"Chapter 05: Stepping into Leadership at UT Southwestern Medical School" by Kathryn Jones Hoffman MSLS and Tacey A. Rosolowski PhD
 
Chapter 05: Stepping into Leadership at UT Southwestern Medical School

Chapter 05: Stepping into Leadership at UT Southwestern Medical School

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Description

Ms. Hoffman begins this chapter by explaining why she chose to leave the Texas Medical Center Library and take a position as Executive Director of the Library and UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

She talks about the situation she inherited at UT Southwestern, digresses briefly on her role as Executive Director at MD Anderson’s Research Medical Library, then returns to talk about how her goal in Dallas was to take the library into the 21st century. Ms. Hoffman lists some differences in working at a public versus a private institution and comments on what she was able to achieve at UT Southwestern.

Next she talks about her particular strengths in strategic planning. She notes, “I was a visionary,” and describes her vision for the UT Southwestern Library and how she set about making that a reality.

Identifier

HoffmanKJ_01_20180319_C05

Publication Date

3-19-2018

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Overview; Leadership; On Leadership; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Professional Path; Career and Accomplishments; Evolution of Career; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work

Transcript

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Interesting. Yeah. Could be a model, in a certain way. (laughs) How do you do that? Well, tell me about the next change. So in 1990, you’re about to make a big change. Why did you leave that job?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Wow. I was ready for a directorship. (clears throat) And the Dallas job came available, and—

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

And just for the record, tell me about what that job was.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

It was the executive director of the library at University of Texas—UT—what’s the title of their school? UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. And I knew in my career I was ready for that position. The difficult thing was it was—we were a two-career family, and my husband’s job was one he couldn’t leave. He was a State Farm insurance agent. His clientele were here.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

His name?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Rick Hoffman. And we made the tough decision—I was offered the position, and the tough decision that he would stay here and I would commute, which I did, every weekend. We had two young girls. I think at the time they were, like, eight and fifth grade. They’re three years apart.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Wow, that’s—yeah, to be...

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah, they were young.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

So Christina is the youngest, and the older daughter is...?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yes. Is—she’s now 40. They’re ages 40 and 37. My oldest daughter, Michelle, is in physical therapy. And they both live here in Houston. So anyway, that was—oh.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

So let me just quickly ask you about leaving the position at Texas Medical Center. I mean, was there handwriting on the wall, “I’ll never get to be a director here,” or...? Okay, yes, I will pause the recorder briefly. (The recorder is paused.) Okay, and we are back on again after about an eight-minute break. And you were starting to tell me about taking on this new position at UT Southwestern, and—as an executive director. And so a question I always like to ask is—I mean, everybody comes into a position like that with a mandate, a reason why you were hired, and you may have had your own mandate that was a little bit different, so... (laughter) So what was your vision? You wanted to be an executive director, so what was your vision?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. I wanted to be a director. And I think they had, in selecting me, they had a mandate. The former director had been there for many, many years. She was very good.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

What was her name? That’s okay, if—we can add it later. (laughter)

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I cannot remember. Okay, I’m not going to try to—

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Don’t worry about it. I’ll make take a note and we can put it in later.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

—take that out of memory. Anyway, she was very good, and had been there for years, but she wasn’t moving the library into the twenty-first century. And (laughs) it was kind of the same way here. I remember when Marie Harvin was director—I’m sorry, I’m digressing.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

No, that’s fine.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Marie Harvin—well, before me it was Sara Jean Jackson, and before Sara Jean it was Marie Harvin. And she’d been here for years, and she was quite an institution. I remember being scared to death of her. I was just terrified of her. And—I was much younger then. Anyway, she told me—she got ready to retire, and she said she was very proud of the fact that she was walking out the door before one computer came in the door. (laughter)

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, wow. That says a lot. That says a lot.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

So... But anyway, that was my little digression. It was kind of not that bad, but close, in Dallas. They were ready for somebody to take the library into the twenty-first century. It... It was a big learning curve for me, even though I’d been in libraries, up until that time, about seventeen years. I had been in leadership positions, but now all of a sudden I went from a private institution to a public institution, and things happened differently.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

How so?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

You didn’t write your own press releases. We had to do that at the TMC library. We were not part of any other parent organization. And so that learning curve for me, with, like, whoa—that was a rude awakening. I sent out a press release, and boy, did I get called on the carpet. (laughs) It was like, oh, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. Just the way certain things like that happened, the way the budget, the whole budgeting process happened, the way raises were given, they expected me to know this when I got there. Well, it’s unique to every institution. And so that was a little bit of a learning curve when I first went in, but I quickly caught on. It was not a problem. But I remember—I was only there for about five years, and I remember the dean at my going away party saying they were really shocked at how much I had advanced the library in that short period of time, which made me very happy, that I was able to accomplish something there.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

First question: who was the dean?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Perrie Adams.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

