One of the toughest tasks expected of library managers and leaders is to make good decisions. Whether the stakes are small or significant, getting the decision right will enable library workers to make the best possible use of library resources for great service delivery. Effective leaders decide within reasonable timeframes, avoid analysis paralysis and achieve fair, practical resolutions. This two-hour webinar introduces participants to the art of decision making through the exploration of time-tested approaches to making thoughtful, service-centric decisions.
As there is no exact science to decision making, leaders will want to equip themselves with several strategies to guide their personal decision-making process. Attendees will explore decision-making practices such as:
- Risk taking perspective (the waterline approach)
- Slow decision making
- Avoiding paralysis
- Collaborative decision making
- Prioritizing decisions
- Assessing decisions
At the end of the session, participants should be able to:
- Gain familiarity with the behavioral aspects of decision making in order to better avoid failure points and increase the odds for better decision making outcomes
- Identify individual tolerance for risk in order to understand how risk impacts how and why we make (or avoid) decisions
- Recognize different strategies for making decisions in order to optimize the decision situation with the most appropriate strategy for making the decision
- Acknowledge the inevitability of decision failure in order to achieve more comfort with risk and the ability to avoid procrastination when decisions must be made
Instructor: Steven Bell
Steven J. Bell is the Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University. He writes and speaks about academic librarianship, learning technologies, library leadership, higher education, open learning content, design thinking and user experience. He currently writes at Designing Better Libraries, a blog about design thinking and library user experiences. He authors weekly columns for Library Journal Academic Newswire, "From the Bell Tower" and "Leading From the Library". He is co-author of the book “Academic Librarianship by Design” and editor of the book “Crucible Moments: Inspiring Library Leadership”. Learn more at http://stevenbell.info
