AN EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS

 

Isn’t it great when things work out well? About two years ago two of my associates and I began working with a number of Indiana libraries in the general area of continuous improvement. We met for eight days over the course of eight months and discussed such things as mission, visions, values, system thinking, process standardization and improvement, leadership, and planning. And then, for the most part, we didn’t hear from any of the participants for over a year.

 

Trying to practice what we preach, we decided we should check in and see if anything happened as a result of our time together and whether we could learn and improve our training. So we scheduled a visit to the Lawrenceburg Public Library in Lawrenceburg, IN. We were very pleased with our visit. Here categorized by some of the essential areas of a good continuous improvement effort is what we heard and saw.

 

Constancy of Purpose

 

Library Director Sally Stegner invited us into her office and began to tell us how things had changed as a result of their experience. She pointed to a flip chart page hanging on her wall showing us a work-in-progress. Her Board of Trustees is challenging and updating their mission, vision, and values -- something that usually doesn’t happen unless there is a major crisis or an outside-imposed requirement. From what we could discern, they were taking it all in stride.

 

Every department has also created mission and vision statements that articulate the department’s role in the library’s mission and vision. As the Public Services Department worked on their values, they realized that everyone in the library is engaged in public services, so they asked each staff member to sign their values document, which is now posted in the circulation office behind the public desk.

 

Process Improvement

 

Stegner said she and the staff now think about measuring at the beginning of a process improvement cycle. How are we going to know? they ask.

 

She showed us some data showing how circulation has been going up every month since they attended the training. They finally figured out one major reason why use of the library was down a year or two before road construction near the library. They are beginning to use data to understand their system and to make decisions.

 

We were treated to several additional stories of accomplishment. One of the library’s improvement teams began focusing on how long it takes from the time a book arrives at their back door until it is available for their customers. At the beginning of the effort, it took an average of 20-27 days. After thinking about things and doing a little experimenting, they have determined that some books are really hot items and need to get to the shelf fast: the McNaughton rental books and new best sellers. They now have a process for identifying them, and those books get to the shelf in one day. The rest of the books now average between 10 and 16 days from back door to shelf. Cutting the process time in half isn’t a bad improvement especially since it takes less effort and fewer hours to do it the new way. While we were there we spotted an opportunity to take another 5-7 days out of the process. The department head is still inspecting, and had created a check-sheet with common errors found. The library has just chartered a team to work on the steps in advance of this process, so we suggested that they use the check-sheet data to inform this team’s process improvement efforts. If they can reduce or eliminate these errors, the department head will no longer need to inspect the new books -- a bottleneck since her time on the circulation desk and other responsibilities mean that she can’t work on this every day.

 

We heard about another significant improvement regarding how a customer gets permission and then assignment to use a public-access computer in the library. Suffice it to say that neither the staff nor the customers were happy with the old way. It took too long and was too complicated. A team of librarians came up with a new way that really pleased the customers. They knew they had to have a way to measure to see if the change was an improvement. The library created a short survey and placed it right at the computers; so they have the data to prove it. Of course, the customers were happier. In addition the change saved approximately one minute for the librarians and three or four minutes for each customer every time they used a public-access computer. That doesn’t seem like lot of time until you realize that they do this at least 14,000 times a year: upward of six staff-weeks saved per year for the librarians who have much more important work to do and at least 18 weeks saved for busy customers.

 

“This has just changed our lives!” said Debbie Beckett, Circulation Manager.

 

One more example shows how the continuous improvement attitude is spreading. For some time a volunteer has been coming to the library to help fold the newsletter. One day recently when the newsletter was particularly thick she asked, “Why do we fold it two times? Why can’t we just fold it in half?” After a bit of discussion they realized that no one knew why they folded it in thirds instead of in half. Someone thought it had to do with the post office requirements. So the volunteer went to the post office and asked if the size, after folding it in half, would be acceptable. The post office clerk assured her that it would be fine. So now the time and effort to fold the newsletter is almost cut in half.

 

Leadership/Communications

 

Stegner said morale is definitely up. “It’s made a huge, huge difference,” she said. “Staff members feel more valued; they are no longer territorial and now work across department and library lines. We just find it helps us so much. When were doing our daily work and people say, ‘This isn’t working,’ we form a team and figure out what to try. They’ve always come up with a solution they can live with.”

 

Performance evaluation is changing in the library, as a result of the training. The library still gives a performance test after an employee has been employed six months and a detailed annual review after the first year. Beginning this year, they have changed the way they communicate with ongoing employees. “We realized that we didn’t have to wait until the exit interview to ask staff how their jobs were going,” noted Stegner, “so we substituted those exit interview questions for the approach used in the old format. Our supervisors really like the change from evaluation to coaching and it has allowed us to resolve some simmering conflicts between staff members.”

 

The training seems to have worked for this library, and here are some of the reasons we think it worked.

 

• They sent the right people and the right number of people to training. The library director attended and is leading the effort. They created a critical mass of people to keep the effort going.

 

• The training was good professional development. It was job embedded; it allowed for on-going coaching by phone and over the Internet; it was collaborative with several libraries participating; it was introduced over a period of time; and there were expectations of using what they learned immediately following training. Stegner noted that they particularly valued the tools and strategies they learned.

 

• The library set up a steering committee to guide their continuous improvement effort. They are very committed to meeting every month, reviewing their work, and planning for future efforts.

 

• They are very intentional when they make assignments to teams. They charter each team with a written document that explains exactly what is expected, the team’s limitations and its authority. Stegner looks at the people who will be on the team and asks the supervisor when they can be available. She and the Youth Services Manager fill in, if need be, to free up the team members for meetings. Much of the work is done via e-mail, so team members in the branch and main library can participate easily.

 

• They are building on what they have learned. They are developing a portable desk that contains all the processes that they have standardized. New employees and volunteers can learn a process correctly in minutes instead of weeks or months, and old timers can refer back to the process if things start going wrong.

 

• They are treating continuous improvement as the way they do work, not something extra to do.

 

“It’s contagious,” concluded Stegner. “My staff keeps asking when we can start work on more processes. Sometimes it’s urgent and we go ahead. Other times, we try to finish what we’ve already started before starting something new.”

 

It surely is a pleasure when things go well. The goal is to have more times like that. I think that having intentional continuous improvement as your approach to business almost guarantees more success. Give it a try.