New Albrecht Blog Post on Library 2.0 - Using the P.I.N. (Positive-Interesting-Negative) Tool During Library Staff Meetings

We've just posted a new blog post by Dr. Albrecht in our "Library Service, Safety, & Security" section of Library 2.0: "Using the P.I.N. (Positive-Interesting-Negative) Tool During Library Staff Meetings."

Do your staff meetings turn into idea-killing sessions? Or are they doing what they are supposed to do - create value in a group discussion, initiate plans, develop solutions, and hold people accountable for their tasks and responsibilities? What do you tend to say of a typical library staff meeting: “That was a good use of my time, that was a waste of my time, or we could have got the same results using email exchanges?"

One reason many staff meetings de-evolve into conflicts, strong differences of opinion, or worse--the silent treatment among employees--is that they turn negative early. Allowing staff meeting members to value-judge, criticize, and make sweeping generalizations about what they don’t like about a new idea, policy, plan, or proposal defeats the purpose of a collaborative, brainstorming staff meeting. It discourages other more-quiet employees from speaking at all, so they leave the meeting literally feeling not heard. It can create bad feelings between colleagues, especially if their fledgling idea was the one that got hammered in the meeting.

Here’s a tool for running meetings that keep people motivated to problem-solve, not idea-kill. It’s called the P.I.N. Tool and it stands for Positive-Interesting-Negative. It provides a simple framework to evaluate new ideas and it can help to keep the group’s notorious idea killers at bay, at least until the end of the discussion, which is where their negativity belongs.

The P.I.N. Tool can be used by anyone who is running the meeting, a library leader, a manager, a supervisor, or even an employee who asked for the meeting or is tasked with moving through the agenda. Here’s how it works and what the meeting-runner should say, at least for the first few meetings where the P.I.N. Tool is introduced....

You can read the full post here. 

While Dr. Albrecht's twice-monthly podcast and blog posts are available for free, as are our regular mini-conferences and all the conference recordings, we also offer a series of Dr. Albrecht paid webinars and recordings which are available for individual or group viewing here.

Webinar Recordings Available:

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and supervision. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons. In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. He is currently writing the sequel, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, for Rowman & Littlefield.

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment.

He has written 24 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives with six dogs, two cats, and three chickens. (Not all in the same room, of course.)