1. Sharing: The
Foundation of
Social
Institutions
Can we bravely collaborate?
Stephen Abram
Ottawa
Oct. 18, 2014

2. Where I’m coming from…

5. The Obligatory Definitions
 Collaboration
 the action of working with someone to
produce or create something.
 Wikipedia -- “Collaboration refers abstractly
to all processes wherein people work
together.”
Oxford Dictionary -- “United labour, co-operation;
especially in literary, artistic or
scientific work.”
Webster -- “To work jointly with others or
together especially in an intellectual
endeavor.”

6. The Obligatory Definitions
 Collaborator
 A person who works jointly on an activity
or project; an associate.

7. The Obligatory Definitions
 Risk and Risk Taking
 A person or thing regarded as likely to turn
out well or badly in a particular context or
respect.

8. The Obligatory Definitions
 Risk Taker
 Someone who risks loss or injury in the hope
of gain or excitement

9. Not a bad definition…
 Collaboration is highly diversified teams
working together inside and outside a
company with the purpose to create
value by improving innovation, customer
relationships and efficiency while
leveraging technology for effective
interactions in the virtual and physical
space. (Cisco)

10. What Collaboration is NOT
 Used interchangeably with “innovation” –
There is clearly some confusion with the
relationship between collaboration and
innovation. By being innovative you
aren’t necessarily being collaborative
and vise versa. There are
interdependencies between the two but
they are not the same thing.

21. Collaboration is NOT
 Simple Cooperation
 A Buying Club
 Old-style Consortia
 Teamwork
 Partnerships
 A Confederation of Equals

22. Collaboration IS…
 Collaboration is both a process and an
outcome for people and by people who
work together to create value and
solutions they could not create
individually.

23. Collaboration IS …
 Goal driven
 Common goal(s)
 Agreed goal(s)
 Measurable (caution – a measurement
such as savings, client growth or surpluses
are not goals but measurements of goals
achieved.)

24. The BIG decision
 Bad collaboration is a waste time and
resources and produces no
results. Deciding not to collaborate is a
better option than bad collaboration.

26. Basic Principles
 Win Win Win
 Failure as milestones and learning moments
 A partnership of equitable participation (not
necessarily equal and no junior partners)
 Everyone has a valid role or isn’t invited
 Everyone brings something of value to the
table
 Openness
 Shared technology (as a tool)
 Risk – but no one dies(!)

27. Teeny Bit of Library History
 Various levels of success…
 OCLC – global non-profit ‘co-operative’
 Open Source initiatives
 Consortia
 Associations
 Vaults and standards
 Infrastructure
 Data collection (e.g. IMLS, ODI, ARL, etc.)

28. Collaboration Technology Tools
Knowledge Management
Intranet Tools
Bookmark Sharing Systems
e-Book Management Systems
Presentation Management Systems
Course Management Systems
Learning Management Systems
Collaboration Environments
Social Networking

30. Obligatory Dilbert

31. Barriers(?)
 Culture
 Fetishization of rules – especially unwritten rules
 Turf and Competition, Hoarding
 Bad History
 Not Invented Here
 Failure to Act
 Lack of a common vision
 Leadership Gaps
 Competency Gap
 Minimal Organization Structure links
 Over coalitioned community
 Cash Investment viewed for short-term benefit
 20th C rules applied to 21st C context

32. 7 Tactics aimed at Results
What is it?
What outputs do
we need to
achieve?
 How do we adapt
over the longer
term, maintain
relevance, and
evolve?
What are the Benefits?
 Scalability
 Sustainability
 Replicability
 Measureable
Success

33. Tactic One
The Cloud and Our Back Room
What is it? What are the Benefits?

34. Tactic Two
Social Networks & Community Engagement
What is it?
 Integrated
marketing and
communication
that is opt-in and
driven in a cost-effective
way
What are the Benefits?
 Branding
 Communication
 Cost-effective
 Integrated story-engine

