Management: Be Our Guest, Disney Institute

Professional development titles should always be so fun and quick to read. 

Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (revised and updated) 

Disney Institute: Theodore Kinni

ISBN: 9781423145844  (2011) 

Read August 2016

Basically the same idea as the Coldstone training I had way back when.  I wish I could have read this when I was first starting out as a manager, but now there's a lot here that I realize is institutional, and if you don't have the institutional backing and the money/infrastructure/manpower to make it happen, it doesn't really help much at the middle-management level, regardless of how inspiring and motivating it wants to appear.

Not to knock the Disney machine.  They've got a great thing going, and they're smart to share it (in fact, at ALA this year, there was a keynote address co-sponsored by one of the vendors that WAS How to Create the Disney Experience, using this very idea.  Again, not very helpful unless you have legit and enthusiastic buy-in from all levels of the organization - so I'm glad I read the book and didn't waste my short amount of time at the conference.

Basically, the idea is that the more streamlined, simple, attractive, and coherent you keep your operational "narrative," the happier, more calm, and more appreciative your audience (customers or patrons) will be.

So: 

1) focus on the basics first: safety, mission statement, the actual provision of the services.

2) add on set-dressing: make the environment pleasant and use experiential cues to support your basics.  Have clear signage, open and attractive areas where things all fit in (branding) and think about other senses to engage: scent, sound, temperature.

3) have a highly trained cast: make sure your employees are very good at their jobs by training them on the SPECIFICS of how to interact with people, down to hand-gestures and facial expressions.  (This is the part that Coldstone was very big on.)  You want friendly interchangeable motivated and helpful blank-slates that project the personality of the company, not of their own person.  (Honestly, this bit is really questionable from a HR perspective, but you gotta admit that they're right and it works!)

4) behind-the-scenes control: there has to be infrastructure to support all the other points, and if you don't have that institutional and manpower infrastructure, good luck making all the other things stick.  Put actual time and energy into developing and adapting processes and policies to keep audience and cast happy and working efficiently together to give the audience what they want. (or even what they don't yet know that they want, but they want it when they see it.)  

A fun read, with lots of Disney insider trivia and history, but it really does have to be an all-or-nothing sort of approach. 

Nonfiction: The Importance of Being Little, Erika Christakis

The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
Erika Christakis
ISBN: 9780525429074
Read March 5, 2016

Discusses the hodge-podge nature of preschool and kindergarten education, and what we are discovering about effective learning environments based on longitudinal studies, other countries, developmental psychology research, and hands-on experimentation.

Continuing Education: Reading Picture Books with Children, Megan Dowd Lambert

Reading Picture Books with Children
Megan Dowd Lambert
ISBN: 9781580896627
Nonfiction: a book explaining and extolling the "Whole Book Approach" to presenting picture books.

Lambert assumes the reader is already an experienced teacher, parent, or storytime-giver, and doesn't waste any time rehashing the traditional method of storytime: kids sit quietly, reader reads to emphasize story and narrative (and characters if they're talented/brave enough to do voices), pictures are shown around perfunctorily, the books are finished, the kids stay mostly quiet.

In the Whole Book Approach (a method Lambert developed while working with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art) the narrative is relegated to simply another facet of the whole picture book as a purposefully created entity using multiple disciplines and arts to present a concept and narrative.  Here, equal or more focus is given to describing and questioning the art, the book design decisions, and even to choices in typography and page borders.  Even more scandalous, this is a discussion-based approach, so not only are the kids supposed to talk, the "storyteller" is actually supposed to interrupt the story on each page and ASK them for their thoughts on what's going on with the art, design, typesetting, and whatever (directed questions, of course).  What heresy!

She's really gung-ho about it, and her enthusiasm is infectious, but I do have a few qualms.

Point one: I work with toddlers.  No amount of directed questions will forstall the flood of "I have a dog and a mommy and a bedroom and it was my birthday and my gramma is a princess..." stream of consciousness that 4 year olds do so well when presented with any sort of official adult attention.  So this is already limited to older kids who can actually process and respond to prompts, and to take at least a little bit of time thinking about what they're seeing before chattering away.  She talks about kindergarten groups, but even then I wonder if I could lead them well enough for the process to be coherent.

