At the ALA conference, Lent hosted a conversation starter titled Facilitating Communication, Collaboration, and Continuing Education for Library Directors. Sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? What really happened was Lent spoke at the microphone for a minute and a half, and then had all the attendees get in a circle, go around and introduce themselves, and share topics that they’d hope to cover. He has been offering this Directors Roundtable at conferences in New England, and it was a big hit at this national offering also. His real success has been the creation of a library directors Listserv, which now has close to 400 library directors coast to coast reading and replying to one another every day.

I recently had the opportunity of filling in for him, by hosting a Directors Roundtable on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. I met with a great group of directors who work on this island (population 15,000 but that number grows to well over 100,000 during the summer vacation months). We got together to enjoy the best homemade scones I’d ever had, but really to share stories, frustrations, and ideas for success on the Island.

Lent was looking for a service that didn’t exist, so he created one. To quote him “I didn’t start this service because I think I’m a great library director, I did it because I think I’m not” and I think that’s an idea that we can all identify with sometimes. We are a community, no matter where we work and what the task at hand is. The support from the community of library directors is one that I value greatly and am thankful to have.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, visit Librarydirectors.org today.

The post Library Directors Group Enables Collaboration and Learning first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

For years I’ve witnessed librarians shy away from saying no.We try to phrase our signage positively or seek synonyms such as “refrain.” I’ve seen all staffing requests honored, even when it left institutions dangerously short of coverage. I’ve seen abusive patrons placated to the extent that staff was in tears and other library patrons alienated. I’ve seen librarians spend precious hours, made up on their own time, to entertain a vendor presentation for a product for which there was no need or budget. Worse, I’ve seen librarians purchase unneeded items from vendors, saying they didn’t want to hurt the vendor’s feelings by saying no.

Saying no does not mean being rude or mean. Sometimes saying no is necessary. Sometimes saying no is the responsible response. The important thing is knowing when to say it and how. Saying no is boundary setting. It should not be said in anger or vengeance, but with reason and purpose. In a library, we should say no with the same rationales present as when we say no to our family. We should say no for reasons of safety, fiscal management, protection, support, and education.

In the context of libraries, no one is fooled by word choices to soften a message. If anything, it confuses the reader or indicates that the message is insincere; that the message is not really meant to be followed or will not be strongly enforced. If something, such as no eating or cell phone use, should not be done, there is a reason for it and we would have more credibility (and respect) to be direct. Similarly, if there is a patron violating rules, we have an obligation to ourselves, our colleagues, our public, and to our problematic patron to indicate unacceptable behavior and consequences clearly. Patrons behaving badly have negative consequences for libraries. They scare others and they undermine the safety and mission of the library.

We, our co-workers, and vendors should be professional. As such, decisions regarding staffing, collections, or other management or operational concerns should not be happening based on interpersonal relationships. We shouldn’t be worried that our book vendor could be mad at us for a lack of purchase. If such decisions are made this way, it undermines our profession, our integrity, and all of our abilities to do our jobs.

No one likes to be perceived as the ‘bad guy’ and saying no can make us feel in this position. But we would not feel unjust telling our child not to run into the road, telling our spouse not to overspend our savings account, or telling a friend not to engage in dangerous behaviors. We do these things not to be mean, but to be benevolent. We do these things because we care.  Saying no in the library should be considered in kind.

The post The Value of No first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Opportunity

Receiving negative information is healthy for any organization. If an organization is focused solely on the positive, opportunities for improvement can be overlooked. Sharing information about poor performance of a program or service creates an opportunity to better serve patrons, meet community needs, and invest resources, which is always a positive.

All participants in discussions about negative performance can have blind spots. As the person presenting information, it may be difficult to have critical conversations with respected colleagues, or we may fear reprisals from peers. Individuals receiving the information may feel the conversation is a personal attack and become defensive. Library staff members are often passionate about their programs and services, so they can be protective of the status quo. This can make it difficult to receive critical information about current library operations.

Pivot Point Discussions

You can set up a negative meeting to be more positive with two initial steps. First, prime the audience for an action-oriented – not person-oriented – response. This conversation will be about the program or service, not the individual or past decisions. In doing this, you are creating a safe space for problem solving. Second, if presenting potentially unwelcome news, set some solution-oriented goals for the meeting. The initial conversation or meeting may not produce a concrete plan to address the situation. If so, it is important for the conversation to be the starting point for actionable decisions.

Elements of the Conversation

Map out the conversation or meeting ahead of time. A short agenda or roadmap can help guide the meeting. I rely on two main elements in planning these meetings.

1. Craft the meeting to promote multi-dimensional conversation. The conversation isn’t solely about performance metrics; it should be cognizant of the library as a whole, and concerns of all involved. A multi-directional conversation can help move the project forward.
2. Present the information in multiple ways. I’m a visual learner, so I naturally respond to drawing graphs and diagrams, whereas other colleagues may respond better to bullet points or verbal conversations. Aim to make your presentation appealing to an audience with diverse preferences.

Recently, I initiated a pivot point conversation at my library. While it wasn’t easy, I focused the conversation on how the information would inform future decisions, not an indictment of past decisions. Here’s the thing, as one person in a large organization, I didn’t have the whole picture regarding performance expectations. By collaboratively engaging colleagues, we were able to come together to strategically analyze past performance of a service and improve the experience for future patrons.

Want to be prepared for these difficult conversations?  I suggest visiting – or revisiting – Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters the Most for an in depth exploration of this topic.  While first published over 15 years ago in 1999, this book offers time-tested advice for productive discussions of difficult issues.[1]  For a shorter guide, Robert Bies offers 10 rules for delivering bad news on Forbes.com.[2]

[1] Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Shelia Heen, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters the Most (New York: Penguin Books, 2000).

[2] R. Bies, “The 10 Commandments for Delivering Bad News,” May 30, 2012, Forbes.com, http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/05/30/10-commandments-for-delivering-bad-news/.

