A short presentation based on the ideas of Presentation Zen for the Flat Classroom Workshop at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong in September 2009
A short presentation based on the ideas of Presentation Zen for the Flat Classroom Workshop at the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong in September 2009
There's a movement brewing built upon leveraging the transformative power of creativity to help us work and create better so that we can produce work infused with meaning. Discover how by knowing your Why, instilling tiny habits to cultivate your creative spark, and finally, fomenting creative collaboration based on the tenets of improv and open spaces, you can take the spark of Creativity (R)Evolution and use it as the impetus to push you, your teams, and your companies to create betterness.
Workshop impartido en la Universidad de Alicante sobre empleo 2.0 y herramientas útiles para el mismo. Actividad organizada por el Observatorio Universitario de Inserción laboral y la Cátedra Prosegur Universidad de Alicante.
Tervezz szokást! - WIAD, Mobile Hungary - Kolozsi István, kolboidIstván Kolozsi
Az előadásban szereplő „HOOKED - Horogra akasztva – Hogyan fejlessz szokásformáló termékeket” c. könyv megjelent magyarul is, vedd meg és olvasd!
https://bioenergetic.hu/konyvek/hooked-horogra-akasztva
Udvaronc és egy egyszerű, de hatékony framework termékkel kapcsolatos szokás kialakításához. Az előadás rövidített változatban a World Information Architecture Day-en (2014. február 15. WIAD), a bővebb változat pedig a Mobile Hungary 2014-en (2014. március 13.) hangzott el.
Az előadáshoz kiegészítő blog poszt:
https://blog.kolboid.eu/szokast-kialakito-termektervezes/
Presented to Association of Women In Communication, July 10, 2012. How to obtain rich, detailed company stories and use them to achieve your advertising, marketing and public relations goals.
Social Media for Lawyers & Law Firms : Chicago Bar AssociationKevin O'Keefe
Presentation before the Chicago Bar Association on 4/13/11. Review of principals of blogging and other forms of social media for professional and business development with high level discussion of
A short presentation about the process that Yokohama International School went through to develop our Connected Learning Community (1:1 program) for the Learning 2.014 Africa conference.
There's a movement brewing built upon leveraging the transformative power of creativity to help us work and create better so that we can produce work infused with meaning. Discover how by knowing your Why, instilling tiny habits to cultivate your creative spark, and finally, fomenting creative collaboration based on the tenets of improv and open spaces, you can take the spark of Creativity (R)Evolution and use it as the impetus to push you, your teams, and your companies to create betterness.
Workshop impartido en la Universidad de Alicante sobre empleo 2.0 y herramientas útiles para el mismo. Actividad organizada por el Observatorio Universitario de Inserción laboral y la Cátedra Prosegur Universidad de Alicante.
Tervezz szokást! - WIAD, Mobile Hungary - Kolozsi István, kolboidIstván Kolozsi
Az előadásban szereplő „HOOKED - Horogra akasztva – Hogyan fejlessz szokásformáló termékeket” c. könyv megjelent magyarul is, vedd meg és olvasd!
https://bioenergetic.hu/konyvek/hooked-horogra-akasztva
Udvaronc és egy egyszerű, de hatékony framework termékkel kapcsolatos szokás kialakításához. Az előadás rövidített változatban a World Information Architecture Day-en (2014. február 15. WIAD), a bővebb változat pedig a Mobile Hungary 2014-en (2014. március 13.) hangzott el.
Az előadáshoz kiegészítő blog poszt:
https://blog.kolboid.eu/szokast-kialakito-termektervezes/
Presented to Association of Women In Communication, July 10, 2012. How to obtain rich, detailed company stories and use them to achieve your advertising, marketing and public relations goals.
Social Media for Lawyers & Law Firms : Chicago Bar AssociationKevin O'Keefe
Presentation before the Chicago Bar Association on 4/13/11. Review of principals of blogging and other forms of social media for professional and business development with high level discussion of
A short presentation about the process that Yokohama International School went through to develop our Connected Learning Community (1:1 program) for the Learning 2.014 Africa conference.
Esta es una presentación en la que se trata la situación gitana y como el secretariado los ayuda. Ha sido realizado por los alumnos de Educación Social de primero de la Universidad de Murcia
Information skills session for undergraduates at the University of East London. Includes tips on searching for literature and how to evaluate information. Slides can also be viewed and downloaded here: https://uellibrarypsyc.wordpress.com/information-skills/.
