PVLD Director's Blog

Eureka!

This past week I had the honor and pleasure of serving as a mentor for the first Eureka Leadership Institute - a weeklong, intensive leadership development program for emerging library leaders in California.

While my official role at the Institute was "mentor", I think I learned at least as much as the participants.  It is a rare gift to be able to spend a week thinking about leadership and what it means in a library context and I came away reinvigorated (despite the 12 hour days!) and with plenty of food for thought about both how to improve my own leadership abilities and how to lead PVLD towards the future.  I also came away with a whole new network of relationships with people I might otherwise never have had the opportunity to really get to know (or possibly even to meet) and with a renewed sense of optimism about the future of public libraries in California.

I'm looking forward to continued involvement through the Eureka blog, follow-up webinars and meetings, and reunions at ALA, CLA, etc.  I'm also looking forward to working with PVLD Department Managers Eve Wittenmyer and Jennifer Addington who participated in the Institute as they work on their leadership project over the next year or so.

It would ruin the experience for future participants if I write too much about the content of the Institute.  Suffice it to say that I will be encouraging more PVLD leaders to apply, and am hoping that I will have the opportunity to again serve as a mentor in future.

Now its back to the "real world"!

News from the Public Library Association Conference 2008

Adult Services Assistant Manager Debra Petersen and Branch Manager Jennifer Addington attended the Public Library Association's biennial conference in Minneapolis last week and came back full of ideas and enthusiasm.

They are sharing what they learned and their thoughts on their PLA Minneapolis blog.  Check it out for some great ideas...and keep checking as there is more to come!

I think we might transform this blog into the "PVLD conference" blog as a way of sharing what we learn at the various conferences and workshops that staff attend. 

Investing in the Future

Seth Godin had an interesting post today called Managing Urgencies - basically about the human and organizational tendency to give our priority to fighting fires and "managing urgencies" at the expense of working towards long-term goals.

The post particularly resonated with me because we are working on our 2008/2009 budget and 2009/2010 forecast and things are looking pretty grim.  Over 85% of our revenue comes from property taxes, so the housing market downturn is having a real impact.  Add to that reductions in the little State funding we do get, recent cuts to passport processing fees, and rising costs for everything from databases to health insurance and we are facing some very challenging times.   Oh yeah, and we recently completed a Classification and Compensation study and would very much like to start implementing the results...but this will be expensive.

In this environment it's easy to focus on the short-term - where can we cut costs?  Do we really need to send people to conferences or training? Can we defer replacement of computers for another year?  How much can we cut the book budget without having a significant impact on the collection?

We're asking ourselves these questions and more, but we're also trying very hard to stay focused on the long-term.  This is definitely not easy!

For example, our Friends of the Library are embarking on a major capital campaign to raise funds for restoration of our historic Malaga Cove Library and expansion and remodeling of our Miraleste Library so that these libraries can meet the long-term needs of our community.  They are also starting to build an endowment that  will provide a long-term source of supplemental income to PVLD.  As they turn their attention to these long-term projects we are working with them to cut the amount of support they will give to PVLD in the coming fiscal year in half - a reduction from $278,000 to $135,000.  Will this really hurt in the current budget climate?  Absolutely!  Is it the right thing to do for the long-term?  Absolutely!

We are also looking closely at our budget for training, workshops, and conferences.  Will we be sending as many people to conferences as in previous years?  Probably not.  Will we still try to send at least some people?  Definitely.  Why?  Exposing our staff to new ideas, interacting with new people, and learning about new technologies and products is a short-term cost but an investment in the future.

Will we be replacing all of the computers we had hoped to, or adding as many new public computers as we would like? No.  Will we be making strategic investments in new technologies like IPhones and PDA phones for a few staff members?  Yes.  Why?  Because as the world around us moves toward the mobile delivery of information we need to understand those technologies and develop services for that new world.

Is it going to be a tough couple of years?  No doubt, but we're going to do our best to make sure we don't let the short-term pain tempt us into sacrificing our long-term vitality.   

