June 10, 2011 · 4:17 pm

Designing our library future: be involved or be forgotten

What is the future of the Library? What is the future of the Librarian? These are questions we hear and see discussed ad nauseum at conferences, in blogs, in our tea rooms. In reality the ‘future library’ has already snuck in the back door. We were just too focused on the discussion to notice.

There is no doubt that technology has changed libraries, and the role of the librarian, exponentially over the past thirty years. Over this time as librarians have adapted and taken on new roles and more responsibilities they have in fact become less adept at being able to succinctly describe their role, and more importantly less able to articulate their value.

Perhaps the library world thought it could just get by on its warm fuzzy factor… after all everyone seems to love libraries! I’ve never seen a library receive poor ratings on satisfaction surveys. Libraries have the power to have people protest at their closing down who have never walked into the building. In actuality, people love the idea of libraries more than the reality of the juxtaposition of books, shelves, space and people they are forced to interact with. What is it about the idea of libraries (more than the reality) that people are so committed to?

In light of this, the library world has a lot of questions it needs to answer:

What is the role of the library today?
What is the value of the librarian?
What is it about a library that makes people care about it?
What do people need from a library?
How do people use a library?
And most fundamentally of all – What do we want the library to be? 

These are all questions we need to be able to answer – articulately, succinctly and passionately – if we are to regain control over our own future. Notice this does not include technology or tools but is about people, culture, and needs. In true librarian style we are instead having a pleasant leisurely conversation about it over tea and biscuits rather than understanding the urgency of the situation.

How might we, the library industry, design our own future?

There is no question that we are facing a paradigm shift of epic proportions that requires a complete reconsideration of the very foundations and ideas of the role and value of libraries and librarians. It’s messy, it will feel uncomfortable and take some getting used to, but we need to put down the tea and bickies and embrace design thinking. In its essence design thinking is a collaborative and human centred problem solving approach for solving complex business, organizational and social problems.

Design thinking offers an approach for the library world to strategically move forward, as co-authors of the future of libraries. It provides an opportunity to explore in a structured and meaningful way these philosophical questions and ‘problem find’, to then problem solve, appropriately.

Co-authoring and collaboration here does not mean a team of librarians, or even a team of librarians and designers, but a multidisciplinary team that represents all the people who have a stake in the library. This includes: librarians, designers, customers, vendors, service providers and other major stakeholders depending on the library’s context. Further to this, a human centred approach not only considers just the librarian or user or vendor. Instead design thinking ensures a holistic solution is designed that is sustainable and caters to all the humans involved, not just one segment.

The process is grounded in engaging and co-creating the future with and for all stakeholders with the human always at the centre. It is a proactive and future focused approach that is grounded in understanding the stories of the past and the current operating context.

Design thinking is already being used in libraries to rethink and redesign the future of libraries, as in this presentation by Scottish service design agency Snook:

We have to understand this is not about adding on, or adapting, or evolving, or rebuilding, but redesigning the very core of what a library is and means in today’s postmodern world.

Or will we be sipping our tea, eating our biscuits and talking about how important we are while the world moves on without us.

(Note: This was a guest post for ALIA Sydney. It also appears over here . Same content, different coloured background ;) )

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November 10, 2010 · 1:09 am

5 principles for getting buy in (for social media but mostly for anything)

I had the privilege of presenting at the recent ARK Group Australia Library 2.0 event where I was asked to share my experiences from CPA Australia for obtaining buy in to do 2.0 and social media type initiatives. In my role there, in the Knowledge Exchange team, this meant buy in internally from staff and also externally from our members. Whilst preparing the session I realised that the principles for getting buy in for these kinds of initiatives were not so far removed from getting buy in for any other kind of project – apart from the additional (and often significant) component of education.

Here is the summation of my 5 buy in principles (minus my stories – sorry had to be there!)

