PLMI, Year 2, Day 1: Staff Development

We're baaaaack at PLMI! It was a packed day with an intimidating assignment about sharing my library's brand and elevator speech with the group on Friday. Normally, presentations don't worry me because I know  my material so well; however, this is challenging content for me...that's a good thing..."Living begins at the edge of your comfort zone." But, I digress...

We learned that most of us have been using staff days for the wrong purpose. We need to have staff involvement in planning staff days so we can work at the Belonging level of Maslow's Hierarchy -- not sharing new policies or punitive topics. Using this time to deepen relationships and build trust will help us become an effective team vs. a group. This is really good stuff that has shaken most of us right down to our comfort zone boots.

Since I announced that we are building a new house in Perry County, I wanted to share my photo album showing the construction progress. The link follows: Home Construction Album. Don't be concerned that there are 43 photos in the album. It starts with a satellite view of the building site location, followed by a couple of photos taken each week from the front of the house and the back of the house with the walkout basement. Speed through them if you are interested.

It's great to be back among our PLMI cohort (a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum). Having spent 20 years of my former career in training and development, PLMI feels like home. I must close with a photo of our puppies. My hubby adopted a sweet, pregnant dog who had been dumped near our construction site; five days later she had six puppies. They are two weeks old. We believe they are shepherd/boxer/chow mix. Cuties!