James LaRue - myliblog

I'm just returning from the Texas Library Association, where I presented first with Marci Merola (director of ALA's Office for Library Advocacy) for our Intellectual Freedom and Advocacy Bootcamp, then with Kristin Pekoll (my assistant director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom) on intellectual freedom resources. I also had a chance to attend former ALA President Maureen Sullivan's session on Appreciative Inquiry and strategic planning. Maureen was great as always: clear, insightful, and representing some of the current best thinking about managerial leadership. Many of us have used the SWOT exercise (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). But there's something better: SOAR. That stands for: Strengths: what works today? What is the best of what is? As Maureen said, even in difficult times, there's always something that's going right. Opportunities: Where are the possibilities not now being pursued? Aspiration: What are our hopes and dreams? ...

I had breakfast this morning with my dear friend and colleague Monique Sendze, now director of IT and innovation for the Tulsa City County Library. It sounds like a terrific job, a terrific library, and I know she'll be successful there. She and I wound up having a conversation I've had three times over the past two days, so it might be worth digging into it a little deeper. The larger frame is that institutions have rhythms: they focus outward, they focus inward. Institutions breathe, too. Sometimes library leaders get curious about their environment, explore it, build relationships, investigate themes and needs. Then they turn in to do something about it - sometimes to strengthen a core that suddenly needs some attention, sometimes to implement a project or vision identified in the outward-looking phase. Then, after that project is done, the possibilities branch. Institutions stagnate. They remain inwardly focused, incurious about their environment, disengaged with la...

One of the challenges of my new consulting career is finding the succinct summary of just what it is that I do. Here's my latest attempt: I'm a full time public library thought leader. I've decided that the profession I love (librarianship!) is at a tipping point. With some attention on just the right things, I think we can earn long term mind share and support. The point isn't just to benefit libraries, it's to benefit the communities we serve. Libraries just happen to be an extraordinarily effective way to do that. So just what, exactly, are  the "right things" to focus on? Right now: planning. After PLA (where I offered some free consulting to the library world, and met some fascinating people), I spent some time thinking about processes to move quickly and precisely to true "strategic" planning -- not just a list of stuff to do, but a narrow focus on the things that matter most. trend tracking. Really, this is just a subset of plann...