#1 know what you are doing and why

Sounds simple and it is. Buy in is really difficult when you can’t articulate what you are doing and why. Be really clear about what your initiatives are, why you want to do them and the benefits and value they offer. If you are clear, succinct and articulate you will be more confident and convincing in your proposal and achieve a greater result. Bottom line is if you cannot articulate what it is you are trying to achieve, how can you expect others to share in that vision and be excited and confident in what you are pursuing?

#2 where does your evidence LIE? (literature | industry | experience)

At some point you will no doubt need to form a case to get your project across the line. You know what you want to do and why – now you just need the justification for it. Depending on your organisation (in particular it’s commercial tendencies, risk profile and culture) you will need evidence in literature, industry examples (especially from your competitors) or experience (either your own or the organisation’s through other initiatives, pilots or stealth projects). Gathering the right evidence is of course crucial here – there is no point finding 10 journal articles on why you need a blog if the only thing your CEO cares about is that all your competitors have blogs and you don’t. It’s also important to realise that different people (particularly at different levels) may require different evidence. This is about understanding your audience and their needs as much as the actual evidence.

#3 pitch to each audience

We often think we only need one elevator pitch and that if we repeat it enough people will eventually get on board. What we forget is that people care about different things – this is especially true in organisations where people are working in disparate areas and a variety of hierarchical levels. So it’s really important to have messages for audiences – to know your audiences and what will be meaningful to each of them and then to craft messages for each of them. This means we need more than one pitch!

In the slide pack you will see reference to Elliot Jaques Stratified Systems Theory, often called levels of work. Jaques discovered that the level of responsibility in any organizational role can be measured in terms of the target completion time of the longest task assigned to that role.  Jaques found that tasks fall into categories characterized by the maximum amount of time the person is expected to carry on without direct supervision (the task’s time span) and the degree to which the task requires the person to process a variety of information and come to conclusions about it (the task’s complexity). I’ve found this quite helpful in understanding what is meaningful to various levels in order to be able to pitch appropriately to each (which means check it out!)

#4 respect the channels of your organisation

We all know how frustrating, political, bureaucratic organisational processes can be – particularly when you are trying to work in this space of being flexible, agile and adaptable. All the processes just seem to drag and slow you down. But if going through the appropriate communication, heirarchical, project channels and processes can help you get buy in and understanding you need to do it. If your organisation (as CPA Australia does) use PRINCE2 project management methodology then use this to your advantage. If this is something the organisation understands and is comfortable with for its rigour and structure then use this for your education as well as to get buy in. Through using the official channels of the organisation you are often able to get more buy in more quickly and a higher level of understanding for what you are doing (particularly if the environment is conservative, risk averse or very new to the social online space). This may also result in your being given the budget to do it.

#5 buy in is not a one off event

Buy in is an ongoing relationship that should be mutually beneficial – it is not a one off transaction. With 2.0 or social media initiatives it is particularly important to continue to be available and responsive to give ongoing support, training, and education. It is not a one off handover of ‘there’s your online community – good luck!’ This assists in minimising risk also – you continue to be able to monitor the outcome, commitment and participation to ensure it is not just a one month fad and then the initiative is left by the wayside for the next project.

I further refine this down to clarity + conversation + care.  What are your stories and principles of buy in?

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October 2, 2010 · 10:53 pm

Using participatory design for redesigning organisations

I awoke to a beautiful morning in Melbourne today – perhaps Spring is finally on our doorstep and realised that in fact I was supposed to be in beautiful Spain today instead delivering a paper at the Information Seeking in Context conference. Thankfully I have a wonderful co-author and our ‘compromise’ was I would develop our presentation and she would have the ‘tiresome’ job of travelling to Spain and delivering it on both our behalves. I still haven’t quite worked out the equality in that deal…

Within Auraria Library at the University of Colorado, Denver something is happening…employees are engaged in collaboratively designing their workplace structures and systems. A new University Librarian, Dr Mary M Somerville,  was catalyst to providing the opportunity for change. Auraria Library was transformed into a social organisation in which individual and  collective capabilities developed through workplace socialisation processes.

Within just the first few weeks a new leadership structure was in place – not a radical organisational restructure or overthrow but a shared leadership structure – not based on heirarchy, but on drawing together a representative group across all functions and levels of the organisation.

