I was so fortunate to participate in the Military Libraries Workshop in December in CA. Fortunate to be in California in December (!) and to be among some incredible speakers.  Dr. Marc Ventresca was one of these speakers; now Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School as well as University Lecturer, SAID Business School, University of Oxford,he’s also a Research Affiliate. Research Affiliate, Center for Security and Cooperation, Stanford University,Research Lead, Innovation Journalism Initiative, Stanford University, and Associate Fellow, Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, University of Oxford — phew! Plus he’s just a great speaker and a really nice guy.

Marc spoke about innovation & change, specifically lesson learned regarding innovation — that innovation is not about inventing new ways or new products.  One of the lessons is that what matters is NOT how great something is, but rather how efficient an organization is at killing projects that aren’t working. Innovations stem from changes in the current organization infrastructure, culture, technology and systems to the current contexts — in “recombining existing elements and re-purposing existing solutions” to address new situations.  Consider this: IDEO, whose mantra is “nothing invented here” talks about the innovative Reebok Pump shoes which “combined” and “re-purposed” the bike tire, medical products and shoes to create these shoes.  And consider this: technologies or products that we look at as ‘incredible’ and ‘game changing’ are initially seen as ‘inferior’ and usually just a bit strange. As Marc said, people don’t know what they need or want; Ford said if he’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said “a faster horse.”

So in the area of library services, we need to look not at what people say they want (cuz usually they don’t know what they want), but rather at how we can combine and re-purpose 2 or three things from different areas to create something new…..that may not work properly at first…..that may seem “inferior”….and stick with it, keep building on what works and kill the parts that don’t work.  Marc’s question to the workshop participants was to ask how did online services become a solution and to what problems —- to look for connections with other fields…..where there are connections, why, and how to combine them.

Interesting….I’m in….and about to look at his latest presentation on Leadership Amidst Ambiguity….oh yeah..

I’ve just posted both the presentation I’ll be giving tomorrow at OLA Superconference on Succession Management: Strategic & Practical as well as the worksheets for libraries (or any public-sector organization for that matter) to use in applying the concepts.  So, no handouts this year.  We all know what happens with the handouts; we are very serious about taking the handouts, and have the best of intentions to use them as soon as we get back to work. But the truth is 95% of the time they end up in a pile, unused. I’m really hoping people will download the worksheets and at least consider some of the questions regarding identifying key roles required within their libraries in the future — and identifying individuals for those key roles.  I’m also hoping people will explore options for identifying individuals beyond their own library system.  Many libraries are just too small to be able to do succession planning within their own ranks — and we are all in this together.  We need to take steps that ensure all libraries are successful, not just “our own.”  And succession management on a broader basis is just one way — secondments, “trades”, cross-library special projects (as opposed to internal cross-organizational special projects), are all possibilities.

So if you are planning to join in the discussion on January 29th at 10:40 a.m., print out those worksheets and bring them with you.

I must have been really busy in the fall because I missed the report released by the Pew Internet folks called, Technology & Media Use: When Technology Fails. I found this report today while preparing my talk on Building Learning Communities for the Ontario Library Association Superconference on Friday at 2.10pm.  Of course, the report on technology failure especially intrigued me today because Facebook is down (at least for me???).  I use FB for a lot of things and it is almost as bad as when the electrical power goes down — feels like an appendage has been lost!

Impressive site that, according to Internet watcher Gary Price, actually went live prior to the installment of the new president.  A site to keep an eye on!

I love that phrase from the 44th President of the United States of America, Barak Obama.  It reflects what I try to do in the creation and development of conference programs.  May 2009 be filled with lots of imagination, ideas and innovation to move us forward to a future we all envision.