by John Creighton

Community engagement is a public sector buzzword. Engagement is hailed as a key strategy to help keep institutions such as public libraries relevant now and in the future. But was does community engagement mean? And, more important, what is the purpose of community engagement?

Community engagement often is translated as a set of activities and/or events. People attend book readings, film screenings, a community dialogue. Attendance at these events becomes the purpose of engagement as well as the measure of success.

These types of activities are often worthwhile. But, does hosting an event, even if well attended, really make a library more relevant in the community? Is a meeting room with ample seating capacity an irreplaceable community asset? Can no other organization besides a library host a book reading, film screening or discussion?

To discover the full potential of civic engagement we must look beyond activities and set aside attendance as the primary metric of success.

Richard Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, offers a definition for the purpose of community engagement that elevates engagement’s potential to new heights. Harwood challenges organizations to pursue community engagement as a means to improve the civic health of the community.

Let me state that again. The purpose of community engagement is to improve the civic health of the community.

What are some of the elements of a civically healthy community? The Harwood Institute’s research identifies factors such as these:

• Diverse layers of leadership at all levels of the community.
• A strong set of links and connections between diverse groups of people.
• Boundary spanning organizations and leaders willing to hold up a mirror to the community.
• A culture of constructive dialogue.

Embracing the idea that the purpose of community engagement is to improve the community’s civic health challenges engagement organizers to consider a different set of questions. The same activities are viewed in a different light.

A library team, for instance, might think differently about film screenings. The relevant questions become:

• How can we use film screenings to cultivate more diverse leadership at more levels of the community?
• How will the film screenings help people of different backgrounds forge strong connections?
• In what ways will the film screenings challenge people to look in the mirror and engage in constructive dialogue?

The ability to achieve these goals becomes the priority. Attendance becomes a secondary goal. These types of questions might even lead a library team to look outside its own buildings as the best place to show films and host conversations.

The measures of success change, too. Gatherings of a small group of people who are from diverse parts of the community may be deemed more successful than a well-attended event of like-minded library patrons.

An institution that is able to contribute to the civic health of its community – rather than just host an entertaining event – over time is far more relevant.

To what extent is your organization improving the civic health of your community?

John Creighton, a Longmont, Colorado leadership consultant, writes on community life and public leadership at johncr8on.com. He can be found on Twitter @johncr8on and on Facebook. John also is a member of The Harwood Institute’s national faculty.

by Paul T. Jackson, Trescott Research

© March, 2011

“People are resilient because they have to be…although the scars never disappear totally.”

By the time Naisbitt came out with his book Megatrends 2000 wherein he said people would likely have 4 or 5 careers, I was already on my sixth career track. Here are some lessons about being flexible and adaptable and future ready from those six careers.

Lesson 1:  Be open to new possibilities.

Over time I’ve experienced many successful endeavors simply by allowing them to happen and doing my best at the tasks given.

Without a job, and while attending a performance of the Royal Ballet of England in Detroit, I was standing next to an older gentleman.  We found we had mutual friends and interests, and I was invited to a late night dinner with him. Our dinner conversation led me to my library career under Kurtz Myers, head of the Detroit Public Library Music Department.

Years later, after my university position ended, I went to the office supply store to get some copy paper for my old wet copier.  The proprietor showed me the new 3M dry toner copier, and after looking at the copy sample, I exclaimed, “Wow, I could sell this!”  The proprietor said, “You’re on. When can you start?” Thus started a career of selling office supply and machines; helping people organize their files and paper processes. This knowledge and work eventually brought me to learning and selling computers and a partnership with a computer firm helping build databases for companies and organizations.

In all of these positions I was using all of my knowledge and past experience in libraries, music publishing, research, writing, and office supply and able to do a superior performance because of it.

Lesson 2:  Be Inquisitive and ask questions.   It can lead to new ventures.

In undergraduate school, a philosophy professor had told me, “Solutions start with questions.”

At library school I felt there was a need for an organization whose archives of recorded sound could come together to share information.  I wrote and asked the curator of the Ford Museum collection, Frank Davis, what it would take to get these and other archivists together. His response was, “First, we have to have a meeting.”  This led to several meetings including an exploratory one with 22 librarians and archivists attending. They represented the largest collections of recordings in the United States.  We met in June of 1965 at Greenfield Village/Ford Museum after the American Library Association conference in Detroit.  We met again at Syracuse University, and there, in 1966, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) was founded with over 40 people attending, representing not only U.S. collections and archives, but also Canadian broadcasting and the United Nations sound recording libraries.  ARSC ( http://arsc-audio.org/ ) is now in its 45th year of existence. It only takes a question, and action, to start something significant.