The post Welcoming Unwelcome News first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

PART 1: INTIMACY
“Distance is a disease that cripples true conversation.” The first sentence of the book. Whoa. I agree, and I feel the pains of working in a twelve-location system. It is hard to have a true conversation without intimacy. Leaders must share thoughts about strategy and operations, while also giving away intimate pieces of their own history. This is not easy! This takes practice, but it truly sets the stage for the rest of the working relationship. The value of listening to someone in a face-to-face interaction is incredible. As I read this book, I adjusted our probation guidelines – we should be rating managers on their ability to listen. Listen. We tend to focus on formal modes of conversation to push information to employees—if you do that, they start to fill in the gaps themselves; they start to create scenarios that probably never happened. This is why we must be diligent to create an open forum to converse with each other. But how?

ICS
Treat employees with respect by setting up an Internal Customer Service structure. Use a work ticket system to show that their requests are just as important as external customer requests. This is two-way communication.

Intranet
Use your library intranet wisely. Post about staff success, community engagement, and clear up policies when necessary.

Listen
When a new idea is presented, sit back and listen. If I give my opinion, it may influence others. So, I try to listen before giving immediate feedback. This allows me to hear the full idea, and others to form an opinion without my influence.

PART 2: INTERACTIVITY
Getting close to employees can’t happen without interactivity. Pushing info at them is one thing, but providing a place where they can interact is another. Social media’s success relies on back-and-forth conversation, and it can be mimicked in the workplace. How do you create opportunities for interactivity?

Blog
Leaders can blog once a week with a question, a statement, a fun fact, whatever! This allows employees to understand what people in administration are up to, and it provides an opportunity for employees to engage. They can leave comments, talk with each other about it, and even set up a blog themselves.

Online Options
Bank of America created an online water cooler where employees can engage across departments and locations, and according to Groysberg and Slind, it is extremely successful. I find that just asking “What are you reading?” can lead to a lengthy discussion that allows employees to connect with and understand each other.

PART 3: INCLUSION
“An inclusive approach to communication transforms employees from receivers of corporate messaging into messengers in their own right.” Inclusion happens when an organization treats employees as official communicators and asks them to be a part of the conversation AND a creator of the conversation. Obviously, the employee must participate in order for this to be successful. How do you encourage them to participate?

Product Reviewers
Review new materials, databases, resources, etc. and share those reviews internally and externally.

Event Reporters
Report on events ranging from staff meetings to public events.

Ask Questions
Ask staff pointed questions: “How can we reduce costs?” “How can we be better?” “Where do we excel?”

Opportunity
Set up a small grant structure where any employee can write a one-page grant.

Day in the Life
Have one day where all employees take pictures and share on the intranet, celebrate each other!

The basic point of inclusion is to show the employee that they, too, are a customer. They, too, should be happy and they too are a community within themselves. We always want to serve our community, and the employees bring a rich and diverse opportunity to do just that.

PART 4: INTENTIONALITY
Intentionality centers on using conversation as a means to move the organization forward. The authors describe the first three elements as the fuel to energize the company and intentionality as the guide to a certain point. What is your destination? Fuel, and guide the conversation to get there.

It is the leader’s responsibility to guide the organizational conversation to improve its internal and external performance. This means that when you speak with an employee he/she should be able to tell you the mission, strategy, and goals of the library and be able to talk about their role within the organization. Surely you’ve heard the story of the NASA janitor who said his job was to “send people to the moon.” Everyone has a role, and the intentionality of a conversation can lead to real breakthroughs. How can we be intentional in our conversations at work?

Visioning Exercise
Imagine your library is receiving an award: what is it for? Start your conversations by stating goals of the organization, and ask employees for feedback.

Communicate the Why
When writing memos or speaking to staff, start with the What and follow up with the Why. Humans love to know why…even when they don’t agree with you.

Cross Talk
Create opportunities for conversations across departments and branches so that people can understand each other.

Sources

Groysberg, Boris and Michael Slind. Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power their Organizations. Harvard Business Review, 2012.

The post Talk the Talk first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Leaks or Bursts
Feelings are going to come out whether they leak out or burst forward. Some of us keep feelings inside and they leak out in other ways. Some can’t help but burst with emotion at times, which isn’t always helpful. The Feelings Conversation is designed to prevent the leaks and the bursts. By following the techniques, you will find value in examining, assessing, and expressing your emotions.

Scenario:
You’re talking to a direct report about a change in procedure. This change will help save time and money, but your direct report isn’t into it. Instead of talking about the feelings behind the conversation you walk away. Now you’re annoyed your colleague doesn’t want to change and your co-worker’s annoyed you don’t care about her point of view. While we can easily focus on the business side of this–you want the change and you know it will work out–we have to change our focus in order to help the organization.

What’s the worst could happen? So, I hold in my emotions. Who cares? The pitfalls of holding your feelings in are:

• detachment from coworkers
• tension throughout the workplace
•  aggression in tone, body language
• hindrance of your ability to listen
• misdirected aggression can be perceived as sarcasm

What’s the best that could happen? You begin to create a culture where feelings are expressed without judgement. BUT you can’t just start going around dishing it all out all the time. Follow these steps:

Sort out your feelings  (Protip – Use a feelings inventory to help).

• Accept that feelings are normal and natural and everyone has them (this can be very hard for some)
• Don’t be a speedbump, allowing other people’s feelings to always go before yours
• This is about you, and shouldn’t be a blame game

Negotiate with your feelings (my favorite part!) (Protip – The authors compare this to walking around your feelings as if they are sculptures in a museum.)

• Your feelings follow your thoughts, so be clear on what you are thinking and why.
• Ask some questions: What is my story missing? What is another explanation? What is motivating me? How did I contribute to the situation

Describe the feelings (Protip – Start a lot of conversations with “I feel”)

• Hopefully, negotiations went well and now you can talk about your feelings in the context of the problem/situation
• Establish a judgement free zone – don’t evaluate each other’s feelings!

Stone, Patton, and Heen end the chapter by talking about acknowledgement which is an important concept – read the chapter for more information!

More Resources:

Needs inventory: https://www.cnvc.org/sites/default/files/feelings_inventory_0.pdf

Free course on emotional intelligence at Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/lead-ei

Stone, Patton, & Heen (2010). Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most. Penguin Books.

The post Leaks or Bursts: Managing Feelings in Workplace Communication first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Most policies considered the work being performed. Pages have to bend, stretch, climb up, and crawl on the ground – jeans, neat t-shirts, and gym shoes are considered perfectly acceptable. For clerks and librarians, however, jeans aren’t always allowed. Almost all of the policies required closed-toed shoes and did not allow t-shirts with print or logos – unless they promoted a library reading program.

