Resilience Hub

Knowing your organisation’s purpose is essential if it is going to navigate change successfully. A common understanding of purpose will help keep your team together and motivated, even during times of change, budget cuts or restructuring.

Your ‘purpose’ might take the form of a mission statement or strategy, or even a slogan above the door of your library or information service! The key thing is that it is clear, people know what it is and that is plays an active part in the day-to-day business of developing your service.

All organisations need to understand the difference they make (their impact) and to be able to pull together evidence, statistics and stories which help other stakeholders understand their value. This goes beyond the traditional ‘elevator pitch’ to encompass metrics and evaluation and where possible the co-design of services with the people who are going to use them in order to maximise their impact.

CILIP’s Impact Toolkit provides a comprehensive suite of guidance, resources and activities which will enable you to identify and evidence your impact and develop strategies to ensure that other people understand it too!

Visit the CILIP Impact Toolkit.

Read in Information Professional how Suffolk Libraries used research to reveal the hidden value of libraries.

Organisations that know and understand who their audience are, tend to be more resilient. If you can be confident that your service is continuing to meet the needs of your users, it is much more likely to be sustainable.

Arts Council England (ACE) has funded the Audience Agency to provide useful tools and resources for organisations wanting to improve their understanding of and engagement with their audiences. These include:

• Guidance on audience development and profiling
• Guidance on understanding and evaluating the impact your service delivers
• Guidance on how to build your resilience and ability to innovate

Resilient organisations sit at the centre of networks of influence that help them deliver on their purpose and secure the support they need to survive and thrive. It is essential to know who the key decision-makers and influencers are that can support your service and help ensure that key decisions go your way!

CILIP partners The EveryLibrary Institute have provided a useful set of e-learning tools, videos and resources for librarians via the Niche Academy. These include

• Power Mapping: Building your library’s influence
• How to influence politicians for library funding

Read in Information Professional about how informal parternships in Bolton created services that were more tailored to the needs of patients and the wider public

Good governance is at the heart of making your organisation more resilient. Good governance can help ensure your service is legally compliant and well-led with a good financial strategy to sustain your service. A strong Trustee Board or equivalent can help bring a range of expertise and experience to the development of your service, as well as securing influence with external stakeholders.

The Charity Governance Code is a joint initiative between the Charity Commission and a coalition of charity-sector organisations. It provides practical guidance on achieving good governance, focused on:

• Organisational purpose
• Leadership
• Integrity
• Decision-making, risk and control
• Board effectiveness
• Diversity
• Openness and accountability

Good governance is equally important for librarians and information professionals working in a non-Charitable organisation such as a business, Government Department or arms-length Public Body.

• Read the ICSA guide What is corporate governance?
• Read the Code of Conduct for Board members of public bodies

Any organisation depends on a regular income which enables it to meet its short-term outgoings while also investing in its longer-term development. Whether this is a Departmental budget within a larger organisation, a regular funding agreement or contract or self-generated income, the alignment of your income and expenditure is key to the resilience of your service.

Many organisations, in particular public services, are effectively running a two-part strategy to offset the risk of budget reductions:

• Trying to ‘consolidate’ or strengthen relationships with existing funders by doing more to demonstrate the value of their investment, and;
• Seeking to build up income from a more diverse range of sources, such as grantmaking organisations or self-generated income

This is challenging where capacity is limited and organisations must be careful that diversification of income does not lead to an erosion of core purpose or the ethos of the service.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA) have provided a free report on Building Financial Resilience: managing financial stress in Local Authorities which provides a valuable overview for public-sector organisations.

In general, there are 4 stages which any service is likely to go through when presented with a threat to its financial resilience:

• Prevent – develop strong relationships to try and prevent cuts to budgets
• Minimise - seeking to minimise budget cuts by demonstrating the potential loss of value
• Manage – seeking to mitigate the impact of cuts on the delivery of services and
• Recover – seeking to recover and rebuild from a period of budget cuts

In general, it ‘costs’ less (in terms of time, energy and resources) to maintain an existing funding source than it does to transition to a new one. It is also important to balance stable, repeatable income (such as via a contract or funding agreement) with less stale, variable income. A service is only financially-resilient when its ‘fixed’ outgoings (mostly salary, license and premises costs) are matched by regular, fixed income.

