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July 26, 2006
Gloomy climate
I went into a large library today which has been subject of consultation among the local people because it is proposed for a major refit.
I asked at the reference desk it might be possible to see the plans but the person to whom I spoke explained that the consultation period was now over and they no longer had the display to show.
So I asked if it she believed it was an attractive plan. She said "The staff view would be different to that of the public".
I thought it was the strangest answer as I was only trying to make conversation and although she was very civil she made me feel that there was some barrier behind which she was hiding. (I'm quite sure she had no idea that I have an interest in the subject- she assumed I lived in the area of the library)
She was trying to tell me something about her working life and that of her colleagues
It reminded me of training we received years ago in the retail company for which I worked called "climate management". The theory behind this was that the staff who deal with the customers will convey the way they feel about the company for which they work. If they feel imposed upon and unimportant then they will be unhelpful to customers and frightened that they will somehow get into trouble for stepping outside the rules of the organisation.
I had encountered a "gloomy climate"
That is why I would encourage council library services to break down their management structures. Often they lie like lead weights on the shoulders of the people who deal with the public. It isn't just that many management structures are far more expensive than they need to be, but also they result in unsatisfactory customer service
Incidentally one of the key messages of that "climate training" was that the standard of service is set by the most senior people in the organisation and by and large people will follow their example. So if everyhthing is run strictly to a rule book and people have no ability to take the initiative- then that will be the nature of the service given to the public.
Very often it it is in smaller organistations: local shops, charity shops, small companies, that service is much better. It is very hard for people who feel themselves to be part of a large and formal organisation to give really good service. You have to work at it and small empowered management groups and teams is one way.
The theory would be that the person I met feels that no ownership or real influence and her view is not valued. Until that changes she will convey that feeling to the public. It wasn't her fault- but it can be changed and would be, if she just felt happy at work.
Then she would have either said "The new design is great, it's very exciting; or the whole thing is awful, it's a terrible waste of money", or any variant of those two extremes, and not worried for one moment whether she was going to get into trouble- because what she thought mattered and is important and valuable. Which, of course, it is.
Posted by Perkins at July 26, 2006 5:10 PM