Monday, December 29, 2014

vision/mission

Practical Application Assignment

·        Write your own personal vision statement and mission statement. Then, share it with your mentor. Discuss ways that it will guide you to achieve your professional goals.

Is it normal that I see a gap between what i would see as my personal mission and my professional one?
maybe the vision could be the same but really, not even...

Here are a few words to start me thinking on, and I will keep the focus on my professional life...

success
help
generosity
intelligence
understanding
knowledge

clarity
questions
love



more to come




Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Leadership

I got promoted to Public Services Manager at MPOW this week.  I sought the position for a lot of reasons, but a passion for public service was definitely at the top of the list.  Combine this with my recent enrollment in the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute and the loss today of one of the greatest hockey players that ever lived has put leadership and what is at its core on my mind.  A lot.

Jean Beliveau played hockey in th NHL from 1950 to 1971 and had 10 Stanley Cup rings.  That is TEN, you read it right.  But what people mentioned the most today on all my satellite TV and radio channels from home was how much of a gentleman he was.  The giant mark he made on his country, on his contemporaries and so many generations after, was how perfectly he conducted himself always.  At work, on the ice, with everyone he met, from co-workers to journalists, to politicians to people on the street, everyone wished they were like him.  He never made great speeches or told people what to do, he just demonstrated exemplary behavior.  He is reported to have signed autographs carefully so folks could read it.  Some of his greatest adversaries on the ice became life long friends and cried on his death bed last month.

There are many such people to admire around us, people who do the right thing, show grace and respect for everyone, but few embodied this as well as he did.

Respecting others enough to give them the best of yourself everyday,  realizing that everything we do matters to someone, is not only powerful in itself, it is also contagious.

I really hope that by carefully making the right choice in my day to day work, I can begin to help, even before the new projects and the speeches start. 




Friday, October 03, 2014

teamwork mechanics

random thoughts...

teams help have/make everyone accountable for the project success
success need be well defined

teams break down traditional vertical hierarchy
but individual accountability still exists, in a different order

we are all either responsible for something,
or responsible to help someone else with something
both are very important in teams
it is very important to know the difference
...it is often hard for managers to be in the position where they are responsible to help someone and to let them lead; if that person is "under them" in the traditional up and down hierarchy which still exists at the same time as teamwork dynamics are introduced in the organization.

et vice versa...




Monday, September 22, 2014

The biggest change


I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of the sorter, the biggest change of all.

Here are a few.  I'll post a little movie soon.



It's small and sooo quiet and seems very efficient.


Sunday, September 21, 2014

Change is good!

Here it is folks, after months of hard work and a last super push of 55 hours last week, we will be re-opening one of our locations on Monday with a new RFID sorter, new selfcheck models, new information desk, re-organized public computer space and so much more...

take a look a the nice pictures :
the new hold shelf/selfcheck

the new security gates/entrance:


sorter return, book display:


Beautiful 1st impression:


Self service: return, checkout:


Light footprint, re-configurable info desk:


again, self service area:


new table for the copier:


New layout and chairs for the public PCs:




 Busy corner, new books, DVDS:


Future content creation /maker area:


Quiet Reading area:



Reference, student support:


the view from the back of the room looking at the entrance:



It was a lot of work and I hope it comes together happily tomorrow.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Focus?

OK, after ruminating on the library leadership topic for a few weeks now, it is evident that my greatest challenge is going to be focus.  ramblin' ain't my name for nothing after all.

No but, here is the thing, I am truly excited about this.  Thinking gets me thinking.  Everything these days seems to spur more thoughts, draw more links and point to one of the many ideas, plans, theories and goals I am trying to nail down.

I am trying to juggle it all but suspect I will have to decide "how" I want to hear all this...  and/or what I want to do about it.

I really want everyone to know more; get more information, for things to be more transparent.  But for that information and transparency to be rooted in UNDERSTANDING.  For us not to just know more but to understand better.  What we do, and each other.

I also want to find a way for all the innovation and change in service to better include administration and management, they need to be brought along for this to ever succeed.  Otherwise we continue to live in 2 camps: Old way, new way, and the powerful people of accounting and human resources too often get left in the old way camp.

Locally, I want to find ways to improve teamwork not by learning more about the theory of teamwork but by improving its practice.  We need new methods of work that apply outside the old org charts and are effective.  People get frustrated with teamwork because it promises so much fun and success but often leave us wondering what went wrong.

And that is just to start...
Focus, focus sylvie ....   yeah right.


Fun Stuff:
I have to pick 3 definitions of Leadership.  I chose these 5 and don't know what to drop...
Later I had to read 3 articles and 2 actually beat a drum that sounded a lot like the 1st 2nd quote below.

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.” 
 Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” 

“Great leaders don’t want attention, but they use it.  They use it to unite the tribe and to reinforce its sense of purpose.”
 -Seth Godin, Tribes
  
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 
- Winston Churchill

“I figure if a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.” 
 -Calamity Jane
...which if you replace legend with leader, is pretty much dead on.  ;)

Thursday, September 11, 2014

she's baaaaaaaack!

Wow, it's embarrassing to see how long it's been.  I had so much happen in that many months and it is not that it would not have been interesting to muse here about but well, let's not dwell.

I am happy to have a very good reason for very systematic, frequent and dedicated postings in the coming year.  I have been accepted into the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute. (SSLLI)

I am excited about focusing some of the thoughts I have been having on the subject over the years and channeling them into practical applications.

"Talk" to you all soon!
PS:This is me, excited