Genoa Public Library Case Study

Nicki has quite a challenge set out for her. I don't envy her the task of improving the organizational culture of the Genoa Public Library which she is taking on along with a whole new position (a promotion!). Of course the project has great possibilities for making a huge difference in Genoa PL which overall sounds like a forward thinking organization and has a bright future ahead. So in that way it is pretty exciting.

1. How would you proceed with managing the culture project? What would you do first?

Nicki has a big and important project to oversee. I suggest her first step is to do some reading and research about change management and specifically about leading cultural change. Unless she has taken the APLL course her education and experience may not have led her to look at Kotter's 8 steps or other organized and valuable ways of approaching organizational change. Once she has some understanding of the topic she needs to formulate a strategy of how she wants to proceed with this project. She can't plan out everything but it would be best to have an overall plan with the buy in of the CEO, since he is the sponsor of the project. 

Once Nicki's overall plan is established she needs to have a clear explanation of why the change in organizational culture is necessary. She needs to have a picture in her mind (and be able to clearly explain it to others) of what, in general, the changed workplace will accomplish. Why does the library want to go there? The "vision" needs to look attractive for everyone (or at least most) so that Nicki can get most to support the changes necessary. It is unlikely that Nicki can develop this by herself so I suggest she work with a couple other people to find a compelling vision and of course she needs the buy in of the CEO.

Now that Nicki's compelling and urgent vision for change is established Nicki needs to "take her show on the road". It appears from the case study that she has credibility within the organization and she may need to cash some of that in. It will help her that she has worked in several areas and levels within the library. Hopefully she can enlist the help of the CEO and possibly other credible members of management to share her compelling and urgent vision for organizational change.

2. How would you select the participants for the team?

Selecting the right team members is very important to accomplishing the goals of this project. Nicki needs to identify people within the organization who are leaders and have influence with other staff members. She will need people who can "sign on" to the vision of a new organizational culture and are willing to actively support that vision.

Since the Genoa Public Library has no less that ten (10) major projects being undertaken at this time the need for leaders within the organization is going to be very high. It would be sensible for the leaders of those ten projects and other senior leaders to get together and identify which staff members might fit best within the various projects. Otherwise some staff may be inundated with committee requests and others may be overlooked who may well have been valuable committee members. Hopefully people would be able to volunteer for committees that interest them but this could be a bit tricky since not all individuals might be suitable. Perhaps a combination of the identification and volunteer models could be used to ensure the best fit and a successful committee.

It would be essential to include a staff member from the department that struggles with change. Nicki will need to work hard with that group to ensure that someone can be involved and contribute to the success of the committee. With a positive role model in their midst (someone with credibility within their group) the team will hopefully be able to see the positives that will come with this change. It will be easier to tailor the message to this group by including someone from it but Nicki will have to be careful she doesn't add a toxic element to her committee that has a big enough job ahead of it already. Nicki also needs to include someone from the Milverton branch on the committee. She may need to get creative to find them some assistance to free up some staff time to participate. It seems to me that Milverton will be an easy sell if they can see how a culture change will help their situation (and I think that argument could easily be made) but someone who knows the current difficulties would definitely be an asset to the team.

3. How would you diagnose the cultural and organizational issues?

Apparently the culture of Genoa Library needs to change from reactive to proactive, from conservative to innovative, from library focused to customer focused and from process and transaction oriented to library experience oriented.

Given that Nicky has experience in various parts and levels of the organization she may already have a pretty good idea of some of the issues that are underlying that list of needed changes. She can try a variety of methods to gather data such as informal discussions with employees in small groups or department meetings, or more formal anonymous surveys of employees. She should have discussions with supervisors and managers as well to gather information. She should especially try to consult the influencers of the organization even if they are not on side with the change plan as yet. Even if this information doesn't pinpoint issues it can give Nicki valuable insight into how staff are feeling about the culture and will help her shape the roll out plan in the future.

Once the committee is organized, functioning and onside with the vision they can sort through the data that has been collected and provide more of their own. This will allow the committee to identify and prioritize key areas to address that could result in "quick wins" while the overall plan moves forward.