Further discussion made us realize that it wasn’t the clothes, per se, but the impression we wanted to convey to our users that determined how we would prefer our staff dress. While we all wanted to encourage individuality, the parameters of such self-expression were quite different. Some directors felt that staff should be accessible. They feared that in some libraries, patrons might be intimidated by a staff that was dressed in business wear. Some even believed that just about anything, short of soiled clothing, should be allowed. Staff needs to be comfortable, they said, and that it isn’t what they wear, but how they perform that matters. Others respectfully disagreed, believing that libraries, especially now, need to prove the value of their product and their existence. These directors insisted that a staff dressed in the standard khakis and polo shirts of business casual wear would garner the respect of their users and add credence to the information dispensed.

In all cases, the directors agreed that they should dress one step above their staff – those that would allow jeans thought they should wear business casual. Those that choose business wear (including, in some cases, heels and ties) for themselves would have staff in casual business attire. I considered this conversation a few weeks later when I attended the monthly board meeting for my home library. Halfway through my second term as a trustee, I have attended a fair number of meetings – usually dressed in jeans. Yes, there were times when I came directly from work and looked more professional, but I had always considered meetings to be an event where my wardrobe could be more relaxed. Yet, some libraries where I have attended board meetings as a guest, I’ve witnessed boards that dressed in business wear because it was expected. In other board cultures, dressed up jeans are more common. A few are very casual.

So what do people in your library wear? How important is it for staff to appear professional? What is professional, anyway? Should the board adhere to the same dress code as staff? Let’s talk about it – leave a comment below.

The post Dress Codes at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

According to the Pew Research Center, these Millennials “are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry”—yet optimistic about the future. They have placed themselves in the center of self-created social networks, and over 55% have posted a “selfie.” Ironically, they express a lower level of social trust in spite of their social networking and have detached themselves from traditional institutions. However, as in any generational group, they insist they are not all alike, and hold a wide variety of opinions on political and social issues. As for their educational status, over a third of them have a four-year-degree or higher. The Pew Research Center concludes that they are the most racially diverse generation in American history, with 43% of them non-white (i.e., Hispanic, Asian, African-American). In addition, the 2014 Millennial Impact Report reveals that approximately 80 million Millennials live in the U.S., and by the year 2020 they will comprise 50% of the work force.

Frankly, I didn’t pay too much attention to the Millennials’ impending arrival. Many decades ago I burst shouting out of the “Silent” or “Seniors” Generation—a part of the Greatest Generation—and have been working alongside members of other generations ever since: the Traditionalists (1900-1945), the Baby Boomers, (1946-1964), and the Generation Xers (1965-1980). We have shared a great deal of collegiality in both the educational and the library world, along with a deep passion for the mission of libraries in general. I assumed I would relate in the same way with this Next Generation (1980-2000).

However, my curiosity about them was piqued when I spoke recently with a “newbie,” a part-time clerk who had stopped by Technical Services to deliver something to me. I asked her how she liked her first-time public library position. Her response was almost bombastic.

“I have talent and capabilities that aren’t being acknowledged! No one understands how to work with me.”

“And how is that?” I inquired.

“Give me something to do that’s not busy work, work that means something that can do some good, and then let me do it!”

She told me she expected to be approached as an equal, no matter what title or position that she or anyone else held, and to work on projects that allowed her to move beyond the status quo. I reassured her that several collaborative projects are strongly in motion and that she could easily become a member of those committees already making a difference in patron programming.

“But, I can see so much that needs to be completed that I could do myself. I’m a Millennial!”

I hadn’t encountered too many individuals who identified themselves so strongly with their generation. She used the word Millennial as though it were the only key to understanding her, a password that would open doors just for her. She made me wonder if our other staff Millennials held the same view about themselves. In our library system we have seven professional librarians who definitely belong to the Millennial Generation, and another three who fall on the cusp between the GenXers and the Millennials. In addition, there are six young Millennial staff members who are either full or part-time. Determined to know more about what they feel about technology and their attitudes about how they are perceived, I asked them if they would be willing to participate in a survey, and that I would use their responses in this blog. Fourteen of the sixteen responded in the affirmative.

I used the free template at www.surveymonkey.com, which meant I was limited as to the size of the survey. I asked them to respond to ten statements, paraphrased from several sources and relating to either librarianship or technology, by either agreeing or disagreeing with the statement, or to select “no opinion.” If they were not degreed librarians, I asked them to consider the statements in view of what they did in their library job. I also provided a text box for their comments. All survey results would be anonymous. I followed this survey with two additional questions, to be answered “yes” or “no,” with opportunity to provide additional responses.

I admit that my survey is flawed. I provided no way to compare them in light of their ages and length of library experience. I did not provide a distinction between those who are classed as professional librarians and those who are not, thus risking skewed results. I should have refined the third statement, as it deals with two concepts. The survey statements, the follow-up questions, and the results with their comments, are as follows:

Survey statement #1: Technology was a major factor for a Millennial when deciding to become a librarian.

Results: 64% disagree

Technology itself is not why I chose this field. It’s like saying “Oxygen is part of the atmosphere, [but] is that part of the reason you became an air-breather?” Technology is available and present everywhere, in all job fields, and [in] all aspects of life.

Survey statement #2: Millennials have more interest in libraries because of the way information is accessed, stored, and applied.

Results: 77% agree

I became a librarian because I like books, I like learning things, I wanted a job where I could do many different tasks, and where I could help people. Technology is a tool to accomplish that.

Survey statement #3: Millennials believe that they can quickly learn any new technologies, but they are not used to creating it or understanding its infrastructure.

Results: 43% agree

…people my age are tenacious and dogged in learning new skills.

…a lot of new technologies are created by Millennials.

Survey statement #4: Millennials want to transform libraries into technology-enhanced spaces.

Results: 86% agree

(No comments on this statement. I think it spoke to the obvious.)

Survey statement #5: Millennials are not “wedded” to particular technologies because something newer and better will always come along.

Results: 64% agree

Comments:

“Millennials are more wedded to a brand, not a type of technology (example: Apple vs. Android). Technology updates are making devices outdated and unusable within 2 or so years.”

