Orange Leaders Embrace Innovate the Pixar Way

Excerpts from the What is Orange blog…How do you emphasize MILESTONES?

Posted on http://www.whatisorange.org   5/5/11 by Bre Hallberg

Milestones come and go whether we’re prepared for them or not. So, why not spend a little bit of time planning for those moments in life AND preparing the parents of the kids in your ministry for the milestones that they’re going to encounter?

This month we’ll be discussing how church leaders can better partner with parents to become more actively involved in key events that mark milestones in their kids’ lives. And on a personal note, we’re going to be talking about how to make the little stuff in life count, and be intentional about celebrating even the smallest milestones.

We know that you lead in several ways at any given time. You lead yourself, you lead volunteers, you might lead a staff, and you often lead up. So, here’s what we have in store for you to accomplish each of these tasks:

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
How does this happen every single week? Sunday just won’t slow down. But don’t allow that to interfere with the investment you make in yourself as a leader. Go ahead and grab your number two pencil to mark some personal time each week this month to invest in your own leadership development—20 minutes should do it. We’ve already got a plan for you, so making the time is the first step to accomplishing it.

BOOK REVIEW:
Innovate the Pixar Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson
Pixar isn’t exactly known for “little things,” but they certainly ARE known for their creativity. And one of the keys to this creativity is finding unique ways to celebrate the workplace— making even small details a big deal. Capodagli and Jackson share this unusual approach with readers so that you can also celebrate and create in your own work environment.

REAL LIFE:
Pixar
Back to the big screen! We’re going to be taking a very practical look at how Pixar celebrates, brainstorms and creates. Check out the details behind their work environment and staff culture that make this company so unique. Then, discover how you can apply those to your ministry environment.

About Orange Leaders

It’s a gathering of leaders who are passionate about engaging churches and families to influence the faith and character of the next generation. They focus their web content around the concept of Orange. 

Orange is a secondary color, created when you combine two primary colors—red and yellow.

Orange is what red and yellow can do when they combine efforts. If you paint only with red, you will get what only red can do. If you paint only with yellow, you will get what only yellow can do. But when you paint with red and yellow, you’ll get new possibilities, fresh solutions and vibrant outcomes.

They believe the warm heart of the family can be represented by the color red, and the bright light of the church can be represented by the color yellow. When these two entities combine their efforts for the sake of the spiritual growth of the next generation, the result is Orange.

How Group Studios Can Foster Creativity

Collaborative thinking can help foster creativity. If the collective works the right way, a group studio has great potential to help visual artists bring out more original and exciting ideas. Why not learn from the best in the creative field; Pixar Studio.

By Thomas Bjørnskau, editor of startjournal.org.

Pixar Studio is known for animation movies like Toy Story and The Incredibles. In the world of creative industries it is renowned for being the model of a cutting-edge, forward thinking, innovative company. Maybe most relevant for the East African art scene are the principles and guidelines for team creativity which they base their work upon.

Kampala is currently home to at least three group studios, providing an artistic space for close to twenty visual artists. Startjournal has spoken to a dozen of these artists to find out whether the lessons learned from teams like Pixar would be applicable for the field of fine arts.

Artists from Artpunch Studio

Artists from the Njovu Art Studio

Artists from the Ivuka Arts Studio

Innovate the Pixar Way

At the end of the day, the Pixar teams work towards one shared end product, which of course makes it different from a group of individual artists producing separate art works. Nevertheless, when reading about Pixar’s approach to creative work, there are good reasons for why these collaborative techniques and guidelines may work for a group that produces many individual objects.

