Not such an early start for the August Sue Hill Breakfast event. A lovely, sunny morning ensured that all the guests had a great view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Before we could get down to our discussions on what issues are keeping information professionals awake at night, the tough decision of ‘what to have for breakfast’ was further complicated by a new menu format at Roast! How tough it can be.
A theme that pushed buttons was ‘change’ and how to embrace it when it was really being forced onto managers and teams alike. There was discussion around how to summon up the enthusiasm and energy to embark on change when it was seen, personally, as something that was quite destructive. Having said this some of our guests felt that getting involved was worth the effort as any small amount of influence is a positive. The issue of energy, picking the fights and ultimately battles to win, was raised. As services dumb down, how can services levels be maintained with professional pride? Something has to give and so choices that can go against the grain of what is a good service level, have to be taken. Whilst information departments and services are concerned about the future, so too will be other functional departments within your organisation. It was suggested by a guest and endorsed by another who is going this… seek wider company collaboration. Engage with other functional managers and explore if there is common ground or lessons learned on what are the hot topics/buttons that senior management respond to when the battles have commenced.
Change, value, progression, procrastination – these words and what they mean to each of us kept us chatting through breakfast. One last comment by one of our guest summed up nicely this issue of change. ‘Engage in change, be part of it rather than the object of change.’
A theme that pushed buttons was ‘change’ and how to embrace it when it was really being forced onto managers and teams alike. There was discussion around how to summon up the enthusiasm and energy to embark on change when it was seen, personally, as something that was quite destructive. Having said this some of our guests felt that getting involved was worth the effort as any small amount of influence is a positive. The issue of energy, picking the fights and ultimately battles to win, was raised. As services dumb down, how can services levels be maintained with professional pride? Something has to give and so choices that can go against the grain of what is a good service level, have to be taken. Whilst information departments and services are concerned about the future, so too will be other functional departments within your organisation. It was suggested by a guest and endorsed by another who is going this… seek wider company collaboration. Engage with other functional managers and explore if there is common ground or lessons learned on what are the hot topics/buttons that senior management respond to when the battles have commenced.
Change, value, progression, procrastination – these words and what they mean to each of us kept us chatting through breakfast. One last comment by one of our guest summed up nicely this issue of change. ‘Engage in change, be part of it rather than the object of change.’
- Sue Edgar
Sue I've written a short blog post about this meeting http://www.therunninglibrarian.co.uk/2010/08/sue-hill-networking-breakfast.html
Thanks for the invite and a greak breakfast.
James
Posted by: James Mullan | August 16, 2010 at 10:19 AM