Sunday, January 31, 2010

Corner Office, interview with Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga; New York Times, 1/31/10

New York Times; Corner Office, interview with Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga, a provider of online social games: Are You a C.E.O. of Something?:

"Q. What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?

A. If I was going all the way back, it would be playing on my school’s soccer team, because we were on the same team together, most of us for eight or nine years, and we were at a really little school in Chicago that had no chance of really fielding any great athletes. But we ended up doing really well as a team, and we made it to the state quarterfinals, and it was all because of teamwork.

And the one thing I learned from that was that I actually could tell what someone would be like in business, based on how they played on the soccer field.

So even today when I play in Sunday-morning soccer games, I can literally spot the people who’d probably be good managers and good people to hire.

Q. Based on what?

A. One is reliability, the sense that they’re not going to let the team down, that they’re going to hold up their end of the bargain. And in soccer, especially if you play seven on seven, it’s more about whether you have seven guys or women who can pull their own weight rather than whether you have any stars.

So I’d rather be on a team that has no bad people than a team with stars. There are certain people who you just know are not going to make a mistake, even if the other guy’s faster than them, or whatever. They’re just reliable.

And are you a playmaker? There are people who don’t want to screw up, and so they just pass the ball right away. Then there are the ones who have this kind of intelligence, and they can make these great plays. These people seem to have high emotional intelligence. It’s not that they’re a star player, but they have decent skills, and they will get you the ball and then be where you’d expect to put it back to them. It’s like their head is really in the game.

Q. How has your leadership style evolved, given your experience running several companies?

A. You can manage 50 people through the strength of your personality and lack of sleep. You can touch them all in a week and make sure they’re all pointed in the right direction. By 150, it’s clear that that’s not going to scale, and you’ve got to find some way to keep everybody going in productive directions when you’re not in the room.

And that, to me, is a huge amount of what it means to manage. But I went to Harvard Business School and that never occurred to me the whole time. And I’d started a bunch of companies and never gotten to that understanding, even with one company I had that I did take up to over 200 people.

Q. So give me an example of what you did to change that.

A. I’d turn people into C.E.O.’s. One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide.
Q. So who were some of your new C.E.O.’s?

A. We had this really motivated, smart receptionist. She was young. We kept outgrowing our phone systems, and she kept coming back and saying, “Mark, we’ve got to buy a whole new phone system.” And I said: “I don’t want to hear about it. Just buy it. Go figure it out.” She spent a week or two meeting every vendor and figuring it out. She was so motivated by that.
I think that was a big lesson for me because what I realized was that if you give people really big jobs to the point that they’re scared, they have way more fun and they improve their game much faster. She ended up running our whole office...

Q. What else is unusual about how you run the company?

A. John Doerr [the venture capitalist] sold me on this idea of O.K.R.’s, which stands for objectives and key results. It was developed at Intel and used at Google, and the idea is that the whole company and every group has one objective and three measurable key results, and if you achieve two of the three, you achieve your overall objective, and if you achieve all three, you’ve really killed it.

We put the whole company on that, so everyone knows their O.K.R.’s. And that is a good, simple organizing principle that keeps people focused on the three things that matter — not the 10.
Then I ask everybody to write down on Sunday night or Monday morning what are your three priorities for the week, and then on Friday see how you did against them. It’s the only way people can stay focused and not burn out. And if I look at your road map and you have 10 priorities for you and your team, you probably don’t know which of the three matter, and probably none of the 10 are right.

I can look at everyone’s piece of paper, and their road map shows every item you were going to do and your predicted results and actual results, and then the results are in red if you missed them, yellow if they’re close and green if you passed them. I think road maps are a great principle just for managing your life. It keeps everybody focused, and it lets me know what trains are on or off the tracks."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/31corner.html?scp=1&sq=zynga&st=cse

Saturday, January 30, 2010

EMBRACING CHANGE for Continuous Improvement; American Libraries, January 2010

Peter Hernon and Ellen Altman, American Libraries; EMBRACING CHANGE for Continuous Improvement:

In a period of transition, libraries must redevelop their services to create loyal customers

"Progress implies change. Not all change is progress, but all progress requires change. Change can be planned or unplanned. Libraries have experienced some serious unplanned changes in the recent past; they have been buffeted by changes in technology and scholarly communication and the downturn in the economy. Even so, most libraries have adapted wonderfully to the changes and challenges created by the new technologies. Now is the time to plan for improvements in customer service and to create a cadre of loyal customers.

The box below, developed from conversations with some state librarians and leaders in public libraries, suggests areas in which public librarians need expertise as new challenges arise. Those areas help to define the library’s role in community building, which encompasses economic development, redevelopment and neighborhoods, workforce development, and civic engagement. In an April 2009 presentation at Simmons College reviewing these issues, San Francisco City Librarian Luis Herrera stressed the importance of service development, or reinventing service models. This includes defining reference services and roles, functions and processes, the library as a place, and virtual versus physical space. Accountability and assessment should not exclude program evaluation and determining the value of library services. Technology and the internet pose new challenges and opportunities as libraries engage in content creation and keep pace with new applications.

