Digitization 101

I attended the New England Library Association (NELA) Annual Conference in Portland, ME this year (Oct. 20-22). The conference was attended by approx. 600 people, including people from across New England and from a few other U.S. states. I went in order to participate in a panel session on Tuesday morning and enjoyed the entire conference.

I tweeted the conference and thus don't have a lot of notes; however, there is a conference blog at http://conference.nelib.org/. Handouts or slides, if available, are at http://www.nelaconference.org/. Brian Herzog has also published a recap of the conference.

I enjoyed the keynote speaker, Rich Harwood from the Harwood Institute. His presentation about community, and turning outward, built upon what I had heard at the R-Squared Conference last year. At that conference, John McKnight taught us about doing community asset interviews, in order to understand how the library can support the community.  The survey sheet that we used in KcKnight's exercise can be found here, along with the interviewer's prompt card.  (A video of McKnight is below from R-Squared.)  McKnight ties his interviews to the library, while Harwood's focus is solely on the community itself.  He wants us to learn as much as possible about the community, without interjecting how the library might help.  His goal is that we learn, then find the natural connection.  That connection might be something that we do outside of the library or in support of some other group's efforts.


There were several highlights for me over the three days: visiting the Portland Public Library; stepping inside the Library's bookmobile, which was parked outside of the conference on Monday; meeting colleagues from other LIS programs; hearing about an awesome makerspace in New Hampshire; visiting the headquarters of LibraryThing; and making new friends.  I, and five LIS colleagues, spoke on Tuesday morning about LIS education, which is what brought me to NELA.  I now look forward to attending another one in the future!

It has been slightly over a year since 350 people gathered in Telluride, CO for the Risk and Reward Conference (R-Squared or R2), a library conference that many hope is someday repeated.  Over the last year, the team behind R2 has mounted several videos from the conference, and they just put up this one below.  If you have heard something about the conference, and want to know more, please consider watching the videos.  Use the one below as your icebreaker.  You'll wonder what some of the activities chronicled in this video had to do with libraries, and then learn more about the connections through the other videos.



I hold dear my memories of R2 and even of the travel hassles that occurred, because they were part of the entire experience. We all overcame the problems of getting to and from Telluride in order to be a part of this experience. We came. We experienced. We have tried - and succeeded - to take what we learned back to our own parts of the library world.  Now let's continue to share what we've learned and keep the impact of R2 going! 

Normally I can recite with ease the conferences that I attended in a year, but not this year. Wow...what a year! The joy of attending conferences is joy of learning something new.  With the number of conferences I attended, this year, I'm glad that I have notes and blog posts to help jog my members.  Here are the highlights.

January - SLA Leadership Summit in Atlanta (Buckhead), GA - One of the things about this mid-winter SLA event is that no matter where the conference is held, it is always colder than expected.  Atlanta was no different.  (Watch out Dallas this coming February!)

The Leadership Summit is exactly as it is named...a meeting of SLA's leadership from around the world.  It is hoped that every unit in the Association is represented at this meeting, in order to keep the units up-to-date on the Association's activities.  Those who are seeking leadership positions in the Association are also encouraged to attend.  Not only are new procedures discussed, but there are activities to help the leaders gain new skills.

This meeting was at the start of my second year on SLA's Board of Directors and what stood out to me was the information that unit leaders needed to be hearing or paying attention to.  Indeed, my perception of "what's important" has changed since being on the Board, including what meetings are important (like the open Board of Director meetings).  I recognize that every SLA member cannot attend this event, but I also know that more members should be there to meet with the leadership, discuss issues, etc.

In March, I spoke at both the NYS Educational Media Technology Association Spring Conference and the Computers in Libraries Conference.  Educational Media Technology Association Spring Conference is a small event that impressed upon me the role of school library systems.  The conversations and presentations were inspiring and informative, especially around the use of ebooks with young children.

Computers in Libraries in one of my favorite conferences in one of my favorite cities.  I found Michael Edson's keynote to be very thought provoking.  In talking about innovating, his thoughts were a whisper of what I would be hearing more of later in the year.  My notes say:

Keep in mind that this is an endurance sport.  Think Big.  Start Small. Move Fast.

