Let's Get Functional

An idea that I used at my first job out of library school was to divide employees into teams to strategize around our libraries' functional areas. The original breakdown I used was: collection development, programming, outreach, and marketing.

In my current job, I transferred the idea with a few changes dictated by context. We're now working with five functional area teams: collection development and maintenance, programming, outreach, public services, and information technology.

The idea behind these groups is to take critical library functions and assign people from all levels of the library to teams which then analyze, evaluate, and propose changes related to a particular function. This keeps those areas under constant "surveillance," allowing for quick adjustments to policies or procedures.

Another key component of these groups is that they're intentionally small. I suggest a maximum of five people per team. This enables the team to make decisions quickly and have an intense focus when necessary.

What are the functional areas in your library? Do you use a similar model for decision making?

5 Dysfunctions and Other Management Challenges

So, I finally finished Lencioni's 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. Here is the model, in a nutshell:

1. Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to Results
   

Note: I put the dysfunctions in their positive forms to convey them to staff members. Meaning, these are the things you want teams to have.

1. Trust
2. Healthy Debate
3. Commitment
4. Accountability
5. Results without Ego

I'll give my take on these below.

Trust:
This is really as straightforward as it sounds. Before a team can get down to "brass tacks," its members must trust one another. I think about the lessons I've learned from working in groups, and this is so true. In my experience, I was most comfortable when I knew my group members had my back, were going to pull their weight, etc. It's a key foundation to teamwork.

Healthy Debate:
I really like the author's explanation of this one. He compares team meetings to movies. "Why do we like movies more than meetings?" He asks. "There's dramatic tension in movies," is the answer.

He goes on to explain that teams need to be able to argue passionately with each other with no fear of reprisal from other group members. If issues aren't addressed then productivity-killing frustration builds until there's a blow up of some kind. This is true in my experience, too. People have to be able get their ideas out on the table, no matter how unpopular they are. They can only do this if they trust their teammates won't maliciously attack them for it.

Commitment:
This one is also straightforward. Team members must be committed to making the team work, to solving problems, and agreeing to disagree. Lencioni is very clear on the point that it is not consensus. In fact, being committed means you must challenge ideas as they are presented.

Communication is also covered in this section. He calls it "cascading communication," and that just means that decisions are passed down through administrative channels so everyone is on the same page.

Accountability:
Again, it's a simple concept: hold people to what they say they'll do. Lencioni argues that you can't do this without dealing with the first three dysfunctions. He stresses that it's peer-to-peer accountability that is what's important, with the manager taking a back seat unless things get out of hand (people start to take criticism personally, for example, which is a sign of the second dysfunction.)

Results without Ego:
All this means is to put the needs of the team ahead of one's individual needs. For instance, if managers are working on a team, individual managers shouldn't put their own department's agenda ahead of the management team's goals. By supporting the team effort, all departments are affected positively.

I should also point out is that these "dysfunctions" kind of build on one another. In the book, it's presented graphically as a pyramid, the foundation of which is "Absence of Trust." Absence of Trust leads to "Fear of Conflict," and so on.

In Conclusion:
I really like Lencioni's approach in talking about the model. The fable was easy to follow and the steps are simple to understand and remember. I think the best thing is that he takes a common sense approach to these issues. While these concepts are not particularly complex, they provide a framework to bring honest and open communication back into the workplace.

Since I finished 5 Dysfunctions, I've become intrigued by his other books. I've not read them cover to cover, but my two favorites so far are Death by Meeting and Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars. They're very similar in style to the one I just read and have some great suggestions for combating some negative institutions of workplace culture.

New job

So, I've been at my new job for two weeks now.

It's been a great experience, everything considered. Let me just say that my position--Chief Operating Officer--was sorely needed. I'll be creating lots of processes and procedures over the next several months, and realigning some chain-of-command issues.

I survived my first board meeting with no incident, but it got me thinking about the fact I was witnessing local government in action. Very cool.