Induction presentation for psychology students at the University of East London. Covers top ten things about library services and some general hints and tips about literature searching.
Presentation at Oklahoma's 4-H Roundup. Topics covered include the Cooperative Alliances, the reasons to transition to higher education and degree completion.
Breaking down the barriers - visitors, residents and user-orientated communi...Ian Clark
A workshop presentation delivered for the CILIP Kent branch on 5.11.15. Session covered how people use the internet and how social media use can be orientated around this.
Pushing, pulling or leaving the door openDale Lane
A talk about mobile apps that rely on data from the Internet, and some of the decisions and choices facing mobile app developers in writing them
SlideShare kinda screws with the speaker's notes, so if you'd like the notes it's probably best to download the presentation file.
Overview of the talk is written up at http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=1009
Tech Tools That Engage the Library Population - Pecha Kucha ACPL Library Camp...Rebecca Johnson
This pecha kucha presentation describes two technology tools that can be used to engage your library population - QR Codes and Poll Everywhere. **The blank slide is a poll everywhere embedded poll**
Ritualising your brand: how establishing meaningful, ownable behaviour can cr...Jon Howard
Inspired by the intersection of two areas of interest I have written about previously (stories & archetypes and behaviour change), this is a work in progress that explores the ways in which embedding ritual into your brand can build lasting loyalty. I am interested in any thoughts you might have.
(If you would like me to present this or similar to your organisation, please feel free to get in contact)
Pedagogy, Policing or Preventing Plagiarism? Experiences with facilitating Pr...Hazel Owen
This was a paper presented at the eFest meets Teaching & Learning conference, UCOL 2009.
To access the accompanying handout: http://www.scribd.com/full/20133056?access_key=key-2kh798rentwwpywxfd9l
Abstract: Plagiarism is a global issue that needs to be addressed by all educators and learners. This paper considers a simple definition of plagiarism, and then briefly considers reasons why students plagiarise. At Unitec NZ, Te Puna Ako: The Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (TPA:CTLI) is working closely with faculty, managers, student support services and library personnel to introduce strategies and tools that can be integrated into programmes and curricula whilst remaining flexible enough to be tailored for specific learners. The authors therefore provide an overview of one of the tools available to check student work for plagiarism - Turnitin - and describe the academic Professional Development (PD) approaches that have been put in place to share existing expertise, as well as help staff at Unitec NZ to use the tool in pedagogically informed ways, which also assist students in its use. Evaluation and results are considered, before concluding with some recommendations. It goes on to theorise how blended programmes that fully integrate academic literacy skills and conventions might be used to positively scaffold students in the avoidance of plagiarism. Conference participants will be asked to comment on and discuss their institutions' approach to supporting the avoidance of plagiarism (including the utilisation of PDS and other deterrents), describe their own personal experiences, and relate the strategies they employ in their teaching practice and assessment design to help their learners avoid plagiarism. It is planned to record the session so that the audience's narratives can be shared with other practitioners.
Please cite as: Owen, H., & Narayan, V. (2009, 29 Sept - 01 Oct). Pedagogy, Policing or Preventing Plagiarism? Experiences with facilitating Professional Development and Turnitin. Paper presented at the Teaching excellence - excellence in teaching: Teaching and Learning Conference Meets eFest 2009, Universal College of Learning (UCOL), Palmerston North.
The Value of Leadership, the Leadership of Value: Remaining Relevant in times...Peter Bromberg
Script and supporting materials at: http://peterbromberg.com/sla
Throw out those 5 year strategic plans, change ain't what it used to be. Change no longer happens in slow, predictable, macro waves that allow us the time to make and execute big plans. Change now happens in a continual series of microbursts, each one potentially changing our experiences, behaviors, perceptions, and expectations in unexpected but potentially powerful ways.
A new type of leadership is called for. A leadership that not only provides a map for change, but also empowers people in your organization to throw away the map and respond to clients' needs in the moment. A leadership that questions best practices, holding only lightly to the ways of the past. A leadership that monitors societal trends and embraces small innovations and good ideas no matter where they come from.
