2013 11-07--community collaboration--nekls
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This daylong presentation for library directors attending the Northeast Kansas Library System Library Directors Institute on November 7, 2013 in Valley Falls, Kansas, is designed to help participants further hone their skills in fostering community collaborations through a series of conversations and exercises demonstrating the collaborative process.
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2013 11-07--community collaboration--nekls
- 1. Community Collaboration: Helping Shape Our Communities A Conversation Facilitated by Paul Signorelli Writer/Trainer/Consultant Paul Signorelli & Associates paul@paulsignorelli.com Northeast Kansas Library System Directors Institute November 7, 2013 Valley Falls, Kansas
- 3. It’s W W Make of It hat e
- 4. Atchison Library: 6x6 Early Literacy
- 5. Basehor Community Library: Annual Go Dog Go Fundraiser
- 6. Baldwin City Library: Art, Alpacas, and W ildlife
- 7. Silver Lake Public Library: Farmers Market Vendors
- 8. Eudora Public Library: Adventure Days
- 9. Rossville Community Library: Reading in Local Nursing Home
- 10. Mary Cotton Public Library: Kiwanis and Lions Clubs
- 11. Morrill Public Library: Quilt Shop
- 12. Exploring Our Communities: An Exercise in Partnerships
- 13. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Ray Oldenburg & the Third Place
- 14. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Ray Oldenburg & the Third Place “…those happy gathering places that a community may contain, those ‘homes away from home’…”
- 15. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Peter Block & Community
- 16. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Peter Block & Community Citizens participate; consumers “surrender to others the power to provide what is essential for a full and satisfied life.”
- 17. Thinkers W orth Knowing: R. David Lankes & New Librarianship
- 18. Thinkers W orth Knowing: R. David Lankes & New Librarianship “The Mission of Librarians is to Improve Society through Facilitating Knowledge Creation in their Communities”
- 19. Discussion #1: Identifying Matches Between Library and Community Needs
- 20. Libraries, Community, and Learning: Libraries as a Newly-Defined Fourth Place?
- 21. Libraries, Community, and Learning: Libraries Already as Fourth Place
- 22. Putting the “Social” into Social Media
- 24. Learning, Innovation, and Collaboration: Personal Learning Networks
- 25. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Richard Harwood
- 26. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Richard Harwood “This ne w tra je c to ry , p e o p le s a y , will ta ke s ha p e o nly thro ug h a c tio ns tha t s ta rt s m a ll, a nd lo c a l, be twe e n a nd a m o ng the m , be g inning c lo s e to ho m e , o n a hum a n s c a le . ”
- 27. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Maureen Sullivan http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/libraries-transforming-communities
- 28. Defining Our Message, Then Crafting It
- 29. Discussion #2: The Elevator Speech
- 30. And This Just In: Elevator Speeches & Libraries
- 31. Discussion #2: The Elevator Speech
- 32. Blending Ideas from Our Inspirations
- 33. Blending Ideas from Our Inspirations
- 34. Blending Ideas from Our Inspirations
- 35. Blending Ideas from Our Inspirations
- 36. Blending Ideas from Our Inspirations
- 37. Thinkers W orth Knowing: Jim Diers “… s ta rt whe re p e o p le a re … this m e a ns o rg a niz ing p e o p le a ro und wha t inte re s ts the m ra the r tha n a ro und wha t y o u think the y s ho uld be inte re s te d in. ”
- 38. Our Challenge: Identifying Community Needs and Solutions
- 39. Discussion #3: Finding our Collaborators
- 40. Discussion #4: Identifying and Overcoming Hurdles
- 41. Discussion #5: Identifying W to Do hat
- 42. In Summary
- 43. In Summary
- 44. In Summary
- 45. In Summary
- 46. In Summary
- 47. In Summary
- 48. In Summary
- 49. Resources
- 50. Resources Website for “Transforming Libraries”: ttp://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/libraries-transforming-communities n annotated visual bibliography of resources: ommunity & Collaboration in an Onsite-Online World,” ailable at http://paulsignorelli.com/PDFs/Bibliography--Community_and_Collaboration.pdf
