Title: Kick Starting IT Collaborations
Speakers – Michael Porter, Helene Blowers, and Carson Block
Michael Porter:
It isn’t about the departments, it’s about the library. Our mission. Our patrons.
We sometimes hyper focus on the things we know…
When we see a baby crying, we have empathy.
Sometimes librarians, directors, IT departments … are just fussy.
Emotional intelligence
– The ability to accurately perceive emotions in oneself and others
– Use emotions to facilitate thinking
– Understand emotional meanings and manage emotions
Thinking about & incorporating emotional intelligence helps staff succeed.
So … Ask, listen, understand, empathize, chill, process, and keep perspective. Focus on these things with staff, and focus on our unique missions as libraries. This can help trump people differences and interpersonal struggles.
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Helene Blowers
Helene doesn’t have an IT or a librarian background. It’s in organizational communications” that has really helped her in her career.
Strategies – you have to deal with the culture. Organizational culture.
Tie your IT strategies to the library’s mission.
Make it believable!
Tailor to your audience.
– Have to change the message to communicate with higher-ups sometimes.
Create alliances.
– Engage staff at all levels
– Have IT user groups, emerging tech committees, transition teams – let non-IT staff help collaborate on these ideas
Communicate the plan.
– Meek a usual roadmap of IT, web, technology plans and share that with staff.
-It shows staff and leadership teams that you really do have a plan
Be a collaborative leader.
It’s not about showing your knowledge or your expertise. Instead, keep that communication open and be a team player.
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Carson Block
Collaborations r us
– Libraries are all bout collaboration, so it’s weird when libraries and their IT departments don’t collaborate.
Why is this?
The server room – completely controlled by IT, neat and tidy, etc. In the other IT closets, they are messier.
Often, the library and the IT is separate. This should not be!
Some questions:
– Do you understand your library’s real mission in the community?
– Is your language inclusive or exclusive?
– Do you have trust?
– In your library, is the IT department considered an IT store (just something that other departments pull from)or a strategic partner?
Q&A time: