portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2019), pp. 223–232. Copyright © 2019 by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 21218.

FEATURE: REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

Navigating the New: A Case Study on Leading Organizational ChangeJohn Watts

abstract: Leading organizational change can be an enticing and exciting venture for library professionals. However, unforeseen difficulties can challenge even the most enthusiastic leader. This article explores one librarian’s experience with organizational change and offers practical strategies for weathering obstacles to the success of new initiatives in academic libraries.

Introduction

For better or worse, the rapidly evolving information landscape keeps library professionals in a stable state of newness. Right now, in an academic library somewhere in the world, a library professional just left a meeting freshly tasked

with carrying out a new organizational initiative. With a carnival of feelings, the person returns to his or her workspace determined to create something fresh.

The initiative could be the implementa-tion of a new service, the integration of a state-of-the-art library services platform, a space renovation, a curricular overhaul, or a staff reorganization. Such projects nudge an organization in a different direction, ultimately prompting change for a significant contingent of employees and users. Even librarians who embrace change can find the experience of creating something new to be exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. For example, the librarian described here is typically comfortable with change, has ex-plored countless new technologies and collaborated with educators to create curricula, and has never shied away from applying the latest professional standards to his work.

Leading a new initiative may be inevitable for those who have found their profes-sional niche, continue to build expertise in that area, and have a passion for what they

Right now, in an academic library somewhere in the world, a library professional just left a meeting freshly tasked with carrying out a new organizational initiative.

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Navigating the New: A Case Study on Leading Organizational Change224

do. After a time, these professionals may hear from an administrator, “We see that you are doing a great job with X, so we would love for you to explore Y.” Administrators often use this phrase or one like it when seeking individuals or groups to lead a new enterprise, and it can be intoxicating to hear. Those on the receiving end of this request will likely begin an exciting journey, one that may ignite professional and intellectual growth, extend one’s professional network, and foster a renewed sense of delight about library work.

The challenges of leading a new initiative, however, can span a broad spectrum. On one end, the new effort can be so closely aligned with the library professional’s current work and area of expertise that it seems a reasonable extension of his or her portfolio.

On the other end of the spectrum, a novel initiative can be unrelated to one’s current work and feel as discombobulating as an unfamiliar airport. One can hope that the project falls into a comfortable place on this spectrum, but one seldom can choose where the pin drops. Library reorganizations, staff vacan-cies, and the continual disruption of the evolving information profession cause unpredictability and often drive librarians to lead change that feels like a departure from their professional comfort zone.

In the spring of 2017, I was a teaching and learning librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). As such, I partnered with teaching faculty on assignment design and taught informa-tion literacy in myriad disciplines. A teacher at heart, I was approached by the UNLV Libraries’

administration and asked to take on a new project. The UNLV Libraries leadership re-quested that I develop and lead a department that would create spaces and services to facilitate the application of technology in learning and research and would energize the libraries’ role in digital scholarship for the UNLV community. The ultimate project goals were to design and realize a data visualization lab, a makerspace, and multimedia studios as well as to develop and implement services to support those spaces. These were, and continue to be, exciting extensions of my previous work in information literacy. Teamed with many collaborators who were instrumental to this new organizational initiative, and with tremendous support from colleagues and administration alike, I began my journey as the head of the Department of Knowledge Production.

Most librarians would view such a challenge as an opportunity, and indeed, I saw this assignment as a privilege. This role was a chance to gain organizational awareness and garner support from administrators to stimulate change and build momentum to-ward the project objectives. I was inspired by colleagues who led new initiatives from every level of the organization chart, sometimes without the administrative support or the social and professional capital that I received in this role. Leading change is a great opportunity to serve the academic community and to achieve rapid and visible profes-sional growth. However, many of the best opportunities have their pain points, causing frustration and defeat in even an industrial-strength professional.

Library reorganizations, staff vacancies, and the continual disruption of the evolving information profession cause unpredict-ability and often drive librarians to lead change that feels like a departure from their professional comfort zone.

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John Watts 225

When any professional finds himself or herself leading a new initiative, it may be because the person is passionate about it or was simply asked to do it. This can be an ambiguous place where practical strategies and case studies can be crucial aids to over-coming obstacles, internal and external.