- 51. Questions, Comments, and Next Steps
- 52. For More Information Paul Signorelli & Associates 1032 Irving St., #514 San Francisco, CA 94122 415.681.5224 paul@paulsignorelli.com http://paulsignorelli.com Twitter: @paulsignorelli http://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com
- 53. Credits & Acknowledgments (1 of 2) Slide Design by Paul Signorelli (Images taken from lickr.com unless otherwise noted): Circle of Hands: From Sheryl’s Boys’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/mmgjrwq Girl Reaching Out: From BenSpark’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lhnp257 Kansas: From ChrisM70’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/ks3y2dy Atchison Library 6x6: From AtchisonLibrary.org Basehor Library Go Dog Go: Online photo album at http://tracielansingphotography.smugmug.com/Events/Go-DogGo-2013 Baldwin Library Summer Reading: Newspaper article at http://signal.baldwincity.com/news/2013/jun/10/animalsattraction-librarys-summer-reading-program/ Silver Lake Library Farmers Market: Announcement at http://www.silverlakelibrary.org/farmers-market-the-library/ Eudora Library Adventure Days: Announcement at http://www.eudorapubliclibrary.org/summer-reading-grant/ Rossville Community Library: From http://www.rossvillelibrary.org/services/home-delivery-service/ Mary Cotton Public Library: From http://www.sabethalibrary.org/ Morrill Library Quilts: From Library’s Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/n6l9vdt Listen/Understand/Act: From HigherSight’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/mxjnotf Circle of Interconnected Hands: From MaryScheirer’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lwtlcop Information Commons, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Lied Library): From Mal Booth’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/knd6vjk Homework Help: From Topeka & Shawnee County Library’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/k4no7d9 Richard Harwood: From ALA – The American Library Association’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/kkqj7nh Maureen Sullivan: From ALA – The American Library Association’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lbj673y Elevator: From Trepelu’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/kfwbkmc Elevator Buttons: From CB Photography’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lc8gvqz
- 54. Credits & Acknowledgments (2 of 2) Slide Design by Paul Signorelli (Images taken from lickr.com unless otherwise noted): Jim Diers: From AlexAbboud’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/mbo7uu8 Leaping Over Hurdles: From SoggyDan’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/n5xbgve Living Your Plan: From Symphony of Love’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lpq2yoy Question Marks: From Valerie Everett’s photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/3006348550/sizes/m/in/photostream/
- 55. Thinkers W orth Knowing (Images taken from lickr.com unless otherwise noted): Peter Block: From Coyenator’s photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/coyenator/3283315715/sizes/m/in/photostream/ R. David Lankes: From Tracie7779s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/kuay34w Circle of Interconnected Hands: From MaryScheirer’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lwtlcop Elevator: From Trepelu’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/kfwbkmc Leaping Over Hurdles: From SoggyDan’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/n5xbgve Living Your Plan: From Symphony of Love’s photostream at http://tinyurl.com/lpq2yoy
Notes de l'éditeur
- Ah, if only it were this easy: we gather in a circle, join hands, agree we’re going to work together, and then magic happens. In some ways, it is easy, as everyone in this room has discovered at one time or another. We listen to each other, we brainstorm with specific goals in mind, we work together to implement what we have designed, and then we do a post-project evaluation to see how we might do even better next time we engage in a partnership (which for our purposes will imply formal agreements) or collaborations (which for our purposes will imply less formal but no-less-productive efforts to work with others to reach an agreed-upon goal). So where do we start?
