Librarian by Day

Great advice from a 18 minute video.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why” I mean: what’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?

I can take this and apply it to so many things personally and professionally.

• Why do I blog?
• Why do libraries exist? or better Why do libraries exist now?

Or it applies to the librarians who say to me – we need a Twitter account. My answer is always the same – why? Start with your goal, then figure out the best tool, maybe its Twitter maybe it isn’t.

or presentations see Presentation Zen’s post on applying start with why to presentations – (1) What’s my point? And (2) why does it matter?

Love the video and vowing to ask why more often 🙂