I was recently listening to an episode of the NPR show and podcast Hidden Brain, a show about the range of influences that manipulate us without our awareness. The episode was called Innovation 2.0: Do Less. And it got me thinking – as I often do – about libraries.
I’ve been working in and around libraries for over 20 years, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that libraries are almost always willing to take on more. They see a need, and they step in with a program or service or partnership to meet that need. This is a great impulse, and can lead to positive outcomes. But the practice of continually adding more, without taking anything away, is not sustainable, and can lead to overwork, inefficiency and burnout.
I touched on this in my post about vocational awe. In that post I said that, “there is never enough time and money to match the noble mission of the library, and communicate all of its services and programs in a 24/7 communications environment.” I also commented that among most library professionals, there is almost an expectation of burnout. Over years of working with libraries, and reviewing award entries, I sense that libraries are often chasing the “new” – the new branch, the new program or event, the new initiative. In the Hidden Brain episode, host Shankar Vedantam says, “Once we become familiar with a particular object, we tend to look for ways to add to it rather than to subtract from it. But the act of taking away can produce remarkable results.”
However, our societal fabric is not set up to encourage subtraction. In the episode, Vedantam says, “It makes sense that donors want to put their money behind something tangible. Politicians similarly want to be able to cut a ribbon to tout a new amenity that they’re delivering for their constituents. It’s hard to cut a ribbon on an empty field. These are the sorts of cultural and political forces that subtly push us to favor addition over subtraction.”
So in the face of all this pressure to add, how can we approach the idea of taking things away without creating problems for our libraries and our users? I think awareness is the first step. Library leaders and employees can start by framing subtraction as a form of innovation. Doing less isn’t laziness. In many cases, it creates capacity to do more of something else, something that may have more impact.
In the episode, Vedantam says, “increasing the noticeability of subtraction, the value of subtraction, can help us embrace subtraction.” The show’s guest, Leidy Klotz, suggests some strategies, such as a “stop-doing list.” Klotz says, “A stop-doing list is essentially the same as a to-do list except for you’re thinking of things that you’re not going to do anymore. And how I use it is whenever I do my to-dos, which I try to do on a weekly basis, I also force myself to come up with equivalent number of stop doings, which kind of makes sense, right? If you’re going to add new stuff to your day and assuming you’re already at capacity, you need to also figure out what you’re going to take away.”
Libraries can introduce this concept in simple ways, such as encouraging employees to share their “stop-doing lists” with their supervisors, and by talking about subtraction in decision-making meetings. Repetition is key, because our brains are wired to always add.
In my experience working in a library, I was often met with resistance when I suggested that we not do something. I also met library leaders who, while well-intentioned, had an attitude of “we’re going to toil and toil and toil, because that’s what we do.” But I didn’t give up. A wise colleague told me, “If you’re going to take something away, you need to give people an alternative.” That alternative doesn’t have to be another new thing. It could be a new way of doing things, or the ability to expand something else.
How can we apply these concepts to library marketing and communications? Well, it’s no secret that there has been a lot of addition over the past twenty years. For example, social media – new platforms and trends are always being added, but the old platforms are still there as well. So I often encourage libraries to “right-size” their social media accounts. They can look at the analytics to see which platforms are used by the most people in their targeted audiences. And if they decide they need to add a new platform, maybe they need to eliminate another one that is not reaching their audiences effectively.
Another example I frequently use is the calendar of events. When I started in libraries in the year 2000, calendars of events were our biggest promotion tool. In the 24 years since, we have seen an explosion of calendar tools – from smart phones, to integrated website calendars, to social media events. And yet many libraries still spend their limited time and budgets producing a paper calendar of events. One strategy I suggest is to create a handout with a few highlighted events and a QR code that takes people back to the website calendar. I often get resistance. People say, “but our customers like the calendar!” That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like a simpler handout, or an online event listing. Why not try a new approach adn see what happens? Then maybe you can use that time adn money to try a different marketing strategy, like social media ads to reach people who aren’t already in the library.
Still not sure? I recommend listening to this episode for a fresh eprspective. Maybe recommend it to your colleagues. And consider reading Klotz’s book, Subtract: The Untapped Power of Less.
Cordelia Anderson Consulting 