In this blog post, we’ll hear from Lisa Downing, Director of the Forbes Library in Northampton. Following attending the Library Summit on Social Cohesion, she facilitated a staff meeting based on Beth Wahler’s presentation from the Summit.
Read on to learn about how the library applied learning from the summit to foster a healthy library culture.
Please tell us about your experience attending the Library Summit on Social Cohesion and your key takeaways.
Lisa Downing: The summit was excellent. The speakers were inspiring and it was wonderful to be attending in person. I was able to catch up with some familiar colleagues and meet some new people. It was very meta to be having an experience that supported social cohesion while also discussing it as an important cornerstone for libraries. Priya Charry, our head of Adult Services, was on the planning committee and she along with the other contributors did an amazing job under Michelle Eberle’s leadership.
As a library director, my key takeaways focused on how we can support a work environment where staff feel connected both to one another and to the mission of our work. The day also strengthened my commitment to creating a space where visitors feel seen and like they belong. It also reminded me how important it is to use trauma informed approaches with both staff and visitors.
What stood out to you from Beth Wahler’s presentation about Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Library Culture that Benefits All?
Downing: I loved Beth Wahler’s holistic approach to creating a healthy workplace culture focusing on care, clarity, accountability and reflection. She broke down the components and illustrated how they are all interconnected and are the responsibility of everyone in the organization to uphold.
How did you apply what you learned at the summit?
Downing: I developed an assessment tool for staff to give us a benchmark on the health of our workplace culture based on Beth Wahler’s book Creating a Person-Centered Library. During a staff meeting, staff worked in groups to assess how they thought we were doing in each of the four cultural dimensions. This was reviewed by our leadership team along with written feedback from staff. We created a punchlist of a dozen items to work on including training needs, starting a new Google chat for staff, and supporting staff with laptops to have more flexibility in where and how they work. We will reassess at some point in the future.
What strategies shared at the summit have been most beneficial to support your staff’s wellbeing?
Downing: The summit was a good reminder of things we already had in place like wellness breaks that we need to periodically remind and encourage staff to take advantage of. It was also a good reminder that we need to check in periodically and ask folks how they are feeling at work and how we can support them as individuals and create meaningful connections among staff.
This dovetails with the culture of reflection that intentionally creates opportunities to debrief, reflect, and reassess. This tends to get shortchanged in our fast paced work environment and daily lives but it can be so transformative. I love the fact that it involves the people doing the work or having the experience at the heart of the conversation and supports iterative change over time.
I also renewed my commitment to “modeling” behavior for others for actions like setting healthy boundaries and admitting mistakes.
Communication is at the heart of so much of this work. “Clear is kind” as Brene Brown says. It is important to create a culture where people can be honest with one another and that takes trust and mutual respect. This also means that people in leadership need to be as transparent as possible and keep staff informed while being open to listening to questions and concerns. It’s not easy.
Any final thoughts?
Downing: Don’t do this work alone. Reach out to colleagues and take advantage of opportunities to gather.
Interview with Lisa Downing, Director, Forbes Library, Northampton, MA
Interviewed by Michelle Eberle, Consultant, Massachusetts Library System