- I’m going to suggest up front that it’s personal—and we’re going to spend a fair amount of time exploring this throughout the day to see if it’s true for you and those you serve: We start by reaching out. We remember that regardless of our titles, we’re working at a very human, person-to-person level. We see the requirements of our positions not as constraints but as opportunities—and when we do encounter obstacles, we realize we’re not alone in attempting to resolve them. And we remember that in many important ways, we’re never really alone. When we reach out to our communities—regardless of whether they are small or large, geographically constricted or spread over a relatively large county area, are primarily onsite or online or a combination of both—we have some of the greatest treasures and resources available to us: people like us who, given an opportunity, will work to develop something that is significant and sustainable within our communities.
- We obviously are players in this effort to help create collaborations and to help shape our communities—but we’re not the sole, driving force: Collaboration implies a level of equality and shared responsibility Collaboration implies going where we’re needed rather than waiting for the need to come to us. And collaboration implies the sort of give-and-take that unites us in ways that make impossible dreams feel a bit more possible.
- One of your colleagues, during the pre-workshop survey we conducted via SurveyMonkey, described the Atchison Library 6x6 early literacy program; summary posted on June 19, 2013 on AtchisonGlobeNow.com: http://www.atchisonglobenow.com/community_and_lifestyles/good_news_atchison/article_fd65fff9-f2a6-51cd-996a-ed3612007567.html
- Another of your colleagues described collaborating on the annual “Go Dog Go” fundraiser for the county humane society: “Staff does much of the set up for the walk, including taking registrations, buying the t-shirts, and handling the logistics of the walk itself.” More information available at: http://tracielansingphotography.smugmug.com/Events/Go-Dog-Go-2013
- A third colleague described several projects, including a summer reading program that included “a local school district art teacher, local alpaca farmer, local wildlife refuge, county master gardeners, state nature center, city parks & rec dept., local appliance dealer, local arts center, local merchants…” As we can see here, someone found it a bit newsworthy Link to article: http://signal.baldwincity.com/news/2013/jun/10/animals-attraction-librarys-summer-reading-program/
- A fourth colleague described a “very loose collaboration with Farmers Market vendors this summer” that raised “over $600 for the Library’s Building Fund” in addition to providing an increased presence in the community. Link to announcement: http://www.silverlakelibrary.org/farmers-market-the-library/
- A fifth colleague talked about “Adventures Days,” a summer reading collaboration “with the Parks and Rec Dept.” The two-hour Adventure Day programs “offered four enrichment units…to the fifty children who attended the daycare program at Parks and Rec….The programs that were presented were Astronaut, Rain Forest, Reader’s Theater and 3-D Paper Art.” Link to announcement: http://www.eudorapubliclibrary.org/summer-reading-grant/
- A sixth colleague mentioned a few projects, including reading aloud in the community room of a local nursing home, offering home delivery services that are heavily used by nursing home residents, and providing special materials to those in the Alzheimer’s/Dementia wing of the nursing home.
- A seventh colleague talked about how members of the Kiwanis and Lions clubs of Sabetha “made donations toward Summer Reading give-away books for each child that signed up for the program….This resulted in enough money to place a new book into the hand of each child who registered for Summer Reading.”
- And an eighth colleague described a collaboration “with a local quilt shop during summer reading this year for a quilt show….the quilt shop donated a gift certificate for a ‘People’s Choice Award’ prize and helped promote the show.” Illustrations from the library’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.632584153426527.1073741828.151101281574819&type=1
- All of which brings us around to the heart of what we’re doing today—and beyond today. Since collaborations begin with reaching out, let’s do something that begins here and eventually carries us out of the room. Break up into pairs, preferably choosing someone you don’t already know extremely well Each person takes one minute to listen to the partner’s main goal for today When we reconvene in a few minutes, each of you will report your partner’s goal Debrief: seeing how listening and reporting on someone else’s goal required a different level of collaborative skill than when each of us reports on our own goals
- Ray Oldenburg First, Second, and Third places (home, work, and the gathering places that bring us together in a social setting and produce magnificent results as a result of fostering development of community)
- It’s interesting to note that Oldenburg’s book, initially published in 1989, doesn’t include libraries as Great Good Places in the Third Place sense—let’s assume he at least thought of them as small-letter great good places, but outside the purview of his work. Others have spent considerable time making the case for libraries to fill this role and note that in many ways, they have for decades.
