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We’re very excited about this new event taking place in Monterey, Oct 17-18. The first of it’s kind, the Library Directors Digital Strategy Summit focuses on “Strategic Choices for 2020″ in an intimate and interactive conversation. Strategic choices and decision-making are a challenge for all directors, deans and senior managers especially in the digital age. Options and alternatives abound, so how do we choose what best fits for our communities, campuses, corporations and governments? The new Library Directors Digital Strategy Summit is an interactive event which includes leading edge thinking, collaborative opportunities for evaluating different future scenarios, various perspectives and viewpoints, industry experts, and more. Digital strategy has been defined as the process of specifying an organization’s vision, goals, opportunities and initiatives in order to maximize the business benefits digital investments and efforts provide to the organization. This summit pushes us to clarify our visions and goals for digital strategy in library environments, shares opportunities and initiatives, and looks carefully at the benefits our investments can achieve.
This two-day summit is an interactive forum for library directors, CEOs, and CIOs of academic, public, government and special libraries to problem-solve, discuss, and network with colleagues. It features a mix of high level presentations, expert panels, round table and facilitated discussions with lots of networking/peer engagement time. It features one on one time with leading thinkers:
*John Seely Brown, Chief of Confusion; Visiting Scholar at USC; Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, & Author, The New Culture of Learning
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Continue reading Digital Strategy Summit
Today a popular and well-respected politician, Jack Layton, lost his battle with cancer. Two days ago he wrote a letter to all of us. It echoes strongly of talks I heard at IFLA almost exactly four years ago in South Africa — from Albie Sachs, Justice of the Constituional Court of South Africa, and other politicians. Even though they lost arms, eyes, and dignity during apratheid, and were imprisoned, they never gave up hope, were determined, and DID make change. And here are Jack Layton’s words to all of us. Let’s take them to heart and be forces for positive change.
To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. … As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the
Continue reading Echoes, Impact & Change
We live in interesting, and somewhat scary times, as much of what we know is changing. Just think about the financial industry (where I spent many years) or the recent riots in London. Change is not always for the better in our minds. However, if we want to move forward, survive and thrive in our local or global ecologies we have to choose a positive direction, work together, and compromise. Nothing is perfect and neither are we. We all have our strengths and together those strengths can achieve amazing results. We have to keep in mind that something is better than nothing, and whether it’s a country or community, an association or organization, we can’t just rail about the problems and try to tear down those who have aided in the change; we have to get together and find positive solutions that work for the majority and will survive for future generations. Are you with me?
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on July 19th, 2011 Like many of you I receive a couple of positive thinking and daily affirmation emails directly to my Blackberry so no matter where I am or the status of wifi, I receive a positive “boost” each morning. Today, Simple Truths, sent a collection of “truths” spoken by some of the greatest leaders of the past two centuries. As Zig Ziglar said, “Great quotes make the light bulb go off in my mind. If you’re like me, you’ll jump at the chance to bypass all the churning and scoop the cream right off the top – that is what quotes are…the cream of our learning!”
Thanks to Simple Truths for sending these along (and, yes, I’m ordering the Leadership Quotes book they refer to!). Have a great day all -
“Though leadership may be hard to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is the ability to make things happen.” -Ted W. Engstrom
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.“ -Warren G. Bennis
“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” -Peter Drucker
“One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” -Arnold H. Glasgow
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” -James Baldwin
“If you want to know why your people are not performing well, step up to the mirror and take a peek.” -Ken Blanchard
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define
Continue reading Leadership Quotes
Thanks to Tom Stewart for pointing me to this great Strategy + Business article, 10 Principles of Change Management: Tools & Techniques to Help Companies Transform Quickly. With all the economic, technological, political and even natural (meaning nature) changes in the world, we have to continually change and change quickly. Authors from Booz Allen Hamilton in 2004 (now Booz & Company) wrote (and it is still relevant):
Many senior executives know this and worry about it. When asked what keeps them up at night, CEOs involved in transformation often say they are concerned about how the work force will react, how they can get their team to work together, and how they will be able to lead their people. They also worry about retaining their company’s unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and performance. Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans have gone awry.
No single methodology fits every company, but there is a set of practices, tools, and techniques that can be adapted to a variety of situations. Using [the top ten] as a systematic, comprehensive framework, executives can understand what to expect, how to manage their own personal change, and how to engage the entire organization in the process.
1. Address the “human side” systematically. ”Transformation causes “people issues”……A formal approach for managing change — beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders —
Continue reading 10 Principles of Change Management
I am very excited about a new Information Today event being held in Monterey CA at the same time as Internet Librarian 2011.
The Library Directors Digital Strategy Summit being held at the Marriott in Monterey CA on October 17/18 will be hosted by Kim Bui-Burton, Director, Community Services, Monterey CA. This new 2 day event is focused on ”Strategic Choices for 2020″ and provides an interactive forum for library directors, CEOs, and CIOs of academic, public, government and special libraries to problem-solve, discuss, and network with colleagues. It features a mix of high level presentations, chat with business leaders, expert panels, round table and facilitated discussions with lots of networking/peer engagement time.