So, what makes Pixar so special? Even though Pixar now is a part of bottom-line obsessed, hidebound, bureaucratic Disney, it has managed to retain its role as a creative corporate playground. The book ”Innovate the Pixar Way” explains some of the major reasons for this:

• Develop and stick to a long-term vision
• Make fun and play part of the daily work routine
• Keep all communication channels open and display mutual respect and trust when collaborating

Furthermore, Pixar’s greatest strength is its willingness to fail. Its principles for encouraging risk and creating a ”TRY, LEARN, and TRY AGAIN” culture include:

• Honoring failure like success
• Quickly creating prototypes of new products for rapid testing
• Giving teams unlimited freedom to see what they can create
• Asking team members for 10 of their most imaginative, least-grounded solutions
• Using financial restrictions as strengths and developing within existing capabilities
• Displaying team ideas, in planned or real forms, for all to understand
• Seldom asking for permission
• Implementing ideas as they arise
• Seeking purchasers or suppliers who match the group in flexibility and forward thinking, because such allies become real-world testers for even the wildest notions

Like all great advices, some of these principles would feel a matter of course. But Startjournal wanted to discover the inner dynamics of the group studios in Kampala, and initiate a discussion with group artists using these guidelines as a backdrop.

Striking art from Artpunch

Artpunch Studio is the home of frontman Wasswa Donald and fellow visual artists/fashion designers Amos Sentongo, Sheila Nakitende and Nabukenya Hellen. They work from a new studio in Kansanga and they have been operating as a group since 2007; with Nakitende joining last year.

Donald: "In this painting, Amos taught me how to incorporate the use of collage in the background"

Wasswa always wanted to start a group studio and explains the main reasons: ”In a group you will work faster, because the rest of the group will push you forward, inspire you in a positive way.”

Sheila agrees and describes her reasons for joining: ”I joined Donald’s group last year, feeling it was ’on the move’. The group gives you a sense of belonging, there is a fusion of different personalities, but there is no judgement, I get the drive from likeminded people, and at the end of the day; a group is the best way to be encouraged to work.”

Sheila: "In this one, the group helped me understand form and perspective"

Wasswa relates the group’s vision to the latter part of the chosen name of the group; punch. ”This word reflects both how we work and the effect we like our art to have on the audience. Even though each artists’ work needs to stand out in itself, our shared vision of striking art must be present.”

Looking around at the different art works in the studio, this writer would agree to the notion that there is a certain common denominator to the creations. These days more than one group member seem to explore the effect that splattered paints will have on different media, ranging from canvas to shoes, bags and mirrors.

Artpunch seems to be fond believers of the principle of quickly creating prototypes for rapid testing. Nabukenya is working on a collection of customized shoes, using the above-mentioned technique: ”Last year I wore some shoes covered in accidentally spilled paint – as artists often do – to a party, and this pair of sneakers caused such a good response that I wanted to pursuit the idea of creating a set of customized products.”

Hellen: "The group advised me how to apply paint to cover the whole of the edge of the sole"

Out of the three groups Startjournal spoke to, Artpunch seems to be the group which best have adapted the guidelines of coming up with imaginative ideas, implementing them as they arise, and seeking allies outside the group to test and give feedback to such ideas. Wasswa explains that this is more an ongoing process than consciously using collaborative techniques to foster product innovation.

That also seems to be the approach to how the group works with displaying each artists’ individual ideas and commenting on each others art works. ”Especially when another artist start talking about signing an art piece, each one of us would be alert and almost drawn to the piece. We would focus our comments on elements that are missing or just brought out wrong, often taking the role as the viewer or the curator.”

Wasswa further explains that these processes are ever-present, quite unformal and based on a trust and honesty in the relationship. ”A kind of trust and honesty that was an important factor for me when I decided to join the group,” adds Sentongo.

Amos: "I was adviced by the group to make a personal painting, hence the use of fabrics to relate it to my background as a fashion designer and depicting the women to pay tribute to the women I was raised by"

Njovu Art Studio

Njovu Art Studio is a result of some members leaving Gecko Studio in late 2009. This split demonstrates another fundamental principle of teamwork. There is a need for a shared group ideology and artists who team up for similar reasons.

When talking to some of the group members, there seems to be an immediate point to explain why Gecko didn’t work out and reasons for this group to come into being. But after Startjournal explains that this article is forward-looking, the Njovu artists are happy to share their view on which are the important factors to base a collaboration on.

Njovu Art Studio did recently have to move from Bukoto to Ntinda, and because of that they haven’t really worked as a group the last couple of months. As Arnold Birungi, an artist and an illustrator who joined Damba Ismail, Mark Kassi, Tindi Ronnie and Ngula Yusof when they separated from Gecko Studio, explains: ”We are still in the phase where we are getting firm as a group.”