Coping with these issues and challenges requires a workforce that is not confined to a particular area of the library and enjoys reaching out to the library’s communities. As part of coping, senior managers must manage stress and guard against staff suffering dangers cited by Thomas W. Shaughnessy in the July 1996 Journal of Academic Librarianship: “mental and physical exhaustion, burnout, frustration, low morale, and other symptoms of stress. In some instances the library’s structure adds to the distress by slowing response time, preventing cross-functional solutions to problems, and frustrating efforts to intervene.”

Due to the current economic recession, a number of libraries are experiencing severe reductions in operating budgets, resulting in an inability to keep pace with inflation and having to take funds for equipment purchases from the acquisitions budget. Budget cuts also produce downsizing and staff reassignment; the result is an increased workload for the staff. Some libraries are consolidating services at the same time as they reconfigure the physical plant. Complicating matters even more, a number of libraries are moving toward evidence-based decision-making and a workforce committed to demonstrating accountability and improved services. All in all, these changes suggest an extremely challenging, but rewarding, time for libraries and their staffs."

http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/01132010/embracing-change-continuous-improvement

Friday, January 29, 2010

[Podcast] Can Bosses Do That? As It Turns Out, Yes They Can; NPR, Morning Edition, 1/29/10

[Podcast] NPR, Morning Edition; Can Bosses Do That? As It Turns Out, Yes They Can:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=123024596&m=123098924

Article Link and Excerpt from Lewis Maltby's (2010) book, "Can They Do That?: Retaking Our Fundamental Rights in the Workplace":

"Did you know you could be fired for not removing a political sticker from your car — or even having a beer after work? Lewis Maltby says it's more than possible — it's happened. His new book, Can They Do That? explores rights in the workplace.

As he tells NPR's Ari Shapiro, "Freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment — but only where the government is concerned.

"What most Americans generally don't know is that the Constitution doesn't apply to private corporations at all."

In terms of monitoring its employees, the list of things a corporation can't do is a short one — it's basically confined to eavesdropping on a personal oral conversation, Maltby said. "Anything else is open season."

And outside the workplace, personal blogs or social media pages on services like Twitter or Facebook offer no refuge.

Asked if workers can be fired for things they write on those sites, Maltby said, "Absolutely. Happens every day.""

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123024596

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Next Steps: Change at American University; American Libraries, 1/27/10

Bill Matthews, American Libraries; Next Steps: Change at American University: Managing for change and continuous improvement:

"Bill Mayer imagines a library without librarians. The way he sees it, his campus is filled with activity and he wants his librarians to be a part of the action. “Their role isn’t to simply go out and generate more visibility” he explains, “but to become more involved with everything that is going on around us.”

This vision opens up the library for new types of programming spaces. “I’d really like to see the library transformed into a series of living rooms and kitchens,” Mayer suggests. This metaphor builds on the idea that at parties, people congregate around the food and comfortable sitting areas. Libraries in this manner would become a natural place for learners to mix and mingle.

Mayer has been the university librarian at American University in Washington D. C. for two and a half years and is crafting a bold agenda for the future. This is evident in the library’s new mission statement: we enable success. Reading like a call to action, this simple statement pushes forward a powerful charge that reframes the library as an integral part of campus. “I’m not really a fan of build-it-and-they-will-come,” Mayer says. “We need to constantly scan for opportunities and fill any voids that we see.”

And just how does one make radical change happen? Mayer provides an analogy: “Change is like water on brick, with a steady stream over a long period of time, changes will occur.” Altering work culture isn’t something that can happen overnight; it is an ongoing and constant process."

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/next-steps-change-american-university

Green Your Library Blog; American Libraries, 1/20/10

Laura Bruzas, American Libraries; Green Your Library Blog:

"Just about every time I enter a library, a new idea pops into my head about how it can be more eco-friendly. The great majority of these ideas would be easy to implement and cost next to nothing or nothing at all. So, it is with great appreciation that I have found a place to share these ideas. I hope you will join me for the journey."

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/greenlibrary

Sunday, January 24, 2010

What My Mentors Have Taught Me; New York Times, 1/24/10

Keecia Scott, New York Times; What My Mentors Have Taught Me:

"A FEW years ago, I changed jobs, moving from the beverage industry to the biopharmaceutical industry. I didn’t know how to get ahead in the new environment, however, so I turned to a mentoring program. I’d recommend finding a mentor for help with your career. If you’re open to what you hear and have realistic expectations, I can’t think of a downside...

Some people may think mentoring is too time-consuming. That was my concern as well. I have two kids, and signing up would mean giving up more free time. But I decided I had nothing to lose.