“…every generation is going to have a technology paradigm that they are most comfortable with. Ours just happens to be a very morphable and accepting paradigm. If there is a fundamental shift in tech provision or access, I think a lot of Millennials who think themselves open to changing technologies are going to realize they are actually rather comfortable with the status quo.”

Survey statement #6: Millennials like to work in teams to accomplish goals that matter to them.

Results: 57% agree

Comments:

“Accomplishing goals that matter to me is important, regardless of whether or not I’m working on a team.”

“Millennials like to work individually on projects that matter to them, and to have those projects linked to other projects to create a larger whole. A small difference, but we’ve been “teamed up” all through school and life, and all of us are familiar with the strain of carrying someone else’s weight. Work life is a chance to stand on our own and be judged on ONLY our own work.”

“I enjoy working alone.”

Survey statement #7: Millennials rely on peer influence to attend events, participate in programs, volunteer.

Results: 62% agree

Comments:

“It’s so much a part of me to text, to facebook, to twitter, to instagram others…I get input, but basically I make up my own mind.”

“I am not influenced by peer pressure.”

Survey statement #8: Millennials don’t want to work in an environment that is not exciting or rewarding to them.

Results: 92% agree

Comments:

“Many of us are unemployed or underemployed in an economy that the older generations ruined. Studies say that we don’t live for our work, but want a job where we earn a fair wage, are happy, and then can leave at the end of the day so we can pursue our hobbies. We just don’t want to sacrifice our health and happiness for a job that pays us poorly and makes us miserable.”

“I would not thrive in a less rewarding and unstimulating work place.”

Survey statement #9: Millennials want immediate feedback on how they’re performing, not annual reviews.

Results: 92% agree

Comments:

“Tell me right away how I’m doing. Then I can fix anything that’s not right.”

Survey statement #10: Millennials use multiple methods of self-expression [social networking, getting tattoos; posting videos online], but most have protected their social media profiles.

Results: 77% agree

Comments:

“We use these tools because they’re there, and they’re useful for different purposes. If other generations were as familiar and comfortable with these platforms and with the relaxed culture of self-expression, they’d be all over it as well.”

“We don’t do these things to make other people look at us; we do them to make ourselves match our ideals of how we want to be. Our “self-expression” is more self-examination and self-inspection, rather than narcissism.”

Follow-up question #1: Have you ever referred to yourself as a Millennial or describe yourself in terms of the generation in which you were born?

Results: Yes: 55%   No: 45%

Comments:

“I sometimes refer to myself as a “Millennial” to be funny…as a joke.”

“I’m comfortable with who I am. I don’t need a generational label to define me.”

Follow-up question #2: Are generational classifications important or useful to you in your job or in your life

Results: Yes: 35%   No: 65%

Comments:

“I think individual differences in work styles play more of a role.”

“Yes, if only because understanding the different generations makes it easier to understand how/why some people treat me in certain ways.”

This is funny to me: so many times I hear older people complain that we are always on our phones or at the computer, but the second they can’t figure out their email suddenly we are the omniscient Tech Gods who can work wonders with their virus laden PCs running Windows XP and Internet Explorer.

“I have trouble sometimes with how other “generations” define me, but in my job, I deal with all age levels…they come to me to help them figure out how to use their tablets or cell phones. I like that age-gap interaction, and they see me in a different way when they get my help. I’m not such a mystery to them, then.”

The results of my humble survey about our Millennial colleagues seem to agree in large part with the most recent research. Technology is ubiquitous for our Millennials; therefore, technology was not the motivating force in choosing their library career. However, because technology is inherent in library work, they want to use their technological skills to improve the access and delivery of information. They want to enjoy their jobs and perform tasks that mean something.

I perceive all our Millennials to be intelligent individuals, collaborative and creative, who work well within the existing institution. Yet they are also able to apply their technological skills in new and exciting ways to provide service to patrons of all ages and to promote more innovative library services. They participate in both their social media world and in the community. They get a little annoyed at how they are portrayed in all the surveys and articles, and are irritated that they sometimes are put in the position of having to defend why they use technology. One respondent told me she doesn’t have to defend why she drinks water, so why does she have to defend her use of her smartphone! They did not abandon one information resource to replace it with newer digital formats. To them print materials are just one way that information is stored. They are not hesitant to use existing technology as another vital tool to help them succeed. They are relieved and happy to use what they know to help others. I have not heard them complain that they are not involved in doing something worthwhile in their library job.

Our Millennials take the steps through the digital environs that the rest of us don’t know how to. They do what the rest of us don’t dare to—or care to—do, and they do so with ease. One of our staff Millennials is our Digital Librarian, responsible for getting the word out about our programs on all possible social media venues and on our website. Another is active in digitally promoting Tween literature and is deeply involved in the Summer Reading program centered around superheroes. The Millennial Librarian in charge of Adult Programming, with the collaboration of our seasoned Community Services director, has obtained a substantial LSTA matching grant—I’ll tell you more about that excitement in a future blog! Three of our Millennials were instrumental in planning and organizing our August ComiCon. And all of them use devices—Apple or Android—at the service desks and carry them into the stacks to help our patrons navigate our system

I feel at this point that I need to mention the obvious: our Millennials thrive at our library because our director and assistant director are not threatened by innovation and creativity on the part of the staff. Millennials blossom under transparent leadership when the hierarchy is bendable.

The 2013 Millennial Impact Report states: “We don’t study Millennials because they’re a part of the culture. We study them because they’re defining the culture.” I firmly believe they are the reason why we should feel so optimistic about the future of public libraries. And I, for one, am going to have a blast having them help me redefine my corner of the library world.