Arnold: "Damba suggested that the arm in the background should be brushed off to leave my usual realistic touch"

”We have a democratic approach to everything we do. When somebody from outside contacts a group member with a request, our next step will be to gather the group and discuss how to act,” Mark Kassi adds.

Njovu also includes Damulira Shira, and Saad Lukwago and Kasagga Jude, the two latter being based in Masaka. Other values which Njovu is founded on are:

• recruting a new artist every year; currently Oscar Barigye is working together with the more experienced artists
• assigning specific roles to some group members; Birungi acting as director, Kassi acting as treasurer, and Damba as PR and marketing person
• having a more exclusive approach to the market; ”you will not find our art works everywhere”

”One advantage there is by working in a group, which makes everybody more creative, is just the fact that everybody see what you do. One technique we sometime do, is to challenge another artist to do something differently. For instance, I would ask Arnold to make something abstract,” explains Damba.

Damba: "Anyone in the group is free to comment and react"

The displaying of ideas and the openness to comment, discuss and criticize more or less finished art works, seems to be the guideline these visual artists easiest recognize.

”One thing at least Mark and I used to do a lot – even though we hadn’t established it as a formal collaborative technique – was to hang a newly finished painting on a nail just outside the entrance. This meant we were open for – or even yearning for – others to critique it,” Tindi explains.

Tindi: "The group challenged me to add more details in my work and how to compose them"

”An important factor in the group is that we are all open for the idea of criticizing and be criticized. It is an ongoing process, we are always asking colleagues to comment what we are working on. But it is also important to say that it is done with a certain degree of humour. Sometimes we throw out a funny comment, just to break the ice,” Mark Kassi adds.

Kassi: "The group adviced on how to apply and finish the dark background to the left"

When the group is presented with some of the other guidelines for innovative team work, it is apparant that some of artists are applying them on an individual basis, but seldom consciously in formal group processes.

Using art to change lives

Similar conclusions can be drawn after speaking with a third group, with equally many members as Njovu; Ivuka Art Studio. They share a history by arising out of Gecko studios.

Startjournal meets five of the members; Jjuko Hoods, Anwar Sadat Nakibinge, Paul Kintu, Patrick Kyeswa and Albert Walozi, in their second floor home base in Bukoto. In addition, the group currently consist of Collin Sekajugo, who introduced the current name, Ssebandeke Mohamed, Ibrahim Kitimbo and Cathrine Kabugo.

Jjuuko Hoods explains some of the main benefits of working in a group studio as Ivuka: ”First, we provide a space for young artists. A space which is organised in a formal manner so that one doesn’t have to think about rent etcetera. But maybe more important; being part as a group gives you a freedom to expression, you let go of the fear to execute your ideas, simply because the other artists will give you strength, inspire you and push you forward. At the end of the day, it will enhance your confidence as a visual artist.”

Jjuuko: "The group inspired and challenged me to use old posters as a collage"

The group members feel at home when we discuss principles like ’using financial restrictions as strength’. These artists are used to work with limited resources, experimenting with all sorts of free and accessible media and material, and producing their art on things like old posters, jeans and other waste objects.

The more experienced group artists like Jjuuko Hoods and Anwar Sadat Nakibinge points out that one of the core values for this studio is to embrace young artist that comes from scratch.

Albert: "The other artists adviced me on how to build the patterns, the shapes, the colours and distribution"

”It is almost like a sharing program, where we show unexperienced artists how to maximize their sense of creativity, how to become more confident and develop an unique style,” Anwar explains and continues. ”The same thing applies to giving feedback. There is a deep respect for comments, and never any bad feelings.”

Anwar: "The group challenged me to use oil paint instead of acrylics"

”I would say that our ways of giving feedback are spontanous, they are very direct and open, and always with the intention of giving specific advices,” adds Jjuuko.

Upon the topic of building alliances to outside players, this group has always been engaged in community projects. They were approached by and teamed up with Aidchild and Nsambya Babies Home, and has actively worked to establish a relationship with Kansai Institute. Engaging themselves to help the Mulago and Masaka communities, have also been important steps that underlines their slogan ”Using art to change lives”.

