Day 4 Blog Post: Organizational Planning Teaching Topic Evaluation

     Today our group did a power point presentation on the topic of Organizational Planning which is one of four essential types of planning and consists of teams, tasks, projects and people.  The other groups were responsible for creating presentations for the other three types which were direction, action, control, and financial.

     I learned that through our combined efforts, were easily able to take on the required roles of the team based on our skills and strengths, and chose a captain, a researcher, a time-keeper, a recorder, and a spokesperson.  Once our roles had been determined, under our captain's leadership and direction, we were able to research, compile, record and adjust our presentation in a reasonable and practical time frame, which allowed for our spokesperson to demonstrate our presentation to the audience with ease and confidence.  I also learned that organizational planning is the starting point of the four types of planning that lead to the final product.

     From watching the other three presentations, I learned that there were many common factors that overlapped in the planning and development of each of the four types of organizational planning.  It showed me that each team shared in common that they incorporated many similar skill types and techniques in the planning and development of their research.

What I learned by conducting an informal interview.

I asked a fellow classmate a series of random questions chosen from a list in our training binders; here is what I learned about someone who was a total stranger to me, until this day: Smiling through much of the interview, she stated that she doesn’t feel that she has a specific accent and doesn’t believe she could fake one. If she had to live under the sea, she would love to be an otter. She believes that the greatest invention in the world is the microwave oven , for “If not for the microwave, I would have starved by now.” Her favorite time of year is Christmas because it is four days from her birthday and it is the one time of year she goes to visit her family who lives far away. She is very close with her family. She would prefer not to bungee jump, however, she would bungee jump before she would ever go skydiving. She is named after a Barry Manilow song that her mother really loved, and she has the middle name of her grandmother. The movie “The Killing Fields” was difficult to watch and made her cry. She loves to learn, and has a deep passion for the library she represents and its history, the work that she performs, and for the community that she serves.

Three Blog Questions

1) What Surprised you about this experience? That at the beginning of the exercise, I was viewing my work from a managerial standpoint, and at the conclusion, I viewed it as a service that I provide that is motivated by compassion, empathy, integrity, and understanding. 2) What touched you about this experience? Listening to my partner's story, how it impacted her, and how her story was an awakening for her that changed her feelings of accomplishment and worth at her job in a positive way and enabled her to grow. Though my story was completely different, the positive results of my experiences were similar to hers. In the library world, we are not alone... 3)What inspired you about this experience? Learning that it is ok to stop, breathe, and absorb. That we have more time in a day than we think. This inspired me to set higher, more positive goals for myself and my library, and to stop "second guessing" myself or "selling myself short"; to grow as a person and as a librarian.

A Day of Learning

First day at the Public Library Management Institute has been an informative and eventful day. I have met some really wonderful people from the "library world", and some I already knew, so it was nice to see them again as well. Lots of networking going on which is always beneficial. I am looking forward to tomorrow.