Taking a virtual break

I loved Mark Bittman's article I Need a Virtual Break in last Sunday's New York Times, although as a compulsive email-checker, blog-reader, and gadget-geek- I must confess that I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge of totally disconnecting.

This week, however, my email seems to have brought mostly bad news - from personnel issues to parking issues to a (rare) customer complaint to a request for a meeting during which an outstanding employee told me she was moving back east to take a job with the Queens Library and to be closer to family as she and her husband await the birth of their first child....I'm starting to dread that little envelope in the lower right corner of my screen.

Couple that with a house that is in chaos due to the unexpected opportunity to get our bedroom painted (we've been trying to find a painter for months...wouldn't you know that the first one willing to do a job that small happened to be free for two days right away!); a sore throat and splitting headache; a scheduling mix-up that took my husband and me to Culver City on the wrong day; and a desktop that is overflowing and I am ready to give Mr. Bittman's "secular Sabbath" a try.

I'm taking a day off on Friday, and a week off in mid-March and I'm going to do my best to get control of my technology addiction.  I can't promise I'll swear off email completely, but I'm going to try to confine my checking to defined times.

Who knows, if I get really good at managing my technology habit I might achieve Tim Ferriss' nirvana of a 4-Hour Work Week ...I checked the book out of the library, now I just have to find time to read it!

 

Change

We are three days away from going live with both our new Integrated Library System and our new website design.  All of our libraries will be closed on Monday while we cut over to the new systems.  We'll take the opportunity to have all of our staff together in one place for training and teambuilding  - something that has not been possible for many years because of our commitment to keeping the libraries open as much as possible.

The new systems will mean significant changes for both staff and library users.  Most of the changes are for the better - a more intuitive design and many new features - but changes nonetheless.

Because of the new systems and everything else that is going on around here the topic of change has been on my mind.  I've put together an update presentation to give to the staff on Monday, and one of the slides lists some of the new/"extra" stuff that the staff has taken on over the past few months and the list is amazing.

This is clearly a staff that has learned to deal with change...so I'm confident that we will get through the transition to the new system with flying colors.

I've never had a lot of time for the myriad business books, articles, and consultants that set forth methodologies for "managing change" as if there is some simple set of principles and steps that will work in organizations that are complex systems made up of individuals with intellect, free will, and a wide diversity of backgrounds and points of view.  On the one hand change is part of life and in every organization I have been involved with I have seen people adapt to profound changes in both their work and personal lives without the benefit of a formal "change management program".  On the other hand I have seen many efforts to "drive change" fail.

That's why I was delighted to come across this post by John Fletcher on "One Industry That Ought To Be Declared Bankrupt NOW" on the Slow Leadership blog.

The whole post is well worth reading, but I especially loved his description of

"... is the arrival over the last twenty years or so of a veritable Ideology of Change. All of it is negative, but nothing about it is more dangerous, more intellectually slovenly, and more needlessly arrogant than the phrase “there’s always resistance to change.” This is an (unfortunately effective) way of deflecting questions and opposition, no matter how well founded, and dismissing any dissent on ideological grounds, even before it is articulated."

Apart from being, as Mr. Fletcher puts it "intellectually slovenly" in my experience the statement "there is always resistance to change" is simply untrue....just look at PVLD and the changes our staff have embraced.

And of course, if there is widespread resistance to change, Mr. Fletcher reminds us that "...Even if, as Joseph Goebbels remarked to Heinrich Himmler in 1934, there’s always resistance to change, those who resist are statistically most likely to be right."

Boomer Volunteers

A few days ago I came across this post on How To Treat Boomer Volunteers on Donor Power ( a great blog about fundraising). It makes the point that

... baby boomers boast a large number of well-educated, highly skilled executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders, many of whom will feel that their talents are not being put to use in low-level volunteer positions. Research indicates that these boomers should be placed at programming levels to utilize their abilities fully and to keep them engaged.

