Fourth Annual AMICAL Conference

Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane

May 27-30, 2007

Successful Collaboration on Learning Spaces:

People and Processes

Susan L. Perry

Senior Advisor

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Evidence of early collaborations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRBIVRwvUeE

Why is it important for librarians and information technologists to work together?

In today’s world of electronic information, it

is necessary for librarians and information

technologists to work together so that they

can provide coherent support to faculty

and students.

It’s about Change

Thoughts on Building a

Collaborative Working Climate

Other Views

What has changed in the way faculty/ staff teach and students learn?

InspirationJohn Kotter, Leading Change

“If environmental volatility continues to increase, the standard organization of the twentieth century will likely become a dinosaur.”

Charles Garfield, Peak Performance and Second to None “We are moving from organizations which are like

large machines with blueprints to human centered systems which are driven by mission rather than rules.”

Inspiration (continued)

William Bridges, Managing Transitions

“Often the changes you have to implement are important to the survival or success of your organization…They involve the different technology the organization needs to be competitive, the new structure it needs to be effective, the reduced level of overhead it needs to be profitable. Change is the game today, and organizations that can’t deal with it effectively aren’t likely to be around long.”

Inspiration (continued)

Margaret Wheatley

“Complex organizations have the capacity to reorganize themselves as needed in response to environmental changes.”

The capacity to enter a “shared world of significance” is important.

Those in an organization must see things with the same “meaningfulness.”

Kotter - Leading ChangeThe Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change• Establish a sense of urgency• Create a guiding coalition• Develop a vision and strategy• Communicate the change vision• Empower broad-based action• Generate short term wins• Consolidate gains and produce more change• Anchor new approaches in culture

Curry - Lessons for Change Management

• People learn and change incrementally, and so do organizations. Internalize this.• Universities are deeply decentralized, loosely coupled by nature. Don’t fight it; get used to it. Don’t lament departmental balkanization; find ways to use it.• Knowing people and their organizational cultures is a necessary condition for transformative change.

Never forget.

Curry (continued)

• Use timing and the times to advance the pace of change.• Create role models and pilot implementations; facilitate peer pressure for change.• Be an exemplar: Do to yourself what you would do to others.• Align central and local incentives for change.• Underpromise and overdeliver.

Curry (continued)

• Embrace relentless incrementalism as the change approach of choice.• Walk a mile in the shoes of those whose roles you would change.• Continuously build trust.• Create “demand pull” for change rather than the technology side of the house.• Create local change champions and make them part of project leadership.

Curry (continued)

• Consistently learn from your successes and mistakes• Persist• Create locally adaptive business processes and technology solutions.

Bridges - Managing Transitions

THE ENDING• Identify Who’s Losing What• Accept the Reality and Importance of the Subjective Loss• Don’t be Surprised at “Overreaction”• Acknowledge the Losses Openly and Sympathetically• Except and Accept the Signs of Grieving• Compensate for the Losses• Give People Information, and Do it Again and Again

Bridges - Managing Transitions

The Ending (Cont.)• Define What’s Over and What Isn’t• Mark the Endings• Treat the Past with Respect• Let People Take a Piece of the Old Way with Them• Show How Endings Ensure Continuity of What Really Matters

Bridges - Managing Transitions

The Neutral Zone• “Normalize” the Neutral Zone• Redefine It• Create Temporary Systems for the Neutral Zone• Strengthen Intragroup Connections• Use a Transition Monitoring Team• Use the Neutral Zone Creatively

Bridges - Managing Transitions

New BeginningThe Four P’s:• Purpose• Picture• Plan• Part

Bibliography

Bridges, William. Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991.

CLIR Library Workflow Redesign monograph web address: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub139/contents.html

Curry, John R. The Organizational Challenge: The IT Revolution and Higher Education. Educause Review. March/April 2002, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp 40-48.

Bibliography

Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (New York: Harper Business, 1993).

Madeline Carnevale, Sandra Berestka, and Debra Morrissey.

Mount Holyoke College Reshapes Reengineering.

CAUSE/EFFECT journal. Volume 22, Number 4 1999.

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cem/cem99/cem9947.html

Bibliography

Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

Wheatley, Margaret J. Leadership and the new science : discovering order in a chaotic world 2nd ed. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, c1999.

My Favorite Change

Where We Begin, Culture-Wise

• Hierarchically structured• Inwardly focused• Passive• Averse to change• Blameful• Fearful• Locked into rigid work units• Encouraging dependence rather than self-sufficiency

Where We Wanted To Head• Organized, but not hierarchically• Actively involved in the campus and the national community• Self-analyzing, self-correcting, self-sufficient, but not self-centered• Communicative• Cooperative across functional lines• Appreciative of each other’s efforts• A learning organization• Effective and efficient• Joyous

How We Got There• Developing a common vision, mission and plan and writing them down• Measuring progress, celebrating successes• Openly analyzing failures and trying again• Training—both skills and conflict resolution• Giving honest feedback about performance, rewarding good work• Using work restructuring techniques• Laughing a lot!

Reinforcing the Culture• Retreats or Advances• All Hands Meetings• Great Place to Work Committee• The Golf Cart• Learning to tap dance• The “what constitutes good service”

discussion• Hero worship sign

Oft Repeated Inspiration

• In essentials, unity

(hence, mutually agreed upon mission, principles, goals and plans)• In non-essentials, freedom

(hence a flat organization in which people feel free to decide how to do the agreed upon work)• In all, charity

(hence parties, laughter, appreciation of each other)

Identify Challenges and GoalsPurpose: To articulate and reflect on the challenges you face and present in carrying out your responsibilities

• What challenges do I face in working with the other groups?

• What challenges do the other groups face in working with me?

• Given the challenges I have identified and considering my hopes for collaboration, what goals do I have for myself in building good working relationships with colleagues from other units?