ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

INNOVATIONS: Creativity, innovation and risk-taking

By Joanne R. Euster

ACRL Vice-President/President-Elect

As ACRL President-Elect, I have chosen a theme for the coming year that focuses on “Fostering Cre- ativity and Innovation”—in ACRL, in our jobs, in our professional lives. This column begins what I hope will be a continuing series of short articles by ACRL members about creative and innovative ac- tivities in their libraries and in the profession.

One of the critical questions in thinking about creativity, to my mind, is how bureaucratic, highly structured organizations—our academic libraries—can encourage creative thinking and in- novative behavior. We are tightly bound by poli- cies, manuals of procedure, guidelines, standards, rules and by-laws in our association as well as in our jobs, leading one to wonder, would “the ACRL guidelines for creative thinking in libraries” be an oxymoron? Certainly publishers and authors would like us to think otherwise. Rooks like A Whack on the Side of the Head, Conceptual Block- busting, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Writing the Natural Way, and Winning at the In- novation Game, as well as myriad more scholarly books and journals, promise that creativity can be taught and that innovation can be developed sys- tematically.

“Creativity: The Human Resource” was an ex- hibit presented by the California Academy of Sci- ences in 1979. The exhibit included ideas, illustra- tions, mind games and puzzles. Throughout, it illustrated how creative people do seven things:

•They challenge assumptions by daring to ques- tion what most people take as truth.

•They recognize patterns, perceiving signifi- cant similarities or differences in ideas, events or physical phenomena.

•They see the commonplace in new ways.

•They make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.

•They take risks by trying new ways or ideas with no control over the outcome.

•They use chance, by taking advantage of the unexpected.

•They construct networks, forming associations between people for an exchange of ideas, perceptions, questions, and encouragement.

“Most Effective College Presidents are ‘Risk Takers’” was the Chronicle of Higher Education headline of November 5,1986, reporting a Council for Advancement and Support of Education study. “Most effective presidents” were nominated by their colleagues, who were also asked to identify the leadership qualities which made them effective. Effective leaders were found to take more risks and to encourage others to be creative as well, among other qualities.

What is risk-taking, anyway? Words like “pilot project,” “experiment,” or “test” don’t seem so threatening, yet they are really risks broken down into small, manageable pieces. Most of us find the risks involved in big multi-thousand or million dollar systems or projects frightening. Nevertheless, doing nothing is often the biggest risk of all, just as refusing to decide is also making a decision. Breaking down a risk into component parts, managing it sequentially with frequent evaluations and continue/discontinue checkpoints and calling each step by a less threatening name, such as “trial project” helps to take the threat out of risks and make them more acceptable.

Similarly, if risks are de–personalized they are easier to cope with. Making the risk—the experiment—an organizational activity rather than a personal one takes much of the ego involvement out of the risk. Every experiment, by its very nature, has in it the inherent chance of failure, partial failure or partial success as well as of success. New ideas and directions often come from failed experiments, however, when the project is managed in such a way that failure of the experiment is not equated with failure of the person. I think it is essential for us to foster an atmosphere in which risk-taking and experimentation are encouraged and rewarded, not feared and punished.

The purpose of this column is to provide a forum for sharing experiments and innovations and for encouraging others to join in by contributing ideas and perceptions. Short articles should be sent to George Eberhart, Editor, College & Research Libraries News, at the ACRL office. Other ideas or comments can be sent to me at Rutgers University Libraries, 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.