... Angelica, Carmen & Cara are here, too!
I felt the best nugget from this session is the chart at the bottom, but there are some sparse notes from the rest of the panel as well.
From Cheryl Gould & Sam...
Strategy for Doing What Matters
- Identify what matters
- Assess what you're doing
- Stop. Start. Continue.
Do we have a shared definition of value
- Creating Community
- Making an impact
- Connecting needs with wants
How do we assess the value of our services?
- Library's are professional firms -- we COULD sell our services for profit but we choose not to
- Friction between community's perceived value and library staff's assumed value of something we do -- should we give them what they want or what we think they need?
- Sliding scale combo
- We want to do the things they can't imagine we CAN do
Cost/Effectiveness Analyses - Comparing Options
- Relative costs -- Don't forget to include the cost/value of staff time!
- Outcomes/Effects
- Return on Investment
- Gain from Investment - Cost of Investment divided by the Cost of Investment
- How much does it cost for a book to just sit on a shelf?
- Strategic Impact
What's the threshold to decide to stop doing something?
- Whether the program is still meeting it's original goal
- Cost vs. impact
- Inconvenience to patrons
- (Unnecessary) Stress
- Will patrons even notice?
- Usefulness and Potential
- Institutional Values
- Impact short term or long term on the patron
- Is this uniquely something the library can do
- Lack of passion
Tool: Leverage
- if you take highly paid individuals and have them making copies, you're not using your leverage
- if you have them do what they're good at and has value, you are using your leverage
Tool: Weighted Criteria
- All of the above could be viewed as equal (but not equitable)
- So you have to determine which ones are more important (like the bolded -- they are worth more and count for more)
What's hard about stopping
- Fear of the unknown
- Equitable to failure
- Control
- Comfort/Routine
Change triggers your mammal brain -- you don't think very well with too much change
- Be transparent early and often
- Find small changes that people can do to start the process off first
- Kaizen
We don't communicate how we've used what we've done very well
What is your acceptable loss rate
Managing Change -- We need all of these things together to manage a change process. What happens when something is missing?
Managing Expectations and Change
- Tell
- Sell
- Consult
- Collaborate
Lessa and Angelica's blogs are very thorough- so I'm only going to add my 2cents rather than add a whole new post on the same info...
ReplyDeleteWhat made the biggest impact on my brain:
Part of this session was mini discussions among those we shared the table with:
-How do we assess the value of our services? and why is it difficult to stop a service/program?
My table was comprised mainly of upper level management ('cept me)- and it was interesting, disheartening, telling...that no one agreed with each others responses. Interesting because they each came from varied library backgrounds and as such what they value and what they assume their patrons value would be different- Disheartening because if those at the table mirror the profession, then we are most definitely not on the same page- and telling because how admin determines the value of services and chooses to embrace or NOT their staff's feelings on the subject, can really determine the overall impact of the library in its community and the staff's enthusiasm for their work.
and, I agree, the chart at the bottom of the post is def. worth a look!!
ReplyDelete