Paul: "The group adviced me to attach the small painting to a dark background, hence giving it a more powerful appearence"

Patrick: "In this painting the group adviced on how to carry out the diamonds in the background, how to work on the outline and the colour in them"

A potential for further innovation

After having visited and discussed these issues with three of the leading group studios in Uganda, this writer has a feeling that the collectives are doing great things for individual artists. Which contributes a lot to make each artist stronger and more confident than they would have been in splendid isolation.

Nevertheless, one can not help thinking that some simple collaborative techniques and guidelines may help to break up the tradition of the ongoing, yet quite spontanous teamwork that exist today, and maybe challenge the groups to think outside the box.

GREAT ARTICLE...LOVE THE EXAMPLES OF COLLABORATION AND FEEDBACK. "USING ART TO CHANGE LIVES" IS FAR MORE THAN A SLOGAN...IT'S A PRACTICE THAT WE WISH WAS CHERISHED BY MORE SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES HERE IN THE US. BILL AND LYNN

DOWAGIAC STUDENTS APPLYING DISNEY WAY STORYBOARDING

Scores head in right direction

http://www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/04/19/scores-head-in-right-direction/

April 26, 2011

Published 8:39pm Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The assessment test glass appears half full instead of half empty to thirsty Dowagiac educators.

Where district third graders lagged four percent on third grade math scores in 2009, for 2010 Dowagiac closed that gap with state average by 2 percent.

“In elementary grades 3-5, we have three increases in comparison to state averages, we have two that remain even and we have two (third grade reading and fifth grade math) where we are 1 percent off the state average.

“We just need to continue what we’re doing and tweak it,” Assistant Superintendent Patti Brallier reported to the Board of Education Monday night in the middle school Performing Arts Center because of the new dinner for Top 10 graduates in the cafeteria.

“We increased from state average 10 percent” for sixth grade math, Brallier said. “We’re even in reading, we increased in social studies, we increased in math and reading at the seventh grade level. We increased in math at the eighth grade level, we’re even in reading, we increased in science and we increased in social studies.”

Brallier, who has been assistant superintendent for four years, said the middle school “strategy is working.”

“It’s really exciting,” she added, “because there is growth and positive achievement happening, and we look forward to continuing that with this next school year. We will focus on literacy in the areas of reading and writing, so that at the end of third grade all students will be at grade level. That is our goal.”

“I congratulate the staff and administration for the gains and trends,” President Larry Seurynck said.

Seurynck called Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal “very cynical” because “it’s not the School Aid Fund that’s in trouble, it’s the General Fund. The state has chosen to raid the School Aid Fund. For the state to jeopardize kids’ one fair chance at an education to improve their lives is a cynical way to balance the budget when there are obvious other ways” to meet the May 31 deadline legislators are working toward.

Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel reported that high school students experienced storyboarding The Disney Way the Friday before spring break.

“We’re now looking to move into the six buildings” to share the experience with parents.

“Hopefully, we’ll finish that by May. Mr. (Bill) Capodagli has been contacted and he’s going to help us sort through the numerous storyboards and find some commonalities, so we’re appreciative of that,” Daniel said.

DISNEY WAY STORYBOARDING FEEDBACK FROM CAAP’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE

On March 24th, Bill conducted a storyboading session for the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania.  The focus was on how the individual agencies could provide Disney Way service to their audiences despite the inevitable federal funding threats to their network.  The feedback on the session was overwhelmingly positive.  Here are the written comments provided by the participants (original typos were not corrected):

Great

Excellent this type of presentation & workshop is needed.

This was fabilous workshop. The presenter was great. I feel like I can apply what I learned.

Fantastic

Wonderful training will use this extensivley.

Excellent presenter with great hands on tips!

Excellent workshop

Great workshop-I will use this immediately.

Story Board…something the Board of Directors should use.

