Libraries and Leadership
August 4, 2019 Dear Reader, Since you have survived the zombie apocalypse, I want to congratulate you on your survival skills. The substance you are reading this letter on is called “paper”, and it was made from plants that we once called ‘trees”. You may not have seen either before in your lifetime, and I …
What is the role of a citizen, and how does a citizen’s behavior shape a community, and then how does a community shape a nation?I have continued to be curious about the idea of the public library’s role in community building, as it is one of three strategic themes.Who has a voice in our nation, …
Sunday, August 5th, 2018, in Johnson County Kansas. It is a sticky 90 degrees and the sky is achingly bright. In one hour a new 30,000 square foot, 18.1 million dollar Monticello Library will open for the first time. The local Boy Scout troop is nervously pacing as they prepare to raise the American and …
This is the poem Glenn North wrote for the opening of the Monticello Library opening. Check Glenn out at http://www.glennnorthpoetry.com/ A Psalm For The Word Warriors By Glenn North We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. – …
Last week the Administrative team shared the strategic goals and mini vision statements with the All Managers team. This week we are reviewing their feedback and processing the information. There was a lot of energy around the idea of changing the organizational goal of Education to Learning, and this will be one of the topics …
Today, (7/20/2018), the Administrative Team is meeting with KU Public Management staff to continue to work through the community engagement report and dig deeper into the results. This morning’s goal is to write mini vision statements for each of the area of focus (Education, Community Building, Convenience, Operations and Communication). You might notice that we …
When embarking on writing a strategic plan I think the best place to start is with listening. The University of Kansas Public Management Center has helped our managers and administrative team listen to more than 14,000 voices. Last Friday, the administrative team and I sat down to share what we learned from the community engagement …
I have recently enjoyed reading the Community Engagement Report. If you need a reminder, in April and May of this year JCL managers and the KU Public Management Center engaged the community through a series of stakeholder interviews, focus groups and surveys. More than 14,500 community members responded to the survey and we received more …
We are getting close to the opening date for Monticello, and there is a lot going on surrounding the opening of a new location. The work of the library does not stop, and I thought you might like to know about some of the other things that are occurring at JCL. The KU Public Management …
In my previous posts, I have written about motivation, assertiveness and accountability. Gallup’s study showed that people wanted to see these three attributes in management. The fourth attribute is “relationships”. This ubiquitous term has no meaning unless you confine the definition. In this article, the term relationship is framed as the ability for a leader …