µInformation in context¶: Co-designing workplace structures andsystems for organisational learning

Mary M. SomervilleUniversity Librarian and Professor University of Colorado Denver Auraria Library1100 Lawrence StreetDenver, Colorado 80204-2041 USA303-556-4587 (telephone)303-556-3528 (fax)mary.somerville@ucdenver.edu Zaana HowardProject Executive, Knowledge ExchangeCPA AustraliaLevel 20, 28 Freshwater Place, Southbank, Victoria, Australia 3006+61 412 141 188zaana.howard@cpaaustralia.com.au Mary M. Somerville serves as the University Librarian and Library Director for the AurariaLibrary at the University of Colorado Denver, USA. Previously, she served as Associate Dean inthe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San José State University, California, and AssistantDean in the Robert E. Kennedy Library at California Polytechnic State University in San LuisObispo, California. In addition, she teaches as an adjunct professor in the School of Library andInformation Science at the San José State University. Since 2003, Mary has workedcollaboratively with Swedish, Australian, and North American colleagues to advance a researchinitiative that explores enablement of µinformation in context¶ learning within workplaceenvironments. Results are reported in over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles, conferencepapers, book chapters, and ± most recently ± a monograph titled

Working Together:Collaborative Information Practices for Organizational Learning

published in 2009 by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.Zaana Howard is an Australian knowledge manager promoting and facilitating social learningand knowledge exchange through primarily online mediums. Previously she gained 5 yearsexperience in the library industry across the corporate, education and public sectors. She haswritten papers and presented at various conferences, most recently at the VALA LibraryTechologies and the Future Conference in Melbourne, Australia , the Association of College andResearch Libraries in Seattle, Washington, USA, and the Evidence Based Library andInformation Practice (EBLIP5) Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Her research aims todevelop innovative organisational models for building collaborative work practices and sociallearning within face to face and online contexts for organisational effectiveness.

stract

With the aim of advancing professional practice through better understanding how to createworkplace contexts that cultivate individual and collective learning through situated µinformationin context¶ experiences, this paper presents insights gained from three North Americancollaborative design (co-design) implementations. In the current project at the Auraria Library inDenver, Colorado, USA, participants use collaborative information practices to redesign face-to-face and technology-enabled communication, decision making, and planning systems. Designprocesses are described and results-to-date described, within an appreciative framework whichvalues information sharing and enables knowledge creation through shared leadership.

Introduction

This paper discusses an ¶information in context¶ design project at Auraria Library in Denver,Colorado which aims to collaboratively create organisational structures and communicationsystems with and for library employees. The primary purpose for the initiative is to meet theinformation needs of staff and thereby enable more effective organisational decision makingthrough workplace collaborations that enhance organisational performance.This project implementation at Auraria Library is the third iteration of this participatory co-designapproach for developing organisational structures and systems to meet individual andorganisational informational needs. This project builds upon evidence and learning throughprevious implementations across a five-year period at two other North American organisationsat California Polytechnic University Library and the King Library at San José State Universityrespectively. It is founded within shared leadership, organisational learning and informedlearning principles, and implemented through participatory design processes.The California Polytechnic State University project emphasised developing relationships amonglibrary workers and with campus constituencies during a three year period, from 2003 to 2006.Outcomes included manager-directed staff reassignments within the organisational structure,student-generated recommendations for system and service improvements, and departmentalstaff members¶ design of knowledge management systems (Somerville 2009). A variety of evaluative measures corroborated the efficacy of participatory co-design informed by µsystemsthinking¶ (e.g., Mirijamdotter & Somerville 2008, 2009; Somerville et al. 2007; Somerville et al.2005). However, because the workplace lacked enterprise-level vision, culture, andinfrastructure to promote capture, dissemination, and preservation of collective knowledge,individual learning and organisational improvement were unsustainable.In building on these µlessons learned¶, the second implementation project at San José StateUniversity Library aspired from 2006 to 2008 to develop an enterprise-level communication,decision making, and planning system. Co-design outcomes included completion of a strategicplanning process aimed at clarifying shared vision, mission, directions, and, concurrently,advancing participants¶ information, communication, and technology proficiencies. The latter was accomplished through delivery of a Learning 2.0 online course (³23 things´) to promoteworkplace information exchange and enable knowledge creation through Web 2.0 tools(Somerville & Nino 2007, Somerville 2007). Widespread enthusiasm among staff membersfostered design of a Web 2.0-enabled organisational communication system to promoteinclusive information access and transparent decision making (Somerville & Yusko 2008) withina more learner-centered, inquiry-based workplace environment (Somerville 2008, Somerville &Collins 2008). Technology-enabled information access was to be complemented by face-to-face(f2f) dialogue and reflection among communities of practice (Howard & Somerville 2008).

However, because the initiative lacked senior administrator support, the (re)design proposallanguished.In the third and current implementation project begun in 2008 at the Auraria Library in Denver,Colorado, the library director and associate directors explicitly cultivated and enabledparticipatory co-design (

for

and

with

staff members) at all levels of the organisation ± a µlessonlearned¶ from the San José project. As part of this, administrators created a SharedLeadership Team (SLT) comprised of representatives from across the organisation to ensure aworkplace culture conducive to reflection and dialogue among communities of practice,administrators created a Shared Leadership Team (SLT) comprised of representatives fromacross the organisation. SLT members are responsible for developing enterprise-levelunderstanding of the organisation¶s operational and strategic activities. They serve as µthoughtleaders¶, µculture shapers¶, and µboundary spanners¶ within communities of practice and in crossfunctional teams. Their holistic understanding permits them to make well informed individualand collective decisions. They model the library¶s new evidence-based, learning-centredcommunication, decision making, and planning system, which places µinformation in context¶.This paper focuses on the technology-enabled and f2f organisational communication, decisionmaking, and planning systems which now furthers individual and collective sense makingthrough day-to-day information encounters within the Auraria Library workplace. Organisationallearning is furthered through iterative processes of collective question framing, informationseeking, source evaluation, interpretative analysis, and information sharing with the purpose of enabling knowledge creation. Concurrently, µparticipatory co-design¶ exercised within a µsharedleadership¶ framework promotes continuous improvement of the enabling systems.

elective Literature Review

hared Leadership

The leadership field has largely focused its attention on the behaviors, mindsets, and actions of the individual leader and his or her relationship to subordinates or followers. In recent years, thisparadigm has been challenged with some researchers arguing that leadership is a shared or distributed activity amongst members of a group or organisation. They propose that, dependentupon the demands of the moment, individuals should rise to the occasion to exhibit leadershipand then step back to allow others to lead (Deiss & Sullivan 1998).Shared leadership is defined as ³a dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals ingroups for which the objective is to lead one another to the achievement of groups or organisational goals or both´ (Pearce & Conger 2003, 1). The drivers for this change havelargely to do with shifts in how work is performed. This phenomenon is increasingly illustrated inthe organisational unit of the team, specifically cross-functional teams. What distinguishes thesegroups from traditional organisational units is often the absence of hierarchical authority. Although a cross-functional team may have a formally appointed convener, this individual ismore often considered a peer. Leadership is not determined by positions of authority but rather by an individual¶s capacity to influence peers and by the needs of the team in any givenmoment. Because each individual brings unique perspectives, knowledge, and capabilities tothe team, the influence process whereby individuals¶ knowledge, skills, and abilities are infusedinto group decision making processes involves both lateral peer influence and upward or downward hierarchical influence (Pearce & Conger 2003). The key distinction between sharedleadership and traditional leadership models is that the influence process involves more than