I went to several sessions on ebooks and that topic repeated itself throughout the year. (If you're looking for a definitive answer in what is going with ebooks, suffice it to say that we are all still learning about them and that includes the authors and publishers.)

This year, I spoke at both the spring and fall SLA Upstate New York Chapter meetings (April and October).  While these are not conferences, it does allow me and others to talk about what occurred at the SLA conferences.  I'm pleased that as a member of the SLA Board of Directors I am able to bring information to my chapter that will be helpful to them. 

Not on my blog calendar was the #140Cuse Conference that was held in Syracuse in April. My presentation was on digital literacy, which also was a theme in 2012.  (By theme, I mean something that kept coming up in conversations or conferences sessions like change, risk, ebooks, and digital literacy.)

I spoke at three conferences in June: New York Archives Conference, NYS Higher Education Initiative, and HighEdWeb Syracuse. Each provided an opportunity to hear what was on the minds of others, which included thoughts around technology and change.  Our profession continues to be in the midst of change.  We might even say that change is truly a constant for us.  In order to survive as an information professional, you need to be able to thrive in an industry that is in a constant state of flux.

I have attended every SLA Annual Conference since 1992 and this was the first one to be held in July and in Chicago.  It was HOT!  The keynote speaker was Guy Kawasaki, who had recently published the book Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.  I never did write up notes from his talk, so here are notes from Chris Vestal, who did an excellent job capturing Kawasaki's main points.

The session that had the biggest impact on me was a talk given by Robin Bew from the Economist Intelligence Unit on the world economy.   We tend to think about our own regional or national economy, however, Bew provided a world view that I think we need to hear.   I recorded a podcast after Bew's talk, which will give you an idea of what thoughts he raised in me.

Here is a video of Robin New speaking in China in May 2012. While this is not the same speech that he gave at SLA, I think it is still worthwhile hearing the perspective that he gives. Start around the 5 minute mark, after his introduction to the event itself.  Part way through, he begins talking specifically about the Chinese economy.  While that sounds like it may not be relevant to you, it is interesting to hear what he says about business in China.

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Chicago was an interesting venue for the conference.  All of the sessions were held at McCormick Place, which must be one of the largest convention centers in the world. There is talk every year among SLA members about what venue, location, etc., would be best for the conference.  Perhaps because I've been to over 20 SLA conferences, I know the positives and negatives of every option people put forth.  Every conference attracts those for whom it - and its location - make sense.  For some, that means going to a easy-to-reach location, etc., while for others it means traveling to an out-of-the-way  location for a very different experience (a la R-Squared below).

I didn't attend a conference again until September and the R-Squared Conference in Telluride, CO.  I wrote several blog posts during and after that conference, and you can read them here. For me, this was the most important conference I attended all year.  Why?  First, because I learned brainstorming and other techniques (e.g., community surveys and action briefs) that I have already been able to use and will continue to use.  Second - and more importantly - because it was a conference that dared to do things differently from where it was held, to having interactive keynotes, to unconventional sessions/tracks, etc.  This conference proved that we are hungry for events that feed us in different ways than what has become traditional.  I fully expect that other conferences will implement some of what was done at R-Squared and I'm sure they will be the better for it.

The two keynote speakers at R-Squared - Josh Linkner and Tamara Kleinberg - are both authors and their books are available for purchase.  I really appreciated the various brainstorming techniques that Linkner taught us in his interactive keynote session.  I have used several of them since then (role storming, brand storming and the long list).
 

In November, I attended the New York Library Association Annual Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. I blogged about NYLA here and here. If I counted correctly, 20 students from the SU MLIS program attended the conference this year, which is 6-8 more than last year.  For me, that is one of the highlights of the event - watching the students interact with library practitioners (and future colleagues), listening to their observations, and hearing what they have learned.  Some wrote blog posts about the conference and I've linked to them from mine.

The keynote was given by David Weinberger. Here is a 3-minute video of MLIS student Pamela Gardner talking about both Weinberger and the session given by George Needham.



David Weinberger has written several books and I've provided links to them below. It was wonderful to see how his thoughts resonated with the NYLA attendees and I look forward to hearing him speak again.