This first phase of the  project used an appreciative inquiry process where each staff member was engaged in a conversation with the University Librarian or a senior leader (yes, the people at the top) in regard to their personal histories and future aspirations – liberated from corporate memory and past performances. Long term employees in this regard were offered a fresh start and the opportunity to tell their own story. This looking back and forward process empowered staff with not only a voice but also recognition of their service and wealth of experience. Through this process of discovery, staff were able to reframe their histories and renegotiate their roles. This resulted in the reorganisation of staff and redefinition of teams and roles in line with strategic goals, immediate business needs, individual skills and interests.

Phase two of the project employed participatory co-design approaches to imagine and redesign organisational information and communication systems. This process was facilitated through participatory design workshops on communication, decision making, and planning system elements which support the Library’s shared leadership philosophy.

The workshops allowed participants to express workplace values, critique current organisational processes and systems, and imagine an idealised work environment resulting in the co-design of potential solutions.  For example, participants articulated ideas such as valuing learning from one another. This raised the question of how does this occur and how do you implement intentional social learning elements into the work environment? And what measures can provide evidence of the value and impact of these learning encounters? By the conclusion of the workshops, participants had identified and in some cases co-designed a number of initiatives to implement the concept of ideal workplace communication systems.  These ranged from small initiatives such as standard file naming conventions for ease of repository retrieval to much larger and more ambitious initiatives.

Many of the initiatives identified within these workshops are now common work practice within the organisation. They are successful – and staff love them – because they were engaged in the process of ideating and designing them and they are specific to the context and needs of the people within their workplace. This was not a one off set of initiatives but the commencement of ongoing iterative collaborative design cycles to continue to build a workplace with and for Auraria Library employees.

Involving your staff in redesigning the workplace to be more effective for them – as individuals, as teams and as an organisation – is achievable and results in not just better systems and processes but more engaged and happier staff. So it can be done. Have you done something similar in your organisation? If you have I would love to hear about it. If you haven’t I challenge you to have a go – you may just be surprised by the amazing ideas and improvements your team come up with.

There is lots more to the story so if you got this far you may like to read the  full paper.

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July 25, 2010 · 2:49 pm

Choose your own adventure or sometimes adventure creeping up and choosing you

Over the past year I have been greatly inspired and in some cases quite envious of several people I have crossed paths or tweets with who have had the courage to quit their jobs to discover or rediscover that ‘thing’ they’re pursuing in life. This has happened in many forms – whether it be travelling extensively, returning to study, starting a new job, or simply to hang out and allow life to sweep them up, spin them around a few times and see where they land.

For me the theme of 2010 has been change. To date it has been more the under rumblings of change – that it’s creeping up on me and about to tap me on the shoulder but every time I turn around there is nothing there. This year I have been caught up in the spiral of the ‘corporate routine’ – work at work, work at home, work on my way between work and home with all moments being about productivity and not wasting time so I can squeeze in more work later. This has all been for some grand goal…although I’m not quite sure what that is…somewhere between passion, career, giving back to the professional world that is caring for me, and trying to create a balance between my creative and more academic self.

Then unexpectedly change came along and didn’t just tap me on the shoulder but tackled me hard to the ground winding me. I am still catching my breath. After an amazing 18 months at CPA Australia where I have had the opportunity to jump in the social media, emerging technology, knowledge management deep end, flailing at times and other times sipping a cocktail on a floating sunbed, I am about to embark on a new adventure. I have been offered and accepted a scholarship at Swinburne University in the Faculty of Design to complete my PhD full time – starting in just a couple of weeks!

I suggest you skip this paragraph if you want to avoid the PhD talk…My research will look at redesigning organisations as adaptive social ecosystems. The focus is on human behaviour and relationships within the workplace to develop a holistic framework for designing organisations adaptive to ongoing change, in particular the relationships and interdependencies between learning, environment and social connectedness. It’s a hybrid kind of approach where I will be reading lots and drawing from design thinking, service design, social business design, organisation design, (yes lots of design stuff!) as well as organisational learning, learning and development, knowledge management, and urban planning foundations (just to name a few!) This will refine over time but this is my current plan.

