Linda Garnets, Ph.D. Angelo + Garnets Consulting Sustainable Archives Conference Austin, August 13,...
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Transcript of Linda Garnets, Ph.D. Angelo + Garnets Consulting Sustainable Archives Conference Austin, August 13,...
A Good Mix: Merging Collections & Blending People
Linda Garnets, Ph.D.Angelo + Garnets Consulting
Sustainable Archives ConferenceAustin, August 13, 2009
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar…
“I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present, “ Alice replied rather shyly, “at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Reasons for Combining Archives and Special Collections
Meeting users/patrons changing needsAccessibility of collectionsFinancial/budgetary factorsTechnological changesOperational flexibilityImproving efficiency Resource sharingInnovation and learningDownsizing
Continuum of Organizational Combinations
Alliances Joint Ventures Mergers Acquisitions
As go along continuum from left to right, greater degree of:
Investment of effortCommitmentControlComplexityImpactIntegrationRisk
“True collaboration engenders a transformative change that is akin to letting go on one trapeze in mid-air before another swings not view.”
Ken Soehner, Chief Librarian at the Metropolitan Museums of Art Thomas J. Watson Library, 2005 RLG Conference.
Staff ConcernsWhat will happen to me? What’s in it for me? Will I still have a job? Will my job
change? Will my work experience get worse,
better, stay the same? Will I get a new boss? What will
that be like?
Guiding Assumptions about Workplace Transitions
Definition: Implementation of a new state, which requires dismantling the present ways of operating and introducing new ways
Adaptation to transitions is a natural and deliberate process that can not be circumvented
Transition RealitiesMismanaged transitions have a
negative, not a neutral, impact on people and organizations
A post-transition culture will emerge—either the status quo or a modified one by design or by default
Bottom Line
Either you manage change, or change will manage you!
Model for Managing Workplace TransitionsAdapted from Mitchell Marks (2003), Charging up hill:
Workplace recovery after mergers, acquisitions, and downsizings
Weakening the old Strengthening the new
Emotional Realities:
Empathy Energy
Business Imperatives:
Engagement Alignment
Model for Managing Workplace TransitionsGoal:Weaken forces for the old
organizational order
Strengthen forces for the new one
Model for Managing Workplace TransitionsLevels:Emotional realities
Ways in which people experience transitions in the workplace
Business imperativesThings that need to get done for
organizational success to occur
EmpathyObjective:Let people know that leadership
acknowledges that:The transition has been, is, and
continues to be difficultPeople need—and will be allowed—
time to recover from the difficulty
EmpathyKey tasks:Acknowledge realities and difficulties of
transition and recovery
Offer workshops to raise awareness of transition process and help people understand where they do and do not have control
Use symbols, ceremonies, and forums to end the old
EngagementObjective:Create understanding of and
support for the need to end the old and accept the new organizational order
EngagementKey tasks:Help people get their work done
Communicate and provide opportunities for involvement
Diagnose and eliminate barriers to adaptation
EngagementGuidelines for communication:Provide a compelling rationale for
why the status quo is no goodDescribe the change as completely as
you canAssure people of what is not changingShare information again and againBe comfortable saying “I don’t know.”
EnergyObjective:Get people excited about the new
organizational order and support them in realizing it
Energy
Key tasks:Clarify a vision of a new and better organization
Dimensions of New Organizational OrderDirection
Mission
Culture
Core competencies
Social and work systems
Making the Case for Change
What Staff Members Tend to Want To Know: What are we doing?
Why?
To what end?
When are we doing it? How will we do it? What is it going to take for us to do this?
Energy
Key tasks:Create a learning environment that:
Motivates people to experiment & open up to new ways of doing things
Create opportunities for short-term wins
Connect with people & provide supportAccept confusion & backslidingGive people time to move through
adaptation
AlignmentObjective:Solidify new mental models that are
congruent with the new desired organizational order
AlignmentKey tasks:Align systems and operating standards
with the new organizational order
Involve people in bringing the vision to life
Track the development of the new organizational order
Principles of ManagingWorkplace Transitions
Provide straight talk about the transition process, and keep employees involved in it
Track the recovery process, learn from the mistakes, and disseminate the knowledge throughout the organization
Give transition process high-priority status, and help managers determine how to prioritize it within the context of current organizational requirements
Principles of ManagingWorkplace Transitions
You pay now, or you pay laterTask: You pay now by giving people
time to express their experience and mourn the loss of the old, and to participate in creating the new…
Or you pay later by having a workforce that continues to hold on to the past rather than look ahead for the future
Action: Do it now!