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!