spring cleaning

Since I was chained to my desk today, waiting on phone calls and such, I was able to clean up around my (temporary) office. Here’s something I didn’t share with you, poppets, and I hope you’ll understand why.

For the past few months (since January), I’ve been an acting Area Manager. What’s an Area Manager? Good question. For us, it’s the position between our front-line managers and the Director. It’s the equivalent of a vice-president or deputy director. It’s been an eye-opening experience, and I’ve really enjoyed learning to view everything through a very wide system lens. It’s also been a humbling experience that has taught me just how little power those in this position wield. Honestly, I consider myself an ambitious person; so, I’m a bit surprised at myself wanting to get back to being with front-line staff. I think I miss having an immediate team, attaining goals and ticking off projects, chatting with the coffee klatch. Or, maybe it’s the fact that this is an acting gig, where I’m constantly trying to figure out if I should take on a project or not (Will I be able to finish in time? What are my parameters? Should I make a decision that someone else will have to live with?).

WoW: things i learned from my raid leader

When asked about leadership styles during job interviews, I’m always a little stumped. How can I explain that some of my best lessons were learned while gutting imaginary beasts and demons in some alternate dimension? It’s true.

Before Warcraft, here’s how I dealt with group dynamics:

1. assess strengths and weaknesses of team members
2. divide the work among the capable
3. dismiss those I didn’t see contributing
4. take all presentation responsibilities in order to ensure effective communication of end result

…If there was any dissension amongst the group, I’d just bulldoze over it, because I had no time to try out stupid ideas destined for failure. And Goddess help you if you had to ask the same question twice. See #3.

Raiding in Warcraft is a serious team effort. One person cannot slack or it results in, well, death. Everyone has to come prepared (repaired, stocked up and forged for maximum efficiency) and everyone has to trust in their party to put forth their best effort. It takes a special kind of person to be able to lead a group of people, of differing skill levels and with unique skills to contribute, in the pursuit of one goal.

Having had the privilege of reporting to an amazing Raid Leader, Magnus, here are the things he taught me:

m.conferencecall

(This is my first mobile post. I expect many hilarious auto changes.)

In beautiful and (finally) sunny California for the ALA conference. Unlike the superconference, I don't really know anyone here at all and the gives me a lot of free time in between sessions. Like now.

I am struck by the ordinariness of the attendees as well. Every Feb, we play drinking games called Hip/Cats, where we take imaginary shots whenever we see a hipster librarian or a genuine cat lady. A conspicuous absence of both in California, where everyone is just.. average.

Also, for such a BIG conference, there's a real lack of tech. Last night, at the SciFi session, the moderator actually had a Word document up on the projector with a link to the survey. Hello ... QR code?