The Myth of Average: Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty

Every once in a while you read a blog post that makes a difference in your thinking, I had this experience reading a blog post of Brian Mathews.  Brian's blog "The Ubiquitous Librarian" post on organizations at a university resonated with my thoughts of what needs to happen to be effective in meeting the expectations of today's students. Brian points out it is time to rethink our purpose and provides  two resources to guide your thinking, the two books are:

• Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry
• Community: The Structure of Belonging  

Brian blends thoughts from both authors to develop a process to follow in transforming your organization.  Brian's thought were focused on what he wanted to accomplish with The Learning Division at the Virgina Tech library. 

My goal in the next few months is to read the two books and create a similar transformation process to improve student support services for the 21st century.   As I look across the university I find a number of individuals trying to help students, but we are using the same technology and tactics we have used for the last 25 years.   Change may not be required but the university community needs to debate why we are doing what we are doing and expecting different results.