Management and leadership in Copenhagen Public Libraries

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Management and leadership in Copenhagen Public
Libraries

• METLIB Prague, June 2, 2008
• Jens Ingemann
• Library director

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Introduction

• Jens Ingemann
• Library director City of Copenhagen, since 2004
• Adjunct professor, Royal Danish Library School
• Copenhagen - capital of Denmark
• 500.000 inhabitants
• Greater Copenhagen Area 2.500.000/3.000.000
  inhabitants (Denmark / Sweden).

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Management and Leadership

• Introduction Public libraries in Copenhagen
• Copenhagen Public Libraries part of the Culture
  and Leisure Administration
• Value based leadership strategy, principles,
  process and implementation Management on
  purpose!

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Denmark
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Copenhagen Public Libraries

• 2007 aprox. 3.8 mill. visitors, aprox. 8. mill.
  loans
• Central library, 19 branch libraries
• www.bibliotek.kk.dk more than 3 mio. visitors a
  year

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Copenhagen Central Library
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New Central library???
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City Hall Library
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Sundby Library and Cultural House
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Vigerslev Public and School Library
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Culture and Leisure Administration

• Municipality of Copenhagen
• Culture and Leisure Administration - KFF
• Libraries
• Cultural Houses, Theatres, Museums
• Sport and Recreational Activities
• Construction and Facility Management (citywide)

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Management strategy in KFF

• A value based hierachy
• Formal hierachic structure combined with
  decentralised decision making based on values
• The span of control for each decision maker is
  defined by legislation, hierachy and/or general
  rules and regulations i.e. about handling of
  money, smoking or equality.
• Only few specific instructions.

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Value based management principles

• Administration is not managed primarily by rules
  and regulations, but by values guiding the
  decision makers. Decision makers will be on all
  hierachical levels depending on the actual
  question
• Top management deside on overall principles, but
  implementation and translation of principles
  into practice is up to local management and
  individual employees

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Why value based principles?

• Common sense in service oriented public
  administrations as tasks, customer demands and
  externalities all are very complex and change
  constantly.
• Every possible situation and demand cannot be
  foreseen and regulated by rules.
• Service is personalized and delivered in staff -
  customer conversation so libraries depend on
  responsible staff delegation of responsibility
  is a necessity.

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Priciples revised and enhanced

• 2006 process involving a total of 165 managers
  from all parts of the Cultural and Leisure
  Administration
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Forming new and revised priciples and values for
  good management
• Focus and 6 core leadership management principles
  were decided

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Revision process

• Networking opportunity
• Learning and teaching opportunity
• Creating ownership for new strategies
• Demanding process for participants no hide
• Also a selection process a few did not want to
  go on as managers

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Management on purpose!

• Focus is on customer needs and expectations
• Leadership and 6 management principles
• Leadership with a vision
• Drive and courage
• Visible managers
• Appreciative management
• Delegation
• Professionalism

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Leadership with a vision

• We look ahead and try to foresee coming
  developments
• Times and trends are changing. So are our
  customers, their needs and demands as well. We
  want to learn from our customers and society
• We are curious and use new knowledge
• We act proactively on trends and developments
• We look ahead and look for possibilities
• We have a broad perspective and initiate
  collaboration

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Drive and courage

• We have the courage to try out new possibilities
  and take responsibility
• We challenge well-known solutions to create best
  possible solutions for our customers. Failures
  and mishap are tools to make us more wise, - we
  learn from our mistakes.
• We create new solutions and enhance our practice
• We implement our decisions
• We accept responsability if we fail

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Visible managers

• We will tell what we intend to do
• Staff must know where we are going and realise
  how each of us helps to meet our goals.  
• This means that we as managers will be in front
  both in words and in action
• We will speak clearly of our intentions- also if
  they are not so popular among staff
• and we will explain why we have made the
  decisions we did
• We will be clear about what has been decided and
  what may still be discussed

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Appreciative management

• We respect and honour the efforts of every
  individual. We want every staff member to be
  seen, heard and appriciated for what they do.
• We support our competent staff to be even better.
  We will give feed-back on actions and solutions
• We will listen to all new thoughts, ideas and
  suggestions
• We are open-minded and want to learn from people
  who are not like ourselves in appearance or
  attitude

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Delegation

• Decisions should be made where tasks are carried
  out
• Tasks and responsibility must go together
• We delegate responsibility as far out as
  possible
• We support staff to accept more responsibility
• We ensure that competencies and responsibility go
  together
• We support decisions made by staff

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Professionalism

• We are serious about management and leadership.
• It is a decision to become a manager. Management
  is a profession, which we constantly enhance,
  develop and sustain.
• We expect ourselves to enhance our capabilities
  and develop further
• We create space for development activities
• We take part in networking
• We use sufficient time on management and
  leadership issues

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Implementation of principles

• On the agenda in all departments and libraries
  how are the principles understood and
  translated by each and every manager
• Discussions define both staff and managers
  expectations
• Discussions in management meetings on how to
  implement principles
• Follow-up on implementation in formal hierachy
• Implementation of manager evaluation scheme based
  on the leadership principles

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Staff development

• Manager development activities
• Increase in internal learning activities
• New positions are staffed with focus on
  individual skills, not only formal background
  (clerks/librarians)
• More professional diversity when recruiting new
  staff
• More staff members from minority groups staff
  composition should reflect neighbourhoods

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Thank you!!

• Questions and comments are most welcome!