At my first meeting, last year, I met the two mentors assigned to my group. Then Sue Curro, vice president for a UCB business unit who is on the H.B.A. board, sat down with us. It was a stroke of luck. I started talking to her about some of my frustrations, and she said she’d try to help.

In two days, she scheduled something I’d been trying to do ever since I was promoted — going on a rep ride, or joining a sales representative on customer visits for a day. It was a lesson that mentors can open doors, not just give advice.

I went on the ride last spring and decided I’m interested in that job. I think my consumer sales experience would be a good fit. Recently, I found a sales-rep opening in a pediatric respiratory unit. I have three years’ experience in a different area, so I’m not sure it’s the best match. I’ll consult my mentors about this opportunity, but a part of me feels as if I need to wait for another job.

I’ve learned in the mentoring program that you need to be patient. Then again, another part of me feels that these opportunities are rare and maybe I should go for it. I’ve contacted several people in my company, including the hiring manager, to find out more.

This is a good example of a situation where a mentor can help. If you don’t have a lot of experience in an industry, you may overlook important points about career decisions. I now have people who know my goals, and I can bounce ideas off of them.

If someone asked me to name 10 things I got from my mentoring program, I don’t know that I could. But it has helped me decide what I want my future to look like and has given me a leg up in getting there.

I IMAGINE that some people become friends with their mentors. That has been my experience. Today I can pick up the phone with a question I think should take 10 minutes to answer, and one of my mentors from the H.B.A. will take an hour with me. Or sometimes they’ll brainstorm about me.

Last fall, an H.B.A. staff member asked me to join the board and to become a mentor myself. It may sound selfish, but I know I still have more to gain from the program. I asked to be a mentee again in this year’s program instead. I told her that I’ll probably be mentoring someone in my group anyway. That’s what happened last year — I bounced ideas off of a woman in my group from a different industry, and she did the same with me."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/jobs/24pre.html?scp=1&sq=mentors&st=cse

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Corner Office, Interview with Bobbi Brown, Founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; New York Times, 1/24/10

Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Bobbi Brown, Founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics: High Heels? They Just Don’t Fit:

"Q. If you could ask only one or two questions in a job interview, what would they be?

A. Why do you want to work here, and what do you love?...


Q. What’s your best career advice?

A. When you’re talking to someone, look them in the eye. Always tell the truth. And you have to start at the bottom. I don’t care who you are and what you do, you have to start at the bottom. If there’s a job as a receptionist at a company you would love to work at and there’s nothing else, get that job. And don’t just sit there.

A lot of people have moved up in this company. Be open and be a sponge. I’ve always been a sponge. You’re around really cool, creative people, you see what they’re doing, how they’re dressing, what they’re reading, what their tastes are. I mean that’s what makes someone better at what they do — they’re just open to what’s going on."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/24corner.html

In New York City, a Chilly Library Has Its Rewards; New York Times, 1/12/10

Russ Buettner, New York Times; In New York City, a Chilly Library Has Its Rewards:

"In the pantheon of New York City jobs, many people face rugged extremes. Ironworkers brave fierce winds high on beams. Subway track workers traverse dank tunnels. Firefighters climb through flames.

But inside some city public libraries, the definition of extreme trends more toward turtleneck than breakneck.

Under a little-known contract provision titled “Extreme Temperature Procedures,” unionized workers at branches of the New York Public Library can accrue compensatory time when the temperature inside dips below 68 degrees for a couple of hours. Similar clauses exist for libraries across the city.

Officials with all three public library systems say they do not track the number of days awarded to chilled employees, but they estimate the clause is invoked only a few times each year because the heating systems at the branches are well maintained.

Indeed, one of the highest-paid outside contractors for the Queens Borough Public Library is R.P. Cooling Corp., of Hicksville, L.I., which maintains the heating and cooling systems in its 62 branches.

While there are no federal regulations governing workplace temperatures, a trade group — the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers — suggests buildings maintain temperatures of 67 to 82 degrees for “comfort purposes.”

In the United Kingdom, regulations require that workplace temperatures be “reasonable,” which the government defines generally as at least 16 degrees Celsius, or a hair below 61 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Even at 16 degrees Celsius, there shouldn’t be safety or health issues, it’s more in terms of comfort and productivity,” said Alan Hedge, a Cornell University professor who researches and advises corporations on work environment issues.

Angela Montefinise, a spokeswoman for the New York Public Library, said the temperature clause had been around for decades. “The goal of this clause, which has been amended over the years, is to ensure safe working conditions for our staff but also to continue to provide an essential service to our public,” she said.

But such a temperature provision does seem rare, if not unique. City firefighters were excused from performing inspections during “inclement weather,” which included when the wind-chill factor dropped to 20 degrees and below. But the city won elimination of that restriction in 1988.