35. Tactic Three
Beacons and Reaching Out
What is it?
 Beacons are
awesome (latest
shiny thing)
 NFC, post QR
codes
 Everything digital
 Can be interactive
What are the Benefits?
 Hyper-local
 Contextual
 Inexpensive

36. Tactic Four
Research for Ourselves
What is it?
 Public Opinion
 Technology Trends
 Market Research
 Local
demographics
 Economic Studies
What are the Benefits?
 Less cost per
system
 More knowledge
driving decision-making

37. Tactic Five
Mobile and Avoiding Isolation
What is it?
 Responsive design
 Multi-platform
 Multi-device
 National and Global
– not a per-library
system island
 Shared library cards
and cardholders
 E-Commerce
What are the Benefits?
 Distribution
 Diffusion
 Initial Development
 Long term
upgrades as the
word adapts and
changes

38. Tactic Six
Program Replicability & Diffusion
What is it?
 Program ideas
 LibGuide
Frameworks
Website Templates
 API Vaults
 Document Libraries
What are the Benefits?
 Speed to
implementation

39. Tactic Seven
Staff Training and Community Programs
What is it?
 Shared state- or
province-wide LMS
 Self directed
 Competency-based
and needs gaps
analyzed
 Mentoring
 Hundreds of trainers
and programs
 Supervisor involvement
What are the Benefits?
 Shared Structure
 Saveability
 Coordination
 Asynchronous and
Asymmetrical
 24/7/365
 Certificates

40. The List of Opportunities
1. The Cloud and Our Back Room
2. Social Networks and Community
Engagement
3. Beacons and Reaching Out
4. Research for Ourselves
5. Mobile and Avoiding Isolation
6. Program Replicability and diffusion
7. Staff Training and Virtual Programming

41. Manifesto
 Start to collaborate more!
 Address and align with the culture
 Agree on the outcomes
 Remove the barriers

42. Takeaways
 Collaborate for Results (but know your real
measurements)
 Define the REAL problem (not the
measurement)
 Focus on the Long Term (But know your
milestones)
 Spot and tear down barriers
 Keep competition on the outside,
collaboration on the inside
 Focus on people and culture, not just tools
and technology
 Celebrate successes along the way

43. All organizations exist
to make a difference,
but the most admired
ones distinguish
themselves
by putting their
people first.

44. When the fear of meeting
expectations
overtakes the trust you
have in your people,
you’ll paralyze their ability
to make decisions.

45. The modern organization
creates engagement
because they ditch
hierarchies,
and instead build a
cohesive culture where
everyone works in tandem
towards a common
purpose.

46. Evolved leaders make
it a priority
to contribute more to
the organization than
they consume.

47. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:

48. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Connect with others first &
always

49. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Consider options

50. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Communicate your decisions

51. Building a
collaborative culture
starts with
appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Create opportunities

52. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Confirm what you did is what
you wanted to do

53. Building a collaborative
culture
starts with appreciating the
human condition.
Remember the 6 C’s:
Congratulate the results,
efforts and learning -
celebrate

54. Modern learning structures
are part formal,
part informal, and part
social - because ‘the best
meetings were meetings
that happened
spontaneously in the
hallway.’

55. In an era of ‘Lean In’
women leaders,
it’s wise for males to ‘lean
back’
and leverage more of
their soft skills.

56. Astute leaders rarely
talk too much.
They listen instead to
what others have to
say.

57. Talent is attracted first to
purpose,
and then they evaluate
the opportunity.
Present work that
matters.

58. We’re not here to see
through each other,
we’re here to see each
other through.

59. REALLY REFLECT...
Do others see in you
what you think
you see in yourself?

61. 5 Frameworks to be Flat but
Connected
 Open Leadership Attributes
 CLAM: Collaborative Leader Action
Model
 PLN: Participative Leader Framework
 Pervasive Learning – Ubiquitous
 Collaboration Technologies

63. Stephen Abram
Lighthouse
Consulting
stephen.abram@gmail.com
@sabram
Stephen’s Lighthouse blog
416-669-4855