Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings - But For Good

I know what you're going to say - all meetings are useless and most are a big pain in the butt. And, to be honest, I used to agree with you. Not anymore. It all changed when I moved into administration, but I couldn't put it into words until now. I spent a lot of time setting up one-on-one meetings with every single person who works in my library, which wasn't the norm before, and explaining why to each of them is going to help me explain to you why meetings can be for good.

I'll give you more detail below, but if you don't have a lot of time to read, the tl;dr is one of my biggest themes on this blog: relationship building. Now, in no particular order, here's what I mean:

• Since I'm a little more removed from the front lines in this job than I have been in the past (even though I've been training on the circulation desk and have a regular reference desk shift, every other week), meeting with everyone gives us time to get to know each other. This is especially important when it comes to the ten people who work in the library part time, since I don't see them as often and really only work side by side with the one part time reference librarian who works the same reference desk shift as I do.
• Having a regular meeting schedule makes it so that sitting down with the boss isn't necessarily a punitive thing. Only meeting with staff when things are going wrong makes those meetings feel like being called to the principal's office. For those times when I do have to give negative feedback, I want people to be relaxed and open to discussing what happened instead of being automatically on the defensive.
• Speaking of giving negative feedback, having a regular meeting schedule makes it so it won't be a thing - us being in an office with the door closed - and it won't cause tongues to wag. One of the worst bosses I've ever had only closed the door for one-on-one meetings when you were in trouble. I'll never forget the time I showed up 5 minutes early for my meeting and found the door of their office closed. I knew, even without being able to hear what was being said, that my colleague who had the meeting slot before mine was being chastised. It is nobody's business except mine and that of the employee in question if I have to give negative feedback. 
• Regular one-on-one meetings also gives people an opportunity to share ideas that they might not want to bring up in staff meetings. What if someone thinks we need to add a step to the check out process to protect people's privacy, but it will take extra time? Or what if the idea is that we should open up earlier in the morning because students are lined up outside the door? Being able to chat privately with me will give them a way to share that idea.
• Most importantly, me taking time to meet with them on a regular basis makes them know they are heard. This is me investing my most important resource - time! - in each and every person who works in my library.

Yes, meetings can be a pain in the tuchus. Some days it feels like that's all I do, which doesn't even touch the annoyances that accompany finding coverage for when I need to meet with someone who exclusively staffs a service point. But wow, is it worth it.

So how about you? What do you like about meetings?

Chairing Committees, Or, Why Herd Cats When You Can Just Dangle String?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (otherwise known as my life before librarianship), I held a couple different management positions: one at a bookstore and one at a fast food restaurant. As rewarding as it can be when things go smoothly, being in charge is difficult sometimes. However, as challenging as those jobs were, chairing a committee or a work group is way harder. There's a reason why people use the phrase "herding cats" so frequently when they talk about higher ed.

The thing is, though, that it doesn't have to be like that. To extend the cat metaphor, why herd when you can just dangle string? More plainly, why be authoritarian when you can make it so that people want to participate? I've talked in the past about running meetings, so today's post is more about the other work that goes into chairing a committee - the things you do between meetings.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but here are some of the things you should do:

1. Always express your gratitude for the work people are doing. Committee responsibilities might be part of their job descriptions, but who would you rather have? People who resent the committee as a disruption to their other responsibilities, or people who participate willingly?
2. Follow up shortly after meetings, and then again as necessary. I'm the chair of our displays group (and some of them read my blog... *waving*), and we only have one formal meeting per year. Our work extends throughout the year, though, since the displays change at least once per month. I send emails and talk to people in person regularly. I try to make it easy for people to remember what needs to be done.
3. Be ready to pinch hit. I hope you'll forgive me for mixing my metaphors, but this baseball term is such an apt description of what you'll need to do sometimes. Things come up, situations change, etc., and that means you'll have to fill in for people. That's what being in charge means sometimes.
4. Don't just talk; remember to listen. Whatever the reason for you being in charge, experience or volunteering or even being volunteered, you won't get anything done without the help of people on the committee. There are all sorts of clichés to describe this idea: "no man is an island" and "it takes a whole village" both leap to mind. We have so many ways to talk about this because it is so true.

If all else fails, you can always set out some tuna or cream (or donuts or pizza). You can't herd cats, but even the wiliest feral tabby is a sucker for treats.


What about you? What do you do when you're in charge of people?

When to Say Yes, or "Another Committee? Are You Crazy?"