Point two: If you really dedicate to this, the narrative is going to get shafted, and I do not like that.  I LOVE that she wants to focus on the art and design, and to bring attention to what are very much informed and purposeful choices, and to bring kids consciously into an awareness of motifs and memes and conventions that we follow in our culture to signal specific ideas or concepts or moods.  All of that is really really great, and SHOULD be taught to kids - BUUUUT... it bothers me that the method to achieve this will totally wreck the flow of a good story.  Grrr.  I am coming at this from a performative and theatrical background, and really truly this bugs me quite a lot.  My personal opinion is that this sort of work should be done with books that the reader and audience already knows extremely well.  That way the first encounter with a story is always smooth and presents the story, and does justice to the narrative and pictures being a natural and cohesive unified experience (which is what I THINK most picture book authors and artists want anyway - for the work to just meld seamlessly into this delightful experience that kids love, even if they can't specify why they love it).  So, book first as narrative, THEN you go can back in with the post-season analysis and really dig into the why and how and wherefore, with as much discussion and digression and not-ever-finishing-the-actual-book as you like.

Point three: Some people like being all meta about their pleasure activities, and (here's the point where I think Lambert is being a bit more universal than she ought) some people really really don't.  And I think those preferences that we have as adults are present as kids.  Everyone knows the trope of the annoying TV-watching friend who constantly wants to talk talk talk and overanalyze and overthink every little part of Walking Dead or Game of Thrones - and it's not a positive representation.  I hate to think that an overenthusiastic Whole Book Approach during a storytime would turn a kid off of reading because they now associate pleasure reading with that piecemeal and reductive meta-critical approach, and it's not a requirement - simply another way to appreciate and enjoy this particular type of book.  And I say this as someone who actually already likes to analyze and critique books and artworks - I just realize that not everyone shares that particular impulse.  Not everyone is a book reviewer, and not everyone should be.  Not everyone wants to think about critical art theory while they relax, and they shouldn't feel like they have to.  And there is the other massive downside here - there's the presenter's opinions on this analytical approach to consider as well.  This book is likely to cause a small, quiet revolution in at least some places, and I really feel sorry for any librarians and educators who are forced into this method by decree rather than inclination, or any parents doing this out of a sense of obligation towards their child's development.  I feel even MORE sorry for the kids they're presenting to.  As much harm could come from an individual kid being not interested in the process, infinitely more harm can come to entire classrooms or groups from a slack or grudging approach by an adult forced into presenting this Approach by a boss or by guilt.  I strongly believe that you should only read books that you at least LIKE, because kids are perceptive, and for every book I personally don't like enough to tell (SkippyJon Jones, I'm looking at you) there's other people who LOVE it and can do it justice and be enthusiastic.  Please please don't make presenters use a storytime format that they don't intrinsically believe to be valuable or worthwhile - it's just going to backfire.

That was an awful lot of criticism, but those three basic points are really my main hesitations.  Lambert presents her points clearly and with beautifully-selected picture-book examples, and explains her reasoning and her methodology rationally.  I do support her goals, and I think that her method is fundamentally sound.  I don't have any desire to see this format replace or supersede "traditional" storytimes, and despite her enthusiastic proposal of this method, I don't think she really does either.  There's a time and a place for reading for uninhibited pleasure and for enjoyable critical analysis, and a perfect program would incorporate both, given by adults passionate about books and reading and children's developing minds.    

Storytelling Development

Way back when, in the misty years of high school mumblty-peg years ago, I worked as a volunteer for a public library summer reading program, and as part of that program, the staff encouraged the young volunteers to become involved in community cultural activities.

During those summers working with the library in my teens, I was an artists' model (that was fun, and I got a few portraits out of the experience) developed my interest in backstage theatre through a variety of productions, got hands-on with puppetry, and participated in community storytelling events.

Well, now that library school is over and done with, and I'm finally settling into the routine of my new exalted position as a librarian (with all the various hats that accompany the title) I'm feeling an urge to get back into some of those interests.  

Theatre isn't on the table right now (but might be in the future) and puppetry is a little too involved for my available storage space at home and work.

Storytelling?  I remember that I enjoyed it more than acting, and that it was less involved than puppetry (at least, comparing the way I did puppetry and the way I did storytelling).  There is an active storytelling community meeting just a few miles away from my workplace.   At least one of my co-workers in the children's department is an active storyteller with that group.

So, with a trepidatious heart, I am thinking about getting back into performing for audiences who aren't toddlers (or are distracted by their toddlers).  As part of that, I'll be researching (naturally) and looking at picture books (also obvious) to find legends and fairy tales and myths and folk tales to develop into a repertoire.

The posts for these will be noted as "Storytelling."  We'll see how it goes!