       

If you've been keeping track, then you know that there are only four months this year where I did not attend a conference (February, May, August and December).  I am very fortunate that my employer helped me attend those conferences that were not in the Central NY region.  And I am also fortunate that a number of conferences were held "in my backyard."  That always makes getting to a conference much easier!  I also know that not everyone is so lucky.  For those who cannot get to a conference, we owe it to them to bring back what we have learned and to share it!  That sharing may be through tweets, blog posts, presentations, write-ups, or conversations.  If we come back from a conference and keep what we have learned to ourselves, then we have not helped our profession or society.  So if you have not yet talked about what you learned this year at a conference or educational event, please take time to do so.  Consider something you need to do to wrap-up 2012.

I was speaking to someone (Greg) last night who works for a company that works with libraries. He'd like to set up a time his group to interact with library and information science students, and I'm happy to comply.  This morning, my mind started thinking about what that meeting (lunch) might entail  and an exercise from the R-Squared Conference came to mind.  I'm using this blog post to document my idea, not only to share it with him, but also so you might use it too.

At this lunch event, I would like to gather as many of this organization's employees as possible. Then I would like invite two students for each employee. (So twice as many students as employees.)  Why? Students are used to thinking creatively and I want to "up" the creative thinking in the room, but not totally overwhelm this organization's employees.

When participants "sign in", I would ask them to put their name and their favorite animal on their name tag.  This will give people something to immediately discuss, especially if I tell them their their favorite animal can't be a dog or a cat (easy choices).

Participants would be encouraged to sit at tables were there are at least two employees and four students.  Each table would have a big piece of butcher paper (or newsprint paper) with markers, pens, and crayons.  Once settled in - and perhaps after eating lunch - each table would be assigned a brand (e.g., Apple, Chuck E. Cheese, Disney, Las Vegas, or Starbucks) and would use that brand's point of view to brainstorm these questions:

• What would a new library look like?
• What services would it have?
• Who would use it?
• How would it function?
• When would it be open?
• Where would it be located?

Participants would first be encourage to quickly share what they know about the brand, then move into the questions.  With a big piece of paper in front of them, they could write or draw their answers.  They would be encourage to come up with one vision per table - based on the brand that they were assigned - but individuals could capture ideas that didn't included in the final vision.  (Those notes could be interesting to review later.)

That 10-15 minute brainstorming session would be followed by a debriefing where each table would present its ideas.  We would mark those components that resonated with others in the room.  All of the notes would be captured for later use (including photos of the drawings, etc.).

When we did a similar exercise during R-Squared, my table was tasked with designing a Starbucks influenced library. The hub/center of the library was the cafe, with music/media being close to the cafe, then the books. Music is piped into the space. Seating is comfortable in order to encourage people to linger. People can download media easily, including ebooks. People can even download parts of ebooks, which means they can select specific chapters that they want to read. In addition, people can combine books with music, so that a book could have a specific soundtrack.

The library would have extended hours, opening early and staying open late. And it would be a kid-free zone. This is keeping the way people use Starbucks, where you don't find kids hanging out. It is a place for adults only.

We didn't talk in detail about what furnishings and other stuff would be in the library and I wish that we had.  I think it would have been good to talk about the environment on that level.

Okay...now that I've gotten this written, time to spring my idea on Greg!

I thought I was through writing about the R-Squared Conference, but then I looked through my tweets and realized that I'm not.


Libraries organize the information that comes to them in many different forms, but we don't reach out into our communities to organization the information and knowledge that is resident in its people and organizations.  (I should note that some libraries are doing this, but most are not.)  Would libraries be more irreplaceable if they did this?  Would they be more central in the community?  Would it become the major connector between everyone?  Yes. Yes. Yes.


The tweet above came during the final keynote with Tamara Kleinburg.  Near the end of her talk, she advocated that we remove limits by breaking rules.  Now while she isn't saying that we should break the law, it is true that sometimes the rules in our head limit what we do.  Think about the rules that you follow everyday, often unknowingly.  What would happen if you challenged those rules or even changed them?  Could that lead to more innovation?