The approaches described here helped me navigate, create, and arrive at the suc-cessful outcome of a new initiative and conquer several sticking points. I acknowledge that these approaches are constructed from a single perspective that may not mirror everyone’s experience. I do not claim best practices nor imply that others are doing work “incorrectly.” These approaches are not a panacea for all issues related to change, and they are not a recipe to download as-is into one’s own context. Rather, they are case studies from one librarian’s experience, shared here in the spirit of offering support for those feeling adrift in the new.

The Timeline of a New Initiative

Getting Started

Getting started on a new initiative is exciting. An eager project manager seeks relevant models through reviews of the literature and conference programs, reaches out to pro-fessional networks, and often consults family and friends. Librarians benefit from working in a profession filled with smart, talented people who have a propensity for sharing information. So, getting started can be a thrilling segment in the timeline for a recently launched project. Armed with a folder full of ar-ticles, a brand-new conference tote bag, and the accompanying fresh perspective, it is easy to believe the new initiative is not only possible but a certain success. This is great. This is a moment to remember.

Even in the honeymoon period, getting started on a new initiative means a hill to climb. Once all the information has been gathered, the leader must decide how to begin. As head of Knowledge Production, I experienced this sticking point after rummaging through Ithaka Survey data culled from a healthy sample of researchers on the UNLV campus; attending the Designing Libraries Conference, an annual gathering of librarians, architects, and information technologists to discuss library planning; and visiting other libraries where new spaces and services were already established. Even with information from the campus community and models of successful spaces and programs at leading institutions, a clear starting point did not immediately emerge.

After some reflection, I realized I had a sense of where to start because I had nearly a decade of experience creating something from nothing. In my previous role, I was ac-customed to developing information literacy instruction sessions, credit-bearing courses, research assignments, online tutorials, and outreach events. In this instructional planning work, I often used principles of backward design, a framework that requires instructors to begin the curricular development process by looking at well-defined outcomes for the

Librarians benefit from working in a profession filled with smart, talented people who have a propensity for sharing information.

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learners.1 My experience translated into relevant skills for designing learning spaces and public services, and I decided to incorporate this into the planning process.

When creating learning experiences from scratch, a common mistake of many instruc-tors is to assemble what Dee Fink labels a “list of topics,” in which the teacher consults textbooks and similar materials and extracts relevant topics for students to explore in class.2 After compiling information to inform the creation of spaces and services, I put together a list of practical and cutting-edge technologies, furniture ideas, and job de-scriptions that were applicable to the UNLV campus context. However, understanding and communicating how learners and researchers would make use of the new services and spaces did not easily unfold. A list of topics and technologies and a sheaf of carpet samples will not help a librarian or project team identify the behaviors that indicate learning or the evidence to demonstrate that a space or service meets an instructional or research need. Further exploration was required. The objectives for the initiative had to be further clarified.

The literature of teaching and learning scholarship is rich with best practices for writing learning outcomes that are actionable, visible, and measurable and that describe what the target audience will be able to do because of a learning experience—or any experience, for that matter. This approach can help even the most ambiguous project take shape and applies to many different contexts. I had observed colleagues develop-ing outcomes for important meetings with stakeholders, events with therapy dogs to calm students during finals week, new job descriptions, and requests for quotations inviting vendors to bid on library service platforms. Defining specific outcomes is an

effective way to create actionable goals that are not based in a technology or style of fur-niture, but instead focus on those whom the initiative is intended to support: academic library users. Once the outcomes have been articulated, the project can be broken down into manageable steps. If working in a team,

defining outcomes can assist in aligning the team’s collective intentions around a project and solidifying group buy-in to help move the project forward. If the team knows where they are headed, all the members can steer in the same direction.

Two of the pitfalls of creating outcomes is they can either lead to minutiae or be so vague that the initiative might be better served by thumbing through a furniture catalog for inspiration. There are, however, many resources to help create outcomes with the appropriate level of generality. In their book Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offer a systematic approach for uncovering the enduring understandings that students should remember long after the end of instruction.3 Such an enduring understanding is the linchpin of an initiative, the essential idea or ideas from which all the smaller outcomes and details emanate. Debra Gilchrist, vice president for learning and student success at Pierce College District in Pierce County, Washington, developed a method for crafting outcomes that asks project leaders to consider the “why.” For example, teams and leaders might ask: “Why do I want an audience to behave a certain way or gain this particular experience? What is in it for them in the big picture of their learning, career, and life?”4 This approach asks project leaders and teams to dig deep

If the team knows where they are headed, all the members can steer in the same direction.