- Writer-trainer-consultant Peter Block is one of the seminal contemporary figures in promoting the development of communities. In The Abundant Community, written with John McKnight, we have an engaging book-length exploration of what the writers call “the shift from citizen to consumer”—the move away from providing things for ourselves and, instead, buying services. Block and McKnight provide plenty of ideas that can be adapted to our quest to serve as learning centers within our communities.
- Let’s let Block and McKnight speak for themselves with words that help frame our work in terms of how we approach community involvement and the larger issue of collaboration…
- R. David Lankes, from the University of Syracuse School of Information Studies Atlas of New Librarianship
- New mission statement… The section of The Atlas that focuses on facilitating moves us to the heart of what we want to draw from that book today: “True facilitation means shared ownership” It involves access in the sense of libraries being the “publisher of community.” And as we explore concepts of knowledge creation and communities, Lankes is a huge advocate of listening as well as leading—the result being that we have, in this proposed mission statement, a very strong foundation for being part of defining the needs of communities with members of those communities and being equal partners in seeking and creating solutions.
- Drawing upon the examples we’ve seen and the works we’ve reviewed, let’s start by addressing one of the challenges that drew us together today: How can we identify matches between library and community needs? We’ll take some time to have discussions in small groups, then return to share the best of the ideas we come up with and address any unanswered questions this discussion raises. The ultimate goal here is to begin developing a plan of action you can implement as soon as you return to your library, so please don’t hesitate to take notes that will be helpful to you after today. Debrief: Take at least three of the ideas we came up with together regarding matches between library and community needs Any questions before we take our first break?
- First, immediately after the break: any unanswered questions or any thoughts that came up for you during the break? Next: In a very real sense, what we’re doing together is engaging in a dynamic form of learning that makes practicing what we want to accomplish an integral part of our learning process, so let’s step back a bit for a few minutes and look at the learning role our libraries play and could be playing in our communities. Our ultimate goal here is to see how providing learning opportunities for our communities is an integral part of creating collaborations within those communities. I’m a big fan of the academic library information commons model, and am glad to see more and more public libraries doing their own versions of the commons. I also love makerspaces. Both speak to what seems to be an integration of libraries, learning, collaboration, and community-building. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that a few of us have been exploring these models and coming up with an idea for a Fourth Place to add to Oldenburg’s first three: social learning centers. Summary of how Maurice Coleman, Jill Hurst-Wahl, and I have been promoting libraries as social learning centers to meet a key and often discussed need in any community: onsite, online, blended
- But this doesn’t have to be big-time, big-city, high-tech work, as we’re reminded by this photograph of a library learning program in action at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library…and many of you probably have similar efforts underway in the smallest of libraries you manage. The key issue here is to not miss the obvious branding effort we have to be part of meeting an obvious community need that is virtually universal.
- Once we acknowledge and overtly brand ourselves as collaborative “social learning centers”—let’s face it, that’s not a new idea, we’re just adapting wonderfully established and under-acknowledged practices in contemporary jargon—we turn more to explorations of what “social” means and what roles social media play in our interactions with our communities. As we move into discussing specific ways to function as partners within our communities—and struggle to define what a “community” is in an onsite-online (blended) world—what role can social media play in facilitating the development of collaboration that is sustainable?
- Two types of MOOCS (massive open online courses): xMOOCs, which are more or less traditional learning techniques (lectures, quizzes, grades) moved into online environments designed to serve thousands or tens of thousands; if you’re familiar with xMOOCs, you know we’re talking about what Udacity, Coursera, and others offer Connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs), which are messy, interactive, highly permeable in terms of established boundaries, and in the best of cases produce sustainable communities of learning that exist for much greater periods of time than any course ever covers; examples include the two we’re seeing on this slide While I don’t believe we’re going to be seeing large numbers of libraries produce and host connectivist MOOCs anytime within the next week or two, I do believe that what they are fostering in terms of learning, community, and collaboration offers a spectacular model that can teach us plenty, so highly recommend that you watch for at least one that appeals to you and give it a try.
