On management

I have been perusing a slim little volume of managerial maxims first issued in 1970 again in 1984 and again in 2007. The book is Up the Organization by Robert Townsend and it is the Everything I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten book for management. Townsend’s words ring simple and true, the same today as they did almost 40 years ago. Any organization would benefit from another reading of this book. It helps one to stop, think, and focus on what is important to an organization, and ultimately to the people that make up the organization. Here are some examples from Townsend’s book that illustrate what I mean:

Leadership: True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. In combat, officers eat last. Most people in big companies today are administered, not led.

Management Consultants: They waste time, cost money, demoralize and distract your best people, and don’t solve problems. They are people who borrow your watch to tell you what time it is and then walk off with it. Don’t use them under any circumstances.

Reorganizing: Should be undergone about as often as major surgery. And should be well planned and swiftly executed.

Secrecy: A child’s garden of diseases. Secrecy is totally bad. It defeats the crusade for justice, which doesn’t flourish in the dark. Secrecy implies either:
1) What I’m doing is so horrible I don’t dare tell you. or
2) I don’t trust you (any more).

Listen. Do you hear the ring of truth? A good little book. Highly recommended.

Helpful hints for Blue 2.0

How opportune! How timely! The Miss Manners of Librarians, the Annoyed Librarian, explains How to Library Blog today. Tremendously insightful and interesting. All take note and learn at the feet of the library goddess.

Gosh blogs are great

Gosh blogs are great. I can just spew out whatever thoughts are floating around in my mind at any given time and put it out on the web and by doing so, it automatically becomes impoortant. I guess the medium really is the message. I am doing so right now as I lie on a beach sipping a key lime martini while Calypso music wafts on the warm breeze. No wait. That's just my fantasy. I really haven't blogged lately because I have been preparing to teach, teaching, answering questions at the reference desk, writing committee reports, applying for a grant, reading for a presentation, writing for a presentation, meeting with faculty, meeting with students, meeting with colleagues, attending training, planning for next school year (yes August will be here all too soon!) Well they say staying busy helps make the time pass more quickly and what better way to make those cold winter months fly by. But alas, it leaves so little time for the fun things. Like this. (Sigh.)

I blog, I chat, it became a part of me

So I set up an IM account and asked for buddies but my buddies didn't respond. Come on buddies! This won't work if you ignore your buddy requests!

I am born

Oh, who am I? I was born in a valley not very remote from the sea. The sun had not yet risen. Call me Ishmael. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Summer makes me drowsy. Autumn makes me sing. Winter's pretty lousy, But I hate Spring.