Buy In by John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead (2010)

Don’t scheme to keep potential opponents, even the sneakiest attackers, out of the discussion. Let them in. Let them shoot at you. Encourage them to shoot at you (p 88)!

In this straightforward but overly simplistic exploration of winning buy in from stakeholders, Kotter and Whitehead outline a few practical guidelines to follow when bringing a proposal to the table:

• Don’t be afraid of attackers. When handled correctly, these dissenters can help you!
• Always respond calmly in a simple, straightforward manner that avoids data-driven answers.
• Show respect for everyone.
• Watch the audience. You need majority, not unanimous, approval to win the day.
• Brainstorm possible attackes and prepare responses in advance.

This scenerio-based book is too long by half but the advice is worthwhile. Though parts of their advice seem counterintuitive, defending a proposal requires finesse and a certain dumbing down of the data which I can understand. It doesn’t mean the research isn’t there if needed. It was amusing to read about Allis Welli, Divertus Attenti, and the other ridiculously named (but all too accurate) personalities that pipe up to submarine a good plan. A quick read.

 

The Blame Game by Ben Dattner with Darren Dahl (2011)

Fear — particularly of forces that we can’t see or completely understand — is a great motivator of scapegoating, and evolutionary psychologists and other commentators tell us that witch-hunts, metaphorically speaking, are hardly a thing of the past (p 37).

Dattner, an organizational psychologist and consultant, explores the nature of blame and credit and how an unhealthy culture of blame can lead to a company’s failure. I believe public library cultures are particularly susceptible to the trappings the allow for assigning undue blame and neglecting to give earned credit. Why? Because our metrics for measuring success are often not clearly defined, if they exist at all. I’ve sometimes heard of success depending on the absence of an event. As in, if customers don’t complain or your branch isn’t drawing negative attention, then you are a successful branch manager.

Too many leaders miss the opportunities to identify and fix the real, but usually subtle and complex, causes of losses or failures. Scapegoating is a convenient way to increase cohesion in the short-term, but the first victims of scapegoating are rarely the last. Scapegoating anyone in an organization ultimately yields harmful social dynamics and cultural risks that threaten everyone (p 39).

In Chapter 3, “The Nurture of Credit and Blame,” Dattner touches on credit as a reward. For a more thorough understanding of rewards, read Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. Dattner also mentions the great-expectations trap, a concept explored in the first chapter of NurtureShock titled “The Inverse Power of Praise.”

Freakin’ Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally be Better than Everyone Else by Clinton Kelly (2008)

To be fabulous, you must go with the flow (p 145).

Who doesn’t want to be fabulous? Kelly breaks it down for the middle/upper class folks. The ladies will get the most out of this but Kelly does offer pointers for men as well.

He opens with “How to Dress.” Ladies, I will refer you to Kelly’s other book, Oh No She Didn’t! The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them. It’s more comprehensive with the same thesis: Where what looks good on you because what you wear tells the world how you want to be treated. You probably know what to avoid and what you should be wearing… but too many  are just lazy. And sometimes, even I need a reminder not to wear my yoga pants anywhere but the gym.

The section titled “How to Speak” is a quick grammar refresher covering the most commonly misused words. My father, a retired instructor of English at Penn State, constantly corrected my grammar. He used to say, “All great men have at least one thing in common; a great vocabulary.”

I’ve often wondered why college students aren’t required to take a basic course in etiquette. For those who missed out, Kelly gives some excellent pointers in “How to Behave.”

If there’s one area I don’t need instruction in, it’s “How to Entertain.” Keep the carafe full, beer in the cooler and a cabinet of high-quality staple liquors. And you’re good. While there are recipes in this book, I have my own small catalog of favorites memorized and they serve my ilk well.

All in all, a good book of basics for emerging adults. Clinton’s humor makes it an enjoyable read even if the content is not news to you.

Oh No She Didn’t! The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them by Clinton Kelly (2010)

frayed hems
When I see a woman walking down the sidewalk with pants so long they’re all ripped up and dragging on the ground, I think: She’s lazy. It would have taken a tailor twenty minutes and ten bucks to hem those things. The I begin to wonder what kind of filthy city residue those too-long pants are Swiffering along the way. … Then I wonder what kind of person doesn’t care about carrying all those germs into her house! She’s probably the type who sleeps on a mattress without a fitted sheet and who has a lot of ear wax in her ears! Then I throw up a little in my mouth, because ear wax makes me sick (p 68).

Ok. This is my first introduction to Clinton Kelly. Apparently, he is co-host of the television show What Not to Wear. Obviously, I’ve never seen it. This was a Café Club pick. (I am a member of a group of Library employees from various departments and at various levels who meet once a month at the local café to discuss adult nonfiction. This was picked by our system’s adult fiction/music/DVD selector.)

However, I like what he’s about. Of the 100 or so style mistakes mentioned (with helpful, full-page photo accompaniment), I found myself guilty of a few (mostly harmless!) faux pas like sneaking out to the market in PJ bottoms or wearing yoga pants for everything except yoga, even though I frequent my gym.

All in all a very helpful book for all ladies, and an especially good book for women in the Library profession who want to advance their career. (I can’t tell you how embarrassed I was for some of the ALA annual attendees in D.C. last year.) And it’s a fun, breezy read despite Kelly’s atrocious grammar (and my suspicion that he has a drinking problem…).

Pair with:

Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire by Mireille Guiliano (2009)

Today, everyone knows or should know that employers buy your time and rent your mind but don’t own it or you (43).

Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Fat and French Women for All Seasons, brings her business savvy to women (and a few men, peut-etre) looking to advance in the professional world.

I highly recommend Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire to young (in age or new to the profession) Librarians interested in management positions. This book is chock full of gems, garnered by Guiliano, as she made her way from translator to CEO of Clicquot, Inc. and finally to author.  Here are a few and how they relate to my experience in the library world:

Just as a job application letter is designed to get you an interview, the pitch letter needs to be designed to get read and remembered – and by the right person – in order to secure you a spot. (And there are oral versions of pitch letters, too, that need to be polished for use on the phone or in person.)… (Never misspell a name or send a letter to someone no longer in a position.) (p13-14)

 Librarians must give pitches all the time. I’m constantly begging teachers, administrators, and organizers to partner with library in some way. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes not. Perhaps I need to get a little more creative with my pitch, or personalize better.

There are lots of good ideas in business, but execution is what matters (p 14).

I can think of a few instances where great ideas were generated during meetings but were later either poorly implemented or dropped altogether. Great ideas executed successfully will get you noticed.

Mentoring isn’t only opening doors, it is also reaching back and pulling them through (p 19).

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink (2009)

Extrinsic rewards can be effective for algorithmic tasks — those that depend on following an existing formula to its logical conclusion. But for more right-brain undertakings — those that demand flexible problem-solving, inventiveness, or conceptual understandings — contingent rewards can be dangerous (p 46).

There is a discrepancy between what research shows and how businesses act. As the quote above explains, incentives are often ineffective or detrimental. Yet businesses continue to attempt to motivate workers by offering rewards.

In Drive, Pink continues his right-brain advocacy by explaining how to motivate the creative thinkers that will lead us into the future.

He begins with rewards: how they motivate or fail to motivate under different circumstances and why. Pink elaborates on when is it appropriate to provide motivators, when it’s harmful and how to implement them best.

What implication does all this have for Libraries?

In environments where extrinsic rewards are most salient, many people work only to the point that triggers reward — and no further. So if students get a prize for reading three books, many won’t pick up a fourth, let alone embark on a lifetime of reading (p 58).