SEMLS Emerging Leaders

2007-02-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

This month's Public Libraries has two articles related to our readings. The first is an interview with Jim Collins, author of our first book Good to Great, titled "Great Expectations". It is extensive, I'd love to hear your thoughts when you've had a chance to read it.

The second is Susan Hildreth's President's column about a discussion of The World is Flat at a COSLA meeting last fall. She references a one hour presentation by Friedman at http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266. This could serve as our article for those who might not get to read the whole book for our next discussion.

2007-02-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

All members of this blog will now have to register with Google to continue to access the blog.

2007-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

Today's discussion of Rosabeth Moss Kanter's article "The Enduring Skills of Change Leaders" welcomed several new members to the Emerging Leaders discussion group. I'd like to remind everyone that the purpose of this blog is to encourage comments from the discussion group members: both thoughts that occur between discussions, and members who can't attend a meeting but would like to share their thoughts with the group. And suggested further reading on any of the topics we have talked about.
We agreed that we would read The World is Flat for our next discussion on April 12. I'm looking forward to finally reading this important book and to hearing what everyone else thinks about it.

CherylB

2006-06-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Emerging Leaders,
I'm looking forward to our discussion of The Artist's Way on July 21. I found another book by the same authors the Artist's Way at Work . It has sme intersting worksheets. I thuoght if we each did them it might provoke an intersting discussion at our meeting. Link to http://www.artistswayatwork.com/worksheet.html.

I had a chance to read the article Becky pointed out in her last post. It was inspiring, and very on target for this month's discussion about creativity.

Cheryl

2006-06-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just finished reading Becky's suggested article (Champions of Innovation) and I am excited about many of the themes and examples of innovation for another reason. I'm always excited to learn how businesses create a culture of innovation and creativity. To hear a corporation like Mattel authorizing a cadre of employees to spend 12 straight weeks away from the "phyiscal" office to investigate and create a new idea for the company is a creative employee's DREAM but in reality how can an understaffed workforce offer a similiar but modified opportunity to spur creativity. How does a manager/administration or more importantly does an individual find that well-spring of creativity to be productive in a stressful situation? Is stress and conflict the platform by which creativity springs forth? And if that is the case, how often do we give into the stress to produce something extraordinary? Don't we tend to be fearful and question ourselves when a unconventional thought is released. In fact, how many of us can relate to the situation that appears in this sample scenairo.

2006-06-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

Interesting Rebecca,
I was just reading in Library Administration and Management an article by Jim Collins about performance appraisals and it pointed out that we don't really accept information and make real changes unless we respect and trust the person who gives us the feedback.

2006-06-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow Emerging Leaders! There is an article in the June 19 volume of Business Week you might find interesting. The title is Champions of Innovation that discusses five archetypes achievers from the IN25, Business Week's list of forward-thinking leaders. The article includes reading material and blogs used by these leaders.

Some points from the article:

70% of the Innovation Champions are female.
Creativity loves restraint: give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines.
In merging "old " and "new" employees at Old Navy, Ivy Ross had workers create a CD about themselves so that people learned personal things about one another creating an atmosphere that was personal and created a closeness essential for innovation.
Innovation works where employees can hang out and connect with one another.
Build failure into your model.

You get the idea?

Becky Freer

2005-12-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we discussed Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman. We all agreed that the idea of the leader creating the resonance for the work environment was something we had all experienced, but he defined it very clearly and the studies he cited were very interesting.
We also talked about the difficulty in maintaining that cheerful service environment at work, and the need for authenticity in our relationships with the people we work with.
Kathy said she has the film FISH! at her school and will attempt to bring it to our next session. We will be reading FISH! and Fish Sticks for the February meeting.
Anyone have anything to add about the Primal Leadership discussion?

2005-12-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

December 16 we will be discussing Daniel Coleman Primal Leadership.

The authors and books we discussed for future sessions include:

James Kouses and Barry Posner The Leadership Challenge

Julia Cameron The Artist's Way

Thomas Freedman The World is Flat

Malcolm Gladwell Blink!

We will be deciding which of these titles we would like to use for the February session in December.

2005-11-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

Emerging Leaders,
I've been doing some research for articles about Daniel Goleman's Primal Leadership and I think I've found some good resources for us to discuss. If you are eager to get started one aarticle we will definitely use references Nancy Cunningham's article on emotionally healthy libraries at http://www.miriampollack.com/Healthy Libraries.htm.
I'm beginning to feel like I now understand the sound of one hand clapping - what do you all think of these readings?

Cheryl

2005-10-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! When Cheryl approached me with her idea to start this leadership roundtable, I was thrilled-- especially after she introduced the articles and authors that we would use to begin our discussion. I started reading several articles by Jim Collins and immediately fell in love with his no-nonsense way of writing that I read the entire book, GOOD TO GREAT. I couldn't put it down. Collin's essentially talked about the experiences I've had while working in successful (and unsuccessful) teams, projects and workplaces. Jim Collin's observations are so simple yet emotionally complex that by the time he poses the question, you would have arrived at your answer. I appreciate Collins' example of First Who...Then What--getting the right people on the bus. Here we are, in our profession, concerned with the feelings and perceptions of being helpful to and for others on a daily basis. We try to maintain a sense of tranquility and a safe learning enviroment to assist people when they walk into the doors of our libraries. However, when that safe and peaceful environment is disturbed, we quickly try to restore order. Sadly, when it is time to help ourselves progress to the next level in the effective delivery of services or maximization of staff performance, we make several allowances to accomodate a few people who have no desire to get on the bus. When and how long does one attempt to travel with those who would rather stay home? I certainly can not give anyone the answer but I hope through inquiry we can continue to challenge ourselves to ask the basic questions to address these leadership questions. I look forward to everyone's comments within this forum. I think this will be an exciting opportunity to discuss topics that can be applied to our work.

2005-10-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings SEMLS leaders!
Vickie and I are really excited about beginning these leadership roundtables. I am hoping this will be the encouragement that gets me reading all those exciting leadership materials I've seen on bibliographies for years and meant to read, but put off for more pressing tasks. I'm hoping this roundtable will be an opportunity for all of us to reinforce each other to "sharpen the saw" as Stephen Covey puts it, or as I think of it replenish the well so we can provide leadership and encouragement to the people we work with.
We choose the Jim Collins article for our first discussion because we really like his ideas; and we thought beginning with an article, rather than a whole book, would be less challenging for time stressed people to participate. We have chosen some books we would like to use for future sessions. but we also think this should be a member driven group. So we will make our suggestions, but we will all consider your suggestions too. We will post the title we will be discussing in two months after each session of the roundtable for those of you participating online.
I was very impressed with Jim Collins when I first discovered him a few years ago. I like the importance he places on the right people for the job, and sustained effort. I also think the fact that his research showed greatness wasn't the result of high salaries and bonuses is very encouraging to libraries where we see very little of either high salaries or bonuses. I think the images he uses of moving a huge flywheel getting easier with sustained effort and the hedgehog analogy for understanding our root issues help make them memorable.
So what did you think?