oak park public library staff in-service day

OPPL Staff DayBringing Learning Back

December 6, 2013

Monday, December 9, 13

Who Am I?

• Dr. Anthony Molaro

• Assistant Professor, St. Catherine University

• Twitter.com/infoactivist

• informationactivist.com

• But before we begin

• Once upon a time...

The Fifth Discipline:The Learning Organization

The 5th Discipline

• By Peter Senge

• Brought the notion of the learning organization into the mindset of leaders and managers

• Systems thinking

• Personal mastery

• Mental models

• Shared vision

• Team learning

• The goal of the book (and this discussion) is to foster a more interconnected way of thinking

• An organization that is quick to learn is quick to adapt

• In order to gain a competitive advantage, libraries need adapt to change quickly

• We need to learn faster than our competitors

• Interspersed within my talk will be some group activities

• Why do we do group activities?

• Learning theory

• Fitness

You Just Have To Do It

Why: The Most Important Question

Systems Thinking

Fragmented World

• From the earliest age, we are taught to break problems and tasks apart

• This allows us to make complex issues more manageable

When we unfragment our world we are often faced with a distorted reality

Systems Thinking Exercise

Wallet

• How many people made the perfect wallet for them self?

• What does this tell you?

• If I had asked you to design a new library service, most people would design a service to improve work in their department

• Circ staff would improve circulation workflow or experience

• YA staff would create new programs for YA

Systems Thinking

• This is systems thinking

• Systems thinking is seeing the system as a whole not parts

• It is seeing how an increase in YA programs will impact circ, adult services, security and even parking

• It is seeing something in its completeness

Structures & Patterns

• System thinking is a way to see structures and patterns

• Structures that we are unaware hold us prisoner

Sometimes the best path is counterintuitive

Upside Down

• The easy way out often leads us right back into the issue

• Often times the cure is worse than the disease

• Cause and effect are often separated by large amounts of time

Shift In Mind

A World of Circles

• We live in a world of circles but we think in straight lines

• We are linear thinkers

• System thinking refers to these circles as loops

5 Whys

• A patient goes to the doctor not feeling well. The doctor diagnoses them with high cholesterol. Gives them medication and tells them to lose weight

Asking'Powerful'Questions:'5'Whys'Worksheet!!!!!

!! Why!is!it!happening?!!

Define!the!Problem:!You!don’t!want!to!list!5!different!reasons;!you!want!to!go!deep!on!1!reason.!!

Why!is!that?!

Action:(

Why!is!that?!

Caution:!= If!your!last!answer!is!something!you!can’t!control,!go!back!up!to!the!previous!answer!on!1!reason!

= Cannot!because!of!a!person!

Interdependencies

• We live in a world (a system) in which most everything is connected

• When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.

• John Muir 1869

• Don’t push growth; remove the factors limiting growth

• Don’t shift the burden

• Solutions that address only symptoms of problems is short sighted

Leverage

• System thinking is applying leverage to achieve maximum results

• Well focused attention

Remember

• Unintended consequences

• Counter-intuitive

• Interdependencies

Personal Mastery

• Personal mastery doesn’t mean mastering a specific skill

• It is more of a mindset of continual learning and improvement

• Kaizen (80/20 time)

• Most workplace learning is incidental not intentional

• Its about growth not being the bestMonday, December 9, 13

• It goes beyond spiritual unfolding and opening, although it requires spiritual growth

• Personal mastery is really about removing noise

• Emotional noise “I’m not good enough”

• The internal dialogue within all of us

• Attentive noise or distraction

• Hippie Alert

Hippie Alert: Danger Touchy Feely Ahead

Zen parable man on horse

Science of Mindfulness

• There is a sizable body of research

• Effects on the amygdala

• Leads to higher emotional intelligence

Mindfulness

• Is simply paying attention

• In a particular way

• On purpose

• In the present moment

• Without judgement

Reflective Inquiry

• Mindfulness and many of the techniques of the learning organization have to do with reflective inquiry

• The intentional examination of issues, problems, purpose and life

Personal Vision

• Personal vision is not a series of goals and objectives

• It is living with purpose

• But it is more

• Purpose is a general direction

• Vision is a destination

Roadmap

Personal Vision Exercise

• Let’s take 15 minutes to begin the process of creating a personal vision

Hidden Question

• What happens if your personal vision is contrary to your job?

Try Something New for 30 Days

Mental Models

Thumb Wrestling

• Debrief

Mental Models

• Are deeply ingrained beliefs, myths, stories about how the world works

• They are often invisible

• But directly affect our actions

Organizational Mental Models

• Organizations have mental models too

• As organizations age and grow the mental models become further entrenched

• Organizational structures and individual thinking becomes more rigid

A Few Examples

• Higher circulation is better

• Bigger salaries are better

• Libraries shouldn’t charge for materials

• Library websites are important/vital necessary

• We must catalog our materials

• A Ph.D. makes me smart

• Mental models are neither inherently good or bad; right or wrong

• They simply are

• The goal is to increase awareness of them

Example

• One of the simplest exercises to do when problem solving is to list our assumptions about a problem or proposed solution

Shared Vision

• A shared vision is not necessarily an idea but rather a force in one’s heart

• Why did Hogwarts fight with Harry Potter?

• There was no fear of reprisal

• They fought because they believed

• Shared visions emerge from personal visions

• The vision of OPPL is a combination of all of your visions together

• But it also means believing in the vision so much that you are willing to sacrifice personal ideas

Experiment

• Who do you think will reach the target?

• Someone blindfolded

• or someone not blindfolded

Experiment

• I need two volunteers

• Why did this happen?

Army Crew Teams

• I use a Harvard case of Army Crew Teams

• The varsity team is individually quantifiably faster, stronger and better

• The JV team beats them about 50% of the time

Team Learning

The Wisdom of Teams

• If we looked at high performance athletic teams we would see a commitment to the team

• It doesn’t mean the players like each other, often they don’t, but they are committed to each other

• Team learning is not synonymous with team building

Community of Practice Theory

• We now have research that supports an intuitive idea...we learn together

• Why?

Statistical Groups

Blindfold Exercise

Tying It All Together

Story Exercise

• If time permits

• As we approach the end of today’s talk you will notice sizable gaps

• There are two reasons for this

• First, time is a factor

• Second, you learn when you fill in those gaps by constructing your own knowledge

Once upon a time...

Even now, as adults, there’s something in most of us that perks up and starts to listen when we hear those words. We love stories. And stories have always served important functions for us. They bring us together and reinforce our sense of community. They engage, amuse, enthrall, and titillate. And they teach: throughout history, before most people could read and write, stories, told by firesides and in village gatherings, were the mechanism by which we handed down laws and values, religions and taboos, knowledge and wisdom.

Fast Company (November 15, 2012)

Blue Buckets

h$p://2.bp.blogspot.com/_b6Ldus1eZ_Y/S-‐0z4BNGS2I/AAAAAAAAAsY/oiSVSCSn9pc/s1600/blue+bucket.jpgMonday, December 9, 13

oak park public library staff in-service day

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