by Jan Chindlund, Illinois Chapter, Academic, Museums, Arts & Humanities, B&F, LM Divisions

“Yes, I was invited.”

Think back to times in your career (in both your employment and your volunteer work) when you were personally invited to join the team, join the organization, write an article or post, render an opinion, edit a document, brainstorm, manage a project, research a complex issue, or lead.

✓How did the invitation make you feel?
✓What did you think when you were invited?
✓How did you respond to the invitation?

We’ve all heard Victor Hugo’s “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” True. And perhaps, there is no connection more persuasive than the personal invitation.

Recognizing a spark, talent or skill in another person and then inviting them to be involved honors the invitee and inspires them to get involved.

To be “Future Ready” has so many facets: strategic, critical and systems thinking; embracing technology; acquiring and applying knowledge; being politically astute; being nimble, flexible and adaptable; recognizing opportunities; and the list goes on. All important and essential.

Add to that mix: practicing the art of personal invitation. Establishing relationships is the key to gaining insight into situations and opening doors to opportunities to learn and to become involved. Personal invitations are a way to initiate and strengthen relationships.

In this era of high tech, the personal invitation can satisfy our need for high touch.

Seek ways to invite others…and to be invited.

In association volunteer work

When asked to lead, I invite a co-chair to work alongside me. At this point, I invite someone newer to our profession. So we can co-mentor each other. I might contribute knowledge about the organization or work at hand, the other person might contribute technical know-how or insights into how today’s audiences or clientele will respond to messages.

I have been in groups of SLA members when the question was asked, “Who has been hired because of their connection with SLA?”  The majority of hands shoot up…every time!  Well, think back, how did you get involved in SLA? Did someone invite you to join or to be on a committee or to speak?

✓  I attended my first SLA meeting because I was personally invited.
✓  I joined my first chapter committee because I was personally invited.
✓  I ran for office in a division because I was personally invited.
✓  I ran for office in our chapter because I was personally invited.
✓  I wrote this post because I was personally invited.

How did you hear about that job?  Did an SLA colleague inform you about the position, invite you to apply, recommend you?

SLA’s “Connecting People and Information” could be expanded to “Connecting People and Information, Expanding Information to Knowledge & Connecting People to People.” The cross-pollination of what is learned in SLA, and the connections made there, with our professional work is the penultimate value of belonging.

Personally invite others to join and to become involved.

In the workplace

Larry Prusak referred to “ground truth” as one source of wisdom in his presentation at SLA 2011. That resonated with me. Inviting those who are “on the ground” to share their insights is not only good business, but it provides valuable knowledge that can be used to make better decisions. In our professional life, this can provide new knowledge and connections, improving the richness and the quality of the work we produce and the wisdom upon which we make decisions.

Personally invite those “on the ground” to share their “ground truth”

As Kevin Kelly so aptly put it, “The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention.” The human attention given through personal invitation is very compelling indeed.

“Yes, I was invited.”

Jan Chindlund has been Library Director, Columbia College Chicago, since September 2007. Previously she was Manager of McDonald’s Corporation Global Consumer and Business Insights Information Center and Assistant Vice President & Head Librarian, Duff & Phelps. Jan holds MLIS from Dominican University and MBA from Benedictine University. She has served in various roles at the chapter, division and association levels of SLA, currently Co-Chair of Local Arrangements for SLA 2012 to be held in Chicago July 15-18, 2012. Recipient of the Dow Jones Leadership Award and the Rose L Vormelker Award, she is SLA Fellow and extremely grateful for the learning, advocacy and networking SLA makes available to members.

by Jane Dysart, Dysart & Jones Associates, SLA Fellow, President 1995-6 & John Cotton Dana Recipient

It’s great when organizations, and people, think about their future. Many do not.  In their book, Competing for the Future in the mid-90s, Gary Hamel & C. K. Prahalad said,

“In our experience, about 40% of senior executives’ time is spent looking outward, and of this time, 30% is spent peering 3, 4, 5 plus years into the future.  And of the time spent looking forward, no more than 20% is spent attempting to build a collective view of the future (the other 80% is spent looking at the future of the manager’s particular business).Thus, on average, senior management is devoting less than 3% (40% x 30% x 20% =2.4%) of its energy to building a corporate perspective on the future. In some companies the figure is less than 1%.”

This statement resonated with me at the time and is the reason that Dysart & Jones Associates has had a successful strategic planning consulting practice for almost 20 years. We created an accelerated planning technique that we use to facilitate expedited planning with clients, we wrote an article on Standing in the Future in Special Libraries (precursor to Information Outlook) in 2000, we teach and talk about planning in many venues — most recently at the SLA conference last month in Philadelphia with Thinking Strategically: How to See the Big Picture/Possibilities.

But how do we, and how should you, get insights and ideas to create strategic and innovative directions and priorities to be ready for the future?

1. Be deeply aware of your context and environment, not just your own operation but your organization’s, your industry’s, your community’s as well as the technological, social, political, and economic realities and possibilities.  Have you studied your organization’s strategic plan or your community’s master plan?  Have you read what industry analysts are saying about your industry or emerging technologies?

2. Be open to seeing things differently & adjusting your “frames” with openness, flexibility and adaptability, by clarifying assumptions and questioning the status quo, by getting the facts, and by focusing on the future.

3. Practice good strategic & critical thinking which raises the right questions – clearly & precisely; focuses on the real problem or decision to be taken; gathers & assesses relevant information; uses abstract ideas to interpret info effectively; develops well-reasoned conclusions & solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; relies on recognizing & assessing  assumptions, implications, & consequences; communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

4. Create a positive vision of the future, a preferred future that is a stretch from the current situation — stand in 2015 and imagine your organization at the top of its game, with highly skilled colleagues illustrating future ready competencies, with clients that rave about your services and call you “indispensable,” with perfectly working technology & processes that allow efficient & effective collaborative work spaces, with supportive stakeholders who fund your operation and are willing to try your new ideas. Isn’t that where you want to be in 2015?  Explain what you just envisioned to a colleague or friend using the present tense and you will definitely want to be there. Try it. Now. And remember what Eugenie Prime, formerly with Hewlett Parkard, exhorted a few years ago — “No puny visions!”

5. Be curious, listen & read.  See opportunities. Go to conferences where you can mix it up with all types of information professionals SLA Annual and Regional Conferences, Internet Librarian, Library Directors Digital Library Summit, Computers in Libraries to name a few, (and yes I have a vested interest in those as Information Today has been a wonderful client of mine for almost 20 years and allows me to grow and learn from great speakers and participants), or go to leading industry conferences that influence those in your organization whether it’s pharmaceuticals, food, medicine, etc.  Ask questions, talk to people, learn as much as you can about your environment so that you can see opportunities or gaps that you can fill. As Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Watch for difficulties and pain points; jump on those opportunities and create new services to alleviate those challenges.