Because of the structure of the city’s library systems and the vagaries of labor negotiations, there are varying definitions of an extreme condition.

The city’s public libraries are run by three nonprofit agencies, funded by the city. Each negotiates working condition contracts with a local chapter of District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal union.

All three contracts require some action when the temperature drops below certain thresholds for two hours. Librarians may be reassigned to a warmer library. In every borough except Brooklyn, library workers can elect to continue working in the extreme conditions in exchange for paid leave, or compensatory time, to be taken later. In Brooklyn, workers are either sent home with pay or reassigned.

But there is no agreement on what constitutes extreme cold. The level is below 63 degrees in Queens, below 65 in Brooklyn, and below 68 for branches in Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx, which are all controlled by the New York Public Library.

In the last round of contract negotiations, the clause for branches controlled by the New York Public Library was modified so that workers could collect comp time and keep working, meaning the branch could stay open. The temperature threshold was also reworded from “below 68” degrees to “67 degrees or below,” which, of course, means basically the same thing.

The union used the changes as a bargaining chip to win promotions in certain job titles. “When we went from 68 to 67, we actually got something for that,” said Carol Thomas, president of the union for library workers in the New York Public Library system.

There has been a tentative agreement in the current round of contract talks to make the clause “less convoluted,” Ms. Thomas said, but it is still intact.

“This was a hot topic in our contract that the library would love to not have in our contract, but we make sure it still stays there,” she said.

During the summer, similar work rules kick in when the temperature rises above a certain level, but that’s a story for another season."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/nyregion/12libraries.html?scp=6&sq=libraries&st=cse

Leadership Training; via ALA (List Current as of 2008)

Via ALA (List Current as of 2008); Leadership Training:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/hrdr/abouthrdr/hrdrliaisoncomm/otld/leadershiptraining.cfm

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Now at Starbucks: A Rebound; New York Times, 1/21/10

Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; Now at Starbucks: A Rebound:

"Then, in a one-two punch, consumer spending plummeted, and Starbucks, selling a luxury rather than a necessity, was one of the first to feel the pinch. Meanwhile, competition emerged from a new corner of the market when McDonald’s began serving espresso.

When Mr. Schultz, standing at the bar in one of the new Seattle shops and sampling espressos with whole milk, talks about Starbucks, he uses phrases like “the authenticity of the coffee experience” and “the romance, the theater of bringing that to life.”

But that does not match the reality of many Starbucks customers, who rush through each morning on their way to work, or many of its former customers, who have rejected the chain’s cookie-cutter shops in favor of small local shops that serve more carefully made coffee.

Mr. Schultz’s first job upon returning was to halt the marathon store openings, lay off 1,500 United States store employees and 1,700 global corporate employees and figure out how to get the remaining 150,000 to think like employees of a scrappy little company that just wants to serve a good cup of coffee. Starbucks’ coffee buyers, for example, had chosen only varieties of beans that were produced in large enough quantities to supply all Starbucks stores. They rejected coffees made in small batches, which artisanal coffeehouses specialize in. Mr. Schultz changed that. “We’re not one size fits all.”

Even as Mr. Schultz tries to manage more like a start-up founder, he has given in to traditional big-company ideas that he had previously resisted. Last year, Starbucks embraced customer research surveys and ran its first major advertising campaign...

Mr. Schultz brought Cliff Burrows, who was managing stores abroad, back to Seattle to run American operations. One of the first discoveries he made talking to customers seemed basic, but had been lost in Starbucks’ push to open stores.

Coffee drinkers in the Sun Belt, it turns out, prefer cold drinks, while those in the Northeast generally like drip coffee and those in the Pacific Northwest drink more espresso. Yet the executives in charge of regions of the country were divided along time zones and out of touch with what different customers wanted."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/21sbux.html?scp=2&sq=starbucks&st=cse

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New and Creative Leniency for Overdue Library Books; New York Times, 12/29/09

Susan Saulny and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, New York Times; New and Creative Leniency for Overdue Library Books:

"In the Illinois towns of Joliet and Palos Park, the economic downturn has pushed the public libraries into the grocery business, of sorts. Patrons with overdue books and hefty outstanding fines were recently given a way to clear their records: Donate canned goods or other groceries through the library to local shelters and food pantries.

At the Denver Public Library, librarians can negotiate a fee structure that feels fair to them based on individual cases.

Dozens of library patrons in both towns jumped at the opportunity.

In Colorado, despite a multimillion-dollar deficit, the Denver Public Library has practically done away with fixed-rate fines. Now librarians there are free to negotiate a fee structure that feels fair to them based on individual cases, or to charge nothing at all.

Since the beginning of the economic downturn, librarians across the country have speculated that fines for overdue items are keeping people from using the library — particularly large families whose children take out (and forget to return) many books at a time. Some libraries learned that the fines, which are often as low as 25 cents an item per day, quickly multiplied for many people and were becoming an added hardship.

