we are working on building a toolbox of leadership skills and ideas. By the end of this season, you will have fifteen specific skills that will make you a stronger leader and manager in your organization.

This week we are looking at strategies for planning.

The Basics

How do you know what is going to happen in the future? Do you have a set of magic glasses that let you know what is coming up? Probably not. At least, we don’t have any cool tools like that; and will be jealous of you if you have them. This is the essence of planning: think about what you want to happen then figure out how to make it happen.

Today we will walk through some different strategies for looking into the future and figuring out how to get there. Let’s set some goals, and then talk about different kinds of planning for different situations.

Overview of the Planning Process

When you are thinking about plans and looking toward the future, what do you do first? How do you start? Let’s walk through a process that will be helpful as you do your own planning.

  • Step One: Get Your Bearings
    Look around and figure out where you are and what you have now. This is the time to collect your budget documents, any past plans, any other information on prior plans you might have hanging around your file cabinet. And you may have other resources of data which contribute to your understanding of your current position.
  • Step Two: Big Ideas
    This is the time to dream. Think about all the things you would like to see in your library. Capturing ideas in words that people can read makes them real to everyone. Don’t worry too much at this stage about making the goals realistic, or fitting them into a specific plan – just get them down and you can figure out later what to do with them or how to adapt them to the needs and realities of your library.
  • Step Three: Refine and Define
    Now you have a whole big bunch of potential ideas – things you have always wanted to try in the library. This is the point where the realistic parts need to come into play. In this step, take the best parts of the dreams and aspirations for the future, and figure out what can actually be accomplished. Ideally these goals should be phrased in a positive way, even when they are aimed at solving difficult problems.
  • Step Four: Implement
    Now that you have all this great info and these optimistic goals ahead of you – DO THEM! Don’t get paralyzed by the fear that it might not go well; some goals will be wrong, some will not get achieved – but it does not matter. Enough of them will turn out well, and by working toward those goals, you will help your library succeed where other organizations may fall behind in service and in funding.
  • Step Five: Assess and Revise
    Once you are underway with your work, you can start measuring how close you are coming to the goals you have set. It does not happen too often that you achieve exactly what you set out to do; goals change with the changing realities. Figure out where you are in relation to the goal, with the definitions you developed, and work on some mid-course corrections as necessary.

Types of Plans

So now that we have a plan for planning, we are going to work through some of the different types of plans you might use in your organization. Remember the most important thing about planning: not doing it is worst decision. Letting things just happen without trying to figure out where you want to go is not the best way to operate. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes – you will, after all; just dive in and start figuring out where you want to go and how to get there.

Strategic Planning

  • Let’s start by looking at the strategic plan. This one is the long-range plan, the one that lets you look years, not weeks or months, into the future. In the past, strategic plans extended five or maybe even ten years ahead; as the pace of society changes it has become more common to consider it as a more of a two to five year look into the future.
  • In a strategic plan you are looking at the big picture of what your organization wants to accomplish. Not every single detail needs to be ironed out here, but you want to develop some large or long-term plans that your library would choose to accomplish. From that you can make smaller plans (see below for more information on that!); but you need to have that overall view of where you want to go.
  • Whether you decide to go it alone, or to get assistance, this is going to be a large project. Ideally, you want to talk to as many people as possible to get all kinds of feedback and planning ideas from your stakeholders.
  • You want to put together all of these ideas, and start weeding them down in a realistic way. Some things will be impossible: you do not have the budget, the time, or the ability to bend the laws of physics in the necessary ways. Some things you are just not going to be interested in trying.
  • The important part of strategic planning is to keep your eyes focused firmly on the far flung future. You want to have a big-picture sense of what is going on and where you want to be in a few years. Think big!

Tactical Planning

  • Next, let’s talk about Tactical plans. If you were a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, you may remember Captain Picard snapping out orders and requests for suggestions from Worf in Tactical. His answers were always quick and to the point, and did not get hung up in the big picture.
    • You don’t have to always want to shoot bad space guys, it is just a way of thinking about this planning style!
  • Think short range, next three months; what urgently needs to happen? What would be good to happen? What can’t wait? In these plans, the focus is on a smaller plan. These are the pieces of the plan that you use to make the larger plans in your strategic plan happen.

Project Planning

  • Related to Tactical planning is the Project plan. In most libraries, this will be the type of planning carried out by most people and discussed most frequently. Think about your summer reading program: making it happen is a Project plan.
  • This is a plan focused on one specific plan or thing to be accomplished. The idea is to figure out what is going on to meet a specific project from start to finish. So a project plan will include ideas about the formation of a project and its definition, then how it will be implemented, who will participate, and how it will be evaluated after it has reached its target completion.
  • Generally this is quick – a few days or weeks, maybe months; and you are done. As a manager you want to keep an eye on things; but you should be able to feel confident enough in your staff to let them handle project plans after some consultation with you.