That got me thinking about our volunteer positions and whether they are going to satisfy the soon-to-be retired wave of baby boomers. While we certainly have some "programming level" volunteer positions such as the Friends of the Library Board, management of the Library Shop, or oversight of the book sales, many of our volunteer positions are important to the smooth operation of the library, but fairly low level. Things like tidying the library, sorting books, and putting out the new periodicals.

Tonight Branch Operations Manager Jennifer Addington and I were at a community event and met a very nice couple who are both soon to retire from executive positions at a very large aerospace corporation. They are looking for volunteer opportunities, and would love to get involved with the library. The more I talked to them about their talents and interests the more it became obvious that:

1. They are way over-qualified for, and not really interested in, many of the kinds of volunteer positions we have.
2. They would be able to contribute a great deal to the library district – but in areas that are currently viewed by staff as "their" domain. For example, the wife is responsible for the corporation's information systems and has successfully managed very large scale and complex software projects. She could be a real asset in our current efforts to replace our systems if we could find a way to make use of those talents in conjunction with those of our staff.
3. Our volunteer program, and to a large extent our culture, is not ready to provide the kinds of opportunities that these highly qualified volunteers are seeking.

I see this a big challenge and a big opportunity for us. The challenge is to develop volunteer programs in which volunteer talents are fully utilized, including using them in areas that currently are the exclusive domain of staff. This doesn't mean replacing staff with volunteers, but it does mean working with staff to integrate volunteers into their work as equals (or maybe even as mentors or coaches where the volunteers are more knowledgeable and experienced than staff) and continuing to change the culture from one in which volunteers are seen as a bit of a hassle to one that values them as a means of really stretching our capabilities.

The opportunity is that I don't think many other organizations have gotten it right yet either…so if we can change quickly enough we will have our pick of the talented people who will soon be available.

Customer Service, Ritz Carlton Style

The Ritz Carlton has such a reputation for customer service that it offers management training to other organizations. Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend a ½ day version of this training at pre-workshop for the California Library Association annual conference. Even that brief session gave some great insight into the organizational discipline required to provide the highest possible level of what they call "customer engagement". The whole focus is on meeting customer desire for:

• One-of-a-kind experiences
• Fast access to knowledge and wisdom (make me feel smart!)
• Convenience and respect for their time
• Utility and TOTAL lack of hassles
• "WOW" stories that they can tell their friends (e.g. the trainer's stories about how staff help set the stage for marriage proposals)

It would be a VERY long post if I included everything I learned, but a few things really leaped out:

1. The process starts with hiring people who have the right behaviors and attitudes. Their initial employee interview is conducted by telephone to save everyone time, and is focused on hiring people who will fit the culture. The interview is conducted by someone from outside the hiring department to ensure the focus is on culture, not skills. Using a carefully designed, standardized set of questions candidates are rated on things like work ethic, self-esteem, persuasion skills, team-orientation, empathy, and positivity. They are only interviewed in person by the hiring manager if they pass this initial telephone interview.
2. Every employee goes through a mandatory, two day orientation before they spend ANY time on the job. The goal is to immerse them in the Ritz Carlton culture as well as do initial training in core skills and address "housekeeping" issues like timekeeping, paydays, parking, uniforms etc. There is a big focus on expectations – what the company expects of employees and what the employee can expect of the company.
3. Every employee signs an agreement clearly stating expectations – both general cultural expectations and department/job specific expectations. This is signed by both the employee and the manager.
4. Every new employee is teamed up with another employee who has demonstrated a high level of performance and acts as a mentor and coach. There is an "operational certification" that the employee can do the job after 21 days of employment, and a 60 day probationary period. Employees who choose to leave during probation are eligible for re-hire.
5. There are very clear and specific performance standards. For example, no employee is allowed to point to give directions. All are required to take the customer to where they need to go. There are also very specific rules for how to answer the phone (must answer within three rings, must introduce yourself, must use the customer name, etc.). Each employee is required to carry a small fold-out card with key concepts such as the Ritz Carlton credo, motto, and service goals at all times. There is a strict appearance policy. There are random audits and failure to perform to any of the standards results in disciplinary action. Employees are also required to use the same standards when dealing with colleagues as with external customers.
6. Each hourly employee participates in 250 hours of learning each year, it goes up to 320 hours for salaried employees. Much of the training is self-directed through workbooks or online courses..
7. There is a huge emphasis on feedback and a culture of seeking feedback at every opportunity. Gallup contacts 300-400 guests per hotel per month and surveys at least 33 of them. The survey includes questions such as "Would you return"? "Would you recommend this hotel to your friends?". They also poll employees. Results of the various surveys are input into the performance management and reward and recognition systems. All salaried employees also participate in a quarterly performance review which is based on a self-assessment that is reviewed by the manager.
   Hourly employees are reviewed six-monthly. As the trainer said "Keeping score is important".
8. There is also a huge emphasis on communication. Each hotel has a "Daily Lineup" All employees gather in a circle for 10-15 minutes. They get news of what is going on at that hotel that day, information and status reports on company-wide activities such as the opening of a new hotel, discuss quality and service topics, and recognize birthdays and service anniversaries. Employees who attend are held accountable for passing the information down to later shifts. There is also a weekly newsletter that is emailed to all employees, and they also use podcasts.

There was much more…but this gives some sense of the level to which PVLD needs to improve its processes if we are to come close to delivering the Ritz Carlton level service our community expects.

PVLD Has Great employees!

After yesterday's post on management courage I went home thinking "oh *!?£#" - I hope I didn't give the impression that PVLD is rife with poor performers . As I've said on many occassions PVLD employees are terrific... but we're not perfect. We sometimes make poor hiring decisions and sometimes we let personal stuff get in the way of doing the best possible job for PVLD.

The management challenge is to deal with these situations honestly, fairly, and with courage. If the problem is due to personal issues we do our best to find a solution that works for both the employee and PVLD. Sometimes this even entails making an exception to a policy or system. ...an exception, however, is something that is clearly identified as such and has a limited duration. we also need to make sure these exceptions are fair to other employees.

If course, if the system or process is flawed then we need to fix it - for everyone.

And if the problem truly is poor performance, which is rare, we need to use our performance management and disciplinary procedures to address the issue.

The problems arise when instead of making a one-time exception we permanently bend the system to fit a unique situation without realizing the long-term consequences, or when an exception drags on so long it becomes a de facto permanent change, or when we don't address the few real performance issues. Over time these changes undermine the integrity if the system as a whole. That is the situation PVLD has been dealing with.

Sometimes an employee's personal issues can't be solved by PVLD in a way that is fair to our funders, our customers, or other employees. That is where the management courage I referred to in my last post comes in.

Discipline, courage, and management – or why I’m proud of PVLD’s Managers

I've blogged before about the Classification and Compensation study that PVLD has undertaken, and some of the management challenges that are resulting. This week the joint "employee – management" team that has been working with our consultant to complete the study met with the PVLD Board of Trustees to educate them on the methodology we are using and review the draft report prior to rolling out the report to employees in a few weeks.

As we talked about the proposed new classification and compensation structure it became painfully apparent how many of the deficiencies in our current "system" result from tweaking and bending the system to avoid having to address issues with employee behavior and performance or to put patches on parts of the system that probably should have just been totally redesigned. I use the word "system" very loosely because over the years it has been tweaked to the point that there is nothing systematic about it.

For example, in our Circulation Department at Peninsula Center our current system has very narrow and rigid classifications that limit flexibility and create staff coverage and workflow headaches. So as a general rule "Senior Pages" sort books and oversee the sorting area – but don't return books to the shelves while" Pages" shelve books but don't sort them. We don't know exactly how these demarcations came about, but one version of the story is that (like most libraries) at one time we only had Pages who both sorted and shelved books. There were issues because the Pages would congregate in the sorting room and chat. Rather than having the management discipline to deal with the behavioral issue, the classification of Senior Page was created as a quasi-supervisory position to oversee the sorting room. Now we have organizational confusion because it can feel like you have as many "Chiefs" as "Indians" and inefficiency because of the inflexibility of the structure.

