Dixon attends COSLA Executive Leadership Institute

Sandy Dixon, Program Director for Library Development, attended a COSLA Executive Leadership Institute hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Library and Information Studies.  The August institute, planned by Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), focused on leadership in state government, public policy, advocacy, media relations, collaboration/partnerships and finance. 

One of the books highlighted at the institute was The Leadership Challenge:  How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.  Leadership principles described in this 1995 book include:  inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart.

Sandy shared three memorable points from the institute which happened to be about advocacy.  They include: 

• Think of libraries as membership organizations with X number of "card-carrying" members.
• Always be on the look out for your next champion.
• Behavioral economics - people make decisions emotionally and find arguments to support their decision. Decision making is not merit based.