GREAT CONTINUING EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY

I don't normally publicize the work of competitors, but this is too good an opportunity for you to pass up. SLA's CLICK U LIVE is presenting a two-part online seminar, PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR SOLO LIBRARIANS, presented by Pat Wagner of Pattern Research.

The first part I, Mastering the Project Map: Solo Management and Leadership, will be held 13 September 2006, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET and part II, Success in Small Steps: See Your Work with Fresh Eyes, will be held 2 weeks later, on 27 September. Here is the information, from the SLA website (http://www.sla.org/clickulive/). You can sign up for the course at that site, too.

The Course: The solo librarian must master multi-tasking without the luxury of staff members to whom to delegate tasks. Often he or she feels isolated within their institutions, without colleagues who understand their concerns. The responses to this kind of stress are predictable: the conscientious solo librarian tries to work faster and put in longer hours. The result is a temporary increase in productivity and long-term burnout. Instead, the key to solo project management is to become one’s own manager and leader: pausing to plan, fostering peer relationships with other departments, building partnerships with customers and negotiating priorities.

This two-part seminar series addresses making hard choices, mastering the project map, creating a working strategic plan for special and ongoing projects, communicating expectations and negotiating the ratios among cost, time and quality with multiple customers. Participants will also learn to avoid the most common project management mistakes, including project creep, concrete thinking, perfectionism, pet projects, and conflict avoidance, as they apply good management practices to those everyday tasks that waste time and damage credibility.

Part I: In the first segment, we will investigate the project map and learn how to apply the skills of the manager (pausing, planning, communicating) and the leader (risking, anticipating, influencing) to improve productivity, not just the skills of the task-oriented professional (reacting, focusing, self-governing). Participants will learn how to use the map to refocus on workplace relationships outside of the library and keep the bigger picture in mind when responding to customer requests. The map will also help participants understand why they have to shift some of their time and resources away from “doing” their work to coordinating projects and building support.

Part II: In the second segment, we will review dozens of simple but effective methods to improve productivity in the solo library, even on stressed-out days. The emphasis will be on changing one’s behavior in small steps, from taking five minutes to pick three priorities to stopping for essential quick breaks to investing in short meetings with key players in the institution. Participants will be able to work on real projects and goals, and finish the segment with a quick and decent action plan to improve productivity in the first hours after the seminar is over. The hardest part of this program will be learning that the demands of the workplace is not what is causing our problems but rather how we respond to them.

Targeted Learners: This presentation is for those who work alone, who have multiple supervisors, or who are looking for ways to improve the productivity when staff is cut and budgets collapse. It is also useful for frontline supervisors who want to improve workplace performance. It is designed for people with at least two years’ of workplace experience and would be considered an intermediate class.

Critical Learning Questions: What do we have to give up in order to stay relevant to our customers’ changing needs? What will keep us anchored to our goals on a busy day despite interruptions and conflicting demands? Which better project management practices can we apply immediately, even when we don’t have enough time, money or staff to what we think is right?

The cost for each seminar is a very reasonable $99 is you listen to it live. You can also purchase a reply for only $69. When you register, your location becomes a Click U Live! site. The cost is per site [phone connection], not per person. You can host as many people as you like for one low site fee! So be sure to invite your colleagues to learn with you! Register before 6 September and save $10.00! Program registrations beyond that date will be $109. Through the latest in web-conferencing technology, SLA can now offer a replay of the audio and video of the seminar exactly as it occurred live. Purchase of a Replay includes a link to the session. Replays will be emailed within three business days of purchase. You will have 30 days unlimited usage. Access will begin upon clicking on the URL. You will be able to see and hear the seminar, including the questions and answers, just as those who participated in the live event. You will also be able to start, stop, and re-wind the presentation.

This is a great opportunity to take part in a good seminar at a very reasonable price.