The 80/20 Librarian: Focusing on the 20% that matters

A little over four and a half years ago Daniel Francis appeared on the blog as a guest columnist to discuss his work as a life coach. Feel free to visit https://www.danramirezlibrarian.com/2015/12/08/daniel-francis-on-being-a-life-coach/ to revisit Daniel’s thoughts on life coaching.

I’m honored to have Daniel back on the blog to field questions on how one can be resilient in the current crisis environment we are living in. Daniel and his wife currently offer an assortment of resources to assist others in the form of webinars, blogs, life coaching, and meditation.  Visit https://www.alivenwell.net/ at any time to learn more.

Daniel, I think many of us feel totally overwhelmed at times by the events taking place in our world. Four questions I have for you are as follows:

1) What advice do you give per practicing self-care? Please talk about the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of taking care of oneself. Provide practical suggestions if possible.

My dentist refers to good homecare- daily brushing and flossing- as what keeps cavities and root canals at bay; it’s a preventative just as our daily personal hygiene routines.  The same is true for self-care.  We ignore what is going on in our mind, heart and soul only at our peril.  These “places” in our life can seem like a foreign land to those who have not yet opened up the map to self-knowledge.  And it doesn’t have to be scary, for truly:  any information about ourselves can only help us in the short and long run, even if it may pinch at first.  My wife and I are in the process of co-authoring a book on living a healthy, abundant life and one of the aspects is physical health.  Just today, we spent nearly two hours doing yard work, will eventually go for an hour’s walk and then–as we’ve done nearly every evening for years before we retire for the night–we’ll take one final walk around the block.  It’s always dark, so we bring a flashlight and open our ears.  Perhaps the entire 8-9 minutes it takes to walk the block is wordless, or sometimes we’ll discuss something we may have just read or seen on TV.  Otherwise, we are breathing in un-conditioned air, moving our legs and lungs and digesting any remains of a (usually) healthy supper we ate. For us, it’s a wonderful way to celebrate the end of a day.  

For emotional self-care, don’t let a day end without writing down at least three things for which you are grateful that happened that day.  I say “write them down” because the act of writing/scribing/putting pen to paper is in itself a commitment of memorializing.  You’re apt to remember your gratitude when it’s something that you have jotted down versus merely thought of in passing.  Why is this the first thing I mention about emotional self-care?  Because attitude is nearly everything.  If you think you’re going to have a bad day, you’re correct.  If you think you’re going to experience something amazing, you’re also correct.  This is not magic or new age projection; this is awareness and non-resistance.  If you are bothered by something, ask some questions.  Be curious.  “Why did this affect me that way?”  “How did he push my button again?”  “Why am I still mulling over what she did/said?”  Doing so creates a vital DISTANCE between what happened and your response to what happened.  One author likens it to a driver who cuts in front of you. You can react immediately by honking the horn or saying something loud (outside or in) or worse… or you can stop your judgment of the other driver (as if you’re braking your internal car) and allow some space in between the event and your response.  The key to emotional self-care is taking the time to assume the role of observer of your self.  Watch what’s going on in your mind and ask productive questions about what you observe.  By doing this, you not only get to know yourself better but also become more adept in harnessing the power over your mind:  you make the mind work for you instead of having the ego keep control of its narcissistic world.  

Spiritual self-care is organic.  No matter what religion you follow (or have graduated from), all of us can appreciate the miracle of creation, the beauty of unity as well as mystery of diversity, the smallness of being one in 7 billion humans on a small blue orb in a solar system part of a galaxy that is merely one in 100 billion galaxies created 13.7 billion years ago.  We are so minute and yet we are!  Notice there is nothing after the word “are”.   We are….   Consider this mantra:  God is; I am; I accept; gratefully; in peace.  Say this many times and see if it doesn’t bring you calm and wonder and joy and inner solace.

2) How does one positively engage, support, and feel a part of community at this time?

Do what you can do, but do something.  Zoom calls have become a great opportunity for some; it’s been a drudgery (to say nothing of technical headaches and phobia) for others.  My wife and I have always been friendly by waving and saying “Hello” to others when we do our daily walks and bike riding.  But what we’ve noticed is that this time of pandemic has increased verbal contact in strangers.  People who are working from home or out of a job and are “taking to the sidewalks” are waving and smiling at us.  To feel part of a community is to be in tune with what’s going on in that community.  We receive Next-Door Neighbor alerts and read the monthly newsletter for our community.  If you are experiencing a disconnect with others at this time, express this to someone who loves you.  They might be able to help you re-connect.  Whoever began the term “social distancing” really meant “physical distancing.”  We need to remain close socially as much as possible during this time.  