Similar to LONG VERSION - Soft Skills for Hard Times: Essential Business Strategies to Empower the Library Leader (20)
First Steps in Project Planning for LibrariesEmily Clasper
Slides from a Project Management workshop for the RAILS library consortium October 27th, 2016. Focus on Project Planning fundamentals for library Project Managers.
Think Like a Project Manager... Act Like a Library LeaderEmily Clasper
Think Like a Project Manager... Act Like a Library Leader
A presentation for the Annual Meeting of the American Library Association 2015, San Francisco, California. Presentation Date: Monday, June 29th, 3:00 - 4:00 pm. http://alaac15.ala.org/node/29859
Full presentation forthcoming
#alaac15
Building a Learning Culture From the Inside Out - ALA Annual 2014Emily Clasper
ALA Annual 2014 Presentation by Emily Clasper and Toby Greenwalt
Session Information: http://ala14.ala.org/node/14451
Libraries are quickly moving from being repositories for content to full-fledged incubators for new ideas. Using technological tools, innovative spaces, and creative programming, libraries are well-positioned to become an even bigger part of the community’s creative process.
Join a panel of library change agents as they examine strategies for kickstarting a culture of innovation in your library - for your staff and patrons alike. We’ll look at examples both in and out of libraries, address challenges, and discuss what it takes to bring creativity out in the open. Audience participation will be involved.
Sponsored by PLA (Public Library Association)
This fun little presentation was put together by Emily Clasper, Tim Sicurella, and Nicole Turzillo for the Public Libraries Luncheon at the Innovative Users Group 2014 meeting in Deroit, MI. This rapid-fire presentation showcased a variety of fun, useful mobile apps attendees might be interested in.
What Staff Training Program? Minimum Investment, Maximum Impact Staff Education Strategies
Providing staff with the training and support they need to excel is one of the hardest challenges faced by library managers, especially when time is precious and funds are low. At this session, participants will join in lively discussion and get practical advice for building effective staff training and development programs with limited resources.
Presentation for the Alaska Library Association Conference 2014 #akla
Technology Trends for 2014 and Beyond: What’s Hot, What’s Cool, What’s Coming Up Next
Feel like you can’t keep up with the latest and greatest in tech trends? What do we, as information professionals, need to pay attention to in the world of technology? What can we expect to impact us in the coming months and years? Join us to discuss some of the newest tech trends, get a sneak peek at some things we may encounter soon, and try to make sense of what this could mean for the future of our libraries.
Presented for Alaska Library Association Conference 2014 #akla
Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That: 5 Things You Need to Stop Doing in Your LibraryEmily Clasper
ALA Midwinter 2014 Ignite Session
Don't have the time to try something new at your library? I hear ya. So why not find some things you can STOP doing? Remove some of these time drains and suddenly you can add activities that will really make a difference!
A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
11. 1. Don't be afraid to fall in love with something & pursue it
with intensity.
2. Know, understand, take pride in, practice, develop, exploit,
& enjoy your greatest strengths.
3. Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others and
to walk away from the games they impose on you.
4. Find a great teacher or mentor who will help you.
5. Don't waste energy trying to be well rounded.
6. Do what you love and can do well.
7. Learn the skill of interdependence.
- E. Paul Torrence, Creative Manifesto for Children (1983)
14. Leaders should encourage
experimentation and accept that
there is nothing wrong with failure
as long as it happens early and
becomes a source of learning.
― Tim Brown, Change by Design: How Design Thinking
Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
17. Leaders who value good outcomes
more than assertion of their own
authority understand that serious
errors are avoided by the use of
Intelligent Disobedience.
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing
Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong
34. Empathy is a strange and powerful thing. There
is no script. There is no right way or wrong
way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding
space, withholding judgment, emotionally
connecting, and communicating that incredibly
healing message of “You’re not alone.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable
Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
40. Source: Discovering the Leader in You. Sara N. King, Robert Altman, and Robert J. Lee. San Francisco,: Josey-
Bass, 2011.
Adapted from materials in Leading to the Future Leadership Institute, The American Library Association, 2017.
VISION VALUES
SELF
AWARENESS
BALANCE
When I first became a librarian, it very quickly became evident to me that librarianship is not about doing a job – it’s about practicing a profession.