Disney Way “Magical Moments” Account of WDW’s Customer Service

 

It’s a Wonderful World

The micro details of customer service are what separate the winners from the losers in business

April, 2011

by Kathleen Martin

The first day she wore a Cinderella ball gown everywhere. But in the days that followed, disguised in sneakers and a T-shirt, people could still tell, just by looking at her, that she was a princess. “How are you this morning, Princess?” they’d say, bending down low in front of her.

My four-year-old daughter couldn’t have been happier. She beamed at the wait staff, at the people collecting garbage from the streets, at the shopkeepers. We were at Walt Disney World Resort, where it seemed everyone was transformed: into royalty, into Jedi Knights, into parents with unlimited patience. The Disney employees—people for whom the incredible magical production is, well, work—were also most curiously happy.

The entire week we spent there was populated with smiling helpful employees called “cast members” who raced to anticipate the needs of guests without exception. “The food looks good, but the desserts…I really don’t like carrot cake,” admitted my husband, when a staff member at a quick-serve restaurant saw him looking at the menu options. “They serve chocolate cake at the restaurant a little way down the street,” the waiter responded. “Why don’t you order your food, and I’ll run down there and get you some.”

Despite our protests that it wasn’t necessary, he did exactly that. Within 10 minutes, he had arrived back at our table, cake in hand. He had wanted our lunch to be perfect, and thanks to him, it was.

I needed to find out what was in the employee Kool-Aid.

“I really like my job,” said more than one person. Others said, “They spend a lot of time training us on the traditions of Disney; they let us make decisions to make things better for our guests; they put up our picture if they catch us doing something extra to help a guest, particularly if it’s a child; they try and make it fun for us.”

Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, the authors of The Disney Way, have built their careers on studying Disney. “Walt Disney insisted that every employee is the company in the mind of the customer,” they write. “Because Disney insisted that customers be treated like guests, great customer service has become a standard feature of the total package the Disney Company offers. And wrapped up in that package is a gift of creativity—in product, service, and process—that makes even jaded adults smile with childlike delight.”

Posted in several places around Disney World parks is this quote from Walt: “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it was all started by a mouse.” In other words, what he created came not from something cataclysmic or untouchable but from something common, coupled with a well-exercised imagination and a fine attention to detail.

In his best-seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a simple method, called the Broken Windows hypothesis, which New York’s Police Department used to fight violent crime. They relentlessly addressed small problems, such as broken windows and graffiti and people trying to skip out on subway fares. Crime rates dropped. They discovered that minor, seemingly insignificant quality- of-life crimes were tipping points for violent crime.

Perhaps something similar applies in business. If we relentlessly address the details—the seemingly insignificant aspects of customer service, for example— I think our businesses will become more successful. It’s the simple things that astounded me at Disney World, which are missing from so many of my daily customer-service experiences.

If cast members were talking to one another when I approached them, they stopped instantly and turned their attention to me. Every time. Although thousands of people cycled through restaurants I visited, I rarely saw garbage on the floor or an empty table that wasn’t quickly being cleaned.

One night, when we waited briefly in line at a restaurant, a cast member came over and sat down next to my children. She asked them about their day and drew them pictures of Mickey Mouse on napkins. I discovered later that her shift had already ended, and she had stayed those few extra minutes to make them feel important.

The experience was unforgettable, and it’s not rocket science. It’s possible for any company. As Walt would say—it’s just a dream away.

Kathleen Martin is a freelance journalist based in Halifax. She can be reached at masthead@ns.sympatico.ca

Progress Media.ca’s site is designed to help business owners and CEOs grow their businesses more effectively.

Kennedy Center Learns Secrets from Innovate the Pixar Way

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Kennedy Center Meeting: A Glimpse of the Future

I recently attended the annual meeting of the John F. Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education program. Purdue Convocations and the Lafayette School Corporation (LSC) are partners in this program that pairs arts presenters and school systems to present top quality professional development training to area teachers. This is the fourth year for the local partnership. Cindy Preston, a second grade teacher at Edgelea Elementary attended representing LSC.

The meeting focused on a look into changes in education and how we can meet the challenges of 21st Century learning. Two major challenges to arts education are funding and keeping up with the rapid pace of changing technology.

