8 Association of Research Libraries Planning for perfection is the enemy of progress Instead try a project to test the plan. The project will involve risk. It will take people away from “essential” operational duties it may (and should) challenge existing practices make it fun and exciting. Some other guidelines for projects include instilling a sense of urgency without panic. They should be timely and show results pretty quickly. Moreover, the evaluative process should be concerned with value and scale: does the idea provide enough value to warrant becoming a program? Some projects may require several attempts, along with some failures while leadership begins to position the organization for the project-to-program evolution. Libraries and universities tend to change slower than say, Amazon, for a variety of good reasons. Change should always be at the forefront of good leadership and strategic thinking, but recalling the adage “good is the enemy of great,” the next step creates a pervasive culture of collaboration, and creativity that embraces change, with a strong tolerance for risk. Recruit the best Any organization can only be as great as its people. Recruiting for entrepreneurial librarians requires screening that assesses potential and fit. For the most part these qualities can be summed up generally in in the four Cs: collaboration, creativity, content, and change. Hire people who see that what’s good for the library/institution is good for them, not the other way around. Résumé builders tend to miss that. But people who focus on the greater good tend to be born collaborators and creativity comes naturally. Change remains pervasive, so it is important to have a comfort level with that, and of course libraries are still about content. If ARL libraries want to awaken from their dogmatic slumbers they need to embrace risk, and the failures that come along with risk. Research Library Issues 292 2017
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