Image via Squiggle on Flickr
I’ve almost finished the book Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath and one of my new favorite words that they define and discuss in the book is “ooch.” Ooching is the opposite of jumping in headfirst into something. Ooching is conducting “small experiments to test one’s hypothesis.” I know that I have fallen into the trap of debating at length the merits of some idea or initiative without getting anywhere. It’s also easy to think in terms of finished products and having to meticulously plan to get things perfect. And planning is extremely important, but what if you are planning for the wrong things? What if you are planning a service or initiative that people don’t actually understand or use?
One really important area where I would recommend ooching is in library school (and probably before). Before paying money for graduate school classes, try working or volunteering in a library. Shadow or spend some time with a librarian to see if it is actually something you’d want as a career. While in graduate school, internships, practicums, and work experience are great ways to test out different types of libraries and library work to understand what you will actually enjoy.
This idea of experimentation is extremely helpful in technology innovation in the library. Often we don’t know how effective technologies will be or how they will be useful until we try them. Whether it’s a new social media technology or a tool to enhance learning in the classroom, an attitude of experimentation and a sense of playfulness are essential for understanding their value. The same mindset is also present in good teachers. They never see their classes as a finished product but as a constant work in progress. They regularly try out new lessons, technologies, and teaching methods to find the most effective ways of facilitating learning.
Ooching reminds me of the philosophies behind ideas such as design thinking and the Lean Startup Methodology. In all of them there is a curiosity and desire to learn paired with a bias towards action. In the Lean Startup Methodology you create a minimum viable product (MVP), test it, and repeat. In design thinking there is ideation and planning involved, but the process moves past that into piloting and prototyping. We can often get stalled and spend a great deal of time and energy in the planning phase without much result. It’s not possible to ooch into every every decision you are trying to make, but it can be helpful in moving forward. Perhaps the next time you get stuck in a meeting or while thinking about an idea could you ask questions like: “can we run a pilot,” “can we test this and see what happens,” “is there a way we can ooch into this?”
What are successful pilots, experiments, or ooches, that you have conducted?