Lesson 3: Give Responsibility; Take Responsibility

As a supervisor it is your job, your responsibility, to help those you supervise. This includes mentoring and developing your staff. You need to be able to teach them to take over your job, or at least keep the place operational if you are not there; no one should feel threatened by this.  It is making things better, even people.

I gave inmates responsibility to operate their prison library and law library.  They came back with ideas, they helped with grant writing, they improved services, and they took turns running the classes on writing business plans, legal research, and helping in the reading lab.  I helped train them on computers. The Corrections Accreditation Commission reported twice, our library “second to none [in the nation]” over the 8 plus years I was Director. Great things happen to your staff and their self-esteem when they have responsibility.

Lesson 4: Focus on problems–It’s not about you or me.

Someone on staff takes credit for your idea—get over it!

You have to change to smaller space—get over it!

Someone damages your ego—get over it!

Your library closes—get over it!

None of these things are important to the business of solving problems for the employer or customers.  I’ve survived all these things and in the end found solving problems was more important than who got credit. The programs I’ve helped build have survived, which to me is vastly more important.

At the music publishing group, TRO, Inc. representing over 32 publishers in 18 countries, the executives were often arguing, but once the problem was solved or the action agreed upon and discharged, they would be seen heading out the door for lunch together.

Remembering what you learned makes you so much more valuable for the next job.  Get over the closing and go on. Solving problems for the company, the employees, the customers, is the mission of every employee. This is what is remembered.

Lesson 5:  Think altruistically about leaving!

Leave something better than expected.

Growing up, my mother taught us we were to leave things better. I’m not rich financially. My career didn’t follow a well thought out plan.  It wasn’t something I started out to do.  Along the way I created new libraries, new businesses, and helped establish a national association.  I count myself a success.  When you get done, (do we ever get done?) by being resilient and practicing the lessons, you too can say, “I did good.”

Two of my favorite quotes:

“Remember, to get anything done, you first have to start.”

“The one who says it can’t be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it.”

Mr. Jackson is an Information Specialist. A retired Special Librarian in Academic, Public, Corporate, and Prison libraries, he has taught research to Ph.D. candidates, and published a wide variety of articles. He is currently Editor of Plateau Area Writers Association’s Quarterly and anthology series, Contrasts. He is a member of several musical ensembles and volunteers as church librarian.  His career positions are recorded in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who International, and a profile at his web site: www.trescottresearch.com

by Noël Kopriva, Pittsburgh Chapter, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division

Lead? Me? When I was asked to run for Chair-Elect of the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division (FAN) after only a few years as a member, I couldn’t help saying to myself: “I don’t know what I’m doing yet!” Now, nearly a year later, I’m reflecting on the experience of learning to lead.

When I was asked to run for Chair-Elect, I had qualms about my inexperience, both as a FAN member and as a librarian, but those were not my only doubts: I was convinced that I was temperamentally unsuited to a leadership position. I like to listen to people and encourage them, but I’m not fond of giving directions; that is to say, I unconsciously equated leadership with bossiness.  As I thought about FAN and the people I knew in leadership positions, however, I realized my experiences with the division had actually shown me that leaders do not “boss” if they want to be effective. Good leaders listen well, they encourage you to play to your strengths, and they help you to learn from failure. These are all qualities I wanted to cultivate as a librarian and as a leader, so I ran for Chair-Elect and got the position.

In my son’s favorite episode of The Backyardigans, called “Super Team Awesome,” one of the characters is a tour guide without super powers. Not to worry: “You have the gift of leading people,” Tyrone the Tour Guide’s friends tell him. “You’re a real superhero!” And it’s true: Tyrone gently leads his team of certified superheroes through an obstacle maze of sticky bacteria, slippery rocks, and active volcanoes to help them save the earth.  His is a perfect example of servant leadership, which is characterized, according to Fillipa Manulo (2007), by “the desire to serve authentically and with purpose (par 36),” not by a desire for power or control. It’s an example I aim to follow each day as I communicate, plan, and organize in the virtual world with my colleagues in FAN and in real life as a subject librarian and instruction coordinator. In either context, I see my primary mission as one of empowerment—helping students to become lifelong learners, helping faculty to succeed in their research, helping colleagues obtain access to the professional development tools they need to do their jobs effectively.

