Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries Notes

Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  LOEX of the West 2010  Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta  June 10‐12, 2010    Presenters    M.J. D’Elia (mdelia@uoguelph.ca)  Learning and Curriculum Support Librarian  University of Guelph    Randy Oldham (roldham@uoguelph.ca)  Web Development Librarian  University of Guelph    Robin Bergart (in absentia) (rbergart@uoguelph.ca)  User Experience Librarian  University of Guelph      Objectives for this presentation  1. Understand the importance of innovative practice within learning  organizations   2. Learn simple strategies to foster more innovative thinking in your  organization  3. Recognize the value of play to productivity    Free Association Game (Instructions)  • In small groups, answer the following question: How is a library like _______?  • Fill in the blanks with one of the following words: Airport, submarine, gas  station and garage, spa or salon, hotel, hospital, tattoo parlour, orchestra,  research laboratory, ski resort, farmers’ market, amusement park, hockey  arena, cargo van, police station, farm  • In 2 minutes, brainstorm as many similarities between libraries and these  objects/places as possible    Free Association Game (Purpose)  • Simple activity to get participants to practice their lateral thinking – forces  participants to look for connections or free associations between seemingly  unrelated objects  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  1  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

• Shifts the mood and signifies to the participants that they are in for  something different (and that’s okay)  • Can reveal a more interesting picture of the objects that are being free  associated  • Highlights the importance of looking outside our industry (libraries) for  solutions to the problem (too often we focus on what other libraries are  doing and we miss broader trends in other industries)    University of Guelph (http://www.uoguelph.ca/)   • Mid‐sized teaching and research institution   • Undergraduate, graduate and professional programs  • Over 22,000 students    McLaughlin Library (http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/)   • Primary library on campus   • Sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts  • Busy hub on campus – 11,000+ visitors each day during the academic year  • 120+ staff members, approximately 23 librarians    McLaughlin Library: Organizational Renewal & Innovation  • Transitioning from a liaison librarian model to a functional team model  o Need to be more flexible and responsive  o Need to do more with fewer resources  o To be more strategic in the face of tighter budgets  • Revisited some of the Library’s defining documents as part of the renewal  process (e.g. our core values, our mission, our service philosophy, etc.)  o Administration involved staff at all levels right from the beginning as  we attempted to shape the future of the organization  • Recognition that innovation is one of the Library’s core values – yet too many  staff members believed that they weren’t innovative or creative   o Need to combat the belief that creativity is an innate ability and  cannot be learned  o Building our capacity for innovation and creative problem solving will  be essential as we move forward  • For more information on the Organizational Renewal check out:  o http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/about/organizational_renewal.cfm   o http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/about/components/documents/organiz ational_renewal_2009.pdf   Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  2  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

Key Questions: Innovation Initiatives  • If we’re going to push ourselves to be more innovative in our practice, then  we have to address a number of key questions:  o Can everyone learn to be creative?   o Can innovation be developed and nurtured, like a habit of mind, or a  discipline?  o If so, what might that environment look like?   o What does innovation mean in a library?   o Is there an inherent tension between a library’s mandate to control  information and the chaos that comes with disruptive innovation?  o What’s the difference between promoting creativity in a person and in  a group?  o How do leaders best promote creativity?  o Does more a more innovative library in fact better support student  learning?    Innovation Boot Camp  • Operated a 12‐week social experiment called Innovation Boot Camp   • Adopted a military metaphor (including camouflage) because:  o We wanted to be disciplined in our training (like military boot camp)   o Inherent tension between the chaos that often comes with creativity  and the regimented order that comes with the military  • Delivered an open call to the library and recruited six individuals  • Spent 2 hours every Friday afternoon for an entire semester some creativity  experiments and learning together  • Used Tom Kelley’s book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, to structure the  program  o Kelley works at IDEO (http://www.ideo.com/), a fairly well‐known  international design consulting firm  o Divides the ten faces into three categories:   Learning personas   Organizing personas   Building personas  o Presents a broad perspective of the types of personas required for  innovative thinking (enabled us to see what we’re good at, but also  where we’re lacking)   o The goal of the book is not to identify with a single face, it is to become  aware of the faces needed to generate and execute good ideas  o At times you may play multiple roles on a given team, or you may play  one role on one team and a different one on the other  o While you may inherently lean toward one “face”, you can develop  skills and abilities in the other faces  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  3  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