I'm writing this the day before the first meeting of a new committee on which I'll be serving. Yes, I'm already on three campus-wide committees (one of which hasn't met in 2 years - it's my favorite), two library committees, and a partridge in a pear tree. Yes, I am the same person who told you to avoid death by meetings and to avoid burnout. On the other hand, as my director told me, you've got to know "which hill you want to die on," and the idea behind this new committee is important to me - both personally and professionally - so I volunteered, despite my busy schedule. 

It will get in the way of other projects, but I asked myself some questions about this committee, and knew it would be worth the hassle. What questions did I ask? Well, since you insisted, here they are:

1. Do you have a choice? One of my current committees must have a librarian. If I hadn't accepted the committee assignment, my boss would have been the one to fill the gap. That's what's known as a no-brainer, so I'm on the committee.
2. Do you have time for it? If no, can it wait? Some of my projects are "Summer Only" because of how all-consuming they can be. Similarly, I've passed on committees that were interesting because I knew they'd take up too much time.
3. Would it be politically advantageous? Non-library search committees are a pain and tend to obliterate even dreams of free time, but helping another department by being their token outsider is never a bad idea. That goes double when it's an administrator asking for my help.
4. Will it look good on your resumé and/or annual report? I detest public speaking when the audience is made up of my peers, but I've started doing it regularly because it looks good. 
5. Even if you otherwise wouldn't need to be involved, ask yourself is it important to you or just so interesting/fun that you feel you have to? Refereeing late night dodge ball is hard on me since I'm normally in bed by 10 PM and the event always starts at 9:30, but I always volunteer because building relationships with students outside of the library is important to me. And trust me, watching undergraduates take dodge ball that seriously is always a fun time.

If I can't come with good answers any of the above, I say no. This is more difficult than sounds, but it's necessary sometimes. So choose your yeses wisely, otherwise this could be your epitaph:

What about you? How do you pick which projects you'll pursue?

Avoiding Death by Meetings: Don't Waste People's Time

Nothing about librarianship surprised me as much as the meetings. It wasn’t so bad at first, when I was the new kid, but now meetings and committees take a huge chunk of my time. You see, I’m on five committees, plus a number of ad hoc groups and task forces. Then there are the campus wide meetings, faculty meetings, one-on-one planning meetings, etc. It’s gotten to the point where at least once per month, during the academic year, I have a day that is completely taken up by meetings. A lot of them are the kind where I have little or no control. I’m not about to admit to my survival techniques – not in a public forum like this. However, I do have advice about how to run a good meeting.

In short, it all boils down to four words: don’t waste people’s time. It’s a simple marker by which to judge all meetings. I love when people end a meeting with me by saying, “That was productive. Thanks.” 

Here are some of the tricks I use:

• Do you really need to meet? If you already know what the answer is going to be, or if it’s just sharing information that needs no response, use email. Email is also good for very simple requests, even if you don’t know what the response is ahead of time.
• Set an agenda and stick to it. Also, send the agenda out ahead of time. This is especially true if you are going to be soliciting ideas and brainstorming, but it’s important for all meetings. Surprises don’t make for productive meetings.
• Show up prepared and show up early. Being late to your own meeting is just bad form. If something does happen that makes you late, and it inevitably will, let someone know.
• Keep things moving. Tangents will arise, so you need to know how to deal with them. Depending on the specifics of the meeting, I’ve done everything from simply asking if whatever it is can wait for later all the way to having a formal way of gathering the tangents. (At one extremely long but productive meeting that I attended, there was a section of white board just for this purpose. It was labeled “Parking Lot,” and wow did it help.)
• Better to end a meeting early than late. I try to over-estimate how much time I’ll need, and I let people know that’s what I’m doing. There’s a line I’ve used so many times I should probably get it trademarked: “I don’t think we’ll need more than [x amount of time], but just to be safe I’m setting the meeting for [x + 15 minutes].”
• If a meeting does go late, face up to it. An administrator for whom I used to work was great at this. His meetings didn’t usually go over, but when they did, he’d say something like, “We’ve still got some work to do and I’d like to keep going, but if you need to leave I understand,” or, “We’re not done and we need to end, when can people come back?”
• End with clear next actions. As your meeting is ending, make sure you know what your next steps are, who is responsible for them, and when they need to be done. There’s nothing worse than having a month pass with no progress. You’ll only have yourself to blame when you hear, “I thought you were going to do that.”

I know I’m not the first person to write a list like this, and I’m sure I won’t be the last. If I didn’t lose so much of my time to meetings, maybe I wouldn’t care so much. By the way, my meetings aren’t always perfect, but the point is I try (unlike some people I know).

What about you? What makes a meeting bad in your mind? What are your secrets to a good meeting?