The desire to serve, the desire to lead: to do both effectively, we must be future ready. We need to think not only in terms of our skill sets, whose currency we anxiously monitor, but in terms of our openness to change, our commitment to thoughtful stewardship of our resources (Anzalone, 2007, par. 30), and to a realistic assessment of our ability to be effective in innumerable environments and platforms. If we do these things, we will not only be ready for the future ourselves, we can show others the way.

Since 2007, Noël Kopriva has been the Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design Librarian at West Virginia University Libraries; since 2008, she has served as the Instruction Coordinator for Evansdale Library. Prior to her career as a librarian, Noël worked as a college writing instructor and in the production end of medical and educational publishing. She holds a BA & an MA in English, and an MLS, all from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

References

Anzalone, F. (2007). Servant leadership: a new model for law library leaders. Law Library Journal, 99(4), 793-812. http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_journal.asp.

Berstein, AD, Burgess, J., Gray, S (Writers) & Kim, D (Director). (2010). Super team awesome. In Janice M. Jacobs (Producer), The Backyardigans. New York, NY: NickJr.

by Rachel Wangerin, SLA Minnesota President

Had someone told me in library school that I would one day go on to become the president of the SLA MN chapter, I would have thought they were crazy. But here I am, 6 years after graduation, doing just that. The main advice I heard, whether just out of undergraduate school, or after receiving my Master’s degree, was network, network, network. So much so that it almost felt like a dirty word. One secret that they don’t tell you is that once you start participating in a professional organization (and I mean participating, not just joining) the networking starts to come naturally. Another secret that isn’t apparent is that participating in a professional organization can add to your professional development every bit as much as work inside your own organization.

I had the opportunity to begin my information career working with individuals with a huge amount of experience and knowledge. I learned so much those first couple of years. My boss was very supportive and constantly looking for opportunities for me to grow. During that time, I sat back and let her help direct my professional development. She is the one who recommend my name when the SLA Chemistry Division was looking for a program planner for the 2008 Annual Conference.

As that boss moved towards retirement, I began to realize that there would be no one left to drive my professional development. In school, we are used to teachers and professors telling us what we need to do to succeed. However, in the workplace, that isn’t always the case. We need to figure it out for ourselves and take the steps that will help us have new experiences and grow. So, I started to seek out ways to drive my own success.

The SLA MN chapter drafted me as I finished my stint as a program planner to step into the four year commitment that included President of the chapter. As I begin the third year of that commitment, I look back at how much I have learned and am amazed. My confidence is much higher and I have had the opportunity to make connections all over MN and the rest of the world.

While SLA has been a huge part of my professional development, I also do many other things. I monitor numerous blogs and websites for new ideas. I try to attend online and live seminars when they are applicable and available.

While I was very lucky to have someone to direct my early career development, this is not the case for everyone. We are the only ones responsible for our professional development. We have to own it and continue owning it throughout our career. This will help us to be “Future Ready.”

Rachel Wangerin is a corporate, technical information specialist working for a global research and development company.

by Steven A. Lastres, New York Chapter, Knowledge Management Division

Since the earliest days of libraries, librarians have served as knowledge managers. Whether they were maintaining the scrolls at the Library of Alexandria, creating the catalog for the House of Wisdom (a Ninth Century Islamic library), or assembling annotated links for the law firm intranet, law librarians have always been in the forefront of organizing information and adding value to it. Librarians have long excelled at getting information into the hands of the people who need it. The precise definition of knowledge management (KM) is an elusive one, but one pillar of KM practice holds that knowledge management “is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets.”¹

Steven Lastres

Becoming Business Managers

What has changed is that the librarian needs to wear a new hat–that of a business manager. The array of tools available to today’s librarian has driven that change. No longer restricted to offering only upon-request services, librarians can instead embrace a broader view of their professional role. They actively manage their organization’s information assets rather than passively respond to requests.

KM, as evolved from traditional librarianship, today means identifying business opportunities within our organization to help our users practice more efficiently and effectively. Librarians need to understand how our users work, not just anticipate what their information needs will be.

