It’s been almost four years since we established the first Strategic Steering Teams at Temple University Libraries/Press. Those first two groups, Research Data Services and Scholarly Communication, are now part of a group of six including: Outreach and Communications, Learning and Student Success, Collections Strategy, and Community Engagement. Over 60 staff members from throughout the organization have participated as a team member or leader, and many more have been engaged with subgroup projects.
One of the things that we do annually is an informal “assessment” of how the teams are doing. We’ve done this in different ways. I have regular one-on-one conversations with team leads, we meet together, and the team leads conduct check-ins with their teams. While these are not formal assessments, we strive to be open to discussing what’s working and what’s not working so smoothly.
Here’s a summary of recent conversations with Will Dean, Annie Johnson, Vitalina Nova, Brian Schoolar, Caitlin Shanley, and Sara Wilson.
How is the team going? What’s working well for you as a team leader?
For the most part, teams are going well. Activity slowed down during the summer, and the pandemic has also had a real impact, particularly for those with children or other additional responsibilities while working from home. More time is being spent at meetings checking in with one another. One of the values expressed more than once was the team members’ comfort level with one another, so that these meetings serve as “safe” spaces for sharing concerns and anxieties about what’s going on.
This is a time when new members are brought into the group, and this means adjustment and re-grouping. Strategies for doing this are:
- Review of the charge and reworking of goals
- Evaluation of goals and projects with an eye towards deciding what to continue and what to let go of
- Establishing new project groups, particularly for new members with new interests, to take on
What, if any, are the challenges?
In this environment, it may be hard to feel connected to how the university is functioning when we are so far apart.
The membership structure for the teams is designed to allow for new members to join each year, although there is no fixed term for staying on the team. The teams may find that balancing new initiatives with ongoing work can be tricky, particularly as new members come on board. Some members may want to stick with the “tried and true” and others want to start new projects.
Where do you see the group’s work focusing in the next year? What kind of support would be useful to your team in moving forward with its goals?
Most groups are finalizing priorities and goals for the upcoming year now. It was agreed that having a clear sense of the Library/Press’ strategic directions and priorities will be important for the teams’ planning. The leads confirm that the Strategic Steering Teams are an effective way of moving forward on strategic initiatives without the “administrative overhead” of a department.
There are areas, like research data services and scholarly communication, where the services and training would just not happen with the “legwork” of the team.
For team leaders, who do not formally supervise team members, it can be a challenge to delegate tasks, and to ensure that team members do the tasks they commit to. There is not an agreed-upon time commitment. It varies by group and by individual. While the team leads serve on the Libraries/Press Administrative Council, they are leading teams, not departments. They lack a “clear path” for acquiring budget resources to do their work.
In spite of these challenges, the effectiveness and value of the teams’ contribution to the organization is most clearly demonstrated by their work supporting our strategic objectives. Take a moment to review all they are doing, at:
Strategic Steering Teams on Confluence