Computers in Libraries 2008: Innovation Starts with "I"

Computers in Libraries 2008: Innovation Starts with "I"

Helene Blowers and Tony Tallent presented this session in this very wide, very short room where anyone on the 1/3 of the room on either side couldn't see the speakers at all.  Bah. Bad room. But a good presentation!

What is innovation "not"?  Strategic planning, process improvement, suggestion box, cool ideas, technology, policy, measurable, best practice, 1-size fits all, benchmarking, change agentry, thinking outside the box.  These are all good ingredients, but we need to breathe new life into them. 

Innovation is about doing new things, about action.  They both recommend a book called The Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy that Fosters New Ideas by Elaine Dundon.  The book categorizes innovation into three categories: efficiency, evolutionary, or revolutionary.

They showed something from a library somewhere in Canada called "book bundles," which are pre-selected bundles of books selected for teachers or parents for their children--no selection required on the part of the parents or teachers; just grab and go.  They also talked about the iPod's revolution in how we value and access music and showed the Zoom Shop: a vending machine for iPods. 

Innovation is fresh practice--remixing our ingredients, looking at how the trends have changed, and meeting the changing needs of our users.

They discussed the four components of innovation: Creativity, Strategy, Implementation, Profitability.

Innovators (the idea people) need to have ideas, need to do their homework and research on the idea, do the initial legwork, need to remind their managers that they are capable of more than their job descriptions, can be leaders in the organization, and be willing to take risks too.

Managers need to offer a framework for the idea people, put resources behind their expectations, create growth opportunities, support their work, celebrate their success and not be a glory-grabber, and take risks with their employees.

We need to agree on what innovation means to you and to your organization.  How do they converge? 

They talked about strategy, and that sometimes you do get stomped on for new ideas.  We need to be change agents...but to do so in a way that the management will buy in to the idea.  Creating a plan for implementation is essential.  So, how do we sell it?  Make sure that there is change, make it believable, and tie what you do to your library's mission, vision, and values.  When in doubt, tell a story about how one person could be affected by your project.  Create alliances with your colleagues.  Test drive your ideas with pilots; think of all of your branches as labs.  Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness.  Never sell your ideas on paper - sell them via a PowerPoint, video presentation, anything else. 

Wild success does not feel like business as usual.  It might, in fact, feel like panic.  Why not try new ideas though - more likely than not, the users will enjoy it.  But failure is ok.   Failing shows that you are continually trying new and different things.  To fail and fail often, and then learn from it.

They then gave us "7 Habits of Highly Innovative People": Persistence, Remove Self-Limiting Inhibitions, Take Risks and Make Mistakes, Write Things Down, Stay Curious (I think I missed one or two somehow). 

CIL2008