Category Archives: Library

Wisdom Wednesday – Your Real Job Is To Be A Translator

I was in an OH&S meeting once where they were talking about buying walkie-talkies so staff could more easily communicate with each other in our large Central branch. One of the clerks spoke up and said “What sort of training will we get?” A high level manager could barely hide her distain as she replied […]

Saturday Snap – Tough Day at the Office!

Been sick the past couple days but dragged my ass into work as I had a big event on.  I texted Shea to ask if she was going to bring the kids and she replied “I feel like absolute crap. I did a Covid test and it negative but I feel like I was hit […]

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Water Fountain Flower (January 2012)

One highlight of working at Central Library was being able to go out and walk around Wascana Lake (part of the largest urban park in North America!) regularly during my lunch breaks. Always liked this photo I took on my route one day…

Wisdom Wednesday – Rock Stars, Rock Steadies, and Rock Bottoms

I was recently out for supper with a bunch of friends including one high level manager who oversees a Canada-wide IT team for a large corporation. It was interesting to compare notes about our workplaces. He said he is all about high performers and strongly believes in performance management, expecting high results but also rewarding […]

Wisdom Wednesday – Overt vs. Covert

This isn’t really advice I was given by someone but more of a personal observation I’ve made after seeing it repeatedly over the years.  Whenever there is something decided, especially when its some sort of major decision, there’s usually an overt reason people give for the decision but also a covert reason they may or […]

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – HR Unit (January 2012)

Yesterday’s post got me a bit nostalgic for the HR Unit I was part of for the first few years of my career at RPL – what a great team!

Wisdom Wednesday – Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch

I first heard this advice years ago when I was still in the role of Organization Development Specialist at Regina Public Library. In hindsight, I don’t think I appreciated what an amazing job that was to have right at the start of my library career. Our Director (still the same guy all these years later) […]

Wisdom Wednesday – Hiring Is A Million Dollar Decision

A long time ago, a colleague gave me a way to think of hiring that totally changed how I view the process of selecting a candidate. Before, I was just thinking “Who can best do this job?” but he pointed out that you’re not just hiring the person for the immediate job but potentially for […]

Saturday Snap – Boundaries? What Boundaries?

In my Wisdom Wednesday series, I’ll eventually do a post about the difference I see between what I call “black & white” thinkers and “grey area” thinkers.  (Myers-Briggs has 16 classifications.  True Colors has 4.  Hamology basically only has 2!) One big aspect of this difference is that are those who think there are hard […]

Wisdom Wednesday – Every Bad Manager Thinks They’re A Good Manager

We didn’t see eye to eye on everything but I was very fortunate to have the first manager in libraries that I did as he was very experienced and knowledgeable (obviously people have to start somewhere but it can be a lot tougher if your manager is someone who’s newly hired or has only been […]