The keynote speaker, Bill Capodagli, author of The Disney Way and Innovate the Pixar Way, emphasized the importance of leadership and innovation in moving an organization forward. He pointed out how less structured work environments led to more productive and creative employees in several companies who chose to try a new approach to their corporate environment.

Futurist Garry Golden, whose work is to help people learn how to anticipate and lead change, forecast an even greater leap forward in technology in the next ten years. He told the group that we are now entering a learner-oriented era in which learning is not so much institution, or teacher, - driven, but will be more about what we learn from those around us. It will not be so much about what is delivered as it will be about our own self-directed efforts. He predicted that soon almost everyone will have a hand-held electronic device and more and more content will be delivered through these devices.

Learning is making the leap from formal to informal. He also predicted the emergence of what is termed, “Third Place”. These are locations that are not home and not work where people gather to interact or gather information, like cafes, malls, parks, etc. This calls for new ways of communicating.

Arts education researcher Eric Booth helped attendees look at the work of author Daniel Pink’s book Drive and how the arts and arts education can help deliver what our culture needs and wants – innovation, creativity, discovery, increased curiosity and engagement, authentic learning, sustainable rigor, and most specifically, intrinsic-motivation.

Posted by Laura Clavio, assistant director of Convocations

Initiated in 1902, Purdue Convocations is among the oldest collegiate performing arts presenters in the United States. Each year, Convocations offers the region 30–40 performances of widely varying genres: Broadway-style shows, theatre, dance, children’s theatre, world music, jazz, and chamber music, along with rock, pop, country, and comedy attractions. www.convocations.org

Disney Way Featured in the Dowagiac News

Leaders are readers

Published 10:34pm Thursday, March 24, 2011

MeL, the Michigan Electronic Library (www.mel.org) puts a world of information at the fingertips of anyone with a Dowagiac District Library card.

Kathy Johnson became Dowagiac District Library director last March after nine years at Union High School.

From any computer with Internet access at any time, patrons can find millions of full-text articles, books, CDs and DVDs, even practice tests and homework help for students. Free to Michigan residents 24/7, MeL’s resources can help you start or build a business, chart family history, boost hobbies, borrow from other libraries, explore historical photographs, videos, diary pages and documents and tap databases.

MeL promotes classroom excellence with MORE, Michigan Online Resources for Educators, where teachers can enrich the experience they provide when they track down lesson plans, interactive Web sites, videos and podcasts.

“Our library can’t own every good book that’s published,” Dowagiac District Library Director Katherine Johnson told Rotary Club Thursday noon at Elks Lodge 889, “but our patrons can borrow any book in the state of Michigan, with the exception of the Troy library, through MeL. Anyone with an Internet connection and a library card. What an incredible boon this is for people who want to gather information. It’s changed our library and the type of customer we have to be able to borrow any title.” Johnson mentioned a friend who belongs to the Dowagiac library book club. “She’s in Florida and downloaded the title we’re going to be doing in May.”

The library has pamphlets detailing how to download audiobooks and e-books and the mel.org site.

Asked about MeL cuts by retired superintendent Larry Crandall, Johnson said, “(Gov. Rick Snyder) is reacting to federal legislators. MeL is basically funded through the federal government, LSTA — the Library Services and Technology Act. LSTA is some of those discretionary funds we hear about that the legislators have threatened to cut. That’s what MeL runs on, what the state library runs on. The governor’s right. If those funds are cut, district libraries will try to fund MeL some other way. There are several parts to MeL. The first to be eliminated would be reference databases, which cost millions of dollars. The very last to go would be interlibrary loans.”
“We’re small potatoes,” Johnson said. “This is not a big chunk of the federal budget for the incredible good it does for little towns in areas like this. Eliminating it would be devastating. MeL runs beautifully and there’s no graft or dirty-dealing.”

