LSS Staff Retreat

Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Pyle Center (Room 205)

All LSS staff was out all day for our annual retreat. Lead by Read, our meeting essentially reviewed our mission and vision, then worked through some issues that for which we’d like to direction. From reviewing the university mission and college mission, we asked ourselves “why we exist,” “what the role we individuals play in the system,” and “what are our patrons need?” We came out many ideas and lists about things we should (or should not) do and we could (or could not) do. A big picture was drawn to show a clear direction for us to know what to do and where to go.

Our agenda includes two parts: 1) Vision/Assessment, and 2) Priorities/Plans/Actions. Each part has six sessions. In the first part, we established theoretical frameworks for what we do or will do, and evaluate our efforts. On the second session, we examined more closely the details in terms of what we need to be doing to better meet the mission/vision.

I handfully gained because what I absorbed were not merely the ideas and thoughts that everyone contributed, but much more from experiencing the whole processes that a good leadership should be. Read is a big guy I look up to. He talked about his philosophy in serving as the director of LSS: 1) he thinks the most important thing we can provide is “service”, 2) he holds high expectation on our individuals’ “profession”, 3) he pays attention to our working relationship. (Ideas are welcome, but you need to be persistent!) He trusts and provides the environment for us to try everything out, and 4) he encourages us that we all need to believe what we are doing (by asking why we are doing it, why it is important, and then believe what we are doing).

I am one of the committee in serving LSS 50^th Anniversary with Sara and Doug. Tons of cool ideas are on a roll.