Growing Culture ChangeThe University of Manchester Library

Penny HicksHead of Strategic Marketing and Communications

Caroline RichesHead of Finance and

Planning

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

LIBRARY

40,000students

7,000staff

11library sites

CURRENT STRATEGY:RESULTS

Built market research into our

business development

My Learning Essentials

Stock: RFID and self issue

Project management

Development of five cultural behaviours

CURRENT STRATEGY LESSONS: LEADERSHIP

Were we a model team?

Were we working in silos, protective, territorial?

What work did we need to do as a team?

What was our culture?

What qualities and behaviours did we want to see in each other?

OUR PEOPLE

While we worked on our strategy we worked on changing our culture

Every staff member contributed to Five ways of working

Responsibility

Recognition

Empowerment

Openness

Support

HOW NEAR OR FAR ARE WE?

How many projects?OVER 100 PROJECTS!

Understanding and research happened

after solutions created

Project managers struggled with

priorities

Exposed different values and

attitudes to change

We discovered staff felt

disconnected

This led some staff to resist or slow

down change

WITH AMBITION CAME ISSUES

What sort of library do we want to be?

PUTTING LESSONS INTO PRACTICE

HOW WOULD WE APPROACH OUR NEW STRATEGY DIFFERENTLY?

We hosted meetings looking at rotas ensuring that all staff

would be able to attend one.

We asked for honest feedback on what they thought of the current strategy and how it

made them feel

We asked them what should have been done differently

We asked if they would like to volunteer to be involved in the

new strategy and what University goal they would be

interested in

THIS TIME

Staff self-elected their involvement

There are 4 themes linked to the

University’s strategy

Only looked at the ‘what’ and not the

‘how’

Managed as a project itself with dedicated

staff

LAST TIME THIS TIME

3 staff volunteered

30 staff were chosen

140 staff volunteered!

LESSONS TO SHARE

LeadershipCulture:

empowerment

Involve staff Keep up the paceKeep checking

back in with staff

Once you have had a garden for a while, and you have worked with, watched and listened to it, only then can you know what will die, what will grow and what will flourish.