MLA '10 Recap

Highlights of MLA '10 in Washington, DC

Daniel Pink Lecture
In an increasingly automated world where routine tasks can be and are outsourced, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, talked about six right-brained abilities that matter and that we can develop:

1. Design
   
2. Story
   
3. Symphony
   
4. Empathy
   
5. Play
   
6. Meaning

Lightning Poster Presentations
MLA decided to try something new this year: lightning poster presentations. Each presentation would be 5 minutes and there would be 20 minutes at the end where you can go and talk to the presenters. The idea is to introduce the project and then you can talk to the presenters if you want more information or have questions. Doris Withers, a professor at Medgar Evers College/CUNY and I did a lighting poster presentation "Brooklyn Public Library: A Collaborative Library Partnership for Promoting Genetic Literacy in the Community".

Leadership Principles
The Leadership and Management Section of MLA hosted a program about 25 unproven principles of leadership. Here are some of those principles:

• Processes aren't ends in themselves but tend to be viewed that way
• Folks won't "get it" at first
• Organize for flexibility
• Some order is necessary, too much is unproductive
• Measure only what's important
• Allow and force folks to "fail forward"
• Don't seek perfection
• Some problems are real, some are not
• All solutions are temporary

More conference recaps can be found on the MLA '10 Blog.