I’m also really excited that I will be working with Michelle Lambert, KM lady of awesomeness, to support her work particularly for Knowledge Management Roundtable Victoria and the Change Management Toolbox. Lots of fun times ahead!

I expect there will be moments ahead where I am tackled to the ground and winded, where I flail hopelessly in a sea of thesis and some moments where I sip a cocktail at sunset. (or perhaps 3am!) So as I catch my breath and allow change and adventure to take hold of me – as I get into a new kind of routine and drive myself a little mad writing my thesis you will be able to play along and see it unfold here.

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June 8, 2010 · 2:02 pm

Designing workplaces conducive to work

In an episode of the US sitcom Better Off Ted a staff survey revealed low employee morale. To solve this, the director Veronica calls Linda, an employee, into her office and asks what would make the employees happy. Linda says the company treats them all like drones and suggest Veronica let everyone decorate their cubicles to let their workspace feel more personal and individual. The next day Linda arrives at her cubicle to find it’s already been decorated with cats. Veronica explains that upper management believed it too risky to allow employees to decorate their own spaces and so each was decorated for them in one of four inoffensive themes: Green Bay Packers, cats, cars, and space.

This unfortunately is not so far fetched from some of our own workplaces where customisation, personalisation and social identity are often suppressed or discouraged. The norm is to assign people a generic workspace of sorts with a desk, PC, chair, small filing cabinet, pinboard and a whiteboard if you’re lucky.

We are all familiar with the Google style of offices – kooky interiors, in house chefs, gym fit outs, dream boy games rooms and the like to encourage creativity, innovation, engagement and collaboration. Closer to real life many workplaces are redecorating with bold colours, a variety of tastefully mismatching furniture and eye catching wall graphics in the hope of envoking a sense of fun and impacting organisational culture and collaboration in a positive manner. These are often architecturally impressive but functionally disappointing.

Macquarie Bank, at their new state of the art fit out at One Shelley Street in Sydney takes the ‘Google model’ one step further with the introduction of activity based working. From architects Woods Bagot:

In this new environment, no occupant has an assigned desk: rather the work space provides employees with a variety of settings that allow them to do specific tasks in tailored work settings. This design philosophy encourages increased collaboration and a more productive mode of working. An employee has an anchor point, which is allocated as their ‘home base’ and it is here that their locker and storage resides. The design embraces the changing needs of Macquarie staff (and other users) through the employment of technology (laptops, touch screens, USB ports, WiFi etc.) to enable completely mobile and flexible ‘real time’ work with colleagues.

It does also include some of that Google office style and feel as architects Clive Wilkinson describe:

Numerous work zones surround the atrium, designed to house 100 employees each in adaptable neighborhoods…The Main Street on Level 1 offers communal spaces that are highly conducive to corporate and philanthropic events and includes a café and dining areas. Within the office floors ‘Plazas’ were modeled after collaboration typologies—the Dining Room, Garden, Tree House, Playroom, and Coffee House, where cross-pollination among business groups is encouraged through spontaneous encounters.

This recognises that people’s work styles are changing and each have differing work preferences and needs – which can differ on any given day and according to the task at hand. Activity based working provides autonomy to employees to work in the space and manner of their choosing.

When determining favoured work styles I like to ask the question: how do you work at home? I listen to music, change rooms throughout the day, and my posture will vary from lying on the couch with the laptop on my lap to perching on a bar stool at my breakfast bench to sitting at a regular desk with an OHS style chair. It is in these spaces where I feel comfortable that I am most creative, productive, efficient and happy rather than my more sterile white work pod.

Activity based working as demonstrated by Macquarie Bank translates my home experience to some extent into the workplace. It allows people to work where the want, the way they want, according to the work they need to achieve.