I tweeted this (above) during the final keynote. This totally resonated with me because of a change coming to the daily newspaper in Syracuse, NY.  Like other daily papers, the Post-Standard is moving to publishing on paper only specific days per week, and publishing web-only editions on the other days.  I suppose that many of knew this day was coming, but had ignored the warnings.  What warnings are libraries ignoring?  What challenges are libraries not meeting head on?


Topher Lawton (@hieanon) said the above quote in a blog post about the conference.  One piece that people may gloss over is the phrase "don't be shy."  The group that gathered at R-Squared was definitely not shy, in fact, I would say that they are all ready to make waves.  They are not going to be shy about what they learned.  And some (like me) were likely charged to go to R-Squared, learn, and then be ready to change their organization.

Change does require being willing to fail and fail big!  But we shouldn't fail because we're ignorant risks.  We to do our research - do our homework - and then charge ahead. Whether we succeed or fail, we need to remember to learn from what we do and use what we learn on our next project.

Okay...I think I've now written my last R-Squared blog posts....!

The Risk and Reward Conference (R-Squared or R2) has thrown down the gauntlet for other conferences.  It has said, in essence, "yes" people do want an interactive and immersive experience.  Yes, people are willing to stay in the same track in order to have that experience.  Yes, keynotes can be interactive.  Yes, you can dress down and still be professional...and learn.  Yes, we are ready to move away from the current conference mold.

What worked well:

• The registration process.  Each person was able to provide information about themselves, which was then used to create a nice online list of who was attending.  Now we can use this list to keep in touch with each other, especially if more people add contact details.
• The emails that were sent in advance.  The R2 team didn't inundate us, but they used email to help set the stage for the conference.
• The use of Twitter and Facebook before and during the conference.  The conference had its own Twitter account and their is a Facebook page too.  Two of the evening informal events were coordinated through Facebook.
• The location worked extremely well because it is a small, safe community that allowed us to take risks.  The amenities in the area and the gondola were real pluses.  Also the people were genuinely friendly and helpful.  (As a side note, commuting by gondola is definitely the way to go!)
• Josh Linkner was an excellent opening keynoter, who set the bar high for the the remainder of the speakers.
• Having four interactive tracks was a nice way of organizing the days.  I liked that we had to register for our experience (track) in advance. 
• The interactivity in all of the sessions worked well, at least from my vantage point.  "Doing" can be a very good way to learn new concepts (or brush up on old ones).
• The interactive zone was a nice ice-breaker on Sunday evening. 
• The audio interviews and blog posts that the conference team did (and continues to do) are awesome.  What a nice way of sharing the conference with others!
• Some info from the tracks will be going online and that is a nice touch, since we'll be able to see what other tables, etc., did.
• The conference swag was nice and a bit different! And the sessions gave away different swag, which means that we all didn't come home will all the exact same stuff. [Pins, coasters, metal water bottles, adventure sling (type of backpack), bumper stickers...]  
• The card (above) was given to everyone at the closing keynote.  I've received some feedback about the words that were used on the card from those who were not at the event.  I wonder if others have found that wording doesn't resonate with everyone?
• The way the conference program was done was cool!  I know that it is an idea that was done at DrupalCon.  Each person received a lanyard with a small booklet on the end, which had the person's name on the outside.  Inside -and printed so it was easy for the wearer to read - was the conference program!  (added 9/14, 8:17 p.m.)

What might be tweaked:

• If this event is done again, the organizers should define who should attend it and the specific experiences.  That could allow people to select experiences that are more appropriate for them.
• The time spent in the experiences could be tweaked.  Could some of that time be used, for example, to have people share across tracks?
• When we registered, people who have dietary needs could state them.  While that worked well, those who didn't have dietary concerns seemed to like the vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options, which caused some problems.
• It would have been helpful to have a map of the area in advance, in order to know where events would occur (and in relation to the three hotels). For example, while it was easy to get around the area, knowing that the convention center was in Mountain Village, while some of the events were not, would have been helpful.
• Telluride is an awesome location, but difficult to get to.  Knowing travel options (which airports one could use, for example), would have been very helpful.
• I know that among the questions for the future is whether they would use Telluride again.  That is something for the team to consider as a way of lowering the cost of the conference.
• The word "conference" didn't really convey what this was.  The team might use the word "experience" for the entire event or "immersion."
• The final keynote was "okay".  It could be that our minds were too full.  Dunno.  
• The nighttime events were fun (and optional), but they were on top of really full days.  The team might consider what really makes sense to do or for others to propose. 

