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How does ELI work?
An applicant library selects an executive manager Sponsor, a
new/aspiring leader Fellow, (see below for more information on choosing team
members) and a compelling, thorny, real-time assignment - the Leadership
Challenge. The team (Sponsor and
Fellow) will address this leadership challenge throughout the ten-month course
of the Institute. The Fellow will
attend three Institute seminars, two four-day meetings and one two-and-a-half
day meeting over the ten-month period, to explore institutional and community
leadership, change, politics and strategy.
The Sponsor will attend the first and last seminars. Between seminars,
each team will work with professional and executive coaches to develop and
implement their work on their chosen leadership challenge.
ELI 4 Intensives at Mt. Washington Conference Center in
Baltimore, MD
December 11-15, 2006 (Sponsors December 11-13, Fellows December
12-15)
May 8-11, 2007 (Fellows only)
October 9-12, 2007 (Fellows October 9-12, Sponsors October
11-12)
How is ELI
different?
The ULC and Eugene
Schnell, Professor of Leadership, Negotiation, and Innovation in the Center for
Leadership Education at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD created ELI
around the principles of action learning.
You will learn in a context where personal changes and new skills can be
tried, reflected on, and learned from.
Because ELI involves a challenging library project, you will apply new
skills to real situations over a sustained period of time. This process generates an engaging,
contextual, reflective and inspiring learning environment.
Your library project
will involve organizational change, making you a part of an industry movement to
address significant, existing challenges faced by libraries and their
leaders. Urban libraries frequently
carry many projects that require more time, attention, and creativity than
ordinarily is available. ELI
provides an opportunity for libraries to choose one of these challenges. The Sponsor and Fellow’s time and
attention are focused on the selected leadership challenge, ensuring that it
will be developed with the innovation, dedication, and strategic thinking of
library personnel with the guidance of Institute staff.
What kind of library project makes a good leadership challenge?
The choice of an
appropriate leadership challenge is fundamental to both ELI application
selection and the team’s learning experience. While the selection process will be
competitive, libraries are invited to work with ULC and Dr. Schnell to shape
their leadership challenges and other elements of the application. Upon submission, leadership challenges
should meet the following criteria:
-
Reality: The
leadership challenge should be a real, high-priority project, concerning real
fiscal, community, socio-cultural, institutional issues and with real
opportunities for success and failure. Contrived or make-work projects do
not meet this criterion.
-
Scope: The
leadership challenge should be a project that may cause significant
institutionachange and invites substantial collaboration within and outside the
library. It should also containelements that promote a significant amount
of learning. Study projects do not meet this
criterion.
-
Opportunity for
action: As progress is made on the leadership challenge, the team should find
opportunities for action.
-
Complexity:
The leadership challenge should be an issue with no clear solution or path; it
should be one about which there are already conflicting views and
opinions. It should require the team to think and act
strategically.
-
Appeal: An
appropriate leadership challenge should be exciting to the Fellow and Sponsor,
and to library and ELI faculty. It should be interesting, engaging, and
momentous enough to carry the team through the ten-month
Institute.
-
Diversity: Any
leadership challenge should acknowledge the changing demographic of
the
library’s customers and staff, as appropriate.
Who should my library choose as a Fellow? What criteria should we
use?
An appropriate Fellow may look different from library to
library. In general, a Fellow
should be:
-
Someone in mid-career with the potential to be
a part of the library’s senior management team; for instance, deputy/associate
director, a marketing director, director of development, head of public
services, etc. S/he mayalso be a newly-hired library director.
The Fellow is not required to have an MLS.
-
Someone who has a passion for the public library’s
mission.
-
Someone who is attracted to new ideas of leadership and accepts
risk.
-
Someone who is seen as a credible investment for the library in
terms of time and money.
-
Someone who can expect to commit an average of two days a week
or more to the leadership challenge.
In the interest of
creating library leadership that reflects the community’s changing face, ethnic
and racial diversity of teams is encouraged.
Who can be a Sponsor?
Libraries should
choose as a Sponsor a high level professional, such as a director, deputy
director, or head of a large and complex department, who has some authority or
power within the library. A library
trustee or board chair might serve as a Sponsor for a newly-hired director
Fellow. A Sponsor should
be:
-
Someone who has more
authority in the library than the Fellow.
-
Someone with content
knowledge of, and opinions about, the leadership challenge.
-
Someone with enough
resources, clout and credibility to sustain the Fellow through successes and
mistakes.
-
Someone who is
willing to be a change agent and expects organizational change to result from
this experience.
-
Someone who can make
a significant commitment to the leadership challenge and the
Fellow.
-
Someone with enough
time to attend the required Institute seminars and effectively mentor the
Fellow.
Again, ethnic and
racial diversity is encouraged.
How will ULC provide support to the Fellow and Sponsor as they move
through the Institute?
