I'm still developing my management philosophy and reading a lot on the subject. The one that is supplying me with food for thought on my lunch break recently is A Sense of Urgency by John Kotter. This book focuses on developing and maintaining a sense of urgency in the workplace defined as "a distinctive attitude and gut-level feeling that lead people to grab opportunities and avoid hazards, to make something important happen today, and constantly shed low-priority activities to move faster and smarter, now." (from the front bookflap)
Kotter discusses four tactics to use in order fight the enemy of urgency: complacency. They are:
- Bring the outside in
- Behave with urgency everyday
- Find opportunities in crises
- Deal with NoNos
The definition of a sense of urgency mentions "shedding low-priority activities to move faster and smarter, now." I recently attended PLA Results Boot Camp and am reminded of our conversations on Day 3 of the experience that involved the allocation of library resources: staff, collections, technology, and facilities.
The basic message as I understood it is that we've got to stop doing the activities that are ineffective and continue to waste our resources, which is what I believe Kotter to be saying. Get rid of the "stuff" that doesn't serve your organization!
We're starting the strategic planning process I learned at Boot Camp at my library now. Our current strategic plan expires next year, and my director has given me the go ahead to begin making a case to our Board to use the Results model. This will mean a lot of changes to the way we're doing things now, but it really is exhilarating to start down the path to working "faster [more responsive?] and smarter, now."
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