“We can’t push the cost to consumers because they’re also struggling,” said Richard Sosa, the finance director of the Denver system, which has $9 million worth of books in circulation through 23 libraries and two bookmobiles. “The library philosophy is: We do not want to restrict access to information. The use of fines or harsh collection tactics — and we could potentially do that — could essentially restrict people’s access to the library.”

And another thing: They need their books back.

As a result, libraries have been instituting amnesty days and weeks with increasing frequency this year, and offering programs such as “food for fines.” In Joliet, about 60 miles southwest of here, the program went well beyond groceries, and benefited a local social service agency that serves the needy.

“Toiletries, clothing — people could bring in just about anything,” said John Spears, the director of the Joliet library. “It went very well. I think these kinds of things are a win-win for everyone.”


The Conneaut Public Library in Conneaut, Ohio, has a list of more than 1,000 people who cannot use the system because of fines, and the staff has been contacting the long lost patrons to ask them to come back.

The food for fines program there, which started around Thanksgiving and runs through New Year’s Day, offers this deal: Take the amount owed, divide it in half, and give that number of items to the Conneaut Food Pantry. For instance, if a family owes $50, it can donate 25 canned goods to the pantry, and the fines will disappear.

“Behind my circulation desk, I have boxes and boxes of food that people are stumbling over,” said Kathy Pape, the library’s executive director. “The response has been overwhelming.”
Other libraries are accepting any amount of food in exchange for returned materials. And the ones that are offering amnesty require nothing at all.

“We service an area that’s extremely depressed, in the foothills of East Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains,” said Aliceann McCabe, the director of the Audrey Pack Memorial Library in Spring City, Tenn., where an amnesty week ended Dec. 18. “Our computer use has tripled thanks to unemployment claims and things. This is our Christmas present to the people who use our library. We don’t want to ding them with fines.”

Ms. McCabe recounted the story of one woman who had $196 in outstanding fines forgiven. The library, for its part, got her 10 books back in circulation. For a country library that only has 27,000 books in its collection, “that’s a lot,” Ms. McCabe said.

The Monterey County Free Library system in Monterey, Calif., has reclaimed more than 1,000 books since offering end-of-the-year amnesty to patrons in November and December.
“We thought, People are suffering, having a hard time, so let’s give them a break and get our books back,” said Jayanti Addleman, the county librarian.

But Ms. Addleman and others said they often faced a common-sense question from users and management: Why not raise fines to make money and serve more people?

The librarians say the new leniency makes sense. “What’s going to keep my library doors open is the bigger picture,” Ms. Pape said. “It isn’t going to be a hundred-odd dollars here and there.”

Mr. Sosa, in Denver, added: “A certain level of fines and fee structure is important to have people realize that these are important public materials, and that’s how libraries work in a democracy. But at the same time, we’re trying to figure out, when does a fee prohibit someone who’s on the brink economically from using our service? We’re cognizant of what we’re doing.”

In Pelham, N.H., the public library director, Robert Rice, offered a food-for-fines program during November.

“We will probably continue that policy once the new year starts,” Mr. Rice said. “The loss in terms of money was maybe $20 a day. We well made up for it with the amount of food that came in.”

He continued: “We got our materials back and did something positive for the community. Use is up greatly, and budgets are being cut. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re keeping the doors open.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/us/29library.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=library%20management&st=cse

Monday, January 18, 2010

Management Advice From Charles Darwin; Forbes, 6/25/09

Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky, Forbes; Management Advice From Charles Darwin:

"As leadership consultants, we work with many corporations. Every one of them is facing unanticipated and unprecedented turmoil right now. General Motors is not the only company with a tried and true operating model that's collapsing. General Electric is not the only company that has ended a proud streak of never having cut its dividend. "Business as usual" no longer exists.

Forbes published its first list of the 100 largest U.S. corporations in 1917. More than 60 of those 100 companies have ceased to exist. Only 20 are still in the top 100. Adaptation to changing times is very, very difficult, and it's harder than ever today.

What makes adaptation so hard, and what can you do about it? Ask Charles Darwin.

Darwin's On The Origin of Species was published 150 years ago, in 1859. Its insights about natural selection in plants and animals offer lessons that can provide guidance for coping with business challenges today. Darwin observed that species survived changing environments by making adaptations to their new realities. Each adaptation required experimentation (modified DNA sequences) to create new traits.

When an organization tries to adapt, it steps out of its familiar mode of existence that has worked so far, much as a plant or an animal species does by random mutation. The new mode may help or hinder an organization--or an organism's progeny. Not all adaptations work in the long run. Some survive and thrive; many fail, and many organizations and species die off.

Every adaptation involves giving something up, some part of the DNA that the species or the organization relied on in the past. You cannot make progress if you can't learn to sacrifice something in order to adapt to the unknown future.

What is called Adaptive Leadership was developed by members of the faculty at Harvard University and has been refined by more than 30 years of practical application at corporations all over the world. It draws on Darwin and the work of evolutionary biologists to understand how corporations can act to survive and thrive in rapidly changing environments and conditions of great uncertainty.

Here are three key lessons of Adaptive Leadership, drawn from the work of Darwin and applicable to every business today.

Find Small Variations that Create Advantage...

Create Micro-Adaptations...

Find Your Ecological Niche"

http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/25/darwin-natural-selection-leadership-managing-advice.html

Sunday, January 17, 2010

New survey shows U.S. public libraries in financial jeopardy; ALA, 1/14/10

ALA; New survey shows U.S. public libraries in financial jeopardy: Cuts reduce hours, staffing at thousands of libraries as patron demand escalates:

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/trendstudy_ors.cfm

Interview with Cristóbal Conde, president and C.E.O. of SunGard: Structure? The Flatter, the Better; Corner Office, New York Times, 1/17/10

Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Cristóbal Conde, president and C.E.O. of SunGard: Structure? The Flatter, the Better:

"Q. What are your thoughts on collaborative versus top-down management?

A. Collaboration is one of the most difficult challenges in management. I think top-down organizations got started because the bosses either knew more or they had access to more information. None of that applies now. Everybody has access to identical amounts of information.

Q. Why did that shift occur?

A. I would say two things. One is just the massive information revolution. But equally important is the fact that before, while there were global companies, they were really just a collection of very local businesses operating independently from each other. Now a global company means a company composed of teams that are themselves dispersed. So every team can be global in many senses, not just the company.

But with the explosion of information, and flattening technologies starting with e-mail, I think that a C.E.O. needs to focus more on the platform that enables collaboration, because employees already have all the data. They have access to everything.

You have to work on the structure of collaboration. How do people get recognized? How do you establish a meritocracy in a highly dispersed environment?

The answer is to allow employees to develop a name for themselves that is irrespective of their organizational ranking or where they sit in the org chart. And it actually is not a question about monetary incentives. They do it because recognition from their peers is, I think, an extremely strong motivating factor, and something that is broadly unused in modern management.

Q. How do you create that culture?

A. One thing we use is a Twitter-like system on our intranet called Yammer.

Q. How long have you used it?

A. About seven months. By having technologies that allow people to see what others are doing, share information, collaborate, brag about their successes — that is what flattens the organization. I think the role of the boss is to then work on those collaboration platforms, as opposed to being the one making the decisions. It’s more like the producer of the show, rather than being the lead.

I think too many bosses think that their job is to be the lead, and I don’t. By creating an atmosphere of collaboration, the people who are consistently right get a huge following, and their work product is talked about by people they’ve never met. It’s fascinating.

Q. What kind of things do you write on Yammer?

A. I try to see a client every day, and because of my title I get to see more senior people. And so then they’ll tell me things — you know, what are their biggest problems, what are their biggest issues, what are their biggest bets. All this information is incredibly valuable. Now, what could I do with that? I’m not going to send that out in a broadcast voice mail to every employee. I’m not even going to write a long e-mail about it to every employee, because even that is almost too formal. But I can write five lines on Yammer, which is about all it takes.

A free flow of information is an incredible tool because I can tell people, “Look, this is one of our largest clients, and the C.E.O. just told me his top three priorities are X, Y and Z. Think about them.”

Q. Have you always tried to pursue a collaborative management style?

A. Early on, I was very command-and-control, very top-down. I felt I was smart, and that my decisions would be better. I was young, and I was willing to work 20 hours a day. But guess what? It doesn’t scale.

Q. How far can it scale?

A. Hundreds of people in a good business.

Q. Beyond that it breaks down?

A. Beyond that it was beyond my ability. Now, there are plenty of incredibly successful companies run by micromanagers, and that’s a different story. The last year I did that, I was away from home 302 nights, not including day trips. I had to fly around all over the place making all the decisions. And I would walk in, make an uninformed decision, get on the next plane, go somewhere else and repeat the process. I look back at that year; I don’t think I got anything done...

Q. What is some of the best feedback you’ve received?

A. A boss once told me: “Cris, you’re a smart guy, but that doesn’t mean that people can absorb a list of 18 things to do. Focus on a handful of things.” Very constructive criticism, and the way I’ve translated that is, when I do reviews, everything is threes.

So, “Look, Charlie, these are the three things that are going well. These are the three things that are not going well.” Now, that’s very important because then people know that everybody’s going to get three positives and three things they should do differently. Then they don’t take it personally. I’ve found that to be an incredibly valuable tool.