With exclusive access to world-level and industry thought leaders, leading edge practitioners from all types of libraries, and forward thinking systems and technology experts, participants will have an intimate forum for solutions-finding, strategy building, and more.
Select sponsors will be providing complimentary registrations for key clients but to register and to view more and evolving details, check out the conference website.
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on May 10th, 2011 Ken Haycock has a new blog! YES! I’ve subscribed & I suggest you do as well. Ken has an incredible wealth of experience to share as a manager (both a dean and a director of education), researcher, teacher, working with boards, leading in tough situations, and moving innovative ideas forward to fruition. So, when Ken speaks I listen; when Ken writes I read.
His blog post today refers to Google’s study of their own performance appraisal and HR data to determine what makes good Google managers; they identified these 8 behaviours:
1. Be a good coach. Provide specific, constructive feedback; Have regular, one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees’ specific strengths.
2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage. Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice.
3. Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being. Get to know your employees as peoples with lives outside work.
4. Don’t be a sissy. Be produce and results-oriented. Help the team prioritize work and use seniority to remove roadblocks.
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team. Communication is two-way: you both listen and share information. Help the team connect the dots.
6. Help your employees with career development.
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
8. Have key technical skills so you can advise the team.
And these common pitfalls:
Have trouble making a transition to the team. Sometimes fantastic individual contributors are promoted to managers without
Continue reading Eight Behaviours of Good Managers
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on April 6th, 2011 Angry Birds
I love Angry Birds. It’s addictive. Ask the bleary-eyed friend who’d stayed up way too late determined to get to the next level — and got me hooked on it. So, of course I laughed when I saw www.cio.com’s article, “10 Lessons from Angry Birds That Can Make you a Better CIO”:
you have to play to know the rules people succeed best when their unique talents are recognized; I’d add her “and utilized” cuz too often, they aren’t you can’t recover from a really bad start so cut your losses, restart & try again different problems require different specialists; seems obvious, but it’s not often the case blowing something up isn’t necessarily felt everywhere; “You can’t just fiddle with a solution in the corner and hope that it will disburse throughout the organization. It takes a clear understanding of organizational physics to make change stick.” most improvements are incremental; isn’t that the truth? “If you want a high score you have to be patient and accept incremental improvement by applying lessons learned from past attempts. Every once in a while, you change a strategy or accidentally discover a new tactic that results in an exponential improvement in the score, but that is very rare.” just because you’ve mastered one task doesn’t make you master of all……sigh……true, true…. you can never do the same thing exactly the same way some goals require more birds there’s more than one way to win.
Thanks Daniel W. Rasmus for
Continue reading Angry Birds: They Know Their Stuff
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on April 5th, 2011 I’ve always felt there are similarities between the library environment and the military environment. Before you snort too loudly at that, consider that both environments have lengthy histories, widely-held traditions, are somewhat stigmatized within society, and operate according to principals, values, policies, and rules that are being questioned but are difficult for many people to give up.
We in the library environment can learn so much from other similar environments, including the military. We are both going through significant shifts, and the leaders within both of our environments are learning new ways to lead — as well as new ways to follow. Library leaders — and those who’d like to be library leaders – have a look at this TED video of Four-Star General Stanley McChrystal as he explores how and what he’s learned during the past few years that’s shifted his view and practices of leadership:
that what we grew up doing we’re not doing anymore that the generational differences and new technologies have forced him to be reversed mentored and to be more transparent that he doesn’t just use instant messaging, chats and tweets to communicate but to lead and to build relationships that relationships are the sinew that hold the force together; for library leaders, relationships are the sinew that hold the organization together. If you aren’t good at building relationships, then get good. that a person isn’t a good leader because they are right, but because they are willing to learn, and learning involves failure that
Continue reading Lessons for Library Leaders from a Brigadier General
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on March 24th, 2011 Elaina Norlin, Executive Director Broward County Library gave a very “persuasive” session on the principles and practicalities of influencing people to move things forward. With her broad range of experiences in the academic (University of Arizona), non- profit and now public environments, Elaina has observed and learned the art of influence from the best: – Robert Cialdini’s Influence – Kurt Mortensen’s Persuasion IQ – Infomercials
Cialdini’s Influence: principles of influencing others: Reciprocity: people are more open to being influenced when they have received something from you (give and take) Social proof: people look for others like themselves to help them make a “buy” or “do” decision Liking: people are influenced by this they like Authority: people are also influenced by those whom they view as authorities Scarcity: and finally, people are influenced to do or buy when they feel the item or action is limited
Persuasion IQ: How’s Your’s? Surprisingly, at least for me, we tend to be persuaded more by those we find predictable than by those we trust. I suppose we could argue that the predictability increases our trust, but, yes, I can see that those we can rely on for consistent follow-through can certainly influence us. We’re also persuaded by those who are optimistic, are “like us” in some way, and who present their desired action or project with an element of emotion.
Not surprisingly, those who have a tendency to be introverted are better persuaders than extroverts. Introverts tend to listen more and better, enabling them
Continue reading Elaina Norlin Influences CIL 2011 Crowd
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