to drive continual incremental service enhancement.1
The Ideas Group also relieves team leaders of the burden of appraising, developing and representing all the ideas arising from their teams to the senior management. In large teams, this bypasses potentially congested communi- cation bottlenecks. Having a central Ideas Group also avoids duplication of ideas. By acting as a central sorting house, ideas and suggestions arising at different times and in different teams are considered only once unless persuasive new reasons and evidence are provided.
Independent feedback Consultations on proposed policies and procedures are currently fed back through forums and via line managers. Efforts are now being made to provide independent and anonymous feed- back mechanisms to encourage less timid and formulaic feedback. With a member representing each library team, the Ideas Group offers an ideal alternative anonymised and politically neutral feedback channel operating independently of line management that could integrate and professionally represent anonymised concern and opinion.
March 2019
Group composition and strategic relevance
Drawn together from volunteers, the Ideas Group comprises seven members, including a Chair and representatives from all six library teams. It continues to report directly to the Library Manage- ment Team. A member volunteers to act as secretary each time the group meets, giving staff development opportunities to as many members as are interested. The Ideas Group has absorbed several other cross-library groups, including the Student Behaviour Management Working Group and Green Group. Following this, standing areas of focus tied in the terms of reference to identified strategic institu- tional objectives were introduced, both to ensure these areas of expertise continued to be properly represented and to demon- strate that the activities of the Group are strategically relevant to the institution. Where possible, ideas are included in meetings under one of these headings. Group members are encouraged to gather ideas relating to these priority areas from their teammates. These areas include:
1 innovation and enhancement 2 partnerships and collaboration 3 behaviour and client expectations 4 corporate responsibility and sustainability.
What has the Ideas Group achieved?
Achievements within the University Library
l Rationalising and integrating a little-used but extensive downloadable library guide collection on the website.
l Raising the priority of postgraduate study space development in the Library Space Strategy.
l Installing popular wall to wall white- boards in group study rooms.
l Influencing the ground floor library refurbishment, when the loud and dis- tracting coloured walls were all painted a restful white.
l Introducing wheeled book baskets for clients to gather and move books about the library comfortably and safely, a pro- ject that has interested other libraries.
l Introducing business cards for Faculty Librarians and other members of cli- ent-facing staff.
l Creating an online suggestion box that integrates named and anonymous sugges- tions and comments on them, encourag- ing student suggestions and feedback.
l Offering blankets to students, reduc- ing the number of complaints about low temperatures in the library.
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 47
Ideas Group Portsmouth
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