2. Who Am I?
• Dr.Anthony Molaro
• Assistant Professor, St. Catherine University
• Twitter.com/infoactivist
• informationactivist.com
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3. • But before we begin
• Once upon a time...
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12. The 5th Discipline
• By Peter Senge
• Brought the notion of the learning
organization into the mindset of leaders
and managers
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13. • Systems thinking
• Personal mastery
• Mental models
• Shared vision
• Team learning
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14. • 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
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15. • In order to gain a competitive advantage,
libraries need adapt to change quickly
• We need to learn faster than our
competitors
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22. Fragmented World
• From the earliest age, we are taught to
break problems and tasks apart
• This allows us to make complex issues
more manageable
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23. When we unfragment our world we are often faced with a
distorted reality
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25. Wallet
• How many people made the perfect wallet
for them self?
• What does this tell you?
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26. • 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 forYA
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27. Systems Thinking
• This is systems thinking
• Systems thinking is seeing the system as a
whole not parts
• It is seeing how an increase inYA programs
will impact circ, adult services, security and
even parking
• It is seeing something in its completeness
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28. Structures & Patterns
• System thinking is a way to see structures
and patterns
• Structures that we are unaware hold us
prisoner
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30. 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
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33. 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
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34. 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
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36. Interdependencies
• We live in a world (a system) in which
most everything is connected
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37. • 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
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38. • Don’t push growth; remove the factors
limiting growth
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39. • Don’t shift the burden
• Solutions that address only symptoms of
problems is short sighted
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40. Leverage
• System thinking is applying leverage to
achieve maximum results
• Well focused attention
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43. 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 best
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45. • It goes beyond spiritual unfolding and
opening, although it requires spiritual
growth
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46. • 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
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56. Science of Mindfulness
• There is a sizable body of research
• Effects on the amygdala
• Leads to higher emotional intelligence
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57. Mindfulness
• Is simply paying attention
• In a particular way
• On purpose
• In the present moment
• Without judgement
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58. 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
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59. PersonalVision
• Personal vision is not a series of goals and
objectives
• It is living with purpose
• But it is more
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60. • Purpose is a general direction
• Vision is a destination
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68. Mental Models
• Are deeply ingrained beliefs, myths, stories
about how the world works
• They are often invisible
• But directly affect our actions
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69. 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
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71. 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
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73. • Mental models are neither inherently good
or bad; right or wrong
• They simply are
• The goal is to increase awareness of them
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74. Example
• One of the simplest exercises to do when
problem solving is to list our assumptions
about a problem or proposed solution
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77. • A shared vision is not necessarily an idea
but rather a force in one’s heart
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78. • Why did Hogwarts fight with Harry Potter?
• There was no fear of reprisal
• They fought because they believed
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79. • 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
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80. Experiment
• Who do you think will reach the target?
• Someone blindfolded
• or someone not blindfolded
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83. 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
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85. 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
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86. • Team learning is not synonymous with team
building
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87. Community of Practice
Theory
• We now have research that supports an
intuitive idea...we learn together
• Why?
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92. Gaps
• 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
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94. 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)
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