3) Where does one turn to for inspiration?

If you are a reader, I highly recommend Michael Singer’s “The Untethered Soul” and Eknath Easwaran’s “Conquest of Mind.”  My wife and I are currently listening to Adyashanti’s book “True Meditation“.  Whenever there are celestial events, such as full moons, comets (Neowise is visible to the naked eye) or meteor showers, we set a calendar reminder and look for them.  For us, this is awe and inspiring.  

Music is a huge part of our daily routine:  we meditate to songs from Liquid Mind; we work at our desk to classical or instrumental music; when we bake or cook, we ask Alexa to also play some of our favorites.  This inspires us deeply.  

When the pandemic is over, we will be sure to get out to see performing arts (plays, concerts, book readings, seminars) in our area.  

Finally, a shameless plug for inspiration would be to subscribe to our “Daily Dose” and “Blog” from our website! 

4) Are there any thoughts you would like to share about how to be resilient in a crisis?

Barbara Marx Hubbard writes in “Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential” that crisis and chaos always precede transformation.  How hopeful is that!  I’m not denying the reality that many are sick now and too many have died.  I’m not ignorant of the fact that we do not yet have a universally effective treatment and a vaccine seems months away, if not longer.  But you are here.  I am here.  You can fight with reality all you want and guess what?  Reality always wins (no matter what names you might call it).  My wife and I have decided to dedicate our lives–principally because of this crisis–to providing a gateway of good news for folks who are lost in despair or have negativity tapes playing all the time.  There is too much goodness in this moment now–even the stress and strain of whatever you might be presently experiencing–for us not to feel alive and well.  

Robert Iger’s autobiography “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company” came out last year to critical acclaim. I think that anyone in a leadership position or aspiring to be in a leadership position should get familiar with this book.

Prominent reviews of Iger’s work abound. The most  impressive for me was Bill Gates’ review which he entitles as “A Business Book I’d Actually Recommend: Unlike Most Books On Leadership This One is Actually Worth Your Time” from May 18, 2020. 

John Gapper from the Financial Times has a review “The Ride of a Lifetime: Life At the Top of Disney” which focuses on Iger’s “studied amiability, forged over years of getting the best out of talented but capricious figures, conceals not only an inner toughness but a wily talent for strategic persuasion.” Gapper is also keen to note that, “Like the priest or rabbi of the Magic Kingdom, Iger preaches respect for others — “A little respect goes a long way and the absence of it can be very costly,” he writes.”

Forbes’ Magazine had several writers discussing the book. Readers may like Frances Bridges’ 5 Career Lessons From Disney CEO Bob Iger’s New Book, ‘Ride Of A Lifetime’ and Stephanie Denning’s Ten Leadership Lessons From Disney’s Bob Iger. For discussion of recent books comparable to Iger’s, see Carmine Gallo’s These Four CEOs Wrote The Best Business Books Of 2019 For Aspiring Leaders.

For me, the most important part of the book is on pages 99 to 100 when Iger is in pursuit of the CEO position at Disney, but is struck by a comment that Scott Miller, “a highly regarded political consultant and brand manager”, brought up to get Iger looking to the future of the company. Namely, Miller asked Iger to provide strategic priorities as a CEO. Iger goes on to discuss five or six priorities, which he finds warrants an immediate interruption from Miller.

Miller’s point is that too many items makes a leader appear unfocused and those items are too numerous to actually be priorities. The magic number of priorities for Miller is just three. Iger ends up focusing on emphasizing the need to create high quality branded content, embracing technology to the fullest extent, and envisioning Disney becoming a truly global company.

The three points are again used for what Iger hopes to accomplish in his early days as CEO. In concrete teams these were; repairing the relationship with Roy Disney, improving interactions with Pixar as well as Steve Jobs, and changing decision making by reanalyzing the Strategic Planning (“Strat Planning”) department that Michael Eisner relied on.

The leadership quality that Iger stresses which had the most impact on me was Decisiveness followed by what I interpret as the Importance of Succession Planning. Readers will find that the book’s Prologue lists Iger’s Ten Leadership Lessons (Again see Forbes writer Stephanie Denning’s Ten Leadership Lessons From Disney’s Bob Iger for the listing) and the Appendix from pages 225 to 233 lists Iger’s Lessons to Lead By.