Disaster Planning

  • Disasters are not an “if” situation – they are a “when.” You will have disasters. Disasters are scary, they cost money, they cost a lot of time you could be spending on programming and materials selection, they give you bad publicity – they are just all-around problems. Disaster planning will let you get ready so you can minimize the problems disasters cause.
  • Just start off easily: what disasters are possible or likely in your organization? This would be a great time to convene a team to think about your plan, or to involve the community by asking them to contribute disaster ideas. So what disasters are possible for you?
    • The standard disasters are fires and floods – they can easily happen in any LIS organization and can cause varying amounts of damage.
    • Denial of service attacks, hackers taking over your website – these are not just problems for our for-profit organizations, they can and do happen to any of us.
    • Earthquakes are a problem not only on the West Coast, but along the New Madrid fault line, and potentially near fracking sites.
    • Hurricanes hit the Southeast, and can run all the way up the Eastern Coast.
    • Bomb threats can happen anywhere.
    • A friend worked for an organization whose off-site storage facility was destroyed by a tornado.
    • I talked to a librarian who said they included “how to handle a rattlesnake” in a library in New Mexico; and another librarian in Maine who said dealing with roaming bears was part of their plan.
    • Some disasters will be common to all of us, while others will be regionally or site-specific. They can also be time-sensitive. A couple of weeks after 9/11, my library evacuated as assorted health officials came to identify the mysterious substance on our floor – which turned out to be the cattail plant shredded into little piles.
  • Now, do you have a long and frightening looking list? Perfect! That’s exactly where you should be at this point. Don’t panic, the rest of this part will help you to get past that.

Conclusion

Remember that a plan is a living document. Things will change, it will develop over time. Sometimes those changes will be great and you will be thrilled that wonderful bonus things happened for your organization. Sometimes, those changes will feel like they involve taking pieces of your heart out and stomping on them. Celebrate the first, learn to shake off the second – you just keep developing the plan until you are done.

Thanks to everyone for joining us this week! And check back in with us next week to discuss our next topic: Budgeting.

Do you need more books in your life? Sure you do! Subscribe to our Books and Beverages book group podcast. Each week we look at a different genre, chat with our guests about their book suggestions, and sip our beverages. It is always good to find a new book!

CMLE, Communication, Training

Leadership Training Bites: What are your BHAGs?

CMLE is here to help you with all kinds of information and ideas!  This series provides weekly small bits of training on leadership, management, and supervision skills. We have heard from our members that this is an issue they would like to have more training to meet. And I have been a researcher and trainer for many years, focusing on library management, leadership, and administration.

Follow this series using our tag (see end of the article!); and if you want to talk about your own leadership development, or to set up some training in your library, we are here for you!

This week we are looking at BHAGs!

ChupacabrasWhat are your BHAGs? How are your tracking them? Do you have regular BHAG meetings?

If this is not a term you are using regularly – don’t worry! You don’t need to visit a doctor with a BHAG (though, I guess you can? if that’s part of yours??), and it’s much less scary than it sounds. (Few, if any, actual monsters are involved!)

BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

You know when you start making plans for the future, and make those plans that are maybe juuuuusssstttt slightly out of reach? Those are BHAGs! This is dreaming big, having exciting goals for yourself and your library! It’s the big time!

We just had our Fall planning meeting this week here at CMLE HQ, and we are filled with BHAGs!! We love setting scary-level goals, and then trying to hit them. Things do not always work out perfectly, but it’s good to try! We are starting an online training series, a daily book newsletter, and a second, book-themed/Reader’s Advisory podcast. I’m terrified! Will we be able to actually do these things? Will they turn out great (or at least useful/fun)? Will our members like them?? I don’t know! And that is the excitement of BHAGs!

BHAGs let you push beyond the ideas people expect from you. They give you permission to try new things, to go a new way, or to radically ramp up what you are already doing. Failure is an option – but it’s not fatal. BHAGs are, by their nature, tough to achieve. Sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination.

Making the effort to dream big, to do great things – this is what gives you the chance for huge successes!!

It’s okay to play it safe sometimes – but if you want to improve, and to become better than you are today, a BHAG may be just the thing!

Fall, and back-to-school time in general, is a  good time to set some goals for your library.  If you have not yet had a chance to think about your goals – for yourself, for your department, or for your whole organization – now is the time. And if you want to throw in a few audacious goals, CMLE supports you!

Here are a few readings, if you want to explore a little more:

Go dream big this week!

Do you have BHAGs to share? Tell us below!

Books, Children's services

A Peek into the Future School Library

Library

I love thinking about the future – things will be wonderful there! Full funding for libraries! Programs are always filled! Funders fall over themselves to talk about the great things we provide!

So I was happy to see this article from Hannah Byrd Little, thinking about the future of school libraries. You can read an excerpt below, and click here to read the whole thing.

“During the school year, I focus my time almost completely on curriculum, collaboration with faculty, and working directly with students. But during the summer I turn my focus on the immediate future of my library space and the library collection. I tend to be more of a big-picture person. Many librarians are detail oriented but details are not my strength. So, I have my lists.

 “Summer to-do-list” for the big-picture librarian:

  • Analyzing Use — Walk into the front door of your library and pretend you are a student. Or, walk into the front door of your library and pretend you are a campus visitor.
  • Summertime Weeding  — I use tools like Follett Titlewise, and I also like to invite faculty to participate like they do in Pennsylvania Libraries. There is also the Continuous Review Evaluation and Weeding acronym MUSTIE that can help start the process.
  • Editing Furniture — Less is more, streamlining the library shelving can make for an open, inviting space.
  • Updating Technology — Think about low cost or no cost options like improving the self check-out, or adding instructions and helpful signage in the technology-rich areas.
  • Updating the Virtual Library — Work to improve online research guides and the library’s web presence.
  • Create Positive Signage — Change any negative language; for instance instead of “No Food or Drink” try “Food and Drink Free Zone.”
  • Make a Tickler List/File — A monthly list of what celebrations and events happen in the library space and of course, what bills are due each month

My big-picture side automatically thinks about library use and function over the next 10, 20, or even 30 years. I think of the library space as a place of information access and literacy development. A place where students still want to visit and a place where the librarian is still available to guide students in their information quest.”