As librarians expand their professional roles, their efforts at KM must align with their organization’s business objectives. Librarians need to become business managers. If we take the business view, librarians are selling a product (knowledge and information) to a market (our users) that needs to be serviced effectively (the right product), efficiently (at the right time), and cost-effectively (at the right price). Figuring out how to improve upon that business model is what knowledge management is all about. When it comes to knowledge management, the emphasis should be on management.

Why do librarians make good knowledge managers? The answer may be that librarians tend to be more eager to adopt new ways of sharing information than our users. Librarians look at new technologies and services with a critical eye to understand how to meet current and emerging information needs. KM is not technology for technology’s sake. Instead, librarians focus on content and its seamless delivery. In many ways, they can decipher what our users need before our users even ask. (After all, that’s what reference interviews are for!) They know the resources, they know how the resources are delivered, and they know how to find the information that our users ask for.

In addition to their skills, when it comes to knowing the content available, most librarians fit well into the KM mold because of their technical sophistication. Today’s librarians are perfectly at home in the online world. And unlike the past, when any project that lived on a server was automatically the ward of the IT department, KM projects are now managed by librarians. Library staff members drive the selection of tools to deliver content, the adoption of interactive services such as wikis and blogs, and the promotion of KM applications such as work product retrieval. This is a major change in librarianship, in which librarians are innovators and technologists, as well as content managers. Most librarians bring considerable technical savvy to their professional work. Librarians, in short, should select the information resources that best fit the practices they support, but they also should be involved in selecting the best delivery platforms. That includes managing the graphic display of information on portal or intranet pages and creating a Web-based presentation that is easy to use and search.

As librarians adapt to a changing world, it’s a good idea to understand some of the changes they face, including these:

• Users expect to receive information faster than ever.
• Users expect to have no impediments to get the information they need.
• Users depend on knowledge managers to keep up with KM innovations and best practices.

As knowledge management becomes more ingrained in corporations and law firms, KM managers need to become experts in three specialized fields: librarianship, legal technology, and business management. Librarians need to understand the technical possibilities–not just the nuts and bolts of the software but also the realistic research needs of the lawyers.

Change is propelling librarians forward in a world where they must adapt to new ways of thinking about the information over which they are stewards. This changing world means new opportunities for librarians, as librarians redefine themselves as KM managers who create value for the firm by effectively managing the information for which they are professionally responsible.

¹ Megan Santosus & Jon Surmacz, “The ABCs of Knowledge Management”, CIO Magazine, 2001.

Steven A. Lastres is Director of Library and Knowledge Management at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. His e-mail address is salastres@debevoise.com.

by R. David Lankes, iSchool, Syracuse University

Why “what is the future of libraries” is a bad question, and a way to start an agenda.

Future Ready from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

R. David Lankes is an associate professor at the iSchool as well as director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS) which houses several high-profile research efforts, including the Educator’s Reference Desk and projects for NSF’s National Science Digital Library. Dr. Lankes co-founded the AskERIC project in 1992 and also founded the Virtual Reference Desk project and was the first fellow of the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy.

by Toccara D. Porter, Kentucky Chapter, Information Technology Division

The idea of being future ready, particularly as a newbie to SLA, leads me to examine the style of leadership within the entire Association on down to the Divisions and Chapters. In attending my first Leadership Summit I walked around introducing myself to people. Many of the conversations focused on their experiences being in a Chair-Elect or President-Elect position.  People talked of either finding themselves ‘thrown’ into the position without a clue about what to do or having adequate support from the incumbents and the entire board.

Considering these prospects as a toss up of what could happen to me in the same situation brought to mind the summer of 1993. The year marked my entrance into the 5^th grade. Anxiously I awaited ‘the letter’ from my elementary school that would reveal which teacher’s class I would be joining: Ms. Roberts or Mr. Patterson. All the kids at school had nothing but great things to say about Ms. Roberts: she was nice and was always welcoming when someone approached. However, Mr. Patterson was the opposite; grumpy and a bit of a pushover. When the letter finally arrived it seemed as if my entire life rested on whose name was inside as I opened the envelope: Ms. Roberts or Mr. Patterson?

The point is: thinking about what type of leadership style awaits within a Division and Chapter makes me a little hesitant about opening that envelope. As SLA prepares its members—new and established—to be ready to demonstrate strong leadership qualities we must continually reflect on whether the current leadership structures in place can truly open the door to that future or close it; because I am ready to walk through it! What about you?