The perfect workplace environment with the ideal organizational culture is a tantalizing prospect. This environment would have a high degree of trust. If you trust that your fellow employees are working for the best of the organization then it is much easier to function as a team. My ideal organization would allow input from all staff and assign budget based on the priorities of the organization. Ideally there would be frequent opportunities for staff to interact and debate, eventually coming to a consensus on decisions. This requires a staff with listening skills, a common understanding of values and goals, and leaders that are open and willing to learn.  Staff would need to have diverse skills, outlooks and backgrounds but share a clear understanding of the goals and values that the organization supports. The leadership team needs to be open to a variety of different ideas and approaches adept at making changes as necessary. The ideal organizational culture would be one that embraces change when it is the best path forward and understands that an organization is a dynamic thing that will continue to change but hold on to the core values that it has defined.

This organization is appealing because discussion, debate and consensus should lead to better decisions if done correctly. With a variety of input issues and concerns can be worked out before implementation. All staff would be energized to work at this organization because their input is valued and they have a stake in what the organization accomplishes. If all staff have a healthy attitude to change, understand the core values and trust the organization to be doing what is best then moving ahead and adapting will be much less painful. A culture of learning and growing gives staff an idea that they are valued and can continue to grow with the organization and contribute. Everyone wants to contribute and feel that there is value in what they do and an organization such as the one described above would help every employee to have that sense when they come to work each day.

To reflect on my family culture I have chosen to focus on my family of origin since it is difficult to generalize about all aspects of ones family (in-laws, nuclear family, extended family including cousins - of which I have many -etc).

My family of origin is small (I am an only child) and close knit. Although not demonstrative (not much hugging and kissing like I think of, in say a stereotypical Italian family, expressions of caring are demonstrated by your actions. I think the story of my mother's family set the tone for this culture. When my mother was 10 her father died. This was 1930s Toronto so things were tough. Grandma took in borders to help make ends meet. My mom had to help with cleaning and cooking. Her older brothers (she had 6 siblings) had to go out to work to support the family. They had to all pitch in and help. The culture was always one of hard work and self sufficiency (though there was lots of fun too - I don't want to give the impression the family was boring - in fact quite the opposite). As a child I was always expected to work hard at school and whatever else I did and contribute to the family by doing chores and helping out. Although the economic situation was not the same growing up in the 1960s with two working parents with decent jobs, the work ethic was ingrained in our family culture.

Community Development and the Ontario Healthy Community Coalition

I found it really interesting and encouraging to read so many stories of Community Development. It was fascinating to see the diverse approaches and structures all focusing on the same ends - a healthy community. I easily found 5 examples of activities that met one or more of the values of community development.

• Thunder Bay Public Library - social justice and equity
• Christie Lake Stewardship Plan - community ownership
• Durham's Child Nutrition Project - upstream
• MovingON (Perth) - enhancement of natural capacities & networks
• Community Capacity Building (Chatham-Kent) - service integration

What struck me when I was reading about these and other examples on the Ontario Healthy Community Coalition website was the large numbers of individuals, groups and organizations that were involved in each project. None of the projects that I read about were accomplished by one or two individuals or even one group on its own. This leads me to believe that inclusivity is the most important characteristic of community development. When all (or at least as many people/groups as possible) are included in the planning and execution of an activity then it is more successful. It seems that this value drives other things likes service integration - if you include everyone in the planning and execution of activities then existing services and networks will naturally be included and not ignored. It seems likely that you would also make community ownership and community self-determination a priority with an inclusive approach.

This is why I chose inclusive as the most important value in Community Development. I also found the value "upstream" quite interesting. Though the concept is not hard to grasp it was an idea that I hadn't really grappled with before in this context. I think it is a good addition to the list because activities that are aimed at the symptoms rather than the problem will inevitably need to be sustained or increased to continue to deal with the symptoms of an issue. If you can design an activity to deal with the root issue then your community will benefit much more.

Connecting with Community Planning
I found this assignment a bit difficult as our City does not have a Strategic Plan. There is an Official Plan but it concentrates on Planning in the official sense - not the general sense. The library is mentioned only in the area of the new development of Seaton which is slated to have two libraries eventually.