Tweaking, by the way, means that there will be another R2.  At this point, we don't know if that will occur.  I know that a lot of effort went into this one, and they will have to think hard about whether they can do that effort again. And if they do another, do they want people to come back and do a different track?  Do they want people to come back for a different level of engagement? Do they want a whole new group of people?

That all said...WOW!  This conference brought together 350 librarians ( public, academic and school), trustees, folks from library consortia and associations, and staff from state libraries.  People came from across the United States, including Alaska.  One person came from Sweden, who was in the States on an exchange program. There were also a few people who work with libraries (e.g., architects and software vendors).  And I believe that no one was disappointed.  We each learned something.  We each left R2 changed.  Now we need to change those who could not travel to Telluride.

I have placed photos from Telluride and the conference in Flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jahw/sets/72157631530252728/  Below are a few as a teaser.

At the Risk and Reward Conference, each participant selected an experience (track) and I selected "Abundant Community":

Discover how libraries can strengthen their roles as catalysts for social engagement. Lead by example through creative partnerships and innovation in our ever-changing, hyperlinked world where everything is connected.

As with the other tracks, this was a full-day "immersive experience." The track was led by Dr. John L. McKnight and John Creighton, both of whom have worked with communities to become connected. Their overall message is that we should not use labels to group members of our community together.  Instead, we need to see our communities are being made up of individuals, who have different skills and passions.  To that end, we did three exercises where we talked about our skills, passions, and topics we could teach.  What we learned is that we're more complex than how we tend to acknowledge.  I'm looking forward to duplicating this exercise with my students and colleagues.


In understanding our community, and the assets that make up our community, we need to look at:

• The individual and each person's assets - skills, knowledge and gifts of local residents.
• Associations - These are groups of people come who come together because of something that they have in common. In an association, it is the members who do the work.
• Institutions - Our institutions are hierarchical.
• Physical space
• The exchange of goods and/or services.  This exchange does not require money.
• individuals, associations, institutions, physical space, exchange. 1st three are people. Associations are held together by care.

I cannot convey in words my understanding of the relationship of these five areas.  However, I can tell you that when you begin looking at the skills of people and the associations to which they belong, you begin to see the assets that are available in the community.  These are not monetary assets, but rather skills and connections.  (And connections can help the library obtain money.)

Our homework on Monday night was to conduct community interviews, the results of which will be used by the public library in Telluride. In the community interviews that we did, we used a Community Asset Survey:

    
Afterward, we discussed how we might alter this survey for our own community. We also discussed that this type of survey would likely be one of many activities that we would do in order to understand our communities better.


We did compile our survey results (in small groups) and it was amazing what we learned.  I'm confident that anyone who does this will learn from it.  Of course, the next step is to use what you learn!

Two books mentioned during the session were:

     
Two parting thoughts:
 

Many feel that libraries should be places of learning through teaching.  Imagine if we turned to our community members and asked them what they want to learn AND what they can teach?  And then imagine acting on that information!


 Okay...so the word "client" isn't what most people would use, but it is what Dr. McKnight used.  I do like this sentiment.  We need to engage the members of our community and get involved with them.  We're not in a lab running "hands-off" experiments...we're trying to change lives and improve our communities.

I had not heard of Josh Linkner (@joshlinkner) until I registered for this conference. Linkner's goal is to make the world more creative.  His keynote demonstrated how other organizations have been creative, crafted new messages, and in some ways reinvented themselves. During his talk, Linkner led us in several activities and it was with those that I developed my take-always from the session.

First, Linkner talked about the five steps to encourage creativity:

1. Get curious
2. Encourage courage - One idea is to use a "get out of jail free card."  Most of us know this card from the Monopoly game. Some organizations use a similar card that allows an employee to fail and to not have that failure count against them.  For example, what if you encouraged your employees to do new things.  What happens if those new things fail?  Do you want to reprimand an employee for a failure, where the person likely learned from that failure?  What if you allowed each employee the forgiveness of one failure per year?  Would that help people be more creative?