And a big part of the responsibility involved in practicing a profession is actively and intentionally seeking out and participating in opportunities to enhance, refresh, and grow our skillset
With the many demands placed upon our time and resources, it is often easy to frame this in the sense of engaging in library-centric professional development (taking classes in library topics, attending a conference or two a year, etc)
But we sometimes forget that there are vast bodies of knowledge out there across many diverse disciplines to help us grow and develop our skills
Librarianship is inherently interdisciplinary, and we can use that to great advantage
In order for each of us to become stronger leaders and practitioners of our profession, there are a lot of skills we can draw from other disciplines and professions
In order to be truly successful and effective in our professional practice, we need to develop multiple intelligences
Often Framed in terms of IQ/EQ or Technical skills vs People skills
The skillsets often categorized in the world of professional development as Hard Skills and Soft Skills
But it’s not a dichotomy, and as leaders in our field we need to look at the way we integrate different skill sets
What makes each of us here a successful library professional and leader in our field is the way we can synthesize skillsets and use them in conjunction with one another
Reference
Knowing how to use the tools
Engaging in an effective reference interview
Being able to communicate
Assessment skills
Everyone here has a set of skills I will refer to as Library Skills – gained through education and experience
Technical skills unique to our profession, centering around the organization and provision of access to information
Often this includes transferrable skills, but the things I count as “Library skills” are usually somewhat limited in their direct application outside the library field
Often professional development and continuing education focuses on these skills,
But Training that only applies to the direct responsibilities of an employees’s current role is not enough.
Another part of the puzzle is what I often hear referred to as “Business Skills”
These are the kinds of skills that are truly transferrable between professions, although their particular applications may vary
Hard Skills
Learned in formal setting
Objective
Measurable
certifications
Rules stay the same regardless of company/library
Programming languages
Data analysis
Accounting
Engineering
Library – Using reference resources (must be combined with ss reference interview)
Maybe the skills you build the foundations of your business practice on, but that foundation is not made of bricks alone. It is only as strong as the mortar that joins them together
And it is in this mortar where we find the so –called “Soft” skills that join hard skills together in conjunction with out library skills
Data from several recent reports (Business News Daily, Udemy report) tells us 72 % of companies focus on hard skills development
BUT
This does generally not help at all with developing Soft Skills
Additional research has revealed that employers consistently rank so-called “soft skills” as the most desirable skills they look for in hiring new talent, as well as being the skills companies most wish to see their workers develop. Other research has indicated employers rank SSs as the most difficult to develop in their employees
Soft Skills
Sometimes seem easy, taken as a given, underestimated, under appreciated
Often not supported enough
Intangibles, difficult to measure and assess, difficult to learn and improve
Best developed as a practice
Librarianship is a customer service based profession
Development of Soft Skills may be reaching a point of being more important than ever
The robots are coming
AI, Automation, etc are predicted to have a very significant impact on the workplaces in general within the next ten years
Some experts are predicting a “Fourth Industrial Revolution” where a new wave of rapid automation takes over another level of jobs and responsibilities in many fields.
But a People Profession such as ours cannot rely on machines alone.
We need a renewed focus on Soft Skills in order to keep libraries providing services that continue to align with our core values
Categories of Soft Skills – All are interrelated
This is how I organize the myriad of Soft Skills in my own mind
Most of my focus here is on Cognitive and Interpersonal Skills, but I will quickly mention a few from the other two categories as well
Making Connections
Creativity
Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
Judgement
Includes analytical behaviors and thought processes
One of the “Soft Skills” foundational to developing others
Also one of the most difficult to learn
Boils down to a willingness to take risks, and enabling creativity in ourselves and in others requires breaking down barriers that prevent us from taking risks – done in an active and deliberate manner
E. Paul Torrence “Father of Creativity” (Creative Manifesto for Children – 1983)
Advice that has stood up - not only in an educational setting, but in the development of more modern business practices. Educators influenced by his work used it to educate a generation of students who then brought those teaching into the workplace
Good advice for growing as individuals, learners, innovators, and leaders
Focus on mentoring, identifying talents, and risk taking has been influential
Translates well into a modern business environment where Soft Skills are more and more valuable
Especially when education has more recently been steering away from SS
More recently, the work of Sir Ken Robinson delves into the areas of creativity, risk taking, and curiosity and the relationship of these to educational and business success, and to innovation
Educators focusing on Creativity today
Identification of and Examination of barriers to creativity
From tradition and habit
Perceptual blocks
Emotional blocks
Resource constraints
And look for ways to remove these barriers through
Practicing of convergent and divergent thinking
Pursuing new experiences
Seeking out differing POV
Incorporating opportunities for Collaboration
Making time to think and study
Making time to engage in exploration, discussion, and play
Our mission as leaders within our field is to identify ways we can remove barriers to our own creative development, and provide others with the same freedom
Within the bounds of the practical constraints of the workplace and in alignment with the core values of our profesion
Development of creativity is closely related to the ongoing development of critical thinking and problem solving.
