President's Update - January 15, 2015

It is difficult, if not impossible, to enact a new program or service without incorporating some attribute of a previous related effort. It is easy to get inspiration from past successes as you go about a new project. If you know something has worked before why would you not do it again the same way? However, over time, what has worked before becomes stale, ineffective or uninteresting to you and your patrons. Look at your storytimes, circulation policies, adjunct structure, how you liason with other departments or simply how you shelve books. Are you doing things the same way you did them ten years ago? You may have lofty goals to do things better but how do you bridge that gap from where you are to where you want to be? Failure is the key.

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” C.S. Lewis.

When you fail at something there are lessons that you can learn. You then can apply those lessons to make for a better effort next time. MLA has a shortcut so you can achieve those lessons of failure without having to actually fail. Come to the Business, Marketing and Management Success workshop on April 24 at the Grand Rapids Public Library, and experience the combined Ignite and Fizzle session. Presenters will have just five minutes and 20 slides to ignite a new idea or discuss a fantastic failure in the world of marketing, customer service or human resources.

We all make mistakes. It’s what we do with that knowledge that makes the difference. Do you have a story of how failure ultimately helped you build a better, stronger program or service? Consider joining the Ignite/Fizzle panel by completing the Call for Proposals.

Make it an outstanding day!

Asante

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