My favorite quotes on these topics are as follows:

Decisiveness:  From Page 100 to 101, “You can do a lot for the morale of the people around you (and therefore the people around them) just by taking the guesswork out of their day to day life. A CEO must provide the company and its senior team with a road map. A lot of work is complex and requires intense amounts of focus and energy, but this kind of messaging is fairly simple: This is where we want to be. This is how we’re going to get there. Once those things are laid out simply, so many decisions become easier to make, and the overall anxiety of an entire organization is lowered. ”

Importance of Succession Planning: From Page 232, “It’s not good to have power for too long. You don’t realize the way your voice seems to boom louder than every other voice in the room. You get used to people withholding their opinions until they hear what you have to say. People are afraid to bring ideas to you, afraid to dissent, afraid to engage. This can happen even to the most well-intentioned leaders. You have to work consciously and actively to fend off its corrosive effects.”

Smithsonian Magazine’s Nora McGreevy has an article on the importance of the film Just Mercy, which is free to watch on digital platforms during June.

The movie is based off of the best selling book by the same name.

I enclose a synopsis of the book directly from the Equal Justice Initiative.

“Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.

Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.

One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a young white woman that he didn’t commit. The case exemplifies how the death penalty in America is a direct descendant of lynching — a system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent.”

The Equal Justice Initiative has links for more information on the book and the movie.

This web video was recorded a little over a month ago, but I believe that the suggestions are still completely valid as they can help business owners in the current crisis.

Cuban fields a lot of questions from Foster that come from concerned business owners and Cuban answers with aplomb.

I heard a lot from Cuban about being honest and transparent with all stakeholders during the crisis to get a firm foundation to start with. Also, one of the first questions concerned how to keep a business afloat that is in danger of going under. Cuban stressed that honest communication with stakeholders (such as vendors or employees) may yield a great idea that could take the business in a different direction. Another suggestion is to negotiate for better contract terms.

Being adaptable, agile, and resilient were key terms that Cuban highlighted for business that will make it through the crisis with success. Conveying the steps the business is taking to get out of the crisis is super important. Get ideas from wherever you can. Flexibility with others is another trait that I picked up on as a good business practice from the video.

“Being nice goes so far” and we need to be mindful to keep good relationships intact both during as well as after the crisis.

Additional discussions involve Artificial Intelligence, Ambient Voice programming, Robotics, Precision Medicine, Innovative Products for America 2.0, and the book Healthy Buildings.

I was delighted to learn that Cuban is a “reading machine” and spends hours reading to stay a few steps ahead on business trends.

I’ve really enjoyed periodically returning to this 30 minute video since it came out two years ago.

Ray Dalio’s Principles for Success is here for your review.

“Truth is the Essential Foundation for Producing Good Outcomes.”- My favorite quote in the video

I have to watch the video several times to really understand what Dalio is saying. For me this video means the following:

1) Know what you want out of life and what it takes to get there

2) Be Reflective and Learn from Mistakes (i.e. Don’t keep making the same mistake). Note that Dalio references meditation as a resource here.

3) Invite other People into your circle to show you things you yourself did not know or could not do.

4) Support these other people and help them realize their goals with what you can contribute

5) Total honesty is needed throughout these steps if you hope to succeed

I have created an article on the changes in workplace organizational architecture that I am seeing per the current developing crisis.

On account of my use of diagrams I have developed a pdf document to outline my thoughts.

Enjoy reading The Third Entity!

A little over four years ago I had the great opportunity to introduce Justin Hoenke here on the blog.

It is my immense pleasure to welcome back Justin to the blog! In this post he is going to walk us through what it is like to be a U.S. librarian in New Zealand.

This past October I made one of the biggest leaps of my life: my family and I moved  all the way from the middle of Pennsylvania in the USA to Wellington, New Zealand for a library job. I’m here today to talk a little bit about that process, what we went through, how we got here, and now 6 months in how we’ve all adjusted to life, libraries, and more.

Up until my mid 30’s I thought that I had super powers of some sort. Everything that came at me was something that I could handle, process, and incorporate into my life. Things that entered my life had their period of adjustment and then quickly they became part of the daily routines that I had. But as time came at me things changed. I slowed down a bit. I turned away from the rat race of daily life and work. I got less involved in completely changing the world and instead focused on what I could work on and solve. This whole paragraph will make sense later on in this piece, but I wanted to plunk it down here now to set the tone. Consider the tone set.

