“Culture is the commonly held set of values and principles that shows up in the everyday behavior of the people.” David J. Friedman, Fundamentally Different
Our culture directly links to our vision of being the Right Library for UConn and in 2023 we embarked on a journey to put our culture into action. Using David J. Friedman's book Culture by Design as a guide, the leadership team developed a series of behaviors and norms that define the kind of culture that will help us succeed and thrive. The 28 fundamental cultural behaviors listed below, are not just an exercise in reading, but are featured in an all staff participatory program where each academic year, from August to March, staff engage with one fundamental behavior each week, through email, Slack, meetings, and one-on-one conversations. For more information about the program, contact Dean Langley.
28 Fundamentals of the Week
(1) Practice being self-aware. Acknowledge your own strengths, talents, and communication styles, and how they impact your work and engagement with others.
(2) Articulate, assign, and be accountable for responsibilities. Ensure a shared understanding of responsibilities, and that they are clear and assigned to specific people or team(s). Own your responsibilities and tasks, and do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it. If a commitment can't be fulfilled, share early and seek compromise.
(3) Ask questions and openly share knowledge. It's okay not to know everything. Ask questions to gain insight, understand context, and obtain actionable information. Share your knowledge with others.
(4) Center user and stakeholder needs. Ask questions, seek input and feedback, and gather data on what is important to library users and stakeholders. Assess against our expert knowledge. Keep user needs a priority in all we do, not necessarily how you or your unit like to work.
(5) Presume good intent. Others are doing their best and are looking to succeed. Trust that they have positive intent. It's ok when ideas or motivations are different from your own.
(6) Be punctual, prepared for, and actively participate in meetings. When facilitating a meeting, plan, create an agenda for, and make space for unanticipated events. Start and end your meetings on time. As a participant, make sure you read the agenda and materials ahead of time and actively participate. If you will be late or absent, notify the meeting facilitator.
(7) Integrate DEIAJ efforts as foundational. Center accessibility and inclusion in all explorations and decision making. Use an equity lens to make daily and systemic change. Be open to sharing and integrating diverse and underrepresented opinions and perspectives.
(8) Be an engaged colleague. Use active listening and communicate thoughtfully. Balance between taking space and making space.
(9) Recognize and respect colleagues' expertise, skills, strengths, and roles. Identify, seek out, and make space for those who may hold applicable expertise, strengths, skills, or roles. We all bring a unique set of skills that provide value to the whole.
(10) Practice THINK (True, Helpful, Inclusive, Necessary, Kind) communication. Before communicating, think through what you want to say. Consider if it is true, helpful, inclusive, necessary, or kind, striving for all five. If not, reconsider. Not everything needs to be shared.
(11) Accept change. Recognize that change is inevitable and necessary for the organization to grow.
(12) Understand and share how your position contributes to the whole. Your position is a well-thought-out part of a team, and others are depending on you to fulfill your role. Understanding and sharing your role with others allows you to maximize your impact.
(13) Work within the library's organizational structure. The channels of communication, levels of supervision, and hierarchy of decision making allow us all to remain efficient and interconnected.
(14) Be honest and transparent with others. Telling people what you think, not what you think they want to hear, demonstrates kindness. Your contributions are important; your ideas and opinions are necessary for the library to succeed.
(15) Embrace learning and have fun. Find the joy in what you are doing. Identify and seek new ways to learn and engage.
(16) Receive feedback graciously. All feedback is a gift. Pay attention when you start feeling defensive, and instead self-reflect and approach with curiosity.
(17) Honor context. Recognize that solving problems is not one-size-fits-all, but situational. Seeking context and input leads to better solutions.
(18) Build up rather than tear down. Focus on giving constructive feedback–instead of placing blame. Placing blame is counterproductive as it puts people on the defensive instead of focusing on developing collaborative solutions and positive relationships.
(19) Balance short and long-term goals, needs, and priorities. Regularly take a few moments to review what you need to do today, this week, this month, and this year, in relation to individual and library priorities. Be flexible to changing priorities within the context of the big picture.
(20) Be professional. Follow business etiquette in your communications and behavior.
(21) Sit in and work through discomfort. Conflict, lack of knowledge, or change can be uncomfortable, while also necessary for growth and discovery. Put your ego aside and open yourself up to opinions, ideas, and the experiences of others, even when they make you uncomfortable.
(22) Treat yourself and colleagues like patrons. Give yourself and colleagues the same respect, patience, and high level of service you offer our patrons. When we feel valued, it improves creativity and productivity.
(23) Communicate openly with discretion. Proactively share while respecting confidentiality. Before communicating widely, consider the impact of what you are sharing.
(24) Comply with library guidelines, policies, and procedures. Actively apply and support library standards. Understand and uphold internal and external compliance requirements.
(25) Regularly check in with teammate(s). Take the time to communicate with teammates on projects and work regularly.
(26) Take risks and try again. Embrace failure as an opportunity. Assessing the outcome of a particular decision or action is an important part of how we learn.
(27) Implement practical solutions. Make sure that your solutions are maintainable, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
(28) Celebrate big and small accomplishments. Take the time to notice and share when there is a success in, or completion of, a task or project.