3. Challenge assumptions - For an example, watch the Chrysler commercial below.
4. Think small - have the mindset of a startup.  You don't have to be small to think small.
5. Shatter conventional wisdom - For an example of this, watch the Dove commercial below.

Then, Linkner led us through these three ways of generating new ideas:

• Role storming - Each person selects a character - based on a real person or fictional character. Each person then brainstorms from that character's point of view. At my table, we had Genghis Khan, Mark Cuban, Mary Poppins, and several other characters. It was very interesting to brainstorm using someone else's point of view.  It was liberating and it did produce interesting ideas. While none of those ideas were exactly what we needed in order to solve our problem, we did generate ideas that in the real world would have been investigated further.
• The opposite -With this technique, you consider the exact opposite of what you would normally think or do.  For example, libraries are considered safe places.  What is the opposite of being a safe place and what ideas does that generate?  This can lead to some wild stuff and also some very interesting ideas that would be worth investigating.
• The long list - We generally brainstorm a short list of ideas.  With this, you brainstorm as many ideas as possible.  We were told to get as many down on paper as we could and to push ourselves beyond 30 ideas.  My group generated 103 ideas!  Linkner contends that the first 20-30 ideas are easy and that real creativity occurs when you get past those.  

I am anxious to try those brainstorming techniques with my colleagues.  I can see each of them working well and producing ideas worth considering.

Linkner used media very well during his talk, including several videos, including "dove evolution" and the videos below.

The closing keynote for the R-Squared Conference was Tamara Kleinberg, the founder of imaginibbles and author of Think Sideways: a game-changing playbook for disruptive thinking. Kleinberg talked about engaging our imagination and led us through several creativity exercises.

I believe the hope was that Kleinberg would get us interacting in a way that allow people from the four experiences to share what they had learned. Unfortunately, that didn't occur. Rather than the creativity exercises that we did, we might have created cross experience teams to brainstorm solutions for specific library situations. That brainstorming could have included her one exercise which was to take on the persona of a company (Disney, Starbucks, Chipolte, or a few others) and design a new library.

My table was tasked with designing a Starbucks influenced library and that was fun! It led to a very different layout and focus. The hub/center of the library was the cafe, with music/media being close to the cafe, then the books. Music is piped into the space. Seating is comfortable in order to encourage people to linger. People can download media easily, including ebooks. People can even download parts of ebooks, which means they can select specific chapters that they want to read. In addition, people can combine books with music, so that a book could have a specific soundtrack.

The library would have extended hours, opening early and staying open late. And it would be a kid-free zone. This is keeping the way people use Starbucks, where you don't find kids hanging out. It is a place for adults.

When I tweeted an overview of the library, I received responses from a few people who liked the idea! We only took 10 minutes for the exercise, so imagine what you team could come up with if you did it. Imagine brainstorming a new product idea as if you were Apple or some other company that creates experiences.

I began reading Kleinberg's bookon one of my flights. The book includes many stories and exercises that you can do in order to spark your creativity. It's a book that can read in bits, allowing you to tap into specific exercises or ideas. I need to consider what exercises to share/use with others, as well as who I might recommend the book to.  (Actually, there is a new person in my school who is very focused on creativity and who might like this book.)  The book is definitely a quick read...you should be able to read it and use it quickly.

One of the joys of the Telluride and Mountain Village communities is the free gondola that connects them.  Rather than driving from the hotel (Mountain Lodge) to the convention center or to Telluride proper,  we took the gondola.  The gondola is fast and efficient!  It is also a challenge for those of us with a fear of heights, like me.  I've been on a gondola before at Masada and liked it, so I was looking forward to the gondola in Telluride.  What I didn't expect was that the gondola would go over a particularly high  mountain and an area called St. Sophia.  The St. Sophia gondola station is at 10,500 feet above sea level.  Going from St.Sophia down into Telluride (8,700 feet above sea level) provides a beautiful view, in the daytime, at night, and even when it is foggy!  I must admit that the first five seconds descending from St. Sophia provide an OMG moment for me and I had to close my eyes, but after two times, it all seemed normal. (BTW in contrast, Syracuse, NY is at 380 feet above sea level.)