We also have examples where employees whose behaviors made it difficult for them to get along with colleagues were transferred to different jobs or other departments rather than addressing the behavioral issue. Sometimes the jobs were "created" as a solution to the behavior problem even though the organizational need for that position had not been previously identified, and sometimes they brought with them a rate of pay that was higher than that of the new position, creating inequities.

Classification and compensation system aside, we also have been dealing with legacy issues where employees were allowed to elect work schedules that really don't meet the needs of the library and aren't fair to their colleagues because it is hard to tell an employee "if you can't work when we need you, then maybe you need to work somewhere else"; interpersonal friction that is getting in the way of productive work; and employees who don't like certain parts of their job and have been allowed to get away with not doing them.

Dealing with behavioral and performance issues in a disciplined way that is fair to both the organization (i.e. supports effective and efficient operations) and to employees (and not just the employee with the undesirable behavior) is HARD! It takes courage to set clear performance and behavior expectations and then hold people accountable.

This week I have been particularly proud of some of our newer Managers as they have stepped up to the plate to address some of these issues in their departments – not by "tweaking the system" but by having the difficult conversations about expectations and behavior. On the whole our PVLD management team is young and relatively inexperienced so as the District Director I have been curious to see how they would handle some of these issues – the answer is firmly, fairly and with a demonstrable commitment to making PVLD both a high performing organization and one that is a great place to work.

To the taxpayers, volunteers, and donors who support PVLD - you can rest assured that the various parts of the library district are in good hands.

To the PVLD Managers who are reading this – thank you!

Is a public library like a business?

"You should run the library like a business". This is a statement you hear pretty often – often from a "civilian" as opposed to a "library person". Not long ago I came across an article or blog posting where the writer was explaining why s/he felt a library is most definitely not like a business (can't remember where or I'd include a link). I was thinking about that article and how much I disagreed with the author's premise as I was driving home tonight – probably because in the past couple of days I've had several conversations about stuff going on at PVLD that have reinforced for me just how much like a business a public library actually is…or at least should be.

Do libraries exist to make a profit in the way that a business enterprise does? No...but that's a pretty simplistic view of a business. Here's my take on some of the ways we ARE like a business.

	Business	Public Library
Reason for existence is to deliver value to its owners	X (owners are shareholders)	X (owners are the public)
Governing body and employees are entrusted with the stewardship of money and assets belonging to its owners	X (governing body is elected by the shareholders)	X (governing body is elected by the public)
Has customers	X	X
Long-term viability of the organization depends on maintaining and growing the customer base	X	X
Has employees	X	X
Long-term viability of the organization depends on the ability to attract and retain capable employees	X	X

I could make the table longer, but hopefully you get the point. The real question is – so we're like a business…what does that mean for PVLD?  It means many things, but based on some of the issues our Managers have been wrestling with recently I think one of the most important things it means is that we need to always remember that the reason for our existence is to deliver outstanding library services in exchange for the investments made by our community in the form of their property taxes, by our Friends of the Library in the form of their many hours of volunteer labor and the resulting gifts to PVLD, and by our donors who choose to make PVLD a recipient of their generosity.

Every employee needs to come to work every day committed to giving our community, our volunteers, and our donors the best possible return on their investment in us. We do this by doing our assigned work efficiently and effectively; delivering outstanding library services; treating our customers and our colleagues with courtesy and respect; continuously looking for ways to make our operations more cost-effective; and endeavoring to make every decision one that is in the best interest of our customers and our investors.

In other words, we need to do the things we would expect if WE were the owners of this business called a public library...and to some degree we are!