And what were those changes that you were able to institute?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Most of them dealt with technology. Really, that was the big chunk of it: technology; bringing in online resources; weeding out paper, replacing it with the electronic. One of the things that made a difference was being in close communication with the IT people on campus, and we were able to make change, and to bring in computers. They—just getting computers in the library was just... They—it was difficult, and we were able to get that accomplished.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Were there some challenges of educating library staff? Kind of were there generational issues with library staff? I’m just wondering—this is this whole period of transition, and I know from talking to people here at MD Anderson when there have been changes instituted around technology, I mean, there are just sometimes people who’ve got to leave because they can’t handle it. And then where do you get the funds or—and the blessing of the higher-up people in the chain to say yes, you can hire folks that can handle this new situation? Did you confront some things like that at UT Southwestern?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I think I did, but I really can’t think of specific examples.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

But nothing that held you back in any major way?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

But—no, no. And the individuals that couldn’t deal with the change eventually realized that and moved on. It wasn’t—the library was not going to remain static and stay the same. Most—the vast majority of the people that worked there were ready for that change, because it had lagged behind for so long.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Why—and it had because of the top leadership?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I think it was because the top administrator should’ve retired sooner. And so often that happens. You need to know when it’s time to go.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. Yeah. (laughter) Lots to be said about that, but another time. Yes. No, that’s something I’ve heard from so many people, many of whom are themselves considering, When should I leave and step into another role, whatever. It’s tough.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I may be jumping ahead, but I feel like I left at the right time.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, well, that’s a nice thing.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I left on a real high note.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. What is it? Better to burn out than to fade away? (laughs)

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yes, yes. What are some—were there other things around—specific things around technology, or other things that you were able to accomplish at Southwestern?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I started—one of the things that I think was a strength for me all along was strategic planning. And we did a fabulous strategic plan, and I guess through that plan, and the planning process, we mapped out a future. And I was told later, after I left, by the CIO, that the director who followed me, they felt like she just carried out my plan, that she wasn’t... She did not have the vision I had. One of the greatest compliments that one of my staff there gave me was that I was a visionary. I had vision. And this plan laid out that vision, and the person who followed me just kind of implemented that plan, and then she left, and—after it was finished, and...

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

What was the vision?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I don’t know if I could put it in words, exactly. We were doing a major library renovation of the physical space, so it was really to bring this at—what at that point was a pretty old physical facility into a new modern age, where we could teach online classes, have good collaborative space for users, good staff working space. The staff areas were pathetic. It was horrible. So it was just a whole total revamping. And doing the wiring to get the technology into the space.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Wow.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

So there was a lot. It’s a... It was a plan that required a lot of infrastructure and change to really visualize a library of the twenty-first century.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Were people excited about it?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, very excited. Yeah. And I remember when we did—when we started the plan, we involved the entire library staff. And we had to say goodbye to the old plan, which was just... It was mindboggling how tedious and—what’s the word? It was just so detailed, and all this... You get so bogged down in all these objectives and this and that and the other, it’s like, no wonder they didn’t get anything accomplished. They were too—they weren’t outward-looking; they were too inward-looking, I think—

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Too detail-focused.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

—on the in, not out. So we had a big planning party, and we had what we called the Wall of Wonder. We had this great big wall, and we went through this process of taking different categories of things, and writing things on different colored cards, and putting them up on the board. And it was a way to say goodbye to the past and embrace the future that was coming.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Can you give me an example? Because I’m not quite visualizing how the Wall of Wonder works.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, it... It was like, what... Oh, it’s hard—I’m trying to remember how it worked. Writing down, like, three—adjective, adjective, noun is what I recall—that describes something you were letting go of, and then something—adjective, adjective, noun—that describes something that you were going to look to the future for. So it was a way of making this change, and start everybody off at the right—same place together.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

So I’m thinking an example might be like letting go of the poorly-designed staff areas.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

And then you would say—

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Or letting go of the card catalog. (laughter) They still had a shelf list, too, after all these many, many years. Yeah.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. And so would the idea be you would use the...? And the reason I’m asking some of these detailed questions is, frankly, I take clips of this for leadership training, and so this is, like, a great idea that people would be interested in. (laughs) So would be letting go of the inefficient something card catalog—

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Right.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

—and embracing an easy-to-use, easily accessible—

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Right.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

—online system, something like that. Yeah. Interesting.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Anyway... The Wall of Wonder was the last piece of this whole big process, and then we were able to develop a more forward-working plan.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, interesting. How you get people involved, how you get them to buy in is so important. Very exciting.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. But I actually had a staff member who—she had experience with this group that I’m blanking now on what it was. But I had attended one of their workshops many years before, and I found out she was trained in this field. And I had her do the—lead this group, and the Wall of Wonder. The Wall of Wonder was her idea of a way to do it. And it just was fabulous, the way it all worked out.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, very interesting. Yeah. Whatever works.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. Obviously it got me excited. (laughs)

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, it did. Yeah, you were very enthusiastic. So in 1995 you’re making another change, so how did that come about?

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Chapter 05: Stepping into Leadership at UT Southwestern Medical School

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