- Personal learning networks—those groups of people (and, if we stretch the definition a bit, those resources) to whom and which we turn when we need support in our learning—are yet another example of ways we can begin to connect with each other in ways that better prepare us to connect with significant members of our communities. If we recognize that in very real ways we are educators or facilitators of learning, then we find ourselves feeling very comfortable participating in Connected Educator Month activities (they were global during October 2013) and through what we gain from reading and acting upon the content of first-rate reports like Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design published earlier this year by the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub and available via a free download at: http://dmlhub.net/sites/default/files/Connected_Learning_report.pdf These thoughts about personal learning networks, Connected Educator Month, and the Connected Learning report raise an important question: can we support personal learning networks in our libraries and then use them as a model for creating collaborative relationships throughout our community to achieve what none of us can achieve alone? Your thoughts?
- Let’s make this personal again by meeting (or re-meeting) a few people worth knowing, and seeing how their ideas play into what we’re going to do next. Richard Harwood is someone many of you met earlier this year at a Northeast Kansas Library System gathering. You may also have caught him at American Library Association conferences since he has been integrally involved with former ALA President Maureen Sullivan’s presidential initiative, “Promise of Libraries Transforming Communities.” And there we are: squarely facing, embracing, and fostering our role as collaborators in transforming our communities.
- We now have another key element of what we’re exploring: that human-scale, one-on-one level of contact that is where all great collaborations begin…like the member of the Sacramento Public Library staff who invited her Barnes & Noble rep out for coffee, told the rep about an upcoming e-book initiative the library was considering, and found that the bookseller wanted to partner with the library—big time!
- While we’re at it, let’s get back to acknowledging Maureen Sullivan as a key player over a long period of time in fostering collaborations between library staff and members of the communities they serve. We see her here, sitting just a couple of chairs away from Harwood, at the January 2013 American Library Association Midwinter Conference where “Promise of Libraries Transforming Communities” energized a lot of conference attendees and laid the foundations for many of us to return home and become stronger players. And let’s not forget that wonderful website that has plenty of resources to support our efforts at every possible level.
- So, we have a variety of collaborative models that are—or can be—integrally interwoven into our models for developing partnerships in whatever community we define as our target (our branch service area, our library system service area in a larger—county-wide or regional—service area, and our online service area that, potentially, is global). How do we craft a brief, compelling message that opens the door to collaborative projects? Let’s talk about elevator speeches: those finely honed, 30-second pitches that are so compelling that they could be delivered to a potential partner during a 30-second elevator ride. (Remember, they must be brief—just a few sentences; we are not allowed to pretend our elevator ride is the one from the ground floor to the top of the Empire State Building.)
- Keeping in mind that we’re focusing on needs that are community-centric rather than solely defined by what the library needs, what would we say to a potential partner in 30 seconds or less to initiate the conversation?
- An unplanned, spontaneous example of what we’re doing together today: This slide—and this part of the presentation—wasn’t included until less than 12 hours before I left San Francisco to come to Kansas to be with all of you. Patti Poe, having seen “the final version” of the slides, wrote to say she has just seen Joseph Janes’s “Common Ground” column on page 22 of the latest (November/December 2013) issue of American Libraries [http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/issue/novemberdecember-2013], and noted that the final two paragraphs of the short piece “clearly points out WHY you have to have your elevator speech ready.” So first, let’s take a look at those last two paragraphs: “Imagine this: If you had 90-seconds with your chief decision-maker, the person who really holds the power (board chair, president, dean), how would you portray, in words your decision-maker would use, the practical value of this sort of space [an information commons or makerspace] in advancing the agenda of the college or city, and not just as a space that is nice, useful, helpful, or pretty? It’s harder than it sounds, this elevator-speech thingy: some time and forethought into precisely what such a space is meant to achieve can pay big dividends when the questions come…once you’ve got the elevator speech ready, you need to find the elevator. Don’t simply wait for the moment to pounce: orchestrate it, and dazzle the powers that be with your logic and persuasion….Don’t be just another story.” So what have we just done? First: In a workshop about community partnerships and collaboration, Patti and I collaborated right up to the last possible moment to make it as compelling, engaging, and up-to-date as possible. Second: You’re being taken behind the scenes for a brief example of what comes out of that level of collaboration—something you probably strive to achieve every day and simply take for granted because at a certain level, it’s second nature to you. And third: We all win with this reminder that collaboration often thrives in a setting where we embrace improv as much as planning. Now back to our planned discussion!