  The 10 Faces of Innovation: Short Overview  Learning personas  • Description: Information gatherers  • Purpose: To help the organization avoid becoming too internally focused  • Responsibilities:   o Gather new sources of information  o Openly question assumptions  o Remain open to new insights (regardless of the source)  • Credo: Enemy of complacency    The Anthropologist  • Develops a deep understanding of how people interact   • Observes human behaviour with products, services and spaces  • Watches subjects in their natural environment  • Key phrase:   o “fresh eyes” – it’s about seeing things for the first time like a tourist in  a foreign place    The Experimenter  • Learns by trial and error; takes calculated risks  • Continually prototyping and product‐testing new ideas  • Expect to fail often, but failing early leads to faster and better solutions  • Key phrases:  o “experimentation as implementation”  o “thinking by doing”; “thinking with your hands”    The CrossPollinator  • Explores other industries and cultures  • Translates findings from other environments into the current context  • Efforts are focused externally  • Nurtures curiosity; explores adjacencies  • Key phrases:  o “connect cultures”; “work the metaphor” – every object has the  capacity to stand for something else  o “connect cultures”    Organizing personas  • Description: Idea sorters  • Purpose: To help good ideas move forward in the organization  • Responsibilities:  o Move past organizational challenges to accomplish tasks  o Allocate resources effectively  • Credo: Survival of the fittest  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  4  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

  The Hurdler  • Has a knack for overcoming obstacles and roadblocks  • Intricate knowledge of the organizational processes and hierarchy  • Politically aware and unafraid of bureaucratic process  • Willingness to bend the rules to accomplish tasks  • Thrives on constraints – doesn’t like to hear that something “can’t be done”  • Key phrases:  o “seek forgiveness not permission”  o “see through constraints”    The Collaborator  • Brings eclectic personalities and diverse individuals together  • Encourages and enables cooperation among the team members  • Helps generate multi‐disciplinary solutions  • Co‐opts the Devil’s Advocates  • Gets people learning and doing together  • Thrives in the messy spaces of people working together (conflict, friction,  strife, delight, creative potential)  • Key phrases:  o “Lead from the middle”  o “break down silos”     The Director  • Gathers talented crew and inspires them to perform  • Intimate knowledge of team members’ strengths  • Ability to harness the creativity of others  • Allocates resources, keeps people on tasks, showcases the team  • Draws people out – motivates and encourages  • Less dictation, more facilitation   • Puts others on the centre stage  • Key phrase:  o “showcase the team”    Building personas  • Description: Idea executors   • Purpose: To turn great ideas into real projects  • Responsibilities:   o Apply insights from learning personas  o Recognize successes from organizing roles  • Credo: Build it and they will come    The Experience Architect  • Design compelling experiences  • Connect with customers and users at a deeper level than mere functionality  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  5  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

• Surprises and delights in unforgettable experiences  • Authentic  • Attention to details  • Key phrase:  o “make the ordinary extraordinary”    The Set Designer  • Create a stage on which members can do their best work  • Consider the physical environment as a tool  • Find hidden performance improvements by reshaping space  • Builds spaces for creative play  • Provides the materials to be creative  • Key phrase:  o “shape the spaces”    The Caregiver  • Anticipate customer needs and are ready to look after them  • Willing to move beyond simple service  • Demonstrates empathy toward the plight of the customer  • Goes for “intimacy not scale”  • Treat people as individuals not as an aggregated group  • Provides valuable expertise  • Makes people feel good about themselves  • Key phrases:  o “show more, tell less”  o “smile”    The Storyteller  • Build internal morale through stories  • Reinforce organizational culture through firsthand accounts  • Create external awareness through stories (marketing angle)  • Importance of authenticity  • Use a variety of tools to communicate  • Key phrase:  o “collect compelling narratives”    Straw Build Challenge (Instructions)  • In small groups, have participants find a spot on the floor  • Challenge:  o Build the tallest free standing structure   o Materials: 100 straws and 15 cm of tape  o Time: 10 minutes  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  6  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

