Fits and Starts: Onboarding into an Old Role as a New Leader
As digital library programs mature, more and more professionals will inherit positions with established staff, ingrained workflows, and long-running projects. How does an incoming digital projects leader maintain and adapt what someone else set up long ago as standards and best practices evolve, collaborators and their needs change, and organizational shifts continue to manifest? The presenter will provide a framework for assessing the state of a mature digital projects program to triage issues under their purview as a new incumbent in an old position and to plan for necessary change while minimizing confusion, anxiety, resistance, and frustration for existing staff. Attendees will come away with strategies to digest copious historical documentation, conduct actionable introductory conversations with existing stakeholders, and excavate implicit knowledge across an organization. Drawn from experience as a new Director of Digitization at an institution with multiple previous incumbents, the presentation will provide new staff and those responsible for supporting them practical ways to onboard rapidly, effectively, and confidently.