by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“In fact, some of the most effective enhancement libraries can employ involve elbow grease and motivation,” article American Libraries Magazine, September 2020, entitled: ‘Virus Responsive Library Design.’

Ask library architects about redesigning your local library to handle Coronavirus issues and you will get some particularly interesting building design ideas. Ask your local library team in the right way and you will elicit some rather simple, cost-effective options – maybe even ingenious ones in some instances – to make your library sparkle. The caption adjacent is one of this writer’s local libraries: a New York City Public Library with a German immigrant inscription ‘Freie Bibliothek u Lesehalle ’– free library and reading-hall. It doesn’t quite shout out like the snazzy, futuristic cover photo on the most recent edition of American Libraries.

In our COVID environment, it’s probable that most library leaders have to cut-back on their future library intentions of just a few months ago. And yet they still have the challenge of making their library conducive enough to inspire readers and members to enthusiastically return. Also, they have the challenge of encouraging staff to pick up the ball once more to minimize the Pandemic’s impact: envision their future.

In fact, a rebuild in other economic circumstances might have been an option, although your current financial crunch is bound to place a damper on that prospect. Even then, library leaders will still have the challenge of making their ‘baby’ sparkle. As the saying goes: ‘You cannot always judge a book by its cover.’  How many times have you attempted to read a book with a fascinating, glossy cover and ended up thinking: “What got me hooked on reading this story?”

So what is a library leader left to do in the circumstances? On the bright side, you have the option of pulling your team together to figure-out how it can re-make its library shine in every way with minimal resources. Such an activity can be a real morale booster. Underneath the surface your people have so many bright ideas that just need to be unlocked. Many of those ideas have been suppressed for many years. It just takes inspirational but patient leadership to unearth them.

Just try to corral up to seven team members – including yourself – into a socially distanced room. Alternatively, you can invite them to a 2-3 hour Zoom, Microsoft Team or some other media session. After an introductory moment, you can kick things off by just asking the question, “What would you like our library to look and act like in six months from now; knowing that we will have limited resources at our disposal?”  Also, ask them how much time they would like to discuss this question?

Agree on what you feel is a reasonable time period for them to give the question some serious thought. Request that they nominate someone to take notes in their Zoom session or write key bullet-points on a whiteboard or flipchart in their meeting room. You can then share that you will be stepping away from their agreed discussion period, so they can talk through their ideas openly and freely, and then you’ll return at the appointed time. They may even wish to nominate a team time-keeper.

At the designated moment you will return and take note of their whiteboard discussion headlines. Where you are working within a Zoom session, you will note these down on your own meeting whiteboard or flipchart. Now allow the time for a little more discussion, so as to consolidate all their ideas and any of your own into the most cogent format. Then you can alphabetize these headlines on your whiteboard, for everyone to see, in their noted order.

Once alphabetized, you can invite participants to individually and confidentially list down their top three vital items – by alphabet designation only – on a scrap of paper. Pretty quickly you’ll have a consensus on their top three priorities. Assuming you have six participants, invite them to pair-up; since pairs are among the most productive way of getting something accomplished. Where you have less than six players, they can click into pairs or threesomes in a similar complementary fashion. That will also mean you may only tackle one or two priorities as opposed to three.

Now request that each pair or threesome pick one of the given top three priorities. This will set them ready to draft a breakthrough initiative, which consists of:

» WHAT they intend to accomplish?

» HOW they intend to accomplish it through appropriate insightful, sequential moves?

» WHO will take-on these moves: either themselves or others within their organization?

» WHEN each move will be accomplished by?

» WHERE they will reach out to allies – either inside or outside their organization – to provide advice or assistance?

(NOTE: The HOW listing will include an end-point, prudent celebration of success: to be cross-checked with WHO will participate in that celebration and WHEN it will occur. It will be appropriate for them to invite you along as well, as their initial sponsor.)

There is no doubt that these breakthrough initiatives, in whatever form they take, will bring real progress to your library over the next 3-6 months. And so, as much as it is quite natural to fantasize about a grand, new library building; there’s a lot to be said for historical architecture that has just been spruced-up. This is espec-ially true where the inside team is extra welcoming and helpful toward library users. As much as people are always intrigued by that new, shiny penny: if it has no warmth, charm or character, it will be a nine-minute wonder!

To learn more about envision and decision clarity, talk with: