june05b.indd


creativity and leadership 
Susan Metros 

A heart to heart on leadership 
How to use your life experiences to become a better leader 

Frances Maloy, ACRL president, asked me to write this column after she heard 
me deliver a presentation at the 2004 Frye 
Leadership Institute titled, “Can you lead 
with the heart without taking it to heart?” 
After giving her invitation some thought, I 
came to the conclusion that librarians do not 
need another treatise on leadership. At the 
local bookstore, entire aisles are devoted to 
book titles promoting everything from The 
Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun1 to the 
Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus.2 Amazon. 
com alone offers more than 16,000 books 
with “leadership” in the title. In an article 
published in this journal last year, author 
Eric Shoaf searched Library Literature Online 
and came up with close to 600 articles on 
leadership.3 Many of these works subscribe 
to the popular presses’ quick­fix formula of 
following step­by­step directions that lead to 
becoming a better, albeit generic, leader 

Missing from this vast array of “cookie­
cutter” leadership wisdom is advice on how 
to glean and mold your own life experiences 
into a personalized leadership philosophy. 
This nontraditional approach to leadership 
takes into account past experiences, current 
competencies, and future potential. It is built 
upon a foundation of basic common sense, 
acquired knowledge, personal disposition, a 
certain amount of tenacity, and a sprinkling of 
intuition. To begin, you must first conduct an 
inventory of your life experiences, identifying 
those that might hold leadership potential. It 
is the deconstruction—the picking apart—of 
these experiences to reveal your underlying 
values and beliefs that will translate into a 
customized set of leadership principles. While 

it would be impossible for me to author an 
article based on the leadership principles 
that you bring to the table, I can describe 
some examples gleaned from my own life 
experiences. These fall into fi ve categories: 
perspective, teamwork, creativity, observa­
tion, and process. 

Perspective 
Edward de Bono, a renowned authority in the 
field of creative thinking, invented the con­
cept of lateral thinking.4 He envisioned it as 
a nonlinear, generative and provocative pro­
cess, and differentiated it from vertical think­
ing, which he described as selective, analyti­
cal, and sequential. His followers often refer 
to the metaphor of digging holes to illustrate 
the differences between the two methods of 
thinking. The vertical thinker digs one very 
deep hole, exploring the topic in its entirety; 
in contrast, a lateral thinker digs many holes 
of various circumferences and depths. After 
surveying the terrain, the lateral thinker might 
tunnel between holes or combine holes, and 
then return to the most promising holes for 
further excavation and exploration. 

Susan E. Metros is a professor of design technology and 
serves as deputy chief information offi  cer and executive 
director for eLearning at Ohio State University, e-mail: 
metros.1@osu.edu 
© 2005 Susan E. Metros 

June 2005  447 C&RL News 

mailto:metros.1@osu.edu


While most academics are vertical thinkers 
and rewarded for in­depth research within 
their chosen discipline, I am a self­professed 
lateral thinker. Initially, I perceived this as 
a handicap in the academic environment in 
which I chose to dedicate my life work. How­
ever, studying de Bono taught me that being 
a lateral thinker could work to my advantage. 
By exploring multiple paths, I readily see the 
big picture. I can expand my knowledge base, 
being careful to remember that while I might 
know a lot about many topics, I am far from 
expert in but a few. 

In my current position as an information 
technology leader, lateral thinking provides 
me with the skill to navigate and survey vast 
landscapes, glutted with data and informa­
tion, and to make informed decisions. I am 
profi cient with learning and using new tech­
nologies because lateral thinking imitates the 
Web with its infinite network of links. Like my 
librarian colleagues, I work in a central sup­
port unit. As a lateral thinker I can transcend 
disciplinary boundaries and respond to issues 
holistically, which, in turn, allows me to better 
serve the needs of a diverse clientele. 

Teamwork 
Five years ago, on one of those fi rst­of­
the­season, pristine spring mornings, I met 
some friends for Sunday brunch at a popular 
local restaurant. We were seated outside on 
the patio, overlooking the river. My atten­
tion was drawn to the water below just as 
a long, sleek boat filled with eight synchro­
nized rowers swiftly glided by. At that mo­
ment, I knew I had to learn to row. 

While I will never be a great, or, let’s be 
honest, even a very good rower, I can now 
hold my own as a member of a masters­level 
crew and can maneuver a single without cap­
sizing most of the time. However, what I have 

learned, and continue to learn, from rowing 
has been indispensable to me as a leader. 

I have learned about real commit­
ment—your teammates can’t take the boat 
out, let alone carry it, if you don’t show up 
at the boathouse on time. Rowing requires 
unequivocal trust: you sit facing backwards, 
and the coxswain serves as your eyes, steer­
ing the boat along a clear course and set­
ting the pace. I had never experienced the 
adrenaline rush of competition until I began 
rowing. The pure exhilaration of pushing 
yourself past what you thought was humanly 
possible to win (or lose) is, in itself, a lesson 
in leadership. 

Rowing has afforded me the privilege 
of participating in one of the purest forms 
of collaboration. Eight rowers must stroke 
with synchronicity and perfect balance to ef­
ficiently drive the boat forward. With a lot of 
teamwork and a little luck, the rowers might 
experience “swing,” a magical phenomenon 
when the whole transcends the sum of the 
parts—when you and your team meld into, 
and row as, one. There is a saying in rowing: 
“Keep your head in the boat.” It means that 
you must monitor every nuance of your team­
mates’ movements, while fully concentrating 
on the complexities of your own stroke, all 
the while making small, continuous, counter­
balancing adjustments. Applied to leadership, 
it is about staying focused and, at the same 
time, remaining agile and responsive. 

Creativity 
While many of my information technology 
colleagues graduated with degrees in com­
puter science, business, or engineering, I 
majored in fine arts followed by a graduate 
degree in graphic design. I learned early on 
that the ability to solve problems creatively 

448C&RL News June 2005



had little to do with business acumen or 
technological expertise and everything to do 
with an ability to assimilate creative prob­
lem­solving processes into everyday work 
practice. As I progressed through a series of 
jobs and took on administrative responsibili­
ties, the ability to think creatively separated 
inspired management from pedestrian deci­
sion­making. 

Despite popular belief, the creative 
problem­solving process is practiced with 
diligence and rigor. It is a highly structured 
methodology that swings between analysis 
and synthesis, and divergent and convergent 
thinking. There are numerous models based 
on this duality that offer ways to hone one’s 
creative problem­solving skills. In the semi­
nal book The Universal Traveler, the authors 
offered more than 60 techniques to support 
their seven­stage creative problem­solving 
methodology.5 For example, they “forced 
relationships” by asking what would happen 
if this thing was combined with that thing? 
They mused about how famous person X or 
exotic animal Y would solve the same prob­
lem. They constructed matrices comparing 
variables to attributes and weighing options 
against success criteria. They “manipulated 
verbs” to generate scores of alternatives— 
what happens if you shrink it, sell it, turn it 
upside­down or inside­out? They devised a 
stretch and squeeze exercise, which posed 
a chain of questions beginning with “what?” 
to expand problem solving and “why?” to 
narrow it down. 

In a recent survey of 13,000 upper­level 
information technology (IT) administrators, 
key findings indicated that the IT commu­
nity is a cool climate for innovation.6 As a 
member of that community, I have had to 
learn to channel creativity to be more tactical, 
without compromising ingenuity and vision. 
To encourage my staff to examine problems 
from a variety of viewpoints prior to making 
decisions, I try to provide them with enough 
time to employ creative problem­solving 
processes— to brainstorm, to “what if?” and 
to reflect. These kinds of ideation activities 
are integral to nurturing innovation and ulti­

mately result in concrete recommendations, 
well­conceived strategic plans and sound 
business cases. 

Observation 
Many years ago, I came across the con­
cept of “desire paths,” an architectural 
term describing the dirt­trodden shortcuts 
people make and take through open spac­
es. Legend has it that when the Ohio State 
University campus plan was evolving in 
the early 1900s, the landscape architects 
waited to see where students wore paths 
across the university’s central green space 
(known as the Oval) before permanently 
paving the user­defined crisscross of path­
ways. 

Academia is fraught with traditions 
that translate into rigid thinking. The “we 
have always done it this way” mentalities 
serve as major obstacles to progress. The 
analogy of a desire path allows a leader 
to circumvent the dyed in the wool, pre­
scribed way to accomplishing something. 
It also provides the opportunity to survey 
the “landscape” prior to determining what 
to do. Benjamin Disraeli once proclaimed, 
“I must follow the people, am I not their 
leader?” He understood that there was great 
value in sitting back and observing condi­
tions before acting. 

Process 
In the late 70s, as a university honors college 
student, I was entrusted with designing my 
own curriculum. Interested in the new disci­
pline of environmental design, I enrolled in 

June 2005  449 C&RL News 



a workshop to build the city of the future 
called “Arcosanti.”7 Arcosanti, located in the 
high desert of Arizona, was the brainchild 
of architect Paulo Soleri. When complete, 
Arcosanti was to be home to 7,000 citizens 
who were devoted to demonstrating ways 
to improve urban conditions and lessen 
the destructive impact on the earth. Using 
ecologically sensitive building materials, 
innovative construction techniques, and 
experimental energy sources, the city was 
envisioned to be a self­contained utopia, 
complete with everything from a shared 
model for community governance to its 
own hydroponics garden. 

While most of the workshop participants 
held the same somewhat idealistic ecological 
and socialistic visions as our guru Soleri, the 
majority of us had no useful construction 
skills per se. I labored hard to heft 100­
pound bags of cement from one location to 
another, and I learned the intricacies of mix­
ing cement and the physics of laying rebar. 
Soleri made the approximately 80­mile trek 
from his air­conditioned architecture offi ces 
in Scottsdale to the construction site every 
Tuesday afternoon. He sat out on the rocks, 
surrounded by his ragtag disciples, and un­
furled beautifully hand­drawn plans, while 
preaching the fusion between architecture 
and ecology. During my two­month tenure 
at Arcosanti I learned that cement goes in 
and concrete comes out, a clean tool is a 
happy tool, and most important—process 
often trumps product. 

Today, some 30 years later, Arcosanti is 
still under construction. However, it now 
bills itself as an “urban laboratory,” explor­
ing an alternative to urban development 
in the age of environmental crisis. The 
goal has shifted from completing the city 
to examining the arcology theory and its 
ramifications on building the city—process 
over product. 

As it applies to leadership; when 
undertaking a project, it is important to 
remember that sometimes the journey can 
be as valuable, or even more so, than the 
fi nal destination. 

Leading with the heart 
Understandably, your leadership “story” 
will most likely never make the bestseller 
list because it is personalized just for 
you. However, identifying these quali­
ties within yourself will serve you well 
whether you hold an administrative posi­
tion or not. 

Regardless of your career goals, under­
standing your own personal motivation 
will provide you with the ability to think 
creatively about, and respond appropri­
ately to, the leadership opportunities and 
challenges that you face daily at work and 
at home. You can choose to look outward 
and follow the ready­made advice of others 
or you can choose to look inward and lead 
with your heart. 

Acknowledgements 
I would like to acknowledge Teri Ryan and 
Mark Herriot for their grammatical proofi ng 
and editorial suggestions. 

Notes 
1. Wess Roberts, Leadership Secrets of At­

tila the Hun (Warner Books, Inc., 1987). 
2. Eric Harvey, David Cottrell, Al Lucia and 

Mike Hourigan, The Leadership Secrets of Santa 
Claus (The Walk and Talk Company, 2003). 

3. Eric Shoaf, “New Leadership for Librar­
ies: Who Has the Right Stuff?” C&RL News 65, 
no. 7 (2004): 363­65, 375. 

4. Edward de Bono, Lateral Thinking 
(Harper Collins, 1969). 

5. Dan Koberg and Jim Bagnall, The 
Universal Traveler: A Soft Systems Guide to 
Creativity, Problem­Solving, and the Process 
for Reaching Goals (Los Altos, CA: Crisp 
Publications, Inc., 1991). 

6. Richard Katz and Gail Salaway, 
“Information Technology Leadership in 
Higher Education: The Condition of the 
Community,” EDUCAUSE Center for Applied 
Research (ECAR) Key Findings (January 
2004): 1–10. 

7. Arcosanti: An Urban Laboratory? 
www.arcosanti.org. Accessed March 30, 
2005. 

450C&RL News June 2005

http:www.arcosanti.org