I. Pass out handouts and post-its
2. Ask audience to introduce themselves
3. At today's keynote, Lee Rainie talked about three opportunities that libraries should consider for the future. Three made me go YEAH inside:
a) Library as Platform (David Weinberger's ideas)
b) Library as entrepreneurship enablers
c) Library as a place for serendipitous learning

In this talk I will share how a small, no budget, low overhead program helped my library become more future-ready, and built capacity for new programming for the communities we serve.

I. Hass out handouts and post-its
2. Ask audience to introduce themselves
3. At today's keynote, Lee Rainie talked about three opportunities that I can say are working well for us: a) Library as Platform, David Weinberger's ideas, b) Library as entrepreneurship enablers c) Library as a place for serendipitous learning

Three years ago I started a program I called Catalyst Cafe. I wanted to recreate one aspect I loved about going to the SxSW Interactive Conferences in Austin: the kinds of conversations about new ideas you can have when techies, business people and nonprofit people are in the same room.

So, what I do is set a topic then call people up in Tucson who are actively doing it.

Crowdfunding
Etsy/Artfire
Social entrepreneurship

Inevitably at some point in the conversation they say "But I don't know what I'm doing! I'm just making it up as I go along!" And I have to tell them that they'll know more than the audience, and that people are really interested in process. What you've learned. What you'd do differently. Who helped you?

It's the same with libraries and entrepreneurship services. You don't have to be an expert to provide them. Use the expertise already in your community. This isn't the same thing as an MBA, or a 30-page business plan, or teaching competitive strategy research. It's something scrappier, more inclusive, less intimidating. Dive in and keep swimming.

Here is one of the techniques I've learned: the 5 Whys.

It was created by Toyota as a way to quickly get to the root of a problem or failure.

So let's do it: Write your answer on a post-it to: "Why aren't libraries more innovative?"

Then ask WHY IS THAT?

Then ask WHY IS THAT?

Then ask WHY IS THAT?

Then ask WHY IS THAT?

Until you have 5 Whys.

[ask 3 audience members to read their first and their last WHYs.]

Can you see how this would help anyone who is trying to brainstorm? How else can you use it?

Get out of the Library

Find entrepreneurship groups in your community. Meetup.com and eBrite are commonly used. Aslo look to see if your community has a LeanIn Circle.

Show up, be a librarian, listen, participate.

But most importantly, share what your library is doing and what your library's dreams for the future are. Be inspiring.

In addition to all you'll learn, what you'll find is that today's entrepreneurs are often socially minded, and want to give back to the community.

Slide: Meeting of the planning committee for Maketopolis, Tucson's first Maker Festival.

So I hoped our Catalyst Cafe programs would spark things in Tucson, but didn't realize that I would also be sparking things for the library.

The Cafe became a network. Because of it (and other networking), I was invited to teach at their School of Startup, where I learned that Innovation is a Literacy, and it can be taught.

Some of the topics we've covered at the cafe.

I've experimented with different ways to format the Cafes, and this is what seems to work best for us.

As a result of the Cafe, I was invited to help with a new project created by CoLab and Startup Tucson, called School of Startup. The idea was to take Lean Startup system for business formation, and combine it with the Junior Achievement curriculum. For 11-15 year olds.

My account of the weekend is here: https://storify.com/mutabilis/school-of-startup-summer-of-2013

I was just blown away by what this structure let kids to.

On pitch day, at 8am on a Hot Sunday morning, two of the four groups showed up with working prototypes of their product to augment their pitch and powerpoint. Some groups even had short videos.

Shark tank: In front of an audience of family and 2 venture capitalists, the kids took turns pitching their ideas.

Every group blew us away, but the youngest group won.

Good things were happening at the admin side of our library. Several managers had attended a talk at PLA about Lean Startup, and wanted to try it within the library.

So when I went to them with the story of School of Startup, doing something like it at the library had immediate support.

But we started with staff. We called it Novel Ideas, and it had the same pattern

1) Problems identified
2) Problems grouped by affinity
3) Teams formed who are interested in the 4 issues
4) Solutions brainstormed
5) Presented to group
6) Researched
7) Tested rapidly
8) Tweaked or changed
9) Final presentation.

So another outcome from Catalyst Cafe, is that we formed a team to write a grant to open a dedicated space for entrepreneurship at the downtown library.

Thanks to LSTA finding, it opened October 20 in beta, and we're moving forward.

This happened at a free Lean Startup weekend for teens we held in September 2014: 3 teen girls ages 15-17 created the concept for a financial literacy curriculum that was so strong they each received $250.00 to develop it further.

This photograph is the moment when the seed money was announced. Faith (on the left) said it best: "I can't believe I'm 15 and just started a business!"

This. This is why. Innovation coaching is about empowerment, and testing new ideas? What better place than the library is there for dreamers to come learn how to make their ideas real?