Ready, Set, Go Fast Meaningful Change in Your First 90 Days

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Ready, Set, Go!Fast Meaningful Change in Your
First 90 Days

• Presented by Denver Public Library staff
• Beth Elder, Director of Public Services
• Derek Wolfgram, Central Library Management Team
• Kristin Arnold, Senior Librarian

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Based on the book

• The First 90 Days
• Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at
  All Levels
• By
• Michael Watkins

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In this presentation you will learn how to

• Quickly assess your situation
• Lead and move staff forward
• Create meaningful change fast
• Use current resources in new ways
• Build positive momentum

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Dr. Watkins says

• the overriding goal in a transition is to build
  momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build
  credibility and by avoiding getting caught in
  vicious cycles that damage credibility.

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Dateline January 2004 Denver Public Library
Public ServicesDivision
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Landscape

• Budget Freefall
• Major Demographic Shifts
• Lack of a Comprehensive Service Plan
• Goal Survive

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What do you do?

• Ask your boss what to do
• Hide under your desk
• Sit and wait
• Sit and watch
• Sit and wait and watch
• Pray
• All of the above

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OR?
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Jump in feet first

• Watkins identifies four steps to successful
  leadership in any situation, at all levels of the
  organization
• Accelerate Your Learning
• Match Strategy to Situation
• Secure Early Wins
• Build Your Team

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Can you really make a difference and add value to
the organization right away?
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The Breakeven Point

• The Breakeven Point is the point at which new
  leaders have contributed as much value to their
  new organizations as they have consumed from it.

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Accelerating the breakeven rate at DPL occurred
at all levels

• Vision and Direction
• Management and Organization
• Staff and Local Implementation

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Accelerate Your Learning

• Plan to learn
• View learning as an investment process
• Figure out the best sources of insight
• Use structured methods to accelerate learning

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Match Strategy to Situation

• Diagnose the situation to develop the right
  strategy
• Determine your organizations transition type
• Use the transition type to analyze portfolios,
  reward success, and develop leaders
• Avoid one-best-way thinking

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Transition Types

• Diagnose your situation
• Start-up
• Turnaround
• Sustaining Success
• Realignment

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Our Situation Realignment

• Leader must revitalize a group or situation that
  is drifting
• Challenges unproductive, but deeply ingrained
  norms, selling the need for change, restructuring
  top team and refocusing organization
• Opportunities significant pockets of strength.
  Staff desire to continue to see selves as
  successful

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Does any of this sound familiar?
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Secure Early Wins

• Create a compelling vision
• Figure out A-item priorities
• Get started on improving organizational
  performance
• Build personal credibility

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Early Wins at DPL

• 12 days-Manager perspectives and priorities on
  paper
• 99 days-Limited Term Clerks started
• 110 days-Agreed upon a vision of a new service
  philosophy and approach
• 150 days-Senior Librarians self-selected,
  matching their strengths to locations
• 240 days-Hired Senior Librarians for every site
• 250 days-Senior Librarians re-organized staff
  workspaces and customer functionality
• 270 days-Re-clustered Experimental Branch
  Organization around common customer groups

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And, that was with

• No new staff
• No new money
• No new resources
• No new nothin

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Build Your Team

• Inherit a team and change it
• Manage the tension between short-term and
  long-term goals
• Work team restructuring and organizational
  architecture issues in parallel
• Put in place new team processes

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Remember the quote

• the overriding goal in a transition is to build
  momentum by creating virtuous cycles that build
  credibility and by avoiding getting caught in
  vicious cycles that damage credibility.

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You now know how to

• Quickly assess your situation
• Lead and move staff forward
• Create meaningful change fast
• Use current resources in new ways
• Build positive momentum

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Questions?