Resources:

1. Anderson (SC) County Library System
2. Mind the gaps : the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2015.
3. Inspiring the Next Generation workforce : the 2014 Millennial Impact Report, Six-Month Research Update.
4. Inspiring the Next Generation workforce : The 2014 Millennial Impact Report.
5. Caraher, Lee. Millennials & management : the essential guide to making it work at work. Brookline, MA: Bibliomotion, Inc., 2015.
6. Cummings, Bethany. “How millennials are redefining the role of public libraries.” com. October 23, 2014.  (accessed July 21, 2015).
7. Emanual, Jenny. “Digital Native Librarians, Technology Skills, and Their Relationship with Technology.” Information Technology and Libraries, September 2013: 20-23.
8. Hais, Morley Winograd & Michael D. Millennial momentum : how a new generation is remaking America. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2011.
9. Henig, Robin Marantz Henig & Samantha. Twenty something : why do young adults seem stuck? New York: Hudson Street Press, 2012.
10. Huang, Belinda. “Why Millennials May Save Our Libraries.” Emertainment Monthly. Entertainment News from Emerson College. September 29, 2014.  (accessed July 21, 2015).
11. LePage, Evan. “Why Millenial [sic] is Meaningless for Social Media Targeting.” June 6, 2015.  (accessed July 21, 2015).
12. McClary, T. M. “Marketing the Public Library to Millennials.” NJ State Library. April 24, 2014.  (accessed July 21, 2015).
13. “Millennial Impact Research : The 2013 Millennial Impact Report.” 2013. http://casefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MillennialImpactReport-2013.pdf.
14. Pew Research Center. “A Portrait of “Generation Next” : How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics. Summary of Findings.” PewResearchCenter : U.S. Politics & Policy. January 09, 2007. (accessed July 21, 2015).
15. —. “A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013.” PewResearchCenter: Internet, Science & Tech. January 16, 2014. (accessed July 21, 2015).
16. —. “Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. Executive Summary.” PewResearchCenter: Social & Demographic Trends. February 24, 2010. (accessed July 21, 2015).
17. —. “Millennials in Adulthood: Detached from Institutions, Networked with Friends.” PewResearchCenter : Social & Demographic Trends. March 7, 2014. (accessed July 21, 2015).
18. —. “Younger Americans and Public Libraries.” PewResearchCenter: Internet, Science & Tech. September 10, 2014. (accessed July 21, 2015).
19. Pollak, Lindsey. Becoming the boss : new rules for the next generation of leaders. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014.
20. Schawbel, Dan. Workplace Trends :The 2015 Millennial Majority Workforce Study. (accessed July 21, 2015).
21. Schawbel, Dan. “Talent management : 10 ways millennials are creating the future of work.” forbes.com. (accessed July 21,2015).

The post Millennials Among Us first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

For this first blog post I want to focus on the issue of building trust. Patrick Lencioni addresses this in his book The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. According to Lencioni, before you can get healthy as an organization, you need to establish a strong team. To establish a strong team, you must establish trust.

Building Trust

What is trust? We aren’t talking about trust in the way you trust your partner to tell the truth, or you trust a friend to follow through on promises. Lencioni calls it vulnerability-based trust. Be vulnerable in front of your management team. Tell them when you screw up, tell them when you struggle, and tell them when you’re sorry. In general, be vulnerable. If everyone on the team does this you avoid a lot of issues. One, everyone is speaking freely which can lead to breakthroughs. Two, you get to the heart of issues much faster. Fear takes a back seat as you express your vulnerable side more often.

But!

Librarians like to know everything, and rarely admit to not knowing something or not having thought something out. It goes against our nature to admit we don’t know. This is why you have to be the example. Truly, it should begin with the leader, but it can begin with anyone at the table. Next time you find yourself feeling defensive, take a moment and explore what you are feeling, and say it! I’m feeling overwhelmed, I messed up, I need help. Start building the trust by being honest.

Practical Steps to Building the Trusting Team

Lencioni shares two steps that essentially do the same thing: force you to get to know yourself and your team members.

• Share Personal Stories – Talk about yourself, your personal history. He suggests answering the question: what was the most difficult or interesting challenge you overcame as a child? This allows you to get to know each other’s motivations. Someone may micromanage out of fear, and another might be tight with money because he/she grew up in a certain environment.
• Take a Personality Test – I love this! I prefer Myers-Briggs, but there are others (see below). Yes, they can feel awkward to take and share but, man, I have learned a lot about myself this way. Take the test, share with others, and see how it will help your organization in the long run.

But!

We have been a team forever, this seems a little late in the game. It’s never too late. Tell your team you want to try something new. Use a consultant as a catalyst. Many local consultants will come in for just a few hours to help with something like this and it won’t cost you much money at all! But please understand it is a culture change, and it won’t happen offsite in a day-long session. This is skimming the surface to deeper cultural behaviors.

The rest of the book is really great. I recommend you read and marinate on it, then go back and read the sections that stuck out the first time.

Take some time to explore these resources as you start to build your team:

• Team Building 101 http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/05/team-building-101
• Effective Managers Earn Trust Quickly By Doing 5 Things Well http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/07/10/effective-managers-earn-trust-quickly-by-doing-5-things-well/
• Titles from ALA http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3717

Personality Tests:

• Enneagram https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/guide-to-all-riso-hudson-tests/
• Myers-Briggs http://www.mbtionline.com/

Reference

Lencioni, P. (2012). The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. Wiley.

The post It Takes More Than a Trust Fall: Establishing a Great Management Team first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Do you have commonalities between large numbers of books in your collection? There are some major groupings libraries tend to use to divide books into genres. Common ones include mystery, science fiction, fantasy, westerns, inspiration, and romance. Do these groupings represent what you would consider a sizable portion of your collection?

Are there special niche books that are particularly important in your community that should be kept together? Some libraries like to keep local authors together on shelves. Other libraries choose potentially more narrow genres to group together like suspense, horror, historical fiction, or urban fiction. There can also be chick lit, humorous, book and TV, Amish, teen books for adults, sagas, supernatural, and war stories. Some libraries have a large collection of books that are recommended by the staff, and these books are all grouped together. What is really special in your library?

Do you have a defensible reason for changing either to separated genres OR putting together books that were separated before? Some communities, for whatever reason, tend to have more adults who read within a particular genre as opposed to reading a particular author. Would breaking the collection into smaller groupings, like genres, encourage more browsing or help patrons find what they are looking for more quickly? If you have books separated into genres, combining all fiction books together saves shelf space if you need more room. People are going to resist change whatever it is. When they want to talk about the change, you need to have answers for them.

How are you letting the staff and the public know changes are coming? Whether you have a newsletter, Facebook, newspaper articles, or some other way to tell the public, you’ll have to do it more than once. You may even want to get the staff and public’s opinions before you make a final decision about what to do with your fiction collection. Whatever decision you choose, make sure your staff is able to answer questions about why books were moved from “where they’d always been.” Preparing staff makes the change easier for both staff members and patrons.

