by Ruth Wolfish, New Jersey Chapter, Engineering and Leadership & Management Divisions

In my role as SLA Chapter Cabinet (Elect, Current, Past) I’ve learned to be more “Future Ready” myself and have smoothly transferred these ideas to my professional life, so I thought I’d share them with you as these tips will be very pertinent to attending  conference.

Do your homework — be prepared.

Always have business cards with you.

Listen, listen, listen…then speak.

At least once a day try to sit with/or talk to someone you don’t know.

Attempt what scares you, you fail if you don’t try but if you try you may succeed.

Anyone you meet may be important in the future, so treat everyone as you would like to be perceived.

“So, join us in Philly and learn how you too can become future ready!”

by Cynthia Hetherington

“Future-ready” in my business means work in the pipeline. As a business owner and private investigator, I spend a lot of time nurturing my clients and waiting for their calls. As much of our work is reactive, we have to be ever-ready. To prepare for this, my team and I are always updating and re-sharpening our skills. Like first responders, when you don’t see us working on active caseloads, we are strengthening our skills by practicing on our search tactics and reviewing new vendors. This is not unlike the librarian, who is in a constant state of learning. However, applying these librarian principals to the private investigative industry is a new and unique approach.

There’s the rub! Being unique in your area of expertise is truly future-ready. That uniqueness will always allow for you to stand apart from the competition and, thereby, make you a more attractive resource. For example, when I’m in librarian circles I tend to emphasize my security and investigations work. Conversely, when I’m with law enforcement or investigative groups I remind them of my library background. Simple as that. I’m always remembered by those with whom I come into contact.

Once you’ve pinpointed your unique feature, it must be marketed as such. Get out from behind your computer and meet, in person, with clients at conferences, luncheons, and other networking events. Meeting in person once is worth a thousand tweets!

Future-ready has to be made to happen, so start building your brand and marketing your unique self.

Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, MSM, has been coaching, training, and working alongside private investigators, security specialists, and law enforcement professionals for nearly twenty years. She  has found a niche in the investigative industry, assisting in online and Internet research. A widely-published author, she has written Business Background Investigations and The Manual to Online Public Records. Cynthia founded Hetherington Group, a firm dedicated to private, corporate, and government investigation and security, utilizing the industry’s most highly-regarded and nationally known investigative experts.  It also publishes the Data2know.com: Internet & Online Intelligence Newsletter for investigators and security professionals, and provides one of the industry’s most trusted private investigative services, geared toward the private business sector.

by Debbie Schachter, Western Canada Chapter, Information Technology Division

It is a pleasure to be able to contribute to the Future Ready blog for 2011, particularly as I’ve recently been thinking about the past and the future of special libraries and our association, as part of a panel for SLA Western Canada Chapter’s 25^th Anniversary. The conclusions that were drawn by that panel and by the audience were mostly positive about the future, and not unexpected. Beyond the specific technology predictions offered, people generally talked about:

• the need to continue learning new skills;
• the need to develop community engagement processes with our users;
• the need to continue to network and support each other. 

I think one of the most important things that we can do to get ready for the future is to build a good personal foundation today; and we do that by developing our change management skills in both personal and professional contexts. It is said that you make your own “luck” through your plans and actions, rather than simply responding to the events that happen to you. If you are prepared, either through continuing education, new skills development, or even just psychologically prepared for the unexpected, you will be better prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. 

Scenario planning is a great way to do some of the mental exercises required for thinking of the future. Once you have started to look at some alternative realities, it is a heck of a lot easier to begin planning for these than if you are simply reacting to what is happening, as it happens. It is difficult to predict the future but we can plan scenarios based on what has happened before, and what we are seeing today. When I think about the work that I will be doing next year, I expect that much of it will be the same type of work, but there will be the challenges of unexpected changes, and obstacles that will need to be addressed, and skills that I will need to learn. 

I also want to say that the power of a movement, such as the Future Ready movement, can accomplish a lot for all of us. I don’t know what I will be doing in five or ten (or two!) years, but I do know that there are lots of smart librarians out there who are also thinking and planning and sharing. One of the areas in which we do excel is in our networking and sharing. The very nature of the Future Ready movement is about bringing the profession into the future together.

Debbie Schachter has held multiple leadership positions in SLA’s Western Canada Chapter.