Keynote session at the Branch Manager's Workshop, 3/4/09 by Marti Peden

Communities underestimate what libraries can get from libraries.

With change, there is always a crisis and an opportunity. Get involved with the opportunity, not the crisis.

An article in Newsweek looked at who survives in crises. The people who keep their heads, like the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson. Losing your head is like having "giveupitis."

Libraries are the "soft place to land;" the place that isn't taking, but giving right now.

It's still possible to thrive now, despite the hard times and constant change.

The Five Keys

• Keep a positive attitude
  
  • Managers have to lead attitude change--"we'll get through that"
  • Change is a given, and some people have forgotten this
  • Your attitude is one of the few things that is totally under your control. Face the realities, find the opportunities
  • Don't forget the Serenity Prayer
  • Change is never smooth; tell staff it's not going to be smooth
  • "It is what it is." We can't control a lot of things, except our attitudes.
  • Have to be positive, even if the change isn't our idea
  • Want to check your attitude? Take a look at how you communicate with your family and what is coming to work with you. Try journaling as well.
    
• Never waste a crisis
  
  • This is a chance to reinvigorate
  • It is very difficult to create major change; complacency, status quo, homeostasis
  • The change process involves "Unfreezing, changing and Refreezing"
  • A crisis provides the urgent need for change. Identify/discuss crises and potential crises. Examine the market an competitive realities. Discuss major opportunties. Some people, if they don't PERCEIVE urgency, won't be motivated to make change. Make it clear that a crisis is underway and change is urgently needed.
    
  • Crises provide a short time in which it is easier to make change
  • Libraries should position themselves now to meet patron needs and figure out what people want. What can we supply that they had to cut because of economic times? This is the opportunity for libraries to reconnect with patrons.
  • There are only 2 ways to add customers: innovation and marketing . Everything else is expenses. (Peter Drucker)
• Remember the 20/50/30 Rule
  
• 20% are early adopters, 50% middle, neutral and 30% are resisters
• The resisters are the most vocal. but you need to focus on the middle. Results are the only way to convince the resisters. The resisters will try convince the middle people, possibly resulting in a larger negative reaction.
• Talking and educating the resisters is pointless. Find out what *their* perspective is and figure out what is relevant to them.
• Don't argue with people who like to argue
  
• Manage the process of transition
  
  • Some people don't ever transition
  • Understand the process of transition: Impact-->Turmoil-->Adjustment ("moments of normal")-->Reconstitution("your new normal")
    
  • Transition is not change; it is the process people go through to adjust to change
  • As we transition, we experience (real or perceived) loss before gain. Don't use a sales job during a transition. Figure out for them "What's in it for me?" Those are the gains.
  • When figuring out what the losses are, "you can visit Pity City, but you can't move in."
    
• Increase communication efforts
  
  • The rule is you have to communicate x 3 (so you probably have to say it 3 times)
  • During change, we are hungry for information ("me" factor--people want to hear most about themselves and their job--how will it affect them?)
  • Cognitive dissonance; when a message is dissonant or does not agree with what a person already believes, it is difficult to get through
  • Bad news is better than no news; with no news, people speculate and make things up

When you're going through change, people can get unglued. Constancy--talk about what isn't changing.