Whatever you decide to do, someone isn’t going to like it. That’s just the way it goes. However, providing clear signage to help people find what they’re looking for will help quite a bit. However, making sure your decision is the right thing for your community is ultimately the most important thing.

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

The post Separate or Keep Together? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The PCLS process improvement process (yes, it’s an awkward mouthful) grew out of methods of evaluating services that PCLS began using during the economic downturn. “With the recession,” said PCLS Executive Director Georgia Lomax,¹ “we became very focused on evaluating how we do things. We started tracking how we were making improvements, particularly to save money to save staff so we could get through the recession.” Even as the economy improved, Lomax felt it was important that the library not lose this momentum. “We’re never going have all the money or all the staff that we want to do the things that our communities need,” she said. “Taxpayers appreciate us not wasting money, not wasting time, all of those things about being good stewards!”

Due to the recession, revenues for PCLS had dropped five years in a row. The system reduced operating expenses by $6.4 million between 2009 and 2013. Reductions had been taken from every area. In considering how to improve things, PCLS was wrestling, as almost all public service organizations are, with the Triple Constraint (also called the Iron Triangle). All projects, including the daily undertakings of work, hinge upon time, quality, and money.² If you want things faster and cheaper, quality will go down. If you want things faster and better quality, the cost will go up.

The more Lomax learned about various process improvement models and their impact on the business world, she realized “that’s what we’ve been doing, without in effect calling it that.” Lean is the umbrella term for a practice of eliminating waste in manufacturing processes that was pioneered by Toyota and other Japanese car manufacturers in the 1970s and ’80s.³ Lean aims to provide the best service to customers while reducing or eliminating waste. The “waste” it wants to eliminate is not people, skill, or quality. The waste is that seemingly immovable side of the Iron Triangle: time.⁴

Lomax wanted to take PCLS’s work with process improvement further, and an opportunity presented itself. PCLS’s Reading & Materials (R&M) Department is a large department with many moving parts. The department has thirty-two staff members, eighteen full-time and fourteen part-time. Under the umbrella of R&M are Acquisitions, Processing, Cataloging, Collection Development, Interlibrary Loan, Delivery, Circulation for the Processing & Administration Center, and Audio-Visual Mends. In 2013 the R&M Department added 195,000 new items to the collection and, as of November 2014, the department had added 185,000.

“Our Reading & Materials staff works very hard, but they were struggling with increasingly complex processes and managing workloads,” Lomax said. Staff was asking both management and each other if there were ways they could do things better. “They were saying ‘We can do things better.’ and they were saying ‘We want to be a part of doing things better. We have ideas.’”

Lomax worked with consultant Catherine McHugh, PhD, to create a tutorial on process improvement for staff. “Catherine comes from an industrial background and a production line environment,” Lomax said, “and this is an area she has expertise in. So she was able to support us, and helped us develop this tutorial that taught us all the key principals about customer supplier partnerships.” Lomax was concerned that the process improvement methodology used by the library not be overwhelming. “We didn’t want to be bureaucratic. We didn’t want to create a new process that overwhelmed us. We just wanted a really grassroots, effective, day-to-day thing that we could do. . . . [W]hat we ended up with is what our staff found worked for them.”

Beyond the tutorial, the library’s next step was to form a steering team responsible for applying process improvement to the R&M Department. Team members included R&M Department staff members, the Library Materials Supervisor, the R&M Department Director, the PCLS Deputy Director, and McHugh. Department members included staff from various sections and levels, including a cataloging librarian, cataloging specialist, collection development librarian, library assistant, and virtual experience librarian.

Before the R&M Process Improvement Steering Team got started with the task of process improvement, they spent the first several meetings receiving training, both about process improvement and about participating in successful meetings. The training was fundamental to their success.

The group was given a charter outlining the specific task they were to accomplish and the parameters of the project. The task before them was to evaluate the whole department and identify the section to begin implementing process improvement. Of the charter, Steering Team member Clare Murphy, virtual experience librarian, said, “[Process improvements] had to be staffing neutral and had to be within the budget. It had to be within the computer system that we have available to us. We had to look at every area within our department and figure out which areas could actually accomplish something of value [with process improvement] given those parameters.”

They also established ground rules (see figure 1 on previous page) for the meetings, which helped create a safe space. One of the challenging aspects of the team was that it was made up of staff from very different levels. Cataloging specialist Cathy O’Donnell said, “The rules and the charter emphasized that everyone was on a level playing field. There was not a boss, not a deputy director. We were told that in that room, in that meeting, everyone’s words had the exact same value.” Library assistant Sheri Kurfurst said, “The work we did could never have been done without the pre-work, without the charter, the ground rules. It took all the personality out of it [and] it allowed us to move forward and start being able to communicate and talk because we knew what the rules were.”

The training on process improvement methods cleared the way for success. O’Donnell said, “Catherine first taught us how to look at process improvement. She gave us the tools we would need, and the most important thing she taught us is that we are looking at the process. We are not looking at the person in the job. To remove ourselves and just look at the process and ask if anything can be tweaked. It’s not about how somebody does their job. This is how we do it now. Maybe if we try this, it will work out a little better, it will be easier to do it.”

Process improvement training included learning about customer-supplier partnerships, a key component of process improvement. Customer-supplier partnerships (see figure 2) are the link each department has with another. At any point in time, a department may be a customer, or they may be a supplier, depending on which hat they’re wearing.

Library assistant Sheri Kurfust said, “My biggest thing was learning about the customer-supplier roles. [We learned] that we wear these different hats all the time. It’s really important for us to communicate to the branches, and for them to communicate to us. So they can be aware that sometimes I am acting as their customer and sometimes their supplier.” Learning about the “changing hats” of customer service was vital to the success of the project.

Public service employees are always aware of the importance of customer service. We focus on providing the best service we can. Challenges arise when we forget that the people we serve also serve us. In the case of an administrative center serving many branches, the service they provide to us is almost invariably information—information that we need to serve them the best we can. Service can break down when it appears we’ve received a request to do something we can’t do. In a “customer is always right” environment, do we move heaven and earth to do it anyway, despite the problems it will cause? Do we toss it to a “problem pile” and hope they forget they asked? Or, as suggested by the customer-supplier roles, do we put on our own customer hat and ask them for more information? Do we discuss limitations and discover an alternative solution? Do we work in an environment that encourages this kind of communication?