The lesson here?
This era of mass customisation and individualism has not yet invaded the majority of organisations who still attempt to control the space and methods of how people work. People want to be able to create and customise their own workspace according to their preference, mood and need on any given day as much as they vary the music they listen to on their iPods. This requires a large shift in trust in organisations – where proximity to supervisors, clean desks, neat dress and strategy models plastered to pods does not make a good or a happy worker. Instead, design workplaces people want to work in, that are conducive to work. Create flexible workspaces where furniture is easily movable and adjustable into a variety of configurations suitable for both individual and collaborative work. If people are familiar and comfortable within their space it assists in inspiring motivation, efficiency, productivity, creativity, innovation…and work.

If you have other examples (and preferably an image) of other organisations using activity based working or flexible configurable workspaces I would love to hear about it.

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February 17, 2010 · 11:56 pm

Enterprise microblogging (part 3): the benefit of hindsight

Let’s do a quick recap: In Part 1 CPA Australia fell in love with Yammer (our chosen enterprise microblogging platform). Part 2 saw us identifying benefits we’ve experienced and in this final instalment, almost 18 months after implementation I share some of our lessons learned – lessons that can be applied to implementing an initiative like enterprise microblogging but which are also transferable to other enterprise 2.0 or social media initiatives within your workplace.

Lesson 1: Who owns it? (now and later)
It’s great to have the initiative and passion to start a project, but if it’s to have any longevity it’s important to identify who will own the initiative past the project end. In our case, we implemented and continue to maintain ownership of the platform (the technology bit), however there is no ongoing owner of Yammer as a whole. This means its viral success is not enough – it still requires high level support for it to move forward and be adopted as a business system. Only then when its used to its greatest capacity will we see the greatest benefits.

Lesson 2: Meaure from the start (you’ll thank me later)
At some point you will have to justify the project, regardless of cost. Quantitative measures can be considerably easy to determine; however, the true value in Enterprise 2.0 initiatives is in the qualitative value. This may be as simple as capturing success stories, or as complex as determining sentiment, influence and the like. It’s critical to build in measurements right from the beginning of the project, even if they are a wild guess or broad estimation of use. It gives you something to benchmark on which can then be adjusted and evolved over time as the real measurements become apparent.

Lesson 3: Be ready for what may (or may not) happen
It’s more than acceptable to start small, but have some flexibility in your plan to allow it sufficient room to grow – think through the consequences of your strategy. We didn’t expect nor plan for the success of Yammer, which has in some ways curbed its potential for the time being as we work to iron out issues of ownership, resourcing and integration. Planning should not hamper project energy; however, it’s important all elements are considered to ensure ongoing longevity.

Lesson 4: Integrate (rinse, wash, repeat)
Adoption and success is greated when initiatives like Yammer are integrated into everyday work practices. Currently, Yammer isn’t integrated with any of CPA Australia’s other systems – not even a hyperlink from our intranet. As a result, it requires staff to remember to visit the site rather than be prompted. Ideally, it would be at least visible in some form amongst other organisational systems, or adopted for project communications. Even greater role modelling from senior managers would be great to aid adoption as it gives implied permission for all to participate.

Lesson 5: Make it easy
Adoption will be aided if the process for participation is easy – especially if it’s not integrated anywhere else.

  • It must be simple to join, simple to get started and simple to work out what it’s all about.
  • Before inviting the masses it’s worth piloting it amongst a few, even if for a short amount of time. It provides an example for others in how people are using it and assists them in getting started.
  • Establish users with guidelines for what constitutes appropriate posting. This provides clear boundaries and counter intuitively increases the chance of participation as people are immediately clear and comfortable with what’s acceptable within the space.
  • Create reasons for people to use these new systems, for example team communication or project updates. Once they have the opportunity to experience the value, there is more likelihood for ongoing adoption.

Our story is one of starting an initiative, observing what happens and then determining the next action. As a stealth project, it is solely sustained and maintained by those users who find the value in it for their own work practices and champion its use with others. So as you can see, our lessons really focus around determining practices for purposing, creating and maintaining a flourishing and self sustaining initiative with organisational support.

So now you have my full story – I would like to hear yours!

