Saturday, 4:30 - 5:30
Cheryl Gould
Sam McBane Mulford
Strategy for doing what matters - identify what matters, assess what you're doing, (stop, start, continue). You want to be able to have options, choices.
Discussion - Ideas - what would we like to do - outreach, community storytimes, lending "things" library , get out of the library.
Shared definition of value: discussion : at times can be numbers (data) how many come, visible number oriented value, the value is on the many - serving maximum number, value is on quantity (bang for buck), value in comments / feedback from community, value in doing the right thing, value access, democracy / equity / lifelong learning, impact on people's lives, value connecting what we have with what people want, connecting community
How many assess the value of their services - performance measurements, what we do, how we do it, so what, how are people better? Ex. Danis - circulation average book (use) - save community __ number of dollars from having to buy the book, survey of programs to all staff (continue, stop, start, or change) - most staff not aware of monthly programs, other library measured against own goals - lifelong learning / transform lives
Community perceived value vs. staff assumed value (want vs. need) (Henry Ford quote - better transportation / faster horse) - need to find right equation in our community (sliding scale). Should not say we know best, this is what you need.
If not for profit, profit oriented, still opportunity to do really well and take time and invest it. Understanding value and who's value to assess.
Cost benefit analyses - which one is better option - relative cost / savings generated / benefits of investing time in other areas as well, outcomes / effects
Your time is worth money. Staff time is valuable - hourly rate to tasks. Example - 100 hours for program (ex. $20 x 100 hours = $2,000 in staff time, plus materials, and 10 people show up). If only 10 people show up it was $200 per person for the program. Was the return on investment worth it. Other side of the coin, p on the program may be such a unique program, experience no other place - then priceless.
Most useful - create a common currency to weigh them against each other. Gain from investment.
Gain from investment - cost of investment - divided by cost of investment = return on investment (roi)
20-10 / 10 = 100% roi
Strategic impact - invest now, but return on investment to come later. invest (maybe start from scratch, never done before) spend a lot of time in skills development, getting technology staff up to date, return on investment comes later.
What is the threshold?
Examples - periodicals circulating versus binders and staff time, convenience to patrons, hold card for newspaper, $5 fine - arguing versus waiving, simpler storytime versus planning more elaborate?, book mending versus buying a new book, time managing volunteers versus doing the task, FOL.
Example staff reading books before ordering - $900,000 - compare cost of book on shelf along with staff shelf book would be worth thousands of dollars to circ one book.
The idea is help more people think this way. Systems perspective and also opportunity cost of what we cannot do because of these decisions. Relative value for all the things we do.
Thresholds - Is the program still meeting the original goal? Cost versus impact? Inconvenience to patrons? Stress? Will patrons notice? Value experimentation. Impact short term or long term (entertain kids vs. homeless find job)? Is this something uniquely the library can do?
Staff passion - invest in what staff is passionate about, get more value in their time
Weighted criteria - everything is not equal (level of impact, crisis point, cost vs. impact) example crisis point versus inconvenience to patrons, uniquely library is one of the most important things.
Leverage - don't let CEO make their own coffee / copies (value of time), reading books already reviewed
Why is it hard to stop - inertia, backlash from staff or public, killing scared cows, letting go of control, someone else might do task, people value different things - might not agree on the value, you might cut something another department finds critical (consequences of change - ecosystem), fear of making a mistake
How stop?
Improve in small steps - change triggers brain / difficult to think
Natural stopping point - no security in books, no gates - cost analysis on doing books / how much we stopped patrons / at that point it was still cheaper to buy book (acceptable loss rate) - "shrinkage" in sales
Complex change model - vision / skills / resource models (different combinations and results - confusion, anxiety, don't understand the why - gradual change, frustration, no cohesive response) - all are needed to have successful change
Another comment: (I also commented on Lessa's post)
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned an interesting example related to something they stopped doing:
Their library stopped adding RFID tags to all materials. upon calculating the cost of materials, staff time, and inconvenience (doors buzzing every 5 minutes), dealing with vendors, etc...this turned out to be more $$$ than the acceptable level of shrinkage- cheaper to just rebuy the book/materials than tag them.
And another idea that was discussed:
Complex Change Model, conditions for managing complex change.
When we ask our staff for input, we should then let staff know how their input was considered and how it was used or not used. Only ask for input if we really need it, and don’t ask for input when we don’t really want it.