Another key concept that was vital to the Steering Team in choosing which section to begin process improvement was the concept of low-hanging fruit, “which are the things that would be very easy to take care of but would have a major impact on what we were doing,” said O’Donnell. Identifying sections that had a bounty of low-hanging fruit helped the team ultimately decide which section would be the first to experience process improvement.

The Process Improvement Team

The Steering Team chose the Audio-Visual (AV) Mends section of the R&M Department. The AV Mends section deals with a variety of issues relating to the care of AV. They clean discs and mend or replace damaged cases and artwork. They match up cases and sets with lost and misplaced discs. They order replacement discs to complete sets with missing discs, and they manage a “boneyard” of discs from incomplete sets to complete sets when possible. The work in AV Mends also feeds into the weeding process. O’Donnell said, “We chose them first, and part of that was we saw that there was a lot of low-hanging fruit that would be easy for us to change, it was totally within our control, we didn’t have to rely on any outsider vendors.” Within the self-contained section, it would also be easy to see and measure the impact of process improvement.

Another part of the Steering Team’s role was acting as ambassadors of the process to the rest of the department. “Coming in, there was a lot of paranoia,” said team member Matt Lemanski, collection services librarian. “Morale was low.” After multiple years of budget cuts, staff was very concerned about job security. Doing more with less at top speed, while continually feeling behind, left staff exhausted and disheartened. Sally Sheldon, library assistant in the AV Mends section said, “I had reservations. I was thinking it was a point of cost cutting. I was thinking as they make things ‘leaner’ they’re going to eliminate different things that people are doing, and that will help with the elimination of positions.”

Sheldon’s feelings are not at all uncommon when staff starts hearing terms like lean and efficiencies. Terms like these and others, like trimming the fat or being nimble, have been used for years as polite euphemisms for eliminating staff and positions. The implication of using terms in this way is that staff is made to feel like they’re the problem, not the solution. An organization that wants to take on process improvement needs to open their minds to thinking about these concepts in a new way. It is not staff that needs to learn how to do the old way more efficiently with less people. Organizations must embrace the idea that it’s the process that needs to become lean so that staff can do it well, quickly, and with high quality. “Ultimately what you want is people working at the highest level of their jobs,” said Lomax. “Doing what is the most interesting to them. So the more you can process engineer the tedious stuff the more you can have fun at your job.”

“We worked really hard to be as transparent as possible,” said Lemanski. “Because we realized very quickly that the goal of this team was not to fire people.” The Steering Team sent out communications to the department after every meeting, providing a digest of the proceedings and their action steps for the next one. Full notes of each meeting were also posted on the library’s staff website. “Our end goal was to establish a safe environment within our team to [learn about] process improvement and then extend that safe environment outward,” said
Agnes Wiacek, cataloging librarian.

Team members reached out to department members about their fears. Tris Bazzar, supervisor of the AV Mends section, said, “One of the real turning points for my people was when Cathy O’Donnell came over and said ‘This is not to have the higher ups come in and tell you how to do your job. This is to empower you to do your jobs the best you can.’”

Once the AV Mends section had been chosen, The AV Mends Process Improvement (PI) Team was formed. In addition to some of the members of the original Steering Team, the new team included Bazzar, Sheldon, and Julie McKay, library assistants in the AV Mends department; Kati Irons (that’s me!), AV collection development librarian; and Kathy Norbeck, supervisor of the Buckley-PCLS branch. Original Steering Team members included Lomax, McHugh, Lemanski, and O’Donnell.

The AV Mends PI Team began with the same training on how to participate in process improvement and how to participate in effective meetings. Despite the groundwork that Steering Team members had done ahead of time, there were some rocky moments early in the process. As the AV Selector I had worked closely with the AV Mends section for years and had been asked several times over the years to lead evaluations of the department to determine ways to streamline it, and had been stymied every time. There were simply too many moving parts. In addition, since part of my professional charge is weeding, my head is full of packed branch shelves. “One in, one out” is my clear charge from the library, but my push to weed items had sometimes seemed to the AV Mends department as disrespectful to their work.

In addition, every time conversations came up about how to “fix” things over in AV Mends, the staff who worked in the section felt defensive. They were working tirelessly every day, moving hundreds of items in and out. They were being budget conscious by attempting to fix things rather than throw them away. But here they were again, being asked to fix things instead of being acknowledged for their hard work.

As the AV Mends team worked through the early stages of the process, including building ground rules (see figure 3) and clarifying the purpose of the team, the tension was obvious. Eventually a conversation revealed the different perspectives at play, which was an eye opener for both sides. Lemanski said, “I didn’t realize how many hurt feelings there were in that area and I didn’t realize the background around it. I think once people were able to talk about that and clear the air, it was a major road block removal.”

As hard as it is to experience, having those uncomfortable conversations is an important part of the process. One of the key components of looking at workflow through process improvement is “It’s the process, not the person.” When emotions are running high, that has to be acknowledged before team members can set the personal aside and start looking at the whole dispassionately.

After the AV Mends team worked through the training, it was time for the group to move on to the nuts and bolts of process improvement, the Value Stream Map (see figures 4 and 5). Value stream mapping, which could also be called a workflow map, is the actual mapping of every step in a process. It’s easy to explain, but it’s very hard to do. “It’s hard for people who do a job to recognize their own steps,” said Murphy. But the breaking down of a task into the component parts is essential to process improvement, and essential in coming to understand that it’s not the person, it’s the process.

As the process owners (those who actually do the work being mapped) worked on the map, other members of the team who were not familiar with the process pushed them to be more specific. O’Donnell said “Julie [McKay] and Sally [Sheldon] were saying ‘Okay, we have the different categories of things [cleaning, mending, etc.] and they get set here.’ Well, how do they get set there? ‘Well, Wayne [Taylor, a library assistant] goes and gets it.’ Well does he get it all at one time? ‘Well, no, some come in envelopes and some come in crates.’ Well, does he get it all at the same time, or throughout the day? And they were realizing they didn’t know that Wayne was doing all this stuff.”