The more individuals are able to develop their creativity, the more they are able to engage in critical thought processes and apply their creativity to solving problems
Critical thought takes what we learn form engaging in a creative practice and ties it back to the constraints we removed to get into our creative mode
Harnesses creative thought within the bounds of what’s practical and leads us to finding smarter, more innovative alternatives to solve real life problems
Work being done to help encourage more of this in business and professional development
Methods for performing qualitative analysis or outcomes analysis
Logical analysis techniques (deductive reasoning, etc)
Argument analysis
Design thinking
Design thinking –
Approaching problems as non-linear (opens possibilities)
Engaging in a cycle of revisiting and revision as a way to make progress
“Fail fast” mentality
Tim Brown – creating a structure that makes it easier for people to bring non-linear, creative thought into a framework that allows for connections to be made between creative inspiration and practical situations
G David Hughes – suggests models for decision making that REQUIRE looking for alternate solutions as part of the process
Take creativity and Critical Thinking/problems solving skills and add an element of experience and incorporated feedback --- Judgement
But judgement is not only a function of experience
Judgement can not be exercised or practiced without a structural framework that supports both coming up with new ideas and solutions, but also for supporting critical feedback
Organizations looking for their employees to exercise judgement must establish an environment where suggestions, solutions AND criticism are actively encouraged at all levels
Decision Making
A good model for thinking about how pwople make decisions –
Chris Argyris, building on the work of S.I. Hayakawa and Alford Korzybski, and articulated further by William Isaacs and Rick Ross
The fundamental problem here is that the Ladder carries us rapidly away from our actual, lived experience into a cloud of abstraction, where it can be extremely difficult for reality to penetrate
This ladder of inference shows...that the evaluations or judgments people make automatically are not concrete or obvious. They are abstract and highly inferential. Individuals treat them as if they were concrete because they produce them so automatically that they do not even think that their judgments are highly inferential." [Overcoming Organizational Defenses, pp 88-89]
Work from bottom up, then return to beginning – Reflexive Loop
Use this to become more aware of the decision making process and examine it critically
What is influencing our decisions – recognizing this helps us identify logical fallicies and other flaws in our decision making process
Intelligent disobedience – Ira Chaleff
An important part of developing good judgement is the practice of ID
Defying authority with good reason
Often encountered in reference to training service animals
Now used as part of business technique – risk management strategy
In order to have an organization the benefits from ID, leaders must create a culture where ID is accepted and criticism is welcomed as part of a healthy feedback and improvement process
Empower people to speak up
Invite candor
Train people to be assertive without being aggressive
Management needs to pay attention
Chains of ID – multiple people speaking up in support of one antoher
A responsibility to speak
Shifting from Cognitive Skills –
Organizational Skills
Making connected elements work together in relation to one another
Goal Setting
Time Management
Project Management
Can sometimes involve using “hard skills” but the interrelation of elements to reach a desired outcome is the “soft” part
Going beyond SMART Goals
Learning to assess priorities, assign value
Relate goals to motivation – base on values = one strategy
Formalize goals (write them down)
Map goals – interrelationships, connections, plan for overall success
As individuals, this is another area where practice is important – make sure that we, as leaders are giving others the opportunity to practice with us!
Collaboration is a huge benefit to developing effective goal setting, especially within an organization like a library where we have a reasonably clear basis for the goals we set – core values of the profession, of the community, and the organization
All goals and objectives should, ideally be basedon these!