It was an easy decision to move from the middle of Pennsylvania in the USA to one of the biggest cities in New Zealand. New Zealand has long held a special place in my heart. I visited this great country and got to interact with its libraries scene back in 2015, when I was lucky to be asked to be a keynote speaker for the LIANZA conference (https://lianza.org.nz) in Wellington, NZ. When I was here during that time I felt nothing but positivity, love, and the personal and professional growth I was seeking. Not only did I find those things but I saw a place where my family could live happily and grow. There was (and still is) so much to do, see, and explore in this country. 

The interview and application process wasn’t all that different from what librarians can expect in the USA. I took part in a few over the internet meetings which required some time zone difference juggling on my part. That was probably the most confusing bit. I kept in touch with the interview panel through email the whole time through. And then, just kind of like magic after a few months I was invited to accept the job. Since my family had long been talking about this we had already known what our answer would be (spoiler alert we said yes but you already knew that from the beginning on this post) and we had already investigated what we would need to do to get here.

Here’s a short list of what we personally needed to accomplish to make this a reality:

1. Apply for and get the approval to get a work visa. Luckily my employer was on the list of accredited employers and that helped with the process. There was a lot of paperwork, background checking, doctors appointments, and much more that I’ve already forgotten about, but I will say this: applying for a visa to move to and work in a different country was basically like taking on a part time job on top of a full time job.
2. Sell our home and most of our belongings. To do this, we had an auction for the home and the belongings. As I write this, we are still working on selling our home but all of our belongings have moved on to new owners.
3. Organize our belongings to be delivered to New Zealand. This was huge and it cost over $7000 USD. On the last day we spent in Pennsylvania we loaded up a shipping container with the help of our friends and away it went on a 3 month journey across the sea. We cut out a lot of extra stuff from our lives, leaving only the very necessary things that a family of 4 could need and a few extra special things that we could not do without. 
4. Prepare the travel plans: for us that meant going to Maine to be with family right before we left the USA and then leaving from there on the very long multi-day process of getting to New Zealand.
5. Setting up a temporary living situation; we rented an AirBnB for the first month or so that we were here. It was so helpful to have this temporary home to get us adjusted to life in a new country. Sure, it cost us a lot more than renting but it gave us the home we needed to have while we searched for a more permanent place to rent.

Now that I’ve given you all of that stuff I can finally now talk about what it means to be a librarian moving countries and working in a different culture. Long story short? Despite there being thousands of miles between the USA and NZ, there are a lot of common threads. There’s never enough staff to do all of the things that we want to do. There’s always budget issues. There’s always staff communication that needs to be worked through. There’s a lot of planning for things that may never happen. I think that’s just the state of libraries at the moment: we’re working on how to move ahead in this new world with the tools we’ve been given. At the same time we are imagining a world with more tools and seeing how we can get there. So there’s a common theme running through all of our libraries and it is that we are all trying to get to where we need to be. 

As I adjusted to day to day life and to working for a bigger library over the past 6 months I got to fully understand that I did not have super powers anymore and that I was just a normal, average person like everyone else. I have limits on what I can do and who I can be. I can’t solve everything but I can always give it a shot. I don’t have the answer to every question. And I sure don’t have the energy that I used to have. Learning all about a new country on top of moving the lives of 4 individuals to a new country, starting a bigger management role in libraries, and then finally overseeing the opening of a new library branch over the past 6 months has reinforced the idea to me that I am a human being who has limits and a finite amount of energy. All of this sounds mighty depressing and defeated as I read what I have written, but let me be honest with you: I feel like I have been reenergized in a completely different way. I never thought that I’d feel like this, but my current career path has taught me just how important it is to take care of myself, to not care about libraries all that much, and to focus more on the people and the things outside of library work that make me smile. It only took a new country, 9,000 or so miles of travel, and a whole lot of library and work stuff to realize that. I don’t have super powers. I’m Justin Average Person.

You can read more about opening a new library branch during all of this here: https://justinthelibrarian.com/2019/12/18/waitohi-a-community-hub/

You can read about my library journey so far here: https://justinthelibrarian.com/2019/12/03/the-public-library-journey-so-far/

Recently, I have come upon two sets of questions from the 8th Century Indian Buddhist monk known as Shantideva.

Mainly in addressing worrying Shantideva asks:

“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.”

A slightly different version of the question set is found on page 223 in The Book of Joy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams.

“Why be unhappy about something if it can be remedied? And what is the use of being unhappy if it cannot be remedied?”

How important is Shantideva’s question set? According to the Book of Joy, again on page 223, “In this short teaching is the profound essence of the Dalai Lama’s approach to life.”

A modern version of this question set for me would be something like this.

If you can fix the situation, why worry about it? If you cannot fix the situation, why worry about it?

