Project management is an almost unnatural act in libraries. And it’s an almost unnatural act because we are transaction-based institutions, not project based institutions. We tend to think, "I will choose this book, I will help this person with this question." It’s a very individual process. For example, if you have come to the profession as a reference librarian, a great deal of what you do is coming to the desk and handling what happens next. These are transactions, not projects.
The institution has not really taught us how to do project planning, and we don’t learn how to do it in schools of library and information science. We are comfortable with transactions and processes. A quick illustration of the difference between process and project: If I say, "What are you doing for your vacation?" It’s a project if you say, "Well, I’m going to Paris." If you say, "Well, I’m going to get on a train, and then I’m going to get on a plane, and then I’m going to read a book . . ." that’s a process.
It is very important to understand what your project is. A project can be a thing, it can be an event, it can be the creation of a new process or set of processes, but a project has something there at the end. It’s not how it got there or why it got there. For ELI, a project is required, with a product, because we know you will learn more about leadership by doing than by planning to do. We can plan with almost no risks. It’s the difference between saying, "Here’s my plan for learning to swim," and saying, "I’m wet, I’m in the deep end." Leadership skills are learned in the water, sometimes in the deep end.
As you manage your project, several things are very important.
Be sure you understand who the customers are for your products. If, for example, the project is re-inventing how collection development happens, who’s the customer for that? Branch librarians? Processing department? The community? Who’s the customer, and what do you need to do to make sure that they are going to consider the project successful? Figure out who the customer is for the project as a whole, but don’t forget the customers for the subprojects and sub-products that make up the larger project.
How much authority do you have? What decisions can you make, and what decisions do you have to get someone else’s buy-off on? Who’s on the team? Why are they on the team? Who else should be on the team? Know these answers before you start, and make sure that all the major stakeholders share understandings in all of those major arenas.
Think about who doesn’t need to be involved. It’s hard to get the attention of senior administrators and public officials. Their plates are full – they don’t need to know everything you’re planning to do. There are some things they need and want to know, but don’t over-inform busy people. You use up your attention budget with them.
A few more questions about the people touched by the project: Who’s going to object to this? Who’s going to think this is a really bad idea? Who’s going to think you’re on their turf? What needs to be done about that for the project?
What are the predictable barriers to getting this project done? What could happen that will affect it? What are the systems you’re dealing with? There are systems in this world that blindside us if we don’t pay attention to them. There are systems in our libraries – they are work systems of how things get done. If you need resources, you need to understand the system that controls the resources -- when the decisions get made there, how does it happen? There are lots of things that happen to well-meaning people who are doing good work because they haven’t taken the time to understand the systems around them.
What else is going on in the library? People get out of joint if you’re doing a project over here and they’re already doing a similar project over there or if they intended to do something but hadn’t gotten to it yet. You can be seen as usurping or conflicting with their ideas or territory. Do an environmental scan of what else is going on in the library, and see if it may relate to what you’re trying to do. If it does, clarify next steps with all involved.
When does this need to be finished? Some projects have a really clear date – you don’t have the luxury of saying, "Let’s spend a few more weeks on this or that." If you have a fixed date, throw the marker out to the due date and plan your way back from there. What needs to happen here, here, and here? If there is no fixed point, then start where you are and figure out what steps you need to do to do this well. You probably also need to understand what kind of flexibility there is in the bottom line. Has someone else promised a result to somebody on this and not bothered to tell you?
What resources will you need? Time. Yours, of course, but who else’s time will you need, and when? And what’s your plan as the leader/manager of the project to use that time really well? If you’re asking people to commit to your project, figure out what is a good use of their time and what is not. Commitment to the project will be stronger if you ask people to work out of their strengths or their areas of expertise.
You may need to call meetings. Every library has a culture around meetings. Sometimes that culture is wonderful and those meetings are productive times; sometimes that culture is very careless. For many people, to get their best work, they need an agenda a couple of days before so that they can think about it. It’s a discipline for you, but it’s also they way to get their best work. If you’re going to have a lot of meetings as part of your project, one of your disciplines is to make sure that the time of your colleagues is used well. I would certainly encourage starting on time, and ending on time too, so people can count on it. If you’ve asked for two hours in the afternoon, get what you need in those two hours. Part of project management is managing the meetings, because that’s when people see the project. If they see sloppy meetings, they will think it's a trivial project. If they see meetings where they get the information ahead of time to have a thoughtful discussion, their thoughts are valued, it’s broadly participative, and it does serious work, then they will understand that the project really matters and that their contributions matter to it.
Part of project management is threats and opportunities. Good things will happen, bad things will happen, and sometimes, just things will happen. For example, people may decide to leave their jobs, people on whom you’ve counted to do the work. It’s critical that you build in the capacity to change. The best way to build that capacity is to be very clear about how the project is working now. If you have it planned tightly, when stuff happens, you know where and when you can make changes. If the original plan is fuzzy, you won’t even understand the implications of the changes. The more clearly you’ve planned, the better you are prepared to deal with changes as they come along.
I'd like to say a word about practicing strategic disappointment. If you are still at the stage of life where you think you can keep everybody happy, you don’t yet have enough responsibility and boldness in your life. We cannot keep everyone in our lives happy. It matters to disappoint the right person on the right issue at the right time. It is always better to disappoint people upstream than downstream. If you don’t really think you can do something, don’t drop it late in the game. Say well beforehand, "I don’t think I can do it." Here’s the sentence: "This work has to be done extremely well, I know what my calendar looks like for the next three weeks and I know I can’t give it the attention the work deserves. So I’m really sorry I have to say no." It honors the work, it honors the request, it doesn’t have somebody pounding on you for three weeks and THEN you pull the rug out from under them. Don’t do that.
There are some people you can disappoint because you have the power and the authority and the role in the organization, which is a blunt fact of life. Or you can disappoint them because you have enough credit with them so if you let them down they know you’re not a bad person. You can disappoint people who, in relation to your life, are lesser priorities. There’s a level at which all of us in this profession believe everybody matters equally, and everybody’s claims on our time and attention are equal. That’s just not true. There are ways to disappoint people, and as a leader, you will disappoint people. If you think about it strategically it will serve the causes you are serving better, and will not erode the trust you need from people to lead well.
At ULC, we build in the capacity for strategic opportunity, too. That’s the flip side – to build in the capacity to make something better or to add into a project something we didn’t know existed. If you’re working absolutely at 100% or 120% capacity when those good things come along, you just A) don’t notice them or B) say, "I’m sorry, I’m just too busy, I can’t possibly do that." To the extent that you can control it, build in the capacity for strategic opportunism. It can make the project even better six months from now than you ever dreamed. That’s part of project management.
Plan for the project wrap-up now. By the time it's over you may be too tired, or there may be too much new stuff that has come onto your plate, for you to really get closure on this major project. Plan upfront for an evaluation. Was it successful for the customers? Is it working? Are we getting the stuff we need? Have we done all the pieces?
Finally, it matters greatly to figure out how you’re going to celebrate this project. Even if it doesn’t matter to you to have led and managed the project, it matters to the people who have worked with you. It matters to say thank you for doing these parts, thank you for the ways you supported me, thanks for the ways you supported each other. It is an occasion for gratitude and recognition for important work. Because we are transaction based, we rarely take time to say, "Wasn’t that good? And wasn’t it important?" Years ago, someone told me about a children’s book, the first sentence of which was, "My name is Anna. I’m in charge of celebration." One of the roles on your team should be the person in charge of celebration. |