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and articulate how the experience will be meaningful for the learner both during and after college rather than simply to list small, discreet tasks. From these core outcomes, more focused goals can be created to describe what users will do to complete specific tasks, but the outcomes will be informed by a larger vision.

Developing outcomes for a space-planning initiative also clarifies direction and focus for assessing a project’s impact. When project leaders poll users and stakeholders and use the information they gain to craft outcomes, they can more easily articulate the data needed to assess and communicate the effectiveness of the project. If project leaders can fully express what the space or service should do, they can readily identify evidence that will illustrate that activity and gather the appropriate data to make effective decisions and communicate them.

When beginning a new initiative, there is a tendency to approach it from a deficit mind-set, the voice in one’s head that says, “I don’t have any experience with design-ing learning spaces, so I will need to overcome my lack of experience in design to complete this task.” While this may be an accurate perspective, another approach is to focus on one’s strengths and experience while acknowledging that learning will happen throughout the process. For example, I learned more than a librarian might ever need to know about drywall, though this newly acquired knowledge was not paramount to my contributions to the spaces and services. When deficit mind-set creeps in, the project team and I were helped by countering with a different approach: “We are knowledgeable about creating learning experiences, and this is an extension of that area of work.” This approach was true and empowering.

Library professionals are fully formed human beings when they arrive at a new task, and they learn and make meaning of unfamiliar situations using prior knowledge and experience.5 As the head of Knowledge Production, it was important for me to break free from the restraints of a deficit mind-set and emphasize my previous expertise. A collection of well-articulated outcomes and a renewed awareness of skill were a helpful foundation, and leveraging prior knowledge instilled the confidence to continue. If the leader and the new initiative are still in the honeymoon stage after getting started, both are well on their way. Keep going!

Surmounting the “Side Eye”

If you lead or participate in a new initiative, you will likely encounter “side eye” from another individual in the organization. For the purposes of this article, “side eye” is de-fined as the judgment of others who either do not believe in the initiative, disapprove of the approach to executing the project, or regret not being chosen to lead it. This judgment can manifest in several ways. The critical individual might roll his or her eyes during an update meeting, make a harsh comment intended to promote insecurity about the project, or send an e-mail that systematically picks apart the team’s or the leaders’ work to suggest that little is being accomplished. This type of behavior may come from anyone at any time, disrupting the new initiative.

Side eye is not harassment or hostile behavior; those should be dealt with by a supervisor or human resources professional. A toxic work environment should be ad-dressed through the proper channels. As defined here, side eye relates to conflict around

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the initiative or the work of the leader or team. It is disagreement that can cause one to doubt decisions and decrease productivity. Side eye is a fact of life, and anyone who leads change in an organization will encounter it.

When side eye is experienced during the implementation of a new initiative, it may help to step back and consider why the criticism was administered and whether there is cause to assess and improve the work. Experiencing emotion at work is normal and can be valuable; however, it is important that emotions not take over. Instead, project leaders and teams should explore potential reasons for side eye and use the feedback wisely.

How does a leader or team solve a problem like side eye? The truth is that side eye is not the problem. Conflict at work is healthy and even beneficial to productivity if it is dealt with appropriately. For example, moderate side eye, or conflict related to a task,

can trigger innovation in a team and increase trust among colleagues.6 Conflict can be good or bad, depending on the context. Leaders and teams who embrace the idea that side eye is a good thing can proceed and accept critical feedback. If there is workplace conflict around a task, it can increase motivation to perform

and make an initiative stronger, whereas interpersonal friction will more often lead to negative outcomes.7 As personal as it feels at the time, side eye is about work and not a personal attack. Both the literature and my own experience suggest moving beyond the insecurity that side eye may inspire and instead focusing on how the feedback could improve outcomes.8

Side eye may be easy to describe in the abstract, but when it is directly experienced, it may not feel like simple feedback. When a leader or a team member has an emotional reaction to side eye, it is important to focus on any underlying truth that incited the disapproval. For example, if a colleague suggests that communication was poorly handled, the leader or team member might ask, “Has communication surrounding this initiative been consistent?” If there was inconsistency, identify where and how the com-munication should be improved and do it. If the leader or team member cannot identify inconsistency, be mindful of the criticism while continuing to carry out the initiative. It helps to understand whether the side eye is about the initiative or if it is fundamentally about the purveyor of the side eye and his or her own displeasure regarding the project.