- Let’s take a few minutes to once again work in pairs or trios, define the compelling issues that make libraries attractive partners for collaboration in the communities we serve, and then hone those 30-second elevator speeches that you’ll fine-tune and use when you return back to your own communities. Remember, the point is to open the door to a discussion about partnerships, not to sell someone on a library project needing support from someone else. (That comes later.) Debrief: Volunteers deliver their elevator speeches to all participants present; participants first note what is compelling in the speech as delivered, then offer suggestions they would incorporate if the speech had been theirs to give.
- First, immediately after lunch: any unanswered questions or any thoughts that came up for you during the lunchtime discussions? Next: During the first half of our day, we explored a variety of ideas, talked about what defines and brings communities together, and started exploring ways to move into our communities to listen to our potential partners. Let’s circle back to a few of our earlier inspirations, further synthesize what they offer us, and see how that synthesis can help us identify challenges and solutions. Oldenburg: His case studies include German-American lager beer gardens, main street, the English pub, the French café, the American tavern, and classic coffeehouses. He also spends entire chapters reminding us that this can’t be a male-centric concept: women and teens also need their third places and need to be incorporated into community third places to build strong communities. Personal example: being in Italy and seeing how members of a small community in Tuscany gather in the town square every evening; how Italians in many communities (large and small) conduct the passegiata (the walk through town at dusk)
- Block: issues that tie communities together—and which are “elements of satisfaction [that] grow out of an abundant community”—include health, safety and security, environment, economy, the food we eat, and how we raise our children.
- Lankes: serving as publisher of our communities, “cataloging relationships” through Scapes software—which leads to seeing our “collections” as foundational elements of community-building and collaboration, meetings spaces that serve community needs (entreprenerium, writing center, music center), embedded librarians…
- Harwood: “our innate potential” – p. 22 “Time and again they returned to outline a constellation of values and beliefs they say have been temporarily lost in society…We identified the most prominent of these basic values earlier. One is compassion—the need for people once again to see and hear each other, reach out to the other, and support one another. Another is the importance of children—viewed as a gauge of the very health of our society and the basis upon which to build the future. Another is openness and humility together—which means room to engage with others, listening attentively to discern what’s truly important and to act with care. The last value in this group is concern for the common good—to believe we hold shared interests, at a time when people are implored daily to think essentially about their own survival, their own good.”
- Sullivan: Example of building partnerships and collaborations—her orientation/strategic leadership session for American Library Association committee chairs at the June 2012 ALA Annual Conference: http://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/ala-annual-conference-2012-learning-leading-engaging-and-transforming/
- Let’s toss one more great player into the mix: Jim Diers, a community activist in Seattle who served as the first director of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Excerpts from pages 25 and 26 of the book: p. 25 “My experience with SESCO [South End Seattle Community Organization] taught me three valuable lessons about organizing that have guided my work ever since. The first is to start where people are. Most important, this means organizing people around what interests them rather than around what you think they should be interested in. It also means respecting people’s culture and communicating in their language, utilizing existing networks instead of trying to create your own, and meeting with people where they are accustomed to gathering.” p. 26 “The second lesson is to organize people around issues that are immediate, concrete, and achievable. It’s difficult to bring together community people to do long-range planning, to address a vague problem like ‘public safety’ or to take on a huge issue like nuclear disarmament, but it is relatively easy to bring together people for a specific, achievable task to address an immediate issue….The third lesson is one that my mentor, Tom Gaudette, drilled into me: ‘Organizers organize organizations.’ The organizer’s role is to build an organization, not to be the leader in winning an issue. Issues are one tool that the organizer can use to develop leadership and help build the organization so that it is broad based and self-sufficient. The best organizers don’t foster dependency; they work their way out of their jobs.”