Getting to Telluride meant a long flight for me, with three segments each way.  Going and coming were both "adventures."  (I suffered a slight delay on my flight to Telluride, but had an overnight delay on my return to Syracuse.)  If this has not been such a phenomenal conference, I would be gripping more about the travel than I am.  It is a testament to the conference organizers and their vision that ~350 people figured out how to get to Telluride and were willing to put up with the conference hassles. 

It would be interesting if airlines used creativity exercises to re-think what they do and their customer interactions.  What if they - and the airline industry - created a new vision of what their services are and how they delivered them?  What if they put aside their assumptions? I could only hope that it would improve our flight experiences.

Chris Enjy did a series of interviews with Risk and Reward Conference participants, including me. This will give you an idea of what was on my mind as the conference was coming to a close. 5.35 minutes.

Last night and today, I have spent time walking about both Telluride and Mountain Village, and one thing stands out to me - This is an area that believes in doing the right thing.  For example:

• There are recycling containers everywhere.
• There are places for disposing of dog waste everywhere, too.
• They have tried to limit people's use of cars by having free public transportation. The area is also geared for the use of bicycles.
• There is an emphasis on sustainability.
• There is an emphasis on being environmentally friendly.

(Ah yes, three flights and new stories about airlines.)  The conference organizers select this location for a variety of reasons, including that the environment should inspire us.  With these views, who couldn't be inspired!

Over the weekend, I helped to team teach a course for our new iSchool graduate students.  Part of the focus (direct/indirect) of the course was to get students out of the comfort zone and to get them to think differently...even innovatively.   Innovate thinking occurred most in what they presented and how they presented.  Along the way, though, there was at least one new product idea, and that was very cool!

Every cultural heritage organization wants to do things differently, yet many find their roots grounded in a way that inhibits innovation.  Those roots might be how the finances are done, how performance reviews are given, or just how success is measured.  Every boss - and every agency that gives a grant - wants to see success.  Success allows for fist pumping, chest bumping, and a line on your resume.

I remember hearing Chris Hughes speak, who was one of the co-founders of Facebook.  They had known success and everything they were touching was turning to gold.  Recently, Facebook has run into some challenges.  The company issued stock and that stock price hasn't done so well.  Suddenly Facebook is tasting what must feel like to fail (even a little).  Failing now must feel quite odd.  You mean everything touched doesn't turn to gold?  Now what do they do?

Being innovative requires taking risks.  While you can take calculated risks - and try to mitigate the effect of a risk - when you risk, you take a chance on failure and we don't like to fail.  Not only don't we like it, we don't all know how to learn from our failures.  More importantly, we don't know how to reward people for failing.  Yes, reward.

When was the last time you rewarded an employee or coworker for trying something new or different, and failing?  Did you criticize the failure or praise the person for trying something new?  Did you look at it as an opportunity to learn or an opportunity to sweep someone aside?  Did you allow that person to spread his/her wings again or did you clip that person's wings?

On September 8, I'm heading to Colorado to a library conference focused on being more innovative.  The Risk and Reward Conference (or R-Squared) has attracted several hundred people who are interested in thinking differently. Imagine going to a conference not to learn how to do what you already do better, but to learn how to change your mindset, your paradigm, your ability to take risk.  That's what we're doing.

From what I've experienced in the past, risk taking doesn't actually require learning lots of new things.  Instead it means saying "yes" more.  It means looking for the possibility in every idea.  And it means not mourning success that never comes, but reveling in knowing that you have learned.  And remember - "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."  I know there is more to being a risk taker and being innovative, so I'm looking forward to three days immersed at R-Squared. 

As I look at my students, I see people who want to succeed.  As they think abut what success is, I hope they will consider  the life of fictitious librarian Emily Skinner (video below), who risked and lived a full life.  She learned new technology, tried new sports and hobbies, acquired new academic degrees, and continued to love.  You don't see her failures or her struggles, but you know that she must have.  There were surely tears and times of sorrow. What you see, though, is clearly that she continued to risk and that there were rewards.