In case you were wondering, I had Ms. Roberts. And, yes, being in the fifth-grade was a good year!

Toccara D. Porter is the Librarian-In-Residence at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a member of the Kentucky Chapter and Information Technology Division of SLA. 

by Daniel Lee, SLA Board of Directors

SLA isn’t yet Future Ready, so I am doing something about it. This site is the first live website to use SLA’s new web hosting service and newly designed theme for WordPress!

For many years, our unit websites have been disparate in content, design, and functionality. Some sites are coded “old school” with plain HTML, some use ColdFusion, some ASP or PHP, and some are externally hosted. They can’t effectively exchange data with Headquarters (or each other) and, to be honest, many have seen better days. At first glance, you would hardly know they were units of the same organization!

Operation Vitality*

SLA will revitalize its website community as “Operation Vitality” swings into high gear this year.

“Operation Vitality” has five objectives:

1. Provide a stable and modern website hosting service to all chapters, divisions, and caucuses;
2. Ensure the service is affordable and cost effective for the Association;
3. Design a brand-compliant template for all units to use;
4. Promote a common content management system we can all use, understand and build upon; and
5. Rebuild the community for SLA’s webmasters.

I ran for the Board of Directors on a Leadership, Volunteers and Technology platform and “Operation Vitality” sits at the intersection of these three themes. This will be my main focus during my last year on the Board.

New Hosting Service

The SLA staff has made tremendous strides towards establishing a new web hosting service for the units and 2011 will be the year we convert to a common content management system and promote a common look and feel.

• SLA has partnered with award-winning web host provider HostGator;
• WordPress will be promoted as the content management system of choice; and
• A professional WordPress theme has been designed specifically for SLA units and will be included as part of a new web hosting service.

There will be a cost for the new service, $40 per year, which includes a fully functioning WordPress install with the SLA Theme, 24/7 technical support provided by HostGator, email accounts, MySQL databases, FTP Accounts, an easy to use and flexible Control Panel, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. For the real web gurus out there, advanced features will also include CGI, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, Curl, CPAN, GD Library, Image Magick, SSH Access and Cron Job Scheduling.

The Plan

In late 2010 a set of units who self-identified as early adopters started using the new service. Based on the feedback from this pilot, the service and the WordPress theme will be adjusted and rolled out to the whole Association in early 2011. The goal is to have all SLA units who are currently hosted by SLA converted to the new service by December 2011. Units who have pursued their own hosting are encouraged to rejoin.

The Team

A large project like “Operation Vitality” requires the energy of a dedicated and talented group of people. Volunteer “Super Admins” and staff members will be available to answer WordPress-related questions and provide guidance to units as they join the new service:

• Amy Buckland
• Michelle Dollinger
• Nicole Engard
• Britta Jessen Charbonneau
• Daniel Lee
• Kendra Levine
• Heather Ritchie
• Margaret Smith
• Linda Broussard (SLA’s Chief Administrative Officer)
• Jeff Leach (SLA’s Director, Marketing)
• Quan O. Logan (SLA’s Chief Technology Officer)

Are You Ready?

Today is the official launch of this project at Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. I will present details of the new service (along with a live demo of some of its features) to SLA’s leadership and will also invite units to join the second round of early adopters.

I am very excited to see what web-based innovations the association will realize when we are all finally rowing in the same direction. If your unit is ready to make the switch, or if you have any questions or comments, contact me.

Daniel P. Lee
Director, 2009-2011
Email: danielplee at sympatico.ca
Office: (416) 644-7000
Twitter: @yankeeincanada

Appendix – Early Adopters (First Round)

• Florida & Caribbean
• Illinois
• New York
• Oregon
• Philadelphia
• Silicon Valley
• Toronto
• Washington, DC
• Western Canada
• Academic
• Business and Finance
• Competitive Intelligence
• Leadership and Management Division
• Legal
• Science-Technology
• Transportation

* I chose “Operation Vitality” as the nickname/codename for this project because I wanted to inject a “a healthy capacity for vigorous activity” into our webmaster community and because I was doing things slightly under the radar to build support from the ground up.