This is good practical advice that everyone can benefit from. Interesting to learn that this reasoning is integral to how the Dalai Lama lives.

In December 2019 I took a look at Lee Iacocca’s leadership style and learned about his 9 Cs of leadership (from pages 6 to 10 in his book Where Have All the Leaders Gone? ). The Cs are traits or actions Iacocca thought a leader must have or be able to perform.

1. Curiosity
2. Creative
3. Communicate
4. Character
5. Courage
6. Conviction
7. Charisma
8. Competent
9. Common Sense

In January 2020 I took a look at General Mattis and his 3Cs of leadership from his book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, pages 11 to 12. These were traits Mattis thought a leader must have:

1. Competence
2. Caring
3. Conviction

Iacocca and Mattis both share Competence and Conviction as key leadership traits.

Caring is a leadership trait Mattis had, that could be added to the 9Cs of leadership Iacocca had.

So how about the 10 Cs of leadership? Combining the two lists we get the following:

1. Curiosity
2. Creative
3. Communicate
4. Character
5. Courage
6. Conviction
7. Charisma
8. Competent
9. Common Sense
10. Caring

The word initiative is used extensively throughout the book and will be most important to reflect upon. Leading by articulating your intent as a commander and letting subordinates take the initiative sums up what I learned from reading the book. My favorite quotes from Call Sign Chaos by General Mattis and Bing West are these:

p.12, “Value initiative and aggressiveness above all. It’s easier to pull the reins back than to push a timid soul forward.”

p.21, “Because a unit adopts the personality of its commander, just as a sports team adopts the personality of its coach, I made my expectations clear: I wanted a bias for action, and to bring out the initiative in all hands.”

p.42, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

p. 45, “Installation of personal initiative, aggressiveness, and risk-taking doesn’t spring forward spontaneously on the battlefield. It must be cultivated for years and inculcated, even rewarded, in an organization’s culture. If a commander expects subordinates to seize fleeting opportunities under stress, his organization must reward this behavior in all facets of training, promoting, and commending. More important, he must be tolerant of mistakes. If the risk takers are punished, then you will retain in your ranks only the risk averse.”

Page. 59, “Business management books often stress “centralized planning and decentralized execution.” That is too top down for my taste. I believe in a centralized vision, coupled with decentralized planning and execution. In general, there are two kinds of executives: those who simply respond to their staffs and those who direct their staffs and give them latitude, coaching them as needed to carry out the directions. I needed to focus on the big issues and leave the staff to flesh out how to get there.”

Page 88. “Note to all executives over the age of thirty: always keep close to you youngsters who are smarter than you.”

Page 96, “When things go wrong, a leader must stand by those who made the decision under extreme pressure and with incomplete information. Initiative and audacity must be supported, whether or not successful.”

Page 151, “Regardless of rank or occupation, I believe that all leaders should be coaches at heart. For me, “player-coach” aptly describes the role of a combat leader, or any real leader.”

Page 158, “If you don’t like problems, stay out of leadership.”

Page 175, “Every few months, a leader has to step back and question what he and his organization are doing.”

Page 179, “When asked how he would order his thoughts if he had one hour to save the world, Einstein sagely responded that he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and save the world in five minutes.”

Page 184, “Commanders must encourage intellectual risk taking to preclude a lethargic environment. Leaders must shelter those challenging nonconformists and mavericks who make institutions uncomfortable; otherwise you wash out innovation.”

Page 202, “In keeping with George Washington’s approach to leadership I would listen, learn, and help, then lead.”

Page 237, “If you can’t be additive as a leader, you’re just like a potted plant in the corner of a hotel lobby: you look pretty, but you’re not adding substance to the organization’s mission.”

Page 238, “You must unleash initiative rather than suffocate it.”

Page 238, “Strategy is hard, unless you’re a dilettante. You must think until your head hurts.”

Page 240, “Resourceful leaders do not lose touch with their troops. A leader’s job is to inculcate high-spirited, amiable self-discipline. Leaders must always generate options by surrounding themselves with bright subordinates and being catalysts for new ideas.” 

Page 242, “Allowing bad processes to stump good people is intolerable.”

Page 243, “Because maverick thinkers are so important to an organization’s adaptability, high ranking leaders need to be assigned the job of guiding and even protecting them, much as one would do for any endangered species.”

Page 243, “Leaders at all ranks, but especially at high ranks, must keep in their inner circle people who will unhesitatingly point out when a leader’s personal behavior or decisions are not appropriate.”