Related to goal setting is the Organizational skill of time management – LinkedIn data ranks TM as one of the skills most highly valued and frequently cited as essential by employers seeking to hire new staff
Refers to the combination of a subset of skills closely related to goal setting – since determination of time use is not really separable from the understanding of individual and organizational goals
Not just simple math equations
Based on goals – efficiency, productivity, stress management, motivation
Involves prioritization of tasks in relation to goals
Recognize influences on time requirements
Process based
Personal TM vs Managerial –
managing one’s own time effectively
Working with less skilled staff to help develop their skills
Assigning tasks within a healthy TM framework
Modeling good TM habits
PM is a complex discipline
Not just the delegation of tasks, or making to do lists
Not about software
Methodologies for getting things done efficiently
Managing overlapping and sometimes conflicting demands and constraints
Hard skills from other areas of Business expertise (accounting, budgeting, it stuff, estimation, etc) but with a LOT of SS mixed in
Synthesis of hard and soft skills
Requires the mastery of many of the skills listed individually here today
In order to become a certified PM, experience and success developing soft skills must be documented and demonstrated (not just course work, test)
Includes time management, risk assessment, exercising creativity, judgement and critical thought processes, loads and loads of interpersonal skills (discussed in a few)
I personally enjoy delving into this field (for many reasons) – but primarily because it is such a challenging discipline due to the necessity of mastering and coordinating so many soft skills and joining them with “hard” skills for the overall impact
PMI “Talent Triangle”
The ideal skill set — the Talent Triangle — is a combination of technical, leadership, and strategic and business management expertise.
Technical: skills, competencies, and behaviors related to performing a job in the specific domains of project, program, and portfolio management
• Requirements gathering
• Project controls and scheduling
• Risk management
• Scope management
• Agile tools and techniques
Leadership: Leadership is the ability to articulate a vision and guide or influence others to help achieve that objective
• Communication
• Negotiation
• Conflict management
• Motivation
• Giving/receiving feedback
• Influencing
• Problem solving
• Team building
• Emotional intelligence
• Creating a vision
• Aligning the team to a vision
• Ethics
Business and Strategic: overall understanding of business context.
• Business acumen
• Finance
• Operational functions—for example, marketing, legal
• Strategic planning/alignment
• Contract management
• Complexity management
• Customer insight
• Go-to-market strategy
• Decision making
In order to become a certified PM, experience and success developing soft skills must be documented and demonstrated (not just course work, test)
Includes time management, risk assessment, exercising creativity, judgement and critical thought processes, loads and loads of interpersonal skills (discussed in a few)
I personally enjoy delving into this field (for many reasons) – but primarily because it is such a challenging discipline due to the necessity of mastering and coordinating so many soft skills and joining them with “hard” skills for the overall impact
Personal
Confidence
Assertiveness
Self awareness
Motivation
Things we can work on in ourselves to help enhance our professional skill set
Things that we can work on in all areas of our lives, not just within a professional environment
Risk related (like creativity, other areas we’ve discussed)
Active pursuit of confidence
Feedback dependent
Recognition for accomplishments, celebrating success
Assertiveness - closely related and often cited by library professionals as something they want to work on
Building assertiveness – calling out inequity surrounding this for women, POC
Supporting others in their confidence quest
Mentors, support communities
What we can do is come at the development of confidence as the work of a community
Work to encourage others and building their confidence
Create a culture of supportive feedback
Recognize the pitfalls associated
Adaptability comes from cultivation of confidence
People who lack confidence can not be addaptable
Developing motivation is an exercise in self awareness and values assessment
What is important to you
What is important to your organization
What is important to the profession
What is important to colleagues
What is important to all stakeholders, patrons
Aligning professional pursuits with these values sets the stage for motivation
Teamwork
Communication
Public Speaking
Includes
“Oral and Written Communication Skills”
Public speaking
Networking
Documentation
Non Verbal communication
Brainstorming and elements of collaboration
Communication paths
Communication networks
(All channel)
Wheel, circle, chain , hierarchy – all with pros and cons depending on the circumstances
Must cover all of the possible paths – complicated enough on its own
Also consider
Communication types Oral, Written, Collaborative, electronic medium
Communication styles
Language, jargon, and cultural influences
Clarity
Self disclosure
Degree of emotional involvement
Bottom line – communication is extremely complex, and we are not as great as it as we may think
Developing communication skills – not just practice of what we already do, but also incorporating new ideas and challenges
Alda Center for communicating Science – SBU School of Journalism cross disciplinary
New ways to help intellectuals (scientists) become better communicators of information
Incorporating writing, drama, performance skills, audiovisual methods – all of develop new and
Flame Challenge – Answer the question “What is Energy” in a way 11 year olds can understand and identify with. 21K 5th graders are the primary judges - $1K prizes to encourage creativity in communication
Effective communication does not happen without empathy – understanding and sharing in the feelings of others
The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner
Empathic Communication
Valuable tool to consider: Non-Violent Communication techniques
Active listening
Recognition of
Empathic Communication – studied a lot in relation to medical professions, counseling, etc
1. Giving Advice / Fixing: Tell the other person what you think they should do. “I think you should leave your boyfriend and find somebody else to be with.”
