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2007 Leadership
Institute
2007 Nevada Library
Leadership Institute:
Facilitating to
Lead!
August 20 to 24, 2007
Sahara West Library, Las Vegas
By Denise Gerdes, West Charleston Library Branch Manager
Las Vegas Clark County Library District
“Facilitating”? What is “Facilitating”?! Curiosity got the
better of me, so I signed up for the Nevada Library Leadership
Institute at the Sahara West Library in Las Vegas, August 20-24,
2007.
Curiosity got the better of thirty librarians from around
Nevada, who enjoyed 4 days together and learned about
facilitation, as well as lots about Nevada Libraryland! What a
great opportunity to meet peers from all sorts of libraries and
learn about many issues, successes, and upcoming opportunities
within our state. We participated in group activities throughout
the week and became well acquainted by end of the seminar.
So, what is facilitation? It’s a way of providing leadership
without taking the reins. A facilitator’s job is to get others
to assume responsibility and to take the lead. Facilitators make
their contribution by:
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Helping the group define its
overall goal
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Helping members assess needs
and create plans
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Guiding group discussion to
stay on track
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Making accurate notes large
enough to be seen by the group
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Using consensus to help a
group make decisions
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Supporting members in
assessing their current skills
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Providing processes that help
members use their time efficiently
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Helping the group understand
its own processes to work effectively
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Providing feedback to the
group
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Managing conflict using a
collaborative approach
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Helping the group communicate
effectively
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Fostering leadership in others
by sharing group projects
Effective questioning is the key
facilitative technique. As a facilitator, you can never ask too
many questions. For example, if you want to stimulate everyone’s
thinking, direct questions to the group. If you want to allow
people to respond voluntarily or avoid putting someone on the
spot, ask a question such as “What experiences have any of you
had with this problem?” We were taught to ask the right question
at the right time, of the right person or group.
One of the toughest challenges of a facilitator is staying
neutral. It was difficult at times to stay focused on the
process of facilitating and to suppress one’s own ideas and
beliefs about the problem at hand. Some strategies to stay
neutral are to ask questions, offer suggestions and to keep
personal opinions to oneself. Most of us slipped once or twice,
interjecting our personal beliefs into the discussions.
We quickly learned that the facilitator is one of the most
important roles to emerge in today’s workplace. Facilitation is
now recognized as an essential skill for project managers, team
leaders, committee chairs and members - not to mention managers
who are trying to keep pace with ever-changing demands. Through
much trial and error, we learned to develop facilitating skills
practicing at our group tables. These practice runs proved the
concept of facilitation, and we are anxious to get back to work
and try out the concept!
Point in case was a study we ‘facilitated’ about how to provide
better service to non-English speaking library users. Within a
short time the group of five at my table came up with these
results:
Easy Effort/High Impact
Spanish outreach
Ask Acquisitions Librarians about Spanish vendors
Inquire to current vendors about Spanish materials
Put up Spanish and English signs
High Effort/High Impact
Spanish Language advertising
Provide Spanish materials an videos (but not necessarily
electronic databases)
Subscribe to more Spanish language magazine
Increase Spanish Language materials budget
Cultural Programs
Easy Effort/Low Impact
Computer literacy classes in Spanish
High Effort/Low Impact
Spanish language training for staff
Spanish orientations for patrons
ESL classes in the library
Offer practical programming in Spanish
We are very grateful to have attended this Institute, sponsored
by the Nevada State Library & Archives with funds from the
Library Services and Technology Act from the Institute of Museum
and Library Services. Special thanks to Holly Van Valkenburgh
and Karen Starr for their tireless efforts!
Many thanks to the great instructors: Ingrid Bens, M.Ed., Carla
Sanda, CPF, and Ruth Urban, MS, CPF. These three lively women
made the week a complete success, loading us with new
information, new skills, and a renewed enthusiasm for
leadership.
Modified: November 7, 2007
Location:
http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/lpd/2007LeadershipInstitute.htm
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