Monday through Wednesday I attended a truly enriching leadership conference, by ARL's Office of Leadership and Management Services (OLMS), at Purdue University for Indiana librarians http://www.arl.org/training/institutes/lmsi1.html.
I was weary of attending a three day conference, for a few reasons. First, I was afraid that three days from 9am until 5pm and then dinner networking activities would be a bit much. But quite the opposite, it went by way too quickly. The group dynamic was wonderful and the facilitators were amazing.
And secondly, this is finals week and Monday was the last day to take the online Final Exam and I knew my students were having technical difficulties Sunday night.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity. Specifically I gained knowledge from the practical applications and personalized examples they provided.
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Funny leadership cartoons like the one above available http://www.glasbergen.com/cat.html
All participants want to "Revolutionize the State of Indiana" and keep this momentum going. We are hoping to host the OMLS II at Notre Dame. The workshop introduced a novel behavior-style tool D.I.S.C. which most people including myself had never used but found incredibly insightful.
We had a "Client/Helper/Observer" activity that forced me to articulate a real problem in my work experience. While verbalizing the issue, I identified people who hold the key to resolving the issue. I had never considered certain aspects of the issue. But I was guided to more specific solvable concerns as a result of my "helper" asking open-ended questions DESIGNED to allow me to solve my own problems versus passively seeking advice.
The above exercise has continued to help me. After the conference I used it to solve a problem dealing with publishing yet another article. One of my managers suggested that I write an article about my "Experience Teaching." Ugh...I was having writers' block and my new physical work environment is grey and windowless which is not at all conducive to my writing needs. Well I had tried to write something but was a wee bit stressed and so I would only write about the "negatives."
I think that was therapy at first, but then I used the Client/Consultant exercise above and realized I can use the negatives as a starting point and see the process through. Just because I started there did not mean I had to stop there. So I wrote an article around the "Challenges" I faced as well as the "Advantages" of having overcome those "Obstacles" and wrote a "Lessons Learned" piece that I am most pleased with. I submitted it for publication and now, of course, I wait.
"Forgive me Father for I have sinned.
It has been 3 months ...
since my last publication."
Ha!
Although it has been about 5 months since I last attempted to write an article. While the oness is on SCHOLARLY, I can only work with the situation at hand. Hopefully I'll have time before this residency ends to conduct the requisite RESEARCH that will be the foundation for SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS!
We had to do a participatory decision making activity, whereby we had to design an Agreement Gradient Scale that everyone agrees on. The range can go from "Endorse" to "Veto." You can decide how many people are needed to Veto, ie only 1 or 3 people. Our exercise was to decide on going to see a movie. We had to come up with "Criteria" such as "No Robin Williams, No Tom Cruise, No Gansta Rappers in the lead." Ha! But I love the gradients that another group devised which included: Will go, if drunk. Will go but will make sarcastic remarks, etc... Too funny!
I was amazed to learn how I influence others and learned strategies to increase my effectiveness professionally using strategies and motivation provided by the facilitators. They encouraged us to decide:
what to stand 4
and
what to stand up 2.
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We also learned that:
WE JUDGE OURSELVES BY OUR INTENTIONS
BUT
WE JUDGE OTHERS BY THEIR ACTIONS
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I learned that one of my co-workers taught his cat how to urinate in the toilet and that is the only place she does, not in the litter box! Wow!
This experience is just a continuation of my overwhelmingly positive and enriching personal and professional experience this Residency has provided!
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On a side note, I was saddened to see a pattern in the online Final Exam that indicated some cheating. We discussed Academic Integrtiy and apparently students still may have helped each other with this final. In addition, SciFinder Scholar was unavailable and some students ran out of time before it can back online. Also, some answered all questions but at the end their answers were not saved. So after much effort to create an online exam, my manager and I decided it would be appropriate to disregard the grades for the final exam. However, that meant we needed to recalculate the percentages and re-do the final points. I finished today at 4:51 pm. Phew. The final grades are due tomorrow.
I am glad to be officially finished with my classwork, but I already miss my students. I got an email from one telling me she enjoyed the class and thanksing me for making what she thought would be a boring ang painful class...not painful or boring. That was what I was striving for.
Today I got a "Thank You" card from yet another student. He thanked me for all of my help and said he enjoyed the humor I added to the class. He said he learned a lot. AAAAWWWW that really brightened an otherwise dreary and rainy day.
*On a side note, I was saddened to see a pattern in the online Final Exam that indicated some cheating. We discussed Academic Integrtiy and apparently students still may have helped each other with this final. In addition, SciFinder Scholar was unavailable and some students ran out of time before it can back online. Also, some answered all questions but at the end their answers were not saved. So after much effort to create an online exam, my manager and I decided it would be appropriate to disregard the grades for the final exam. However, that meant we needed to recalculate the percentages and re-do the final points. I finished today at 4:51 pm. Phew. The final grades are due tomorrow.
I am glad to be officially finished with my classwork, but I already miss my students. I got an email from one telling me she enjoyed the class and thanksing me for making what she thought would be a boring ang painful class...not painful or boring. That was what I was striving for.
Today I got a "Thank You" card from yet another student. He thanked me for all of my help and said he enjoyed the humor I added to the class. He said he learned a lot. AAAAWWWW that really brightened an otherwise dreary and rainy day.
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Also I received the following email:
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"It is my pleasure, as incoming president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), to invite you to serve as a member of the Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee... thank you for your interest in and support of ACRL."
YIPEE!!!!!!!!!
BEING ON A COMMITTEE IS HUGE
IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES!
"I'd like to thank all the little people who help make this possible. Oh yes...and GOD...and oh my I am sure I am forgetting somebody. Anyway..you know who you are. I love you all..and thanks for believing in me, etc...."
you've heard them all before. Ha!
