In a world of change ...

"In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists."  Eric Hoffer

I heard this quote while attending a seminar titled, "The Leaders Role and Responsibility as Mentor" presented by Dr. Chip Bell, and it made an immediate impression on me.  I started to look back on the approximately two and a half years of North Philadelphia Neighborhood Libraries Cluster.  There has been a natural ebb and flow of the group coming together and then drifting apart, into what looks like a dysfunctional family.  There is a closeness and a camaraderie that is only found in groups that have worked together over time, along with the type of tattle-tailing and bickering that frequently happens with siblings.  I don't see this as a bad thing.

We see this with staff.  The people who have "learned" or accepted new ways have had an easier time adapting.  Those who were sure they knew what it is all about took longer to catch up.  I've noticed those are sometimes the ones sitting in the back of the meeting with their arms crossed, or they are the people who always seem to have some other important commitment when cluster meetings are scheduled.  The rest of us are having much more fun discovering new and different ways to do thing.

My thinking then expanded to the wider FLP world, specifically, the staff forums. Who are the people we hear from most on those forums?  The learners or the learned?  Who are the persistent nay-sayers? And, who are the voices of reason that occasionally pop up?

I asked a few different people what they thought about this quote, and got the response below from one of them.

"I feel like this implies a willingness to change and adapt.

We see this now with highly educated people who refused to learn/ keep up with technology-  and now they are totally left behind and out of the loop on many current events, innovations, discoveries, etc.

We see this with librarians (and Las) who refuse to accept and adapt to the changing nature of what our job is and insist on reference and books being everything."

I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.