Presented at the December 2011 PALCI Member Meeting in Harrisburg PA. Calhoun describes her new role at the University of Pittsburgh Library as AUL for Organizational Development; the nature of and necessary conditions for transformational change; and the challenges of the the change cycle.

1. FROM IDEAS TO INNOVATION:
Powering up for change
Karen Calhoun 2 December 2011
Assistant University Librarian for Organizational
Development and Strategic Initiatives
University of Pittsburgh

2. My role at Pitt
• Started late July 2011
• Work for Rush Miller, University Librarian
• FY12 assignments:
• Guide process to assess and redesign user
services
• Guide process to develop recommendations for
renovation of main library user services space
• Collaboratively develop the library’s FY13
strategic plan
• Change management, project management

3. A New Kind of Library
• Build a vision of a new
kind of library
• Be more involved with
research and learning
materials and systems
• Be more engaged with
campus communities
• Make library collections,
services, and librarians
more visible in university
communities of practice
• Move to next generation
systems and services
The library in the community
(in virtual and physical space)

4. What I’m learning (and relearning)
If you have built
castles in the air,
your work need
not be lost; that is
where they should
be. Now put the Photo by Martin Biskoping. CC-BY-NC-ND
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiskoping/367919155/
foundations under
them.
--Thoreau, Walden

5. Outline
• What is transformational change and why is it
important?
• What are the necessary conditions for a
transformational change to succeed?
• The challenges of the change cycle and what to
expect
• Discussion

6. Viable solutions: Muddling through,
transitioning, or transforming?
Two key assumptions:
“Institutions of higher education will
experience a significant, long-term
loss of budget and purchasing power
over the foreseeable future …
Continuing to “muddle through” … is
not a viable long-term strategy.”
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/dealing.pdf
PS: Not just budget
issues;
relevance issues

7. Discontinuous change and the need for
transformational thinking
[We have entered] “an era of discontinuous change in research libraries—a time
when the cumulated assets of the past do not guarantee future success …” p. 5
http://loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf

8. The nature of transformational change
• Change from a collections-centered to user-
centered service model (a change in what
drives the library)
• Change from hierarchical to distributed
authority structures
• Major changes in how work is done and who
does it (e.g, low tech to hi tech; self-
sufficiency to partnerships; etc.)
Adapted from ideas in Beckhard, Richard. 2003. A model for the executive management of
transformational change. In Pfeiffer book of successful leadership development tools
(San Francisco: Pfeiffer), p. 83-96.

9. Conditions for transformational change to
succeed (a partial list adapted from Beckhard)
• Committed leadership
• Free flow of information throughout the
organization
• Conditions that preclude maintenance of the
status quo (urgency of the problem)
• Critical mass of support among stakeholders
• Understanding and honoring resistance
• Commitment to education/retraining
• Willingness to commit resources

10. Change leadership: a necessary new
competency
Coping with Change Change Model
 Continuous flow of information • Defining the problem
 Understand stages of change The present
• Conveying urgency
• Assessing readiness
 Honor resistance, loss and grief state
 Acknowledge the value
• Evolution from present to
of what was future state
 Create transitional roles The transitional
state • When changing takes place
 Explain new roles
and expectations (many many
• Vision, strategy
times!) • Defining the solution
The future state
 Recognize it will take time

11. “It’s not the changes that do you in, it’s
the transitions” –William Bridges
The three phases of transition
Change = something in the
external environment changes
(e.g., a new library director is hired;
a new system is being introduced;
a reorganization occurs; new
procedures or policies are
planned)
Transition = an internal
reorientation process to a change It is critical to manage transitions
inclusively by engaging staff in
the process.
Bridges, William. 1991. Managing transitions: making the most of change.
Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.

12. Bridges’ Three Phases of Transition
Expect: Renewal,
integration
Expect: Chaos, confusion,
uncertainty
Expect: Fear, anger, shock,
anxiety, blame, resistance, resentment, skepticism

13. Endings
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning
The end is where we start from
--T.S. Eliot

14. More from Bridges
• People don’t resist the change; they resist
the transition, particularly its losses and
endings.
• “Before you can begin something new, you
have to end what used to be. Before you can
learn a new way of doing things, you have to
unlearn the old way.”

15. 15
W. Edwards Deming
"It is not enough to do your best; you must
know what to do, and then do your best."
The Deming circle.
Image: CC BY 3.0
Diagram by Karn G. Bulsuk (http://blog.bulsuk.com)

16. A Blueprint for Change: Innovation, Engagement,
Assessment, and Annual Life Cycle Management
Exit this service
Evaluate and
Plan
Innovate, renew, or
maintain this service
Ongoing Build or
assessment Manage,
Distribute Design and enhance
Engage, and
Ongoing and Promote Collaborate Develop
outreach and validate
communications (test)
Implement
and
Introduce

17. Committing to a shared
planning, design and
implementation process

18. Getting things done without “power” -- a
different kind of leadership
“Oh, you always have power, if you just know where to find it.
There is the power of inclusion, and the power of language,
and the power of shared interests, and the power of coalition.
Power is all around you to draw upon …”
--Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA,
as quoted by Jim Collins in Good to Great and the Social Sectors.

19. ksc34@pitt.edu
Thank You!
Photo by Horace Spatula
CC-BY-ND
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24124989@N00/3979007928/