PS: I was also privileged enough to share this at VALA2010 last week and where ‘stealth project’ became a popular term! If you want more more details, stats and the theory behind our experience it’s here.

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February 13, 2010 · 3:55 pm

Enterprise microblogging (part 2): ‘all of us are smarter than any of us’

Quick recap: CPA Australia has approximately 450 employees in 16 offices across 11 countries serving upwards of 130 000 members. In part 1 we focused on my workplace love story of introducing the enterprise microblogging platform Yammer.

This middle child post is to share some stories of the benefits we have experienced from introducing enterprise microblogging. A 2009 McKinsey survey reported on the business benefits gained as a result of using Web 2.0 technologies, including greater ability to share ideas; improved access to knowledge experts; and reduced costs of communications, travel, and operations. CPA Australia’s experience was no different…

Enterprise microblogging furthers organisational learning – staff achieve ambient awareness of what’s going on around the organisation, increased access to and collaboration with other workers, and a forum for listening and observing peers within an informal environment. This has led to greater workplace engagement for some and added to organisational efficiencies and performance. Today, we focus on three benefits all of which further organisational learning.

1. Knowledge sharing AKA the lunch review
Information posted on Yammer is available to the entire network and thus all benefit from the message rather than a limited audience as would occur with an email or water cooler conversation.

One guy eats out for lunch every day, its his treat to himself. He started using Yammer to give (almost) daily lunch reviews. In my favourite review he gave a comparison of two places that sold baked potatoes almost next door to one another. He gave a detailed account of his experience based on quality, taste, price and customer service…he had obviously thought long and hard about it! This built up its own following – people rated reviews by ‘liking it’ – the thumbs up and many commented and debated his opinion. A small social interaction which built relationships – and allowed later face to face interactions to be familiar.

2. Flattened communication AKA the first 90 days
McKinsey’s survey results also showed more than half of respondents reporting

Web 2.0 technologies have fostered in-company interactions across geographic borders; 45 percent cite interactions across functions, and 39 percent across business units.

It can be challenging to make connections and sense of the complexities of an organisation particularly in your first 3 months. To assist with this, late last year we introduced Yammer into our new staff induction program. Just last week, immediately after learning about Yammer and whilst still participating in an induction session, a new senior staff member joined Yammer and introduced himself. Within a few minutes he had been welcomed by a number of others and a conversation followed regarding introductions, roles and projects – based in a small office interstate this staff member had connected with a group of people in several Australian offices, across diverse business functions he would be unlikely to meet or make connection with otherwise within his first year!

This flattened communication has in some instances led to employees being less reliant on supervisors and managers to establish communications, and in turn collaboration, between business units. Staff also have a broader reach to communicate with and learn from others whom they previously would not even think of or know to connect with.

3. Simplifying the complex AKA the Japanese website incident
The ability for simplifying the complex through the opportunity to quickly crowdsource answers to questions improves workplace efficiencies. A senior staff member found an international website that mentioned our brand and wanted to know what it was about – he posted the question on Yammer…’found this Japanese website can anyone translate it for me?’ Within just a couple of hours he hadvrecrived responses from staff across three countries and several referrals to people in the organisation who could speak Japanese, others who identified the site as being not Japanese but Chinese instead and lastly one who translated it for him as some kind of strange search engine!

This speed in which the problem was solved as well as the utilising of knowledge and skills across the organisation truly shows the benefit of having enterprise microblogging in place – much more efficient than a flurry of emails and phonecalls particularly when it’s difficult to pinpoint a starting point. In this case Yammer serves as a way of calling on the expertise of employees.

Really the most important thing is…
But the most important point is that all of these things are beneficial for both the individual and the organisation because of the relationship building that comes along with it. Not all sharing, conversation or interaction needs to be work related in order to benefit the workplace, it is the relationship building that occurs that ultimately leads to increased organisational performance.

In the final part of this series, stay tuned for our lessons learned for you who may wish to implement a similar initiative – whether it be an enterprise 2.0, web 2.0 or social media initiative – within your own organisation.

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