Since 2002, Daniel has worked as a Research Librarian for Navigator Ltd., a research-based communications and strategic counsel firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is currently serving as Director on the SLA Board of Directors, chaired the Technology Review Advisory Group and received an SLA Presidential Citation for the Innovative Use of Technology for introducing twitter as a back channel at the SLA Annual Conference. Daniel was voted “most organized” in high school and is also known as @yankeeincanada on twitter.

by Josh Walters

At the end of 2010 I reviewed and reported on the goals I’d set for my work-year back in January.  These included top level categories like service delivery, business partner engagement, advocacy and outreach, and strategy and communications. Tactics within each of these areas involved extensive use of web communications vehicles and online business networking platforms. Time and time again I was called upon to join teams as a consultant, a critical ear, or to aid in the redirection of a team mired in its own detail.

I should mention that technically, I’m an Access and Interface librarian–that means I do web design, usability, optimization; I “productize” services we’ve traditionally done as manual processes using the web, or translate business partner and end user needs into a service we can “sell” inside the enterprise to other groups.  In many cases, this leads to innovation.  In others, it means greater user-awareness and more work.  In either, it’s exposure, proof, leverage, an elevator speech… that said, considering the words “access” and “interface,” and using a broad interpretation, it may be apt.

We have a leadership attribute inside our company that translates to: Finds a way.  It implies that when the road is ill-defined (or non-existent) one who will succeed is one who taps some inner reservoir and marshals a solution.  During this current economic downturn–as we have fewer resources, people and consequently, time–it is often the punchline to a dire joke.  But it’s serious as a heart attack to librarians under the gun.

Librarians jump into new platforms and mediums as easily as breathing.  New social bookmarking app?  Librarians are in it.  Putting web pieces together using JQuery and AJAX?  Librarians.  Extending the blog as a strategic communications vehicle? Turning a wiki into a publishing platform? Tying together underpowered SharePoint environments for greater collaboration? Teaching groups that there’s more to the library than what they ever thought possible?  Librarians, librarians, librarians… librarians.

In reviewing my goals at the end of 2010 I noted that in more than one of my focus areas ‘come 2011, I’d be putting “Finds a Way” to extensive use.  Being “Future Ready,” none of those subject areas are going away:  Service, engagement, outreach, strategy, communications: open the tool box, find a way.  The fun is just beginning.

Talk to you again soon,
Josh

Josh Walters is a librarian with The Boeing Company. He spends extensive time consulting on projects throughout the enterprise related to optimal use of tools and collaboration environments, supporting the Knowledge Management effort, and talking about effective communications practices using social business platforms.  Though physically located in Durham, North Carolina, and with due respect to the locals, he considers himself an SLA-Southern California Chapter member in diaspora.

by Arik Johnson, Competitive Intelligence Division

At Aurora’s last leadership retreat in October 2010, one of the clients who so generously flew in to help us fine-tune our offerings was sharing how his staff was about to contract dramatically at year-end. This CI (competitive intelligence) director was looking for help identifying ways he was going to replace two key people that were leaving by the end of the year, one by choice, the other by compulsion.

We discussed the specific CI-related activities each of these staff were dedicated to, work such as newsletter preparation and answer-desk support, pre-analytics prep and information acquisition, vendor project management and workforce dissemination. As these two very different position descriptions filled out, I realized that, the work itself had striking similarities with another profession with which I’m becoming familiar these past few years through my association with SLA’s CI Division: Special Librarian, a.k.a., “Info Pro”.

The tasks themselves weren’t as much at issue as the desired outcomes and value these positions were tasked with creating as critical components of the larger CI team. In a nutshell, that amounted to contributing finished, actionable intelligence products that would help build a more holistically savvy workforce and culture of intelligent competitive advantage at a fast-growing, privately-held company where the chief intelligence officer of the company was two steps from the CEO and the rate of change (and uncertainty) continued to grow.

What was my advice?

“You need a librarian,” I said. But I elaborated: not two librarians either; one librarian, a “special librarian” embedded in your CI team, with liaison access to your information center resources to enable you to scale and centralize the research done throughout the rest of the company. Librarians know about all the things I just learned these other two team members do for the company. So, why not consolidate that work in a single individual specially trained for that kind of work. Better yet, there’s an abundance of talent available right now to get this work done.

What’d the client say?

“Hmmm…. You know what I think? I think you’re exactly right.”

Arik Johnson is the founder and chairman of Aurora WDC, where he works with organizations of all kinds to develop their intelligence apparatus to anticipate, monitor, detect and interpret change in their business environment.