There is a saying that ‘culture will get you through times of no strategy better than strategy will get you through times of no culture’ – the reasoning being that when faced with challenges, the best-laid plans will not be as effective, adaptable or responsive as a culture that values the contributions of every member of your team.

There is no single way to create a resilient organisational culture, but there are some characteristics which definitely help:

• Clear, effective and honest communications at every level of the organisation
• A commitment to diversity and inclusion, including diversity of thought and working style
• Respect for the contribution of every member of the team
• Clarity about and commitment to the purpose of the organisation or service
• A shared belief in creating value for the users of your service

Skills for Care have developed a useful interactive toolkit on Creating a positive workplace culture, which includes handy resources that can be repurposed for your service.

A big part of building a positive working culture is to focus on ensuring that your staff feel supported, engaged and in control of their work. It can often be useful to work with a representative organisation such as a Union to ensure that your culture respects and values your staff and the contribution they make.

Read in Information Professional how Portsmouth University Library used the sharing of ideas with senior management as a means of helping all staff feel they were valued contributors within the organisation.

Creativity, ingenuity, the ability to learn and adapt to new situations are all essential tools in developing resilience in your organisation or service. Organisations (and people) that can adapt and innovate are better-able to deal productively with change.

Very often, organisations can unintentionally create a culture or environment that stifles creativity and makes individual staff feel that they aren’t able to contribute. In a complex and changeable environment, it is essential to recognise that great ideas can come from anywhere in the organisation. People feel much more committed to their work when they feel their ideas are valued, listened-to and acted upon.

Culture is a big part of creativity – people have to feel stable, secure and valued in their roles and that the management or leadership structure welcomes their contributions. The articles below provide some useful ideas on how to foster creativity in your library or service:

• The Edward Lowe Foundation on Encouraging employees to innovate
• Forbes Leaders Council on Promoting creativity in the workplace
• WeWork on How to foster creativity in the workplace

Read in Information Professional how Open University's library creatively approached the challenges of digital transformation.

People’s reactions to change can be very different, but one thing a lot of people have in common is that they are a lot more comfortable when they are in control of what is happening, rather than passively responding to it. Whether you are a library leader or a member of the staff team, updating and future-proofing your skills is a good way to feel that you are in control of your destiny.

The CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) is the skills standard for librarians and information professionals. It provides a self-assessment toolkit which allows you to review your strengths and areas for development and plan out your future skills needs.

CILIP members can access a wide range of training, CPD and e-learning resources to help you refresh your skills or gain new ones. To find out more, visit our eLearning Hub.

A strong professional network will support you through times of change and uncertainty. Networking can help you find your next job opportunity, make a transition into another part of the sector or continue your CPD even if you plan to remain in the same role.

The CILIP Community is host to more than 43 professional networks covering every aspect of practice. Our Special Interest Groups can help you develop your skills within a professional discipline, while our Regional Member Networks and Devolved Nations offices provide you with local support wherever you live.

Find out more about how CILIP can help you develop your professional network with CILIP's professional and regional and devolved nations communities.

Challenging times call for clear, effective, and authentic leadership. But leadership shouldn’t be about hierarchy. Anyone can demonstrate leadership, whatever your role or seniority.

The Kings Fund has provided a suite of extremely helpful resources called Leading through COVID-19. Although aimed at healthcare professionals, these resources are useful for librarians and information professionals wishing to develop their leadership skills.

To support librarians and information professionals in developing their leadership skills, CILIP has launched the Leaders Network – a supportive community of current and aspiring sector leaders who come together to share insights and experiences of leadership.

Read the following Information Professional interview with John Sheridan, Digital Director at The National Archives, who discusses how some organisations will need to reform their leadership if they want to remain relevant in an age of rampant technological change.

Times of change and uncertainty can cause stress and anxiety which take their toll on your mental health and wellbeing. People often feel that changes are happening beyond their control, creating a feeling of powerlessness. Self-care is always extremely important, and even more so during turbulent times.

The mental health Charity Mind has published 5 Ways to Wellbeing which sets out 5 categories of activity that you can integrate into your daily routine which will contribute to your wellbeing.

The April 2020 CILIP COVID-19 Workforce Survey shows that around 65% of sector employers have put in place special provision or support for the mental health and wellbeing of their staff. If your employer offers a support line or online service, it is useful to reach out and make use of this to get some helpful tips and advice on self-care.