ULC, working
with Dr. Schnell, has assembled a team of experienced faculty and coaches for
ELI. In addition to keynote speakers and teachers, coaches and
facilitators will provide individual counseling and reflective activities
directed at developing the leadership skills of the Fellow. Between
seminars, the coaches, Fellows and Sponsors will conduct coaching calls to help
the team focus on framing the leadership challenge, developing options, and
putting current leadership concepts into practice. A 360°assessment of
Fellows’ leadership strengths will be conducted half-way through the program.
Is selection competitive?
Who will choose participants and what criteria will they
use?
Because current
funding limits the number of teams ELI can serve, selection for ELI will be
competitive and final selection will be made by the ELI Advisory Committee. The primary criterion will be the
leadership challenge, which should fit the standards described above, followed
by the statements of the Library Director (or trustee, if the Fellow is the
Library Director) and the Fellow and Sponsor.
The application
process is iterative. On August 1st at Noon Central time, you are invited
to join an informational call with ULC Staff and ELI Dean, Dr. Schnell. On
select Tuesdays in August (August 8th, 15th and 22nd), ULC staff, Dr. Schnell,
and an executive coach from the ELI faculty will be available to consult with
applicants to provide guidance and clarification for their leadership challenge
and other elements of the application. Applicants are encouraged to take
advantage of this assistance and to reserve time on one of the available
Tuesdays in August (see dates, times and instructions for reserving your space
on one of these calls in the attachment IMPORTANT ELI 4
DATES).
What does my library pay to
participate?
Participating
libraries will be responsible for a flat tuition of $5,000 per team for ULC
libraries and $7,500 per team for non-ULC libraries, which will help to offset
meeting costs, including room and board, instruction and coaching. This tuition
is subsidized with an additional $20,000 per team in grant funding, generously
provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Participating
libraries will also cover their team’s travel costs to each of the three
Institute seminars, to be held at the Mt. Washington Conference Center in
Baltimore, MD. Sponsors attend two meetings; Fellows attend all three
meetings during the program.
What in-kind commitment is necessary from my
library?
Each library will have to make an important non-financial
contribution if ELI is to work effectively for its Fellows. Participating libraries must commit to
identifying an appropriate leadership challenge for each team. This may take time and input from
administrators and library executives as well as community leaders. Libraries must also agree to provide
adequate time for contact between Sponsors and Fellows, coaches, peers and
experts. Libraries should expect
Fellows to spend an average of two days a week on the leadership challenge,
cumulative over the 10-month program.
Sponsors and Fellows will also need the time necessary to attend the
three Institute seminars, time to meet, strategize about, and follow-through on
activities related to the leadership challenge, and time for coaching
calls. The library should also be
willing to take some organizational risk.
What will my library gain from participating in
ELI?
Leadership
Challenge Guidance
Each individual
library will see significant progress made on a high priority leadership
challenge. If Sponsors and Fellows
choose the leadership challenge carefully, they may stimulate a turning point in
the approach to other problems and challenges throughout the library. With a creatively and successfully
resolved, highly-visible leadership challenge, staff will be encouraged to
address other “sticky” issues.
Leadership
Training
Through
participation in ELI, libraries will help to build top level leaders that work
effectively in changing and complex environments. With more leadership support options,
libraries may hold on to promising professionals who might otherwise turn
elsewhere. Strong, flexible leaders
will create strong, flexible public libraries.
Increased Organizational Capacity for Supporting
Leadership Development
While ELI directly supports leadership development among
Fellows, both Sponsors and Fellows who complete the Institute will be able to
promote action learning at other management levels, creating new leadership
paths in the organization for many more librarians and library workers. An innovative, intrepid, enthusiastic
Institute Fellow will be a benefit to the library. The Sponsor’s improved mentoring skills
can be applied to other mid-career professionals in need of
guidance.
What will participants gain from
ELI?
ELI provides a wide
range of personal and professional benefits to participants. Fellows will achieve a sense of personal
awareness and accomplishment, as well as increased leadership capacity, improved
diagnostic skill and flexibility.
Both Fellows and Sponsors will benefit from exposure to cutting-edge
leadership concepts and practices, ability to promote action learning throughout
the library, and valuable peer networks.
Sponsors will especially enjoy improved ability to mentor and the
satisfaction of progress made on a critical library project.
What are the steps for applying?
Libraries interested
in participating in ELI 4 should identify a leadership challenge, Fellow, and
Sponsor. Selection of these key
elements will depend on local conditions and priorities. Please join the assistance calls if you
have questions about what selection criteria and processes make sense for your
organization. After the team is
chosen and the project is carefully constructed, the Fellow and Sponsor, along
with the Library Director (or trustee/board chair for a Library Director Fellow)
should complete the application and delivered to the Urban Libraries Council by
August 31st at 5pm CST. Decisions
on applications will be made in mid-October and you will be notified about the
status of your application the week of October 16th.
If you have any questions or need further information please
contact Rochelle Borrett, Grants Manager at rborrett@urbanlibraries.org.
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