[Web4lib] "The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate" at ALAthis month

[Havens,Andy]

What Tim said.

One of the best presentations I ever heard was given by A.G. Lafley, CEO
of Proctor & Gamble. When asked the secret of P&G's success, he replied
with one word: failure. He then went on to explain that in his industry,
each success requires hundreds if not thousands of failures in order to
identify and, in many cases, invent suitable products for its various
industries. He went on to say that their goal at P&G was to, "Fail
often, as inexpensively and humanely as possible, while tracking and
learning from each failure."

The Beginner's Mind writ large.


- A
Andy Havens
OCLC: Manager, Branding and Creative Services

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 8:09 PM
To: web4lib
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] "The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate" at
ALAthis month

RE: "How do you separate effective innovation from "innovation for
innovation's sake"? It's one thing to be innovative to be trendy, and
quite another thing to be innovative in a way that improves a library's
services."

But this is true in every single field of human endeavor in which
innovation happens! Innovation in the software industry, for example, is
sometimes for the good and sometimes not. What distinguishes libraries
from some other fields are differing attitudes toward the possibility of
failure. In Silicon Alley, having burned through millions of VC money in
a failure is a resume plus, not a minus! Or maybe I should say "risks
leading to failure," since libraries are okay with gradual failures.
That, and finely tuned mechanisms for rewarding good innovation and
killing bad. But maybe that was your point.
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