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Passion Quilt Meme

April 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Thank you Helene for tagging me for the Passion Quilt Meme.

Passion Quilt Meme
Photo courtesy of Seema KK

My message to learners young and old, get your feet wet!

But don’t stop there. Get soaking wet! Splash in the puddles! Play as if no one were watching!

Since having children I have come to realize that to play is really to learn. Playing is learning in disguise. Have you ever seen a child try to play in a sandbox and not get dirty? It can’t be done. My son hates the feeling of sand on his feet and he will timidly approach the sandbox, carefully straddling the sides so he won’t get sand between his toes. But as he begins to play and explore and make-believe he slowly forgets about the rough sand touching his toes. After a few minutes he’s covered head to toe in sand without a care in the world and lost in his imagination. This is play. This is learning. It’s dirty, messy, and awfully good fun!

Tagging:

What are you passionate about for learners both young and old to learn?

Meme: Passion Quilt

The rules are simple.

  1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
  2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
  3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
  4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

p.s. origin of the passion quilt meme here

p.p.s. origin of the meme in the biblioblogosphere here

Filed under: Personal Development, Professional Development

Learning from Corporate America: Starbucks Closes Nationwide for Training

April 26, 2008 By 2 Comments

On February 26, 2008 if you tried to get your usual Grande Carmel Machiato from Starbucks between 5:30 and 9pm you were out of luck. In a historic move Starbucks closed nearly 7,100 stores for 3 1/2 hours to conduct mandatory training for more than 135,000 employees.

From the Starbucks Web site, “That amounts to almost a half a million hours of training in one night.”

My first thought on hearing this announcement was publicity stunt. Why do you need to close for training? Why can’t you do it before or after closing or off site? I learned though that this was more than training in how to make a cup of coffee. According to the Starbucks Web site this was “a nationwide education event, designed to energize [employees] and transform the customer experience.”

It seems that most of the employees agreed. Some comments from employees on the Starbucks Gossip Blog:

I’ve just returned home from my stores espresso excellence training and I feel that as a whole we are re-energized and more passionate mostly about customer care. I really liked the team commitments at the end for us to hold one another accountable and this as much better then other store meetings because we got to move around the store as groups and we had fun! Posted by: Aaron | Feb 26, 2008 6:40:20 PM

Soo, I just got back from my meeting. It was amazing. I feel inspired in every way. I hope other baristas feel the same. Posted by: Neevan | Feb 26, 2008 6:54:53 PM

I just got home from the training session and I have to say it was great. It put us all on the same page and let all of us know that the standards have been raised and we WILL be held accountable for it. Not everyone remembers it. This meeting wasn’t to teach us how to make coffee and thats what a lot of people are missing. This was about making the BEST cup we can EVERYTIME, no exceptions. It was about how to give you customers what you pay for and more. Not to mention it laid down some new guidelines to make sure that if the customer does not get what THEY think is the perfect cup of coffee WE WILL MAKE IT UNTIL YOU ARE SATISFIED. We learned the vision of Howard and what he expects of us as a whole company so that not just some stores but ALL of them are doing the best everytime. I personally thought it was informative and helpful, especially to the new hires in our store who don’t know yet what they need to do and reminded all of us how to provide our customers with a place they want to be. To be perfectly honest with you I think that there are a lot of baristas out there (and if you have read some of their posts you know what I’m talking about) that we are not only in the coffee business but also the PEOPLE business. Posted by: | Feb 26, 2008 7:17:42 PM

Hi Everyone!!! Training tonight was great, what I felt would be just a refresher on the new flavor profile and proper steaming of milk, foam ratio, etc., ended up being more of a conversation on what we can do to accommodate and create a better experience for our customers. Posted by: buck star | Feb 26, 2008 9:36:18 PM

I freakin loved the meeting tonight. It’s like Starbucks Experience. it really re energized my passion for my job and my pride in my drinks, my service and the company as a while. I can’t wait to work on the floor again!! Posted by: Staxman | Feb 26, 2008 10:36:09 PM

I admire the courage of the company’s leadership to close every store, not just their doors, but their cash register as well, and then pay all their employees to attend a training session in order to improve the customer experience. Can you think of any other company that would spend that kind of money and time to improve their product? Can you imagine an airline stopping all flights for a day and requiring their employees to spend the time focusing on the passenger experience? Good for you Starbucks!! Posted by: | Feb 26, 2008 8:50:49 PM

So I have to ask, when was the last time you received comments like that on a training evaluation? What would it take for libraries to have all staff committed to the customer experience? What can we learn from Starbucks?

Filed under: Customer Service, Learning from Corporate America

What Do Your Social Sites Say About You?

April 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Dear “Friend” Who Posted a Naked Picture on my Facebook Wall,Sorry but I’ve had to delete your post on my wall. I appreciate the thought (even though you posted the same naked picture on all of your “friends” walls). It’s not that I have anything against nudity but it’s just not funny, and I can’t say it’s something I want my dad to see on my profile or my boss or my co-workers or a potential employer.
-Your “Friend” Lori

Have you ever thought about what all your social sites combined say about you? Do you care?

I am very aware that my online persona says a lot about me. With every blog post, every Bloglines subscription, every tweet, every del.icio.us tag I make a conscious choice. What does this say about me? Is this public or private? Which account does this belong to?

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who thinks before tweeting. Here’s a great post on Remarkablogger What Picture Do Your Social Media Activities Paint about You?

Does this sound like too much work? It’s really not. Both Bloglines and del.icio.us allow you to mark posts as private. There are also tools like Meebo and twhirl that let you manage multiple IM and Twitter accounts.

Many employers Google search candidates before hiring them and now many employers are going directly to social networking sites to perform searches as well. When you add up all your social networking sites it paints a permanent picture. What does your picture say about you?

Filed under: Social Networking

The Living Library

April 22, 2008 By 1 Comment

First of all it is so cool to see librarians networking on LinkedIn!

Second, I love the idea of checking people out at the library.

Isn’t there someone you’ve always wanted to talk to? To ask a million questions? I know I had a chance to speak with a homeless patron a few years ago at our Staff Training Day and he opened my eyes to the plight of the homeless (many of them choose to be homeless). I can think of dozens of people I’d like to interview.

living library in the U.K., originally uploaded by a-birdie.

Filed under: Library Stuff

So What Are the Rules for Photographers?

April 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Given the recent encounter Tony Tallent had with law enforcement in DC at CIL (now the FBI is involved) over the photographs he was taking of buildings and signs, I thought it might be a good time to share this post from Photojojo: Photography and the Law Know Your Rights.

A great overview of what you can and can’t take photos of and what your rights are if you are stopped by law enforcement.

You might also want to print and place a copy of The Photographer’s Right in your camera bag.

Filed under: News
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