KØBENHAVNS KOMMUNE Kultur- og Fritidsforvaltningen Bibliotekerne Management and leadership in Copenhagen Public Libraries METLIB Prague, June 2, 2008 Jens Ingemann Library director

Prague, June 2, 2008 Introduction Jens Ingemann Library director City of Copenhagen, since 2004 Adjunct professor, Royal Danish Library School Copenhagen - capital of Denmark inhabitants Greater Copenhagen Area – / inhabitants (Denmark / Sweden).

Prague, June 2, 2008 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!

Prague, June 2, 2008 Denmark

Prague, June 2, 2008 Copenhagen Public Libraries 2007 aprox. 3.8 mill. visitors, aprox. 8. mill. loans Central library, 19 branch libraries  – more than 3 mio. visitors a year

Prague, June 2, 2008 Copenhagen Central Library

Prague, June 2, 2008 New Central library???

Prague, June 2, 2008 City Hall Library

Prague, June 2, 2008 Sundby Library and Cultural House

Prague, June 2, 2008 Vigerslev Public and School Library

Prague, June 2, 2008 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)

Prague, June 2, 2008 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.

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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.

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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 manager’s 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

Prague, June 2, 2008 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

KØBENHAVNS KOMMUNE Kultur- og Fritidsforvaltningen Bibliotekerne Thank you!! Questions and comments are most welcome!