Aurora

So, Aurora.

What did I do at Aurora? I:

• ate lots of good food

• went up a mountain, in a chair lift, and gazed at Mt Kosciuszko

• played cricket; I was wicket keeper for our team, and we lost despite having the higher score

• performed a skit based on The Three Little Pigs (high art! fun!)

It wasn’t all fun and games, though – it was hard work, and I learned a lot!

There was a lot of emphasis on the fact that we are working in an ever-changing environment. There are many, many possibilities ahead of us – and we need to keep our eyes and our minds open to these possibilities, and be willing to step up and take on the challenges that are going to come up. I loved The Small Dog’s Motto, as shared by one of the mentors: “Pay attention, take advantage!”

We learned about the importance of being strategic, of thinking about what we are doing in terms of what it means for our clients (or communities) and asking the question “So what?” “My library wants to introduce service X, so what?” – is it going to make a difference to our clients? To be strategic it is also important to maintain an awareness of changes and developments in our environments, socially, politically, and economically.

Another theme was the importance of being engaged with the profession. This message was reinforced by the Honorable Marla Pearlman AM (former Chief Justice of the NSW Land and Environment Court), who was the surprise speaker at dinner on one of the evenings. Marla gave four reasons why we should be involved in our professional organization(s):

1. You learn. You can see examples of good practice – and not-so-good practice. “There but for the grace of god…”
2. You influence your profession. By being there you can have a say.
3. You learn and practice leadership.
4. You build friendships.

This inspired some of us to start talking, over dessert, about what we can do to revolutionise ALIA, in terms of providing more meaningful and useful ways for people to engage… I’m still thinking about this – what can I do to contribute, and how do I do this in a sustainable way?

Underlying it all for me was the theme of courage. It is important to act with courage if you are going to be a leader – regardless of what role you are in, you will need courage in order to assume responsibility, to serve, to challenge, to participate in transformation, even to leave. Honesty takes courage. One of the mentors talked about the culture of “niceness” that she sees, that is very prevalent in libraries. For many library professionals their workplace also provides a major social outlet – everyone is friends with each other; we are all nice to one another. This can be an obstacle to professionalism – we become reluctant to challenge bad behaviours or ineffective practices, because it is “not nice”. To continually improve and learn we all need honest feedback from each other – we don’t need to be nice to each other (in this context, the opposite of nice is not “nasty” or “rude”, rather it is “straightforward” or “honest”).

I am somewhat disappointed that I am not some amazing new Aurora-fied person who now has perfect vision and focus. Realistically, though, I know that it was never possible for Aurora to “fix” me. Rather, I now have more strategies and insights that I can use to keep myself on track. Yes, I still find myself still getting side tracked, scattered, wasting time… It takes time to change old habits and old ways of thinking. I will need to continue to reflect, practice what I have learned, and work on staying focused.