Johnson, introduced by fellow Marcellus graduate Barbara Groner, spoke for Rotary Literacy Month in March, although “every month is literacy month for libraries.” She retired from a 35-year career in education (she has a master’s degree in teaching reading) after working in school media centers at Dowagiac High School (nine years), Niles Brandywine and Southwestern Michigan College.
Titling her program “Literacy, Leadership and Library,” Johnson succeeded Mike Shamalla as Dowagiac District Library last March 1.
“We can all breathe a huge sigh of relief,” Johnson said. “Most of us realize that to be literate, a person doesn’t need to know everything. In the middle ages, literate leaders had to know everything in their fields. If you were going to build a cathedral, you knew Euclid’s book, cover to cover, and that was it, that was all you needed to know. Everything’s a lot bigger now and we all sense that, so if anybody claims they know everything, we know they’re not telling the truth, and those people are kind of scary anyway.”

Literacy “is not just reading, it’s the ability to learn, to sort and to assimilate what we’ve discovered and then to evaluate. Literacy is a lot more complicated than just reading,” she said. “This presentation started with the idea that libraries and literacy have a direct connection. With leadership, I need to know what works in this economy in this part of Michigan. Those of us that are public entities are faced with lots of challenges. To be a good leader in our world right now, I need information.”

Arrayed before her were leadership books published in the past decade and available at the public library at 211 Commercial St., including “The Disney Way” by Dowagiac visitor Bill Capodagli.

She downloaded the “fascinating book” from the digital collection and read it on an e-reader.

“My two favorites are Rudy Giuliani’s book on leadership and ‘Leading from the Middle.’ I didn’t know much about Giuliani and, in fact, I kind of didn’t like him. But I learned a lot about leadership from reading his book. He was the mayor of New York City and took it from high crime, debt and inefficiency to vast improvements in those areas. His leadership was really tested on 9/11. It’s a fascinating read.” Giuliani advocates literacy through his previous disdain for golf. “He hated golf,” Johnson said, “but his son loved it and was always asking him to play. He could not understand what anyone saw in golf. Then it occurred to him that golf was just like anything else. If you don’t really know about it, you can’t appreciate it, so he made it a point to find everything he could get his hands on about the lore, the jokes, the personalities, the skills involved in golf. Finally, it dawned on him that golf was supposed to be fun and it changed his life. He loves golf so much he can’t get enough of it!”

“Leading from the Middle” is a “really good book on leadership, and let me tell you why,” Johnson said. “There’s a restaurant in San Francisco with excellent food and service beyond compare. It’s not fancy, but the ambience is comfortable and it’s a really wonderful establishment. He asked the waiter to talk to the boss to tell him what a wonderful restaurant it was and the waiter said, ‘I’m the boss. Thank you for your compliment.’ “The guy thought the waiter was being flip and was slightly annoyed by the comment, but he came to realize that they did a lot of training. Every person in the restaurant knows that to the public dealing with that person, he was the restaurant, just like in the library when you go to the desk, that clerk is the library. Leading from the Middle is giving employees that feeling that they have a stake in the whole picture. They are the boss and they have a valuable role to play, which is very similar to a theme in The Disney Way.”

“Digital books are happening right now in a big way,” she said. “Dowagiac District Library is very much involved in digital books — both audio and regular text. They can be downloaded to a mobile device. An audio book you can listen to on your iPod while you go for a walk. Or, it could be on an e-reader, an iPad. There are all kinds of mobile devices and we have a very nice collection of digital books. All you need to do is go to our Web site and click on overdrive. Yes, we can borrow any print book in Michigan, but we’re no longer dependent on print. You can download a book for free and either listen to it or read it anywhere on your mobile device. You’re given 14 days before it disappears. There’s no overdues or dog-eaten damaged books. It’s a great deal for everybody.” Of one of those mobile devices, Kindle, Johnson said, “It will only allow you to buy books from Amazon. It will not let you borrow books for free from libraries.”

Leadership Reading List

1.) The Disney Way, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, 2007.
2.) Good to Great, Jim Collins, 2001.
3.) Leadership is an Art, Max DePree, 2004.
4.) Leadership, Rudolph Giuliani, 2002.
5.) Leading from the Middle, John Lubans, 2010.
6.) In Search of Excellence, Thomas Peters, 2004.
7.) The Knowing-Doing Gap, Jeffrey Pfeffer, 2000.
8.) Partnering: The New Face of Leadership, 2003.