People may not always see the truth of their own actions or work. Embracing criti-cism and judgment allows one to respond positively or constructively rather than react-ing emotionally. Embracing side eye may take the form of following up and asking for further clarification and feedback. Another way of making use of side eye is to explore your own work history, determine if you have ever been the purveyor of side eye re-garding the work of colleagues, and understand that you may have been on both sides of this experience. If you can find this in your own history, you may better understand yourself and the current situation.

Overcoming Fear

Fear of the unknown, anxiety about what people think, and self-doubt can be paralyzing. Fear is treacherous for a library professional handling a role or project for the first time.

Conflict at work is healthy and even beneficial to productivity if it is dealt with appropriately.

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John Watts 229

This is especially true if one’s confidence in one’s professional identity and expertise is at stake. Expertise can bring a sense of control and an understanding of what to expect. In academic libraries, a high degree of ambiguity is common; experience can often offer comfort. When expertise has yet to be developed, new tasks or roles can be frightening.

To compound this fear, many new roles, departments, initiatives, or projects have a high profile in the organization and require substantial communication about progress toward goals. This can include meetings with administrative stakeholders, library-wide presentations, and regular progress updates for internal and external audiences. So, the leader may feel under scrutiny. In my case, I worried about being perceived as a novice again after years of building expertise in teaching and learning. Fear of making wrong decisions due to lack of expertise can lead to a reluctance to make any decisions, a dan-gerous handicap for those tasked with new priorities.

For inspiration to overcome fear, consider children at play. They shape-shift, go with the flow, and do not get caught up in their identity and how it impacts their performance. Psychologists posit play as a transformational force that creates relatively safe spaces for experiencing unfamiliar work roles and learning.9 Play is the underlying mechanism animating transitions between past and future identities. Incorporating play can engage creativity and social learning, gradually build expertise, and get fear out of the way.10

In my new role, the substitute for play was experimenting with new technologies and workflows. When testing 3D printers for use in a future makerspace, I assembled a small team to test the principles of agile project management, a framework for managing projects based on frequent communica-tion in small teams, close collaboration with users to identify a product or service addressing a need, and responsiveness to change rather than adherence to carefully laid plans.11 Carving out time to experi-ment with new workflows and different technologies provided our team with a fresh approach to learning that empha-sized low stakes and a flexible environment. This type of “play” allowed us to build expertise quickly and provided innovative ways for vetting technologies and services.

Fear of failure and learning new skills can feel more pronounced in isolation, so it can be beneficial to make a social experience of learning a task or content area. The Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that learning is a highly social act drawing from the cognitive and affective domains of the brain. Through engaging with others, we can make sense of new content and connect it to a deeper level of understanding.12 Creating situations for social learning was essential for me as new spaces were planned that would affect individuals across the library. Our team held brainstorming sessions and created subcommittees and interest groups tasked with developing programs for the department. Inviting collective input not only filled the gaps in our team’s knowledge but also bolstered valuable buy-in from library and UNLV campus partners.

Those working on high-profile projects may find that other library staff appreciate the opportunity to provide input and often offer helpful solutions to issues that were

Carving out time to experiment with new workflows and different technologies provided our team with a fresh approach to learning that emphasized low stakes and a flexible environment.

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difficult to resolve. Identifying opportune and meaningful moments for collaborative social discovery also provides a level of transparency for other library staff who may fear the unknown about a project and offers them comfort about initiatives that impact their work.

Conversely, not all modes of learning require a social component. For the Depart-ment of Knowledge Production, there were occasions when deep focus and self-paced learning were more appropriate.

Finally, finding a model for success was helpful to me. If fear is a primary emotion, leaders and team members may find it easy to slip into a mind-set of “this is impossible and returning to the comfort zone is the best next step.” Identifying a proven model al-lows the team to ask instead, “Is it really impossible? Mary is already doing this at her

library. So, is she the only person who can do this? Probably not.”

Another recommendation is to consider reaching out to a successful role model. The role model may have had similar experi-ences and doubts and may offer strategies for working through seemingly uncharted territory. Librarians and other library professionals are often more than willing to help someone trying to achieve a goal and can offer both practical guidance and

emotional support. If the reader has identified a successful role model and moved past fear, celebrate and keep going!

Conclusion

Getting started, dealing with side eye, and overcoming identity-based fear are some of the hurdles I faced as the new head of the Department of Knowledge Production, though one might certainly experience other obstacles beyond these. However, self-assessment and engaging one’s colleagues can help overcome many pitfalls. When meeting the ob-jectives of a new initiative, remember that project leaders and teams have been chosen because of their past performance.

