This month's Public Libraries has two articles related to our readings. The first is an interview with Jim Collins, author of our first book Good to Great, titled "Great Expectations". It is extensive, I'd love to hear your thoughts when you've had a chance to read it.

The second is Susan Hildreth's President's column about a discussion of The World is Flat at a COSLA meeting last fall. She references a one hour presentation by Friedman at http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266. This could serve as our article for those who might not get to read the whole book for our next discussion.

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Today's discussion of Rosabeth Moss Kanter's article "The Enduring Skills of Change Leaders" welcomed several new members to the Emerging Leaders discussion group. I'd like to remind everyone that the purpose of this blog is to encourage comments from the discussion group members: both thoughts that occur between discussions, and members who can't attend a meeting but would like to share their thoughts with the group. And suggested further reading on any of the topics we have talked about.
We agreed that we would read The World is Flat for our next discussion on April 12. I'm looking forward to finally reading this important book and to hearing what everyone else thinks about it.

CherylB

Emerging Leaders,
I'm looking forward to our discussion of The Artist's Way on July 21. I found another book by the same authors the Artist's Way at Work . It has sme intersting worksheets. I thuoght if we each did them it might provoke an intersting discussion at our meeting. Link to http://www.artistswayatwork.com/worksheet.html.

I had a chance to read the article Becky pointed out in her last post. It was inspiring, and very on target for this month's discussion about creativity.

Cheryl

Wow! I just finished reading Becky's suggested article (Champions of Innovation) and I am excited about many of the themes and examples of innovation for another reason. I'm always excited to learn how businesses create a culture of innovation and creativity. To hear a corporation like Mattel authorizing a cadre of employees to spend 12 straight weeks away from the "phyiscal" office to investigate and create a new idea for the company is a creative employee's DREAM but in reality how can an understaffed workforce offer a similiar but modified opportunity to spur creativity. How does a manager/administration or more importantly does an individual find that well-spring of creativity to be productive in a stressful situation? Is stress and conflict the platform by which creativity springs forth? And if that is the case, how often do we give into the stress to produce something extraordinary? Don't we tend to be fearful and question ourselves when a unconventional thought is released. In fact, how many of us can relate to the situation that appears in this sample scenairo.

Interesting Rebecca,
I was just reading in Library Administration and Management an article by Jim Collins about performance appraisals and it pointed out that we don't really accept information and make real changes unless we respect and trust the person who gives us the feedback.

Hello fellow Emerging Leaders! There is an article in the June 19 volume of Business Week you might find interesting. The title is Champions of Innovation that discusses five archetypes achievers from the IN25, Business Week's list of forward-thinking leaders. The article includes reading material and blogs used by these leaders.

Some points from the article:

• 70% of the Innovation Champions are female.
• Creativity loves restraint: give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines.
• In merging "old " and "new" employees at Old Navy, Ivy Ross had workers create a CD about themselves so that people learned personal things about one another creating an atmosphere that was personal and created a closeness essential for innovation.
• Innovation works where employees can hang out and connect with one another.
• Build failure into your model.

You get the idea?

Becky Freer

Last Friday we discussed Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman. We all agreed that the idea of the leader creating the resonance for the work environment was something we had all experienced, but he defined it very clearly and the studies he cited were very interesting.
We also talked about the difficulty in maintaining that cheerful service environment at work, and the need for authenticity in our relationships with the people we work with.
Kathy said she has the film FISH! at her school and will attempt to bring it to our next session. We will be reading FISH! and Fish Sticks for the February meeting.
Anyone have anything to add about the Primal Leadership discussion?