I think the biggest challenge I face is balancing all of my new responsibilities. There is so much to do that it's tempting to work all the time by staying late, taking stuff home, and so forth. But, I really want to be intentional about role modeling behavior, so I'm resisting the urge to do that.

I feel like I've done a good job of getting to know my co-workers. I've got planning meetings set up to work on projects and update meetings to keep in touch with supervisors with regards to personnel or procedural issues. I hope these means of communication really add to the substance of what the library is good at doing already.

We'll see what this next week brings.

Management: My Philosophy

A week from today, I'll be embarking upon on my second stint as a library manager, but with much more responsibility that my last managerial role. This will be the first time I'm supervising other library professionals.

This leads me to reflect on my own management philosophy. A few years ago, maybe back in 2002, I read A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: Fish! The book really characterizes how I feel about work. The "Fish Philosophy" is based on four principles that I completely agree with. Below is my take on them:

Choose Your Attitude

From the book: "'I realize now that my grandmother didn't love dishwashing. She brought love to dishwashing, and her spirit was infectious.'"

My take: While you can't always choose your work, the main message of this principle is to choose the attitude you bring into your work. I care about how people experience the work environment, and it really bums me out when people aren't happy on the job. I think it's very important that leaders role model an attitude that helps others feel better about the jobs they're doing. We may not always like the job, but if we bring a positive attitude into a job, it's bound to provide a better experience for everyone involved.

Play

From the book: "'. . . we discovered we could be serious about business and still have fun with the way we conducted business.'"

My take: Yes! Several people have written about "play" as being a key component of the Library 2.0 phenomenon.

In my opinion, it's so important that work be approached not only with a healthy sense of humor, but with the freedom to play. Lifelong learning involves being inquisitive about the world around you. How cool is it to have the time to investigate new tools and their application toward the work you do? Wouldn't it be great to brainstorm off-the-wall solutions to problems with no fear of looking silly or being taken less seriously? That's the kind of environment I hope to foster in my new job.

Make Their Day

From the book: "'We look for as many ways as we can to create great memories. And we create great memories whenever we make someone's day. The playful way we do our work allows us to find creative ways to engage our customers. That's the key word: engage.'"

My take: Creating great memories for our users. Wow. We all know good customer service when we experience it, and that's what keeps me returning to service providers again and again. This is what I want not only for our users, but for employees as well. I want to make sure employees are able to leave work with great memories. Folks work hard and need to be engaged in their jobs or the quality suffers.

Be Present

From the book: "'The problem was they were having a good time with each other, not me. . . . They weren't present and focused on me, the customer.'"

My take: Creating an environment in which employees can have fun, be engaged in their work, and provide excellent customer service takes balance. If we become too wrapped up in our own good time, then areas of service get neglected. Being aware of our users' needs, especially when they're standing in front of us, is top priority. Likewise, as a supervisor I need to be aware of the concerns and needs of employees.

Accessing....

I've been inspired to start a blog again.

I'm starting a new job on June 2 at the Hancock County Public Library. It's going to come with a lot of challenges, as the position is new to their library system.

A recent inspiration comes from listening to a library talk show delivered via TalkShoe called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. The recent discussion of a post from the ACRLog: Sorry, but you can't have it all got me thinking about the fact that I'm a Gen X'er going into library management, and over my 8 or so years in the profession, I've discovered that work-life balance is extremely important.

Another thing I've found out about myself was illuminated when I learned about the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) concept of allowing employees to work where they're most productive. In my current job at Ball State University Libraries I've found that for a variety of reasons I've resisted my natural tendency to work wherever I wanted to like I did at my last job at IU Bloomington. I'm hoping that the new job will be a bit more flexible.

I feel like my life is at an exciting place. I'm transitioning from academic librarianship to public librarianship, for one. I've recently started taking classes in programming, which I'm enjoying a lot, so that's great, too.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. Until then....