Everyone is a part of organizational change, but organizations must make social and political space to nurture it. This was key to the success of the project described here. The library leadership listened and made adjustments based on the concerns and requests of their people and modeled behavior that ultimately moved the effort forward. They set an example of a culture of communication around what is possible and how work can be realistically prioritized. This included stopping activities that no longer served the organization or campus community to make time and room for the new initiative.

Library professionals should not fear new experiences, but this article is not a call for individual grit or resiliency in the pursuit of change. As Jacob Berg, Angela Galvan, and Eamon Tewell note in their article “Responding to and Reimagining Resilience in Libraries,” resiliency, or the ability to bounce back from a crisis, is a term used to shift responsibility to individuals while silencing conversation about structural inequalities

Librarians and other library professionals are often more than willing to help someone trying to achieve a goal and can offer both practical guidance and emotional support.

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John Watts 231

in the workplace.13 If professionals are tasked with new initiatives that are unreasonably scoped or unsupported, the burden should be on the organization to make the effort successful. A large number of library professionals have experienced the unrecognized, slow, and subtle expansion of their job duties, but there is no reason for organizational change to create burnout and disenfranchisement.14 Discussing expectations and providing resources are essential to creating a flex-ible and supportive work environment for everyone.

Globally, the library profession can do more to support professionals who lead new initiatives. For example, the profession can benefit from more inten-tional training in the principles of project manage-ment. The Project Management Institute, a nonprofit through which professionals share their experiences and provide and receive training, offers an abundance of resources. Libraries can collaborate with this organization to bring a greater awareness of best prac-tices in project management to the library profession.15 How to properly scope a project and define roles for collaborators are key goals of its training. Partnership with library associations and the Project Management Institute could lead to professional standards for project management in libraries and related certifications sponsored by professional library associations. Defined support for this crucial area of our work would benefit many.

The library profession teems with talented people who do incredible work. Many of these librarians seek resources from within their professional experience as well as knowledge and support from colleagues. Library professionals working on a new initiative often feel that the project is impossible. If you find yourself in this situation, consider how you are meeting the challenges and gaining momentum, and then keep going. You will find that the goal is within reach.

John Watts is head of the Department of Knowledge Production at the University Libraries of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; he may be reached by e-mail at: john.watts@unlv.edu.

Notes

1. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005); Jenny Mills, Clair Wiley, and Judy Williams, “‘This Is What Learning Looks Like!’ Backward Design and the Framework in First Year Writing,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 19, 1 (2019): 155–75.

2. L. Dee Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013), 61.

3. Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design. 4. Debra Gilchrist, “Learning Outcomes: From the Big Picture to the Classroom,” Consortium of

Academic Research Libraries in Illinois, 2015, https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/pub-serv/instruction/LearningOutcomes-Gilchrist.

5. Jean Piaget, The Construction of Reality in the Child (New York: Basic, 1954). 6. Carsten K. W. De Dreu, “The Virtue and Vice of Workplace Conflict: Food for (Pessimistic)

Thought,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 29, 1 (2008): 5–18.

Discussing expectations and providing resources are essential to creating a flexible and supportive work environment for everyone.

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Navigating the New: A Case Study on Leading Organizational Change232

7. Carsten K. W. De Dreu and Annelies E. M. Van Vianen, “Managing Relationship Conflict and the Effectiveness of Organizational Teams,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 22, 3 (2001): 309–28.

8. See, for example, Erin Dorney, “Zen and the Art of Constructive Criticism,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, May 2, 2012, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2012/zen-and-the-art-of-constructive-criticism/.

9. Herminia Ibarra and Jennifer L. Petriglieri, “Identity Work and Play,” Journal of Organizational Change Management 23, 1 (2010): 10–25, doi:10.1108/09534811011017180.

10. Lois Holzman, [Lev] Vygotsky at Work and Play (New York: Routledge, 2009).11. Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham,

Martin Fowler, James Grenning, et al., “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” 2001, http://agilemanifesto.org/.

12. Holzman, Vygotsky at Work and Play.13. Jacob Berg, Angela Galvan, and Eamon Tewell, “Responding to and Reimagining Resilience in

Libraries,” Journal of New Librarianship 3, 1 (2018): 1–4.14. Fobazi Ettarh, “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” In the

Library with the Lead Pipe, January 10, 2018, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/.

15. Project Management Institute, “About Us,” 2018, https://www.pmi.org/about.

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