Other than the Official Plan the City of Pickering has 5 Corporate priorities. They are Community Engagement, Corporate Best Practices, Human Resource Development, Financial Management, and Sustainable Placemaking. I think that these Corporate Priorities provide the best opportunities for the Library to engage effectively with our Municipal Partners. If the Library can be seen to participate and assist the municipality in achieving some of these priorities it will go a long way to positioning the Library as a good partner and community leader. The three priorities I think the Library should focuse on are:
1. Community Engagement: our CEO has been working with City staff on this project. As the project moves forward the Library can contribute time, participation and expertise to this priority. It will also benefit the library in general to move towards being a more engaged community partner.
2. Financial Management: Our financial processes and procedures are closely linked to the City's and the Library always works hard to meet City financial targets and procedures. As the City makes more changes and improves its practices, it will be important for the Library to continue to work closely with the Financial Services staff and the Treasurer to ensure that we follow the same processes and procedures.
3. Sustainable Placemaking: Sustainability is an important concept in Pickering and the Library must be seen to participate and lead when possible in this area. A close relationship with the Planning group and the Building and maintenance group will assist us with identifying opportunities and taking advantage of available grants and other options.

Leadership Practices
I found Mintzberg's article insightful and quite practical. His thoughts certainly relate closely to the four leadership practices mentioned in the assignment.

1. Making Intelligent Decisions
     Mintzberg talks about the Manager being the focal point of information and the fact that a Manager has more information than subordinates. Information is the basic input to decision making. I found this quote interesting and very true:

There are two interesting features about these development projects at the CEO level. First, these projects do not involve single decisions or even unified clusters of decisions. Rather, they emerge as a series of small decisions and actions sequenced over time. Apparently, chief executives prolong each project both to fit it into a busy, disjointed schedule, and so that they can comprehend complex issues gradually.

It paints a picture of decision making as small steps and not one grandious sweeping decision. I find that  often to be true and it is why Inspiring and Holding the Vision is so important in managers so that decisions follow the the path that the leader wishes to follow.

2. Inspiring and Holding the Vision

Mintzberg defines two roles of the Manager that are related to this practice. He says that Managers have the Figurehead role in the Interpersonal roles he defines and in Informational roles the role of Spokesperson. He feels that communication (both formal and informal) is a key role of the Manager and as such this practices is central.


3. Enbracing strategic and purposeful change
     This relates to the roles that Mintzberg calls Decision roles, both the Entreprenuer and the Resource Allocator. Looking for and ensuring implementation of good ideas. Because the Manager makes the final decision about resource allocation he can ensure that projects that are promoted. 

4. Lifelong learners who see mistakes as learning experiences
    Mintzberg makes it clear near the end of the article that it is essential to be introspective in order to learn and he provides a list of 14 Self Study questions for Managers. All the questions require the Manager to review what has happened in the past and ensure that an optimal result has occured and if not to change the future approach to similar situations. Mintzberg assumes that Managers are Lifelong learners because he sees it as an essential practice.

My favourite idea in the article is :

 

The manager is challenged to gain control of his or her own time by turning obligations into advantages and by turning those things he or she

wishes to do into obligations.

I love the idea of turning obligations into advantages as he so clearly lays out in the first part of the paper. I am going to try to focus on that as my major take away from this reading.

Key Concepts from the Planning Classroom Session

There were so many great concepts and ideas in the Planning Classroom session with Rebecca that it is hard to pin it down to just one or two. I guess the area that stuck with the most is the concept of Community Stakeholders. It seems apparent but I had not really thought clearly in these terms before. It is essential not only to identify the key stakeholders for the library but to clarify what our relationship is with those stakeholders and look at our alignment with their goals and objectives. We need to think about other organizations in the community and how the library is "competitive" with them and how we can align with them. Thinking in terms of how the Library can plan a future that considers where community stakeholders want the community to be and other community organization visions makes a lot of sense. Nothing is done in isolation and to garner support Community Stakeholders are essential.

The other concept that struck me as important is the idea of outcome measures. While our Library has been moving in the direction of measuring our success this way I think it is more important than I had realized to make this shift. The Library is no longer a "self evident social good" to everyone and showing the positive outcomes of our services is more important than ever. To include the expected outcomes and how they will be measured strikes me as essential to the planning process for any Library.