Straw Build Challenge (Purpose)  o Generate a sense of team (groups have a simple, shared objective)  o Get teams working quickly – just enough time to accomplish the task, not  enough time to be distracted by political power struggles  o Encourages participants to work with their hands  o Communicates the importance of rapid prototyping and the iterative  design process (build, refine, build again, refine again, etc.)  o Recognize that there is no single solution to a given problem or challenge  o Groups build very different looking structures to accomplish the task  o Importance of embracing failure – not all structures will stand on their own  o For an entertaining discussion of a similar build challenge (called the  Marshmallow build) watch this TED talk from Tom Wujec:  o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M     Key Themes (or, The Things We Learned About Running Boot Camp)  Work is play / Play is work  • The group that plays together is simply more productive  • Organizations are increasingly pressured to become more efficient in an  effort to save money, but this could send the wrong message to the  employees (they turn off and morale starts to drop)  • Enabling them to play and have some fun loosens up the mind, gets people  engaged, and truly leads to innovative breakthroughs  • When you play, failure is less of a concern (because there is no cost) – if we  can translate this to the work environment we’ll be less afraid to try stuff  • Similarly when employees are at play (outside of work) they notice things  that they can bring into the workplace (i.e. cross‐pollinate)  • Work and play are not polar opposites – they reinforce each other and can  work (or play) quite nicely together    Innovation is a Social Process  • Creativity is not the magic of a lone genius  • We learned that working in a group provides many advantages   o Builds team  o Enables more diverse ideas to emerge  o Encourages people to “jump and build” on each other’s ideas  o Allows the group to accomplish more and arrive at more suitable  solutions than any single individual would have on their own    Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  7  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

Use the space  • Think of your space as a character in what you’re trying to accomplish   o How can you change it, or use it to your advantage?  • Changing the space before a meeting can entirely change the demeanor of the  participants   o Signify to the team members that something is different – allows them  to break out of their mental models of that particular space and  provides an opportunity for fresh thinking  o Variety helps the mind work  • Some simple ideas to implement:  o If you are always facing a screen, then face away  o If you’re always working on a table, take the tables away  o If you rely too heavily on PowerPoint, then ban PowerPoint for a  month  o Move your meetings to different locations (even outdoors)    Constraints can be enablers  • The creative process can get bogged down by constraints or barriers (e.g. we  don’t have the budget to do that, we don’t have the people to do that, we  don’t have the skills to do that, etc.); as a result, projects and good ideas  never get off the ground  • Think of these constraints as opportunities rather than barriers  o With more restrictive constraints the group cannot take the well‐ traveled path  o Members have to push themselves to think more creatively about  solving the problems at hand    Creativity is a practice  • There is a role for everyone in the innovation process   o You don’t have to be a designer or an artist to be called “creative”  • Creativity and innovative practice can be learned (just like you can learn to  be a better web designer, or a better teacher)  • Practicing creative habits is the key – if you expect to deliver innovative  breakthroughs when it counts, then continually practice simple creative  exercises   o Start small and push yourself out of your comfort zone a little more  each time   • If you’re facilitating a creative brainstorming/problem‐solving session, then  provide an environment where participants can grow  Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  8  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

  Build Your Own Boot Camp  • Libraries are perfectly suitable environments for innovation (in fact,  innovation and creative problem solving may be essential for the future of  the profession)  • With buy‐in from management, “boot camps” can be done inexpensively (e.g.  aside from the cost of staff time, our entire 12‐week program cost under  $500)  • If a full semester program isn’t feasible try something that fits better with  your institution/organization:  o Take one morning per month  o Take a day long retreat with your team  o Use simple creativity exercises at the beginning of each staff meeting    Motivate Your Organization – Borrowed from Drive by Daniel Pink  • Autonomy – give people the opportunity to be self‐directed  o Give the team a clear objective, but don’t be too prescriptive in how  they need to achieve the objective  o Trust your people to deliver  • Mastery – give people the opportunity to get better at stuff  o Try to avoid “one‐shot” creativity training  o Work to make it a habit by incorporating it throughout the  organization (even in small ways)   o People will eventually overcome their initial fear and become more  willing to take risks  • Purpose – provide tasks that a relevant and meaningful  o No one wants to do something for the sake of doing it  o Be transparent in with your purpose and you’ll get “buy‐in” from  participants   • For more information on Dan Pink’s book check out this video from Royal  Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce:  o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc     Innovation Boot Camp (Steal These Ideas!)  • More information on Innovation Boot Camp can be found at our blog:  o http://innovationbootcamp.wordpress.com/   • Feel free to borrow and adapt these ideas for your organization!     Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries  9  LOTW 2010: Calgary, Alberta 

Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries Notes

by M.J. D'Elia on Jun 24, 2010

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Innovation: The Language of Learning Libraries Notes — Document Transcript