2. Analyzing: Interpreting or evaluating a person’s behavior “I think you are taking this out on your ex-wife when you are actually frustrated about your divorce.”
3. Storytelling: Moving the focus away from the other and back to your own experience. “I know just how you feel. This reminds me of a time that I…”
4. Sympathy: Either feeling sorry for other, or sharing my own feelings about what they said. “Oh, you poor thing… I feel so sad for you.”
5. Reassuring / Consoling: Trying to make the person “feel better” by telling them things will improve. “You might be upset now, but I’m sure you will feel better soon.”
6. Shutting Down: Discounting a person’s feelings and trying to shift them in another direction. “Quit feeling sorry for yourself,” or, “There is no reason to feel that way!”
7. Correcting: Giving the person your opinion or belief about a situation.
“Wait a minute – I never said that!” or, “You don’t remember this accurately.”
8. Interrogating: Using questions to ‘figure out’ or change the person’s behavior.
“When did this begin?” or, “Why did you decide to do that?” or, “What got into you?”
9. Commiserating: Agreeing with the speaker’s judgments of others.
“I know what you mean – your cousin is one of the biggest jerks I have ever met!”
10. One-upping: Convincing the speaker that whatever they went through, you had it worse.
“You think that’s bad? Let me tell you what happened to me when I was in that situation!”
Empathic Communication models stress the roles of
Active Listening
Acknowledgement
Discerning needs
All based on a strong level of Emotional Intelligence
Methods from Non-Violent Communication have proved valuable for me for Conflict Resolution, Change Management, Professional Relationships
Marshall Roseberg and Others
Observing without Evaluating
Mirroring
Self disclosure
Formulating Requests
Resources from the center for NonViolent Communication
Working effectively with others within our professional environment towards a common goal
Absolutely dependent on
Communication
Shared Values
Clearly defined goals
Cooperative sense of motivation
Trust
Finding relationships within our communities where values, goals, and desired outcomes overlap
Leveraging these areas of overlap for mutual benefit of everyone involved
While there are some exceptional examples of this, it’s an area of our profession that will not develop without intentional focus on identifying these opportunities and developing creative ways to connect the dots and create interorganizational efforts programs that help meet mutal goals
Many unexplored opportunities to develop partnerships between different kinds of libraries (academic, public, special, school) with overlapping stakeholders and community aspirations
We need to make space and create a framework that supports activelycreating these opportunities
Red billed oxpecker
With these (and other) soft skills in mind, we have an opportunity within our profession to enhance our skillsets far beyond simply focusing on Hard Skills
Approaching the development of these skills as a practice
Self identifying areas you wan to work on and devoting time and energy to intentionally peruse the development of these skills
Developing a leadership practice
For the growth of your own skill set
To provide a framework for helping others to do so as well
Creating a culture of leadership where development of soft skills has as high a priority and level of support as “hard” skills
Don’t just send people for classes
Give opportunities to learn through practice
Create an environment where every stakeholder is encouraged to work on soft skills in an intentional way
Intentional Leadership – for personal growth and development
Sara King, Robert Altman, Robert Lee
Personal leadership model w five elements
Vision (personal)
Values (core values)
Self Awareness (continual assessment)
Balance (integration between leadership practice and other aspects of personal and professional life)
Changing context and demands
Provides a developing a personal leadership practice that operates within the context of ever changing demands and expectations
Self assessment is key to incorporating this model into a practice of professional growth
Professional Development is not about so called “hard skills” alone – and perhaps less and less of the focus should be on that
We don’t want robots, we want human beings who can do things AI and automation can NOT do
To be effective and reach our goals, we need humanity.
It’s our responsibility as leaders in our profession to build our own set of “Soft” skills and to empower those around us to do so as well in a collaborative and supportive way.
Lucky for us that, although this is a complex and difficult challenge, we have strategies and communities to help us do this. We just have to be intentional about finding them and using them.