It’s a bit of a cliché, but
it’s a cliché because it’s true: one of
the most consistent aspects of life is that it is always changing. This is true
everywhere, be it personally or professionally. Despite this, people and
organizations are terrible at dealing with and managing change. I’ve been
though a great deal of change over the last several months. I started a new job
where most of my responsibilities deal directly with change.The organization
itself is also going through a great deal of change, of which my work is only a
portion. I think my position is not that uncommon. More and more young
librarians [Editor’s Note: or even not so young.] are being asked to
breathe fresh life into organizations, spearhead efforts to modernize services,
or be all around agents of change (just don’t ever actually use this term). The
good news is that while change management is difficult, it is entirely possible
to do so successfully without previous experience.
Nobody likes change. That’s something I’m sure you’ve heard before
and I’m sure you’ll hear it again. I think this is especially true of the
library world. Libraries were traditionally, and sometimes still are, viewed as
a storehouse of knowledge. This thinking runs deep and is constantly
reinforced. That means you will hear ‘Because that’s how we’ve always done it’
echoed through libraries everywhere, at an alarming rate. It’s an easy habit to
fall into, more so during a time when the very future of libraries is uncertain
at best. I tend to come at this from the opposite view. If you are engaged in a
process or policy that’s only justification is that it’s always been that way,
I can’t think of a better reason to set said policy on fire, and use the flames
as a guiding light toward a new and better future.
It is possible to document, record, and preserve the past while
still being forward thinking. Unfortunately, that means change management in
libraries will require a bit more work than in any other environment. You can
see this play out in perhaps the most basic of library functions: collection
weeding. All too often hands are rung about what should be weeded and people
outside the library don’t understand why the library doesn’t just keep all the
books forever and ever. That book has a history and unfortunately, to make room
for the space to create new history, that book might just need to be tossed. Or
better yet, set it on fire.
So you are tasked with making changes, where do you start? The
first thing to keep in mind is that you cannot be an expert in everything. This
is another one of the issues that makes change in the library world so
difficult. In many ways we are a profession of generalists and, while
individuals develop expertise in particular areas, our profession is simply too
broad to be able to know everything. There is always going to be someone who
knows more or has more experience or has been at an institution longer.
Acknowledge this fact, remind yourself of this fact, but move past it. Getting
caught in this web leads to paralysis and ultimately will result in failure.
What you’ve done is opened the door for those who have always done something to
continue to do it that way. This is something I still struggle with, but by
continuously engaging my colleagues and asking questions I have been able to
tap into their expertise and also create a forum where problems and concerns
can be addressed. It’s going to be difficult, but by putting in the work you
will gain the respect of your colleagues and start to develop expertise of your
own.
The active asking of questions is also helpful for identifying
areas where further change can take place. People are well aware of the pain
points of their jobs and will gladly let you know. Sometimes these can be
fixed, sometimes the fix would require more work than it would reduce, but
maintaining an open dialog about these things helps shepard along the change
process. When people know someone is listening, they themselves will start to
listen as well.
And what of that person who truly hates change and will resist it
every chance possible? These are the times where the work leading up to the
change is so valuable. That the change was vetted and approved by management is
crucial. Sometimes the ultimate last resort is to point out that it’s going to
happen regardless. This is where it can be difficult to stand up to those who
have more experience or expertise. But it is vital to remain unwavering; I have
experienced situations where I wasn’t entirely sure that the change was the
right course of action but I had to bury those feelings and refocus on what I
knew would be the gains of the change. This is where it is important to
constantly remind people of the benefits or gains of the changes being made.
Loss aversion is a common occurrence and it is really easy for people to focus
on one or two minor losses while ignoring potential gains. You might have to
sound like a broken record, but constantly reinforcing those gains will pay
off.
As we come to the end, it’s important to point out how crucial
endings are for change to be successful. At some point, the
past needs to be behind us. This is why I
favor a scorched earth, burn everything to the ground approach. When you take
away the ability to fall back you force people to make the change. That can
cause increased resistance but it can also really jumpstart change. So question
everything, abandon that which doesn’t work or is inefficient. Envision a
better way and work backwards to get there. But more than anything, “Be the
change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi.
Michael is the Collections Services Project Manager at Northwestern University. He holds a BA in Political Science from DePaul University and received his MLIS from Dominican University. He tweets at @michaelrperry6 and can be found on Google+here. This is his second post for Letters to a Young Librarian; the first was “Overlook Opportunities and Missed Connections” (back in the very early days of the blog).
Michael, great article!! I'm just getting in to Change Management at my library, and you really hit the nail on the head!
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