Carla Stoffle responded that although this is true, the new organization is a learning organization in which all the staff keep on growing, learning, and changing. The staff must continuously change and engage in individual retooling. Gloria Werner said that in these really bad times, the one thing they decided not to cut at the UCLA Library was training and travel funds. Joanne Euster pointed out that we should bring training to our libraries as well as sending people out. One of the new competencies is working as part of a team.
Teams differ in several important ways from committees or task forces.
Teams have the power to implement their decisions. They are not representational and it is not necessary for them to be appointed. Instead of working for consensus, often defined as unanimity, they have the capacity to hear and to examine the lone voice of dissent. In teams the results are greater than the sum of the parts and the individual contribution is hard to identify. Libraries have already forged partnerships with academic computing facilities.