- As we draw upon lessons we can learn from them, and add them to what we already know—about our communities, ourselves, and our libraries—let’s tackle a couple of important challenges straight on and build upon what we accomplished together this morning: Getting outside of our comfort zones to listen to what our current and prospective community partners are saying about community needs Seeing how those needs overlap with our libraries’ needs so we can be part of crafting and implementing solutions Optional, depending on how the group is working at this point: [First step: discussion using the “Tuscan Circle” as a way to listen and exchange ideas…] Debrief exercise, then break into smaller groups identify possibilities in terms of overcoming the hurdles all members of our community conversations face… Or simply go to next formal discussion (“finding our collaborators”) – workshop participants will decide how to proceed
- At least in theory, we now have the pitch. Next question: who do we want to deliver that pitch to? No, I really don’t think it’s going to be as easy as going to the Eudora Public Library OPAC and searching on the term “community partners,” so… Again, back to small groups—this time anywhere from two to five people per group—and let’s use what we’ve been discussing to talk about how we’ll locate the “pitchees” and how we might best approach them. We’ll come back together in a few minutes with a goal of sharing the ideas we’ve developed and having everyone walk away with at least three potential partners with whom your library might attempt to collaborate soon after you return home.
- Dealing with our generic hurdles…
- Something obvious: We’re moving away from presentations with slides and focusing more on face-to-face conversations—which pretty much reflects the collaborative process at this point. So we’re going to take our final deep dive by starting in small groups, then coming back together, with some “mega” and “meta” thinking: What are the wicked problems facing all our communities, and how do we as community collaborators help address those wicked problems? Two resources for “wicked problems”: Wikipedia’s “Wicked Problems” article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problems A blog piece I wrote about addressing wicked problems by connecting our various communities: http://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/the-big-ideas-connecting-people-conferences-and-conversations/ Let’s again break into smaller groups so we can do two things: Identify challenges that currently keep us from reaching success in developing productive partnerships Identify potential solutions that overcome those challenges Our final discussion is designed to bring everything together and leave you with that plan of action we have been discussing throughout the day. For this final period of discussion in small groups, let’s talk about what we can do to produce the results we are seeking Let’s produce the beginnings of a collaboration manifesto for our libraries and our communities (not specific projects; we’re looking for ways to be and attract effective partners to produce positive results!)
- Let’s do the most brief of summaries, using a few key images from our discussions: We started off with the idea that it’s personal: collaborations develop step-by-step over an extended period of time.
- It’s local, as we were reminded by Ray Oldenburg, Peter Block, John McKnight, Richard Harwood, Maureen Sullivan, and Jim Diers.
- Community can be our library users, our neighbors, our community leaders, and even a global community united by common interests (e.g., libraries as part of the community) and connected onsite as well as online.
- We started our exploration of the process by seeing how elements of our community are linked together.
- We then began crafting our elevator speeches, to see how we could best demonstrate our willingness to be part of community efforts to meet community needs.
- We explored ways to be participants in the process of overcoming hurdles facing our communities.
- And then we did the big dream: looking at the mega-issues that connect, confound, and offer us opportunities to make a difference moment by moment, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, for the rest of our lives. And if we’re successful, our efforts build upon the efforts of those who came before us and will continue long after we are gone.
- A few of the resources we’ve used…
- A few more…
- Our final wrap-up: Any questions about what we’re going to do next?