If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse. – Henry Ford
I recently came across this quote in a book I was reading on innovation and it immediately appealed to me. Henry Ford didn’t ask the general public to look into the future and imagine an automobile for him – he simply built one and let his invention capture the public’s imagination.
I realize that I’m relatively new to the library world, but sometimes I think we spend too much time telling ourselves that our customers (or patrons if you prefer) will help us come up with the next great idea. We’re the ones with the library training, we’re the ones who know the information industry, we’re the ones who go to conferences, but for some reason we’re afraid to trust our instincts.
So what do we do? We conduct endless user surveys, we delve into the literature, and we hire consultants (all good things) hoping to unlock the secret desires of our patrons. Unfortunately, our patrons are unimaginative when it comes to the library world (as we should expect) and all they end up saying is, “Give us more of the same thing – only better.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pay attention to our patrons just that maybe shouldn’t expect our patrons to come up with the next big thing for us. In fact, I think this “faster horse” feedback is hampering innovation in the library world – we’re stuck tweaking small services, or testing pilot projects, instead of re-imagining the future.
Maybe we need to adopt more of an entrepreneurial mindset where failure actually is an option. Henry Ford started a revolution in transportation without checking with his customers or the general public – maybe the library community could learn something from that.
