“Courage is a prerequisite for all leadership,” Brené Brown says. And it can be taught. It’s made up of four skills: being vulnerable is the most important, followed by sticking to values, trusting others and persistence. There can be no courage without vulnerability and no vulnerability without the risk of failure. “One of the things that we learned in the research,” she says, “is that people who have the skills to get back up from a fall will engage in smarter risks and more courageous behaviors than people who don’t.”
It must be emphasized that a good program and plan will help you develop the next generation library. Planning is part of management and occurs in times of change, particularly when there are budget concerns. Many libraries undertake strategic planning as part of their responsibilities for annual budgeting. However, it is how these service plans are developed and implemented that matters. It is how you communicate the plan that is important. Our trusted team workshop framework helps improve the quality of library services.
If you are starting a new library program or plan, you can develop a series of listening activities to encourage communication. Facilitation of the trusted service / listening session workshops can be done for communities of varying sizes, including local areas, the county or state. Outcomes include:
- A Communication Plan / Working group
- Management plan
- Social and Cultural plan
- Space / Environmental plan
- Annual Budget Support
- New Partnerships
- Capital Planning Agreements
Our library consultant trusted service / listening session workshops are based on involving a range of stakeholders (local leaders, business partners, school and education, etc.) in the planning process. Our team seeks out those who have a stake in the local community and ensures that their ideas and issues are addressed in the planning process.
Addressing the Needs of Your Community
There are four strategies you can employ to start building a better understanding of your community needs:
- Benchmark Needs Analysis
- Comparative Needs
- Community Needs
- Identified Needs
We can help you separate strategies from “power over” to “power with”. Our trusted team building workshops, will help you collect information that conveys the necessity of not just discussing difficult issues but “rumbling” on them.
What does your community get out of the process?
As our library consultants develop a schedule to meet online with our trusted service / listening sessions, it is important to remember that those involved need to gain something out of the library planning process. We will deliver a planning report that will help organize the issues by quoting from stakeholders and leadership. Note, it is important to ensure that there is transparent process, so you can really use the information to build a better future.
Trusting Team / Infinite Mindset
According to Simon Sinek (the infinite game) Finite games have known players fixed rules and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified like a game of chess. In the infinite game, there are no winners or losers. Conceptually, think of the trusting team exercise as a continual process to create your own rules. You can help your community embrace each others mindset to build stronger, innovative and inspiring knowledge platforms and library organizations.
We work with Public Libraries, Education and IT Management Leaders, helping them adapt to the infinite mindset. This includes advancing a just cause, supporting team education and build a trusting team. The circle of trust will help your community build the courage to lead.
Without trusting teams all the cracks in the library’s working relationships with faculty, instructional resources, and students are hidden or ignored, which if allowed to continue for any length of time will compound and spread until things start to break up. In this time of the coronavirus, we need to build circles of trust. Our workshops will help your organization adapt to the new environment and build a better future. It is safe to engage in this process – listening sessions and workshops help build a better future.
CONTACT LIBRARY CONSULTANT FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TRUSTING TEAM PROGRAMMING WORKSHOP