As finicky as that seems (discussing who goes to get envelopes and when) it was while working through that very part of the map that led to the first process improvement breakthrough for the AV Mends section. During the discussion, I mentioned that, in my role as the AV collection development librarian, I often get CDs and DVDs sent to me from the branches that really should go to AV Mends, but I just walk them over. It’s not a big deal. O’Donnell, in her role as a cataloging specialist, then said that she gets things that should go to AV Mends too, as does her supervisor. Murphy, the virtual experiences librarian who also works with our DVD vending machines, then said that, actually, she gets them too.

Initially, I had considered not saying anything. I didn’t want to complicate things, and, really, so I have to walk envelopes over to the AV Mends section several times a week. What’s the big deal? But by bringing it up, in an attempt to make the Value Stream Map as accurate as possible, we uncovered that at least five different people were receiving materials from branches that should be sent directly to AV Mends. Five different people were walking dozens of envelopes across the building every week thinking to themselves, this is a pain, but it’s no big deal. I don’t want to make a fuss.

The Results, So Far

The Value Stream Map quickly reveals the complexity of a process, and reveals the low-hanging fruit. The AV Mends PI Team ended up mapping four different processes for which the AV Mends section is responsible, and there are still more to map. In reviewing the maps created so far, several changes have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.

The team created a new AV Mends slip for branches to use when sending in AV problems. The old one, which hadn’t been updated for years, was a two-sided slip that included questions the section no longer needed answered and didn’t include information AV Mends could really use. The slip has been edited to be one-sided, instead of two, and the space to indicate what’s wrong with the item has been moved to the top. This removes the need to pull out the slips and search for information. The new slip has a place for branches to indicate if the item has holds, so now mends with holds can easily be identified and pushed to the front of the line.

The team also began to set criteria for when items go to AV Mends for cleaning or repair, and when they should be weeded instead. Circulation thresholds have been set for DVDs, CDs, and Talking Books, and the branches have been informed that items that have circulated beyond these thresholds should be weeded, not sent in for cleaning.

The next process improvement came from the envelope discussion. Previously, when branches needed to send items in to AV Mends, they used a crate or an interoffice envelope. Too often the crates arrived with little to no information about where it was directed and envelopes were addressed to the wrong people. Although it would have been easy to say the solution would be to train branch staff better, the team recognized that we’re a large system and the easier we make this process for the branches, the better it’s going to be. We are now in the process of implementing an AV Mends bag, created from repurposed fabric bags formerly used by our Youth Services department. Branches can stick any and all AV problems into the bag and it will go directly to AV Mends. If they are sending in a crate, they can lay the mends bag on top of the crate, and it will be delivered to AV Mends.

Sheldon and McKay both have identified areas of day-to-day work in the department that they are working to streamline. McKay said, “Walking through the mapping makes you look at all the steps you do in your job, and it makes you want to find ways to get rid of some of those steps.” After going through the process improvement training, Sheldon immediately saw a good place for change in the disc cleaning process. “Wayne would put the discs on the top shelf, and I would move them down lower, so he would have room to put more discs, instead of just moving them over by the machine to be leaned. I was moving them to the top to the bottom to the left to the right,” she said. The work of the team made Sheldon realize she wasn’t sure why they did it that way. “I was thinking what a waste of time. Why am I doing this? Just because that’s the way I’d always done it,” she said.

Branches have been excited to participate in the changes from the AV Mends PI Team. The new AV Mends slip was launched as a trial for one month, after which we asked for feedback from the branches. They asked for a few tweaks, but expressed satisfaction with the changes as a whole. When the team asked if any branches wanted to volunteer to be “guinea pigs” for the trial run of the AV Mends bags, half of them immediately volunteered. The really exciting thing about process improvement is how much people want to be a part of it when they see the results.

The work in the AV Mends section is still in process. More analysis of the items that move in and out of the department needs to be done. Training for the branches in how best to handle AV Mends requests and weeding is being created.

As the AV Mends PI Team continues its work, Lomax has plans to continue the spread of process improvement through the system. Based on the experience of the AV Mends PI Team, the Steering Team will decide which section will make up the next process improvement team within the R&M department. “As things continue in Reading & Materials, we need to start finding other areas that want to take on the process,” Lomax said. Norbeck, who served on the AV Mends team, would like to be the first volunteer: “I think one of the biggest things I took away was looking at how to streamline everything you do.”

Starting your own process improvement process may seem daunting. It’s not a fast process, and it’s not an easy fix. It requires a mental shift, a realization that this isn’t a project with a beginning and end date. It’s a new way of operating. “Make sure you’re willing to commit what it takes to get it started, and that you’re going to sustain it,” said Lomax. “If this is going to be a one-time thing I don’t know if it’s worth it. You need to trust your staff to participate and believe, truly, that they know what they’re doing and that they can do this. And then be flexible. Adjust as it goes. Focus on the process, not the people. People want to do a good job. You have to design a process that allows them to. That is so critical in how you approach things. Everyone wants to do a good job, but you have to design a process that allows them to. It makes you approach problems in a whole different way. Everyone is trying to the best they can. If you haven’t designed something right, how can they?”

Conclusion

At the end of February, the AV Mends Process Team will be reporting back to the Process Improvement Steering Team about its work so far. Training classes for branch staff on AV Mends will also begin in late February. In addition to the practical improvements, the AV Mends Process Improvement Process is having a positive impact on employee interactions and morale. Within the department, as areas of responsibility have been clearly defined, the relationship between AV selection librarian and the library assistants is much more cheerful and productive. Helping our customers has become much easier, too! From my personal perspective, I find that instead of worrying that branches are going to ask for something I can’t give them, I now see each customer as my partner in finding a solution that works.

References and Notes

1. Georgia Lomax served as the PCLS deputy director from 2006 to November 2014, when she was appointed PCLS executive director.
2. Project Management Knowhow, “Triple Constraint,” accessed Dec. 31, 2014.
3. Lean Enterprise Institute, “What is Lean?” accessed Dec. 31, 2014.
4. John J. Huber, “Prologue: The Power of Lean Transformation,” Lean Library Management: Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Customer Services (New York: Neal-Schulman, 2011): 1-3.

The post Low-Hanging Fruit: Learning How to Improve Customer Service, Staff Communication, and Job Satisfaction with Process Improvement first appeared on Public Libraries Online.