Q. Let’s talk about hiring. What questions do you ask?

A. I care a lot less about the individual skills. I look for drive and a sense of somebody’s intellectual curiosity.

Q. How? What do you ask?

A. I think you can get a lot of those questions in small talk. You might say, “What do you think of this table?” We’re a technology company, so most people are engineers. I expect something interesting or unconventional. We have tended to make more money with people who are willing to buck conventional wisdom.

Q. Give me an example.

A. I interviewed a guy the other day, and he said, “Well, you won’t believe it, but I thought about taking the train and going back home as I was coming here.” I loved that answer.

Q. Why?

A. I love that answer because it means the person is trying to think for themselves. That’s what I want.

Q. And why did he think about turning around and taking the train home?

A. Because he was thinking about the company’s position and other considerations. The specifics are not the point. He was trying to come up with kind of a rational process for weeding out the bad ideas from the good ones. And he looked at me almost like he was embarrassed to admit this. And I loved the answer. It takes incredible self-confidence to say that.

I love it when people show healthy skepticism. I think the more an organization is diverse that way, the healthier it is, and better decisions will come out. We have made more money by bucking conventional wisdom than by following it. And I think that in an interview, I look for ways in which people demonstrate that they are thinking about things rather than just accepting conventional wisdom."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/business/17corner.html

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA): Where Library Leaders Grow

Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA): Where Library Leaders Grow:

"The mission of the Library Leadership and Management Association is to encourage and nurture current and future library leaders, and to develop and promote outstanding leadership and management practices.

Since its establishment in 1957, LLAMA has been a powerful catalyst in the development of leadership in the library and information science field. Attuned to ever-changing technological, economic, political, and cultural conditions, LLAMA equips library professionals with dynamic tools for building vibrant library services and successful careers.Highlighting all aspects of library management, LLAMA's sections (special interest groups) offer not only opportunities to connect with people of similar interests, but also to exchange ideas, collaborate on projects, publish research, mentor future leaders, and hone leadership and managerial skills."

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/llama/index.cfm

Library Leadership Network (LLN); Lyrasis

Lyrasis; Library Leadership Network (LLN):

"The Library Leadership Network (LLN), a free service from LYRASIS, is a vibrant community of practice where leaders (and those who will become leaders) assemble to share best practices, discuss issues, find solutions, and build community. LLN connects leaders to comprehensive resources, supports individual and organizational development, and facilitates collaboration among library leaders."

http://lln.lyrasis.org/

Special Libraries Association (SLA) Leadership Summit, St. Louis, MO, 1/27-1/30/10

Special Libraries Association (SLA) Leadership Summit, St. Louis, MO, 1/27-1/30/10:

"If you're a leader, you simply must attend the 2010 Leadership Summit. You will learn practical skills to grow in your leadership role in SLA or other volunteer organizations which will then assist in elevating your leadership skills in your job. That translates to what today's employers are seeking in today's information professional."

http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/10leadsummit/index.cfm

Charting our Future: ACRL Strategic Plan 2020, 1/13/09

Charting our Future: [Association of College and Research Libraries] ACRL Strategic Plan 2020:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/whatisacrl/strategicplan/index.cfm

ARL Strategic Plan 2010-2012, 10/15/09

[Association of Research Libraries] ARL Strategic Plan 2010-2012:

http://www.arl.org/arl/governance/strat-plan/index.shtml

ALA Strategic Plan 2015, DRAFT Document, ALA Midwinter, 1/10/10

ALA Strategic Plan 2015, DRAFT Document, ALA Midwinter, 1/10/10:

http://connect.ala.org/node/91718

Ground broken for long-awaited public library in Canonsburg; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,1/14/10

Dave Zuchowski, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Ground broken for long-awaited public library in Canonsburg:

"Warm hearts bested freezing temperatures and a half-foot of snow as two dozen braved the elements Friday to attend the groundbreaking for a $5 million Canonsburg library, slated to open in early 2011.

The proposed two-story building at Jefferson Avenue and Murdock Street has been on the planning board for at least 10 years, after the library board decided a new facility was needed to replace the crowded one in the borough building on East Pike Street.

But it wasn't until Canonsburg chocolate magnates Frank and Athena Sarris donated $1.5 million for the library's construction that the project picked up steam. Another $1 million earmarked by the state for construction plus an additional $100,000 in state money for land acquisition boosted the momentum to realizing the library board's long-sought goal.

"I'm glad to see that tax revenue is coming back to Canonsburg in the form of a new library," state Rep. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, said.

Following the brief golden shovel ceremony at the site, participants attended a celebratory luncheon at the Southpointe Golf Club, where Mr. and Mrs. Sarris announced they would contribute an additional $400,000 to the project.

"I was raised in Canonsburg and am pleased to be able to give something back to the community," Mr. Sarris said.

The new library will serve the 30,000 residents of Canonsburg, North Strabane and Cecil, communities that make up the Canon-McMillan School District. To create space for the facility, seven buildings were removed from the site, which was chosen because it is centrally located, level and in an area slated for redevelopment.

"Our present library is overcrowded and shares the borough building with the police and fire departments, the district [judge] and borough administration," said Ila Stabile, capital campaign director. "When the new library is up and running, our space will increase from the present 3,800 square feet to around 33,000 square feet."

The Canonsburg Library opened in 1879 and has been relocated seven times. The population of the area is growing rapidly as major access roads and low county taxes make them popular "bedroom communities" for Pittsburgh workers, according to a summary published by the Greater Canonsburg Library Association.

The growing population has brought an influx of young, college-educated citizens and their families.

"Just as every community needs a school, they also should have a library to serve as a hub of learning," Washington County Commissioner J. Bracken Burns Sr. said. "Throughout life, from an early age through retirement years and everything in between, reading should have a place in everyone's life. Libraries are good places to gain knowledge and become exposed to a multitude of ideas."

The Pittsburgh Business Times has ranked the library's collection of books, DVDs, audio books, magazines and newspapers as No. 24 in southwestern Pennsylvania, but one of the facility's biggest liabilities is its lack of space.

"For the past 12 years, for every book I buy, I have to weed one out of the collection," said library director, Lyn Crouse. "We also have boxes of books sitting on top of our shelves. If a patron wants to borrow one, a staff member has to climb a step stool and get it for them."

Another liability is the library's lack of meeting space. Ms. Crouse said that people call her in need of a place to tutor students, Scout groups inquire about meeting space and businesses ask for training or conference rooms, but all have to be turned away.

The new library will have public meeting rooms and study areas.

"The library staff is very excited about the new construction plans," Ms Crouse said. "Our logo says that we're the civic, social, cultural and educational center of the community, and that's just what we intend to be.""

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10014/1028051-58.stm

Interview with Tony Hsieh, chief executive, Zappos.com; Corner Office, New York Times, 1/11/10

Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Tony Hsieh, chief executive, Zappos.com: On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Weird Are You?:

"Q. What are some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?

A. After college, a roommate and I started a company called LinkExchange in 1996, and it grew to about 100 or so people, and then we ended up selling the company to Microsoft in 1998. From the outside, it looked like it was a great acquisition, $265 million, but most people don’t know the real reason why we ended up selling the company.

It was because the company culture just went completely downhill. When it was starting out, when it was just 5 or 10 of us, it was like your typical dot-com. We were all really excited, working around the clock, sleeping under our desks, had no idea what day of the week it was. But we didn’t know any better and didn’t pay attention to company culture.

By the time we got to 100 people, even though we hired people with the right skill sets and experiences, I just dreaded getting out of bed in the morning and was hitting that snooze button over and over again.

Q. Why?

A. I just didn’t look forward to going to the office. The passion and excitement were no longer there. That’s kind of a weird feeling for me because this was a company I co-founded, and if I was feeling that way, how must the other employees feel? That’s actually why we ended up selling the company.

Financially, it meant I didn’t have to work again if I didn’t want to. So that was the lens through which I was looking at things. It’s basically asking the question, what would you want to do if you won the lottery? For me, I didn’t want to be part of a company where I dreaded going into the office.

So when I joined Zappos about a year later, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t make the same mistake that I had made at LinkExchange, in terms of the company culture going downhill. So for us, at Zappos, we really view culture as our No. 1 priority. We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.

Q. So how do you do that?

A. About five years ago, we formalized the definition of our culture into 10 core values. We wanted to come up with committable core values, meaning that we would actually be willing to hire and fire people based on those values, regardless of their individual job performance. Given that criteria, it’s actually pretty tough to come up with core values.

Q. Tell me what happened.

A. We spent a year doing that. I basically sent an e-mail out to the entire company, asking them what our values should be, and got a whole bunch of different responses. The initial list was actually 37 long, and then we ended up condensing and combining them and went back and forth and came up with our list of 10.

Today, we actually do two separate sets of interviews. The hiring manager and his or her team will interview for the standard fit within the team, relevant experience, technical ability and so on. But then our H.R. department does a separate set of interviews purely for culture fit. They actually have questions for each and every one of the core values.

Q. Can you give me an example of the value and the question?

A. Well, some of them are behavioral questions. One of our values is, “Create fun and a little weirdness.” So one of our interview questions is, literally, on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1, you’re probably a little bit too strait-laced for us. If you’re a 10, you might be too psychotic for us.

It’s not so much the number; it’s more seeing how candidates react to a question. Because our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird somehow, so it’s really more just a fun way of saying that we really recognize and celebrate each person’s individuality, and we want their true personalities to shine in the workplace environment, whether it’s with co-workers or when talking with customers.

I think of myself less as a leader, and more of being almost an architect of an environment that enables employees to come up with their own ideas, and where employees can grow the culture and evolve it over time, so it’s not me having a vision of “This is our culture.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10corner.html