Go ahead and get our recording start and let you know there's a learner guide for today's session. We create these guides as a resource for you to extend your learning on the topic. Perhaps to bring to a conversation with colleagues. It's an excellent way to take action on your learning, create attainable goals, it's also a Word document so it can be customized. So if you have specific questions or activities that you'd like to work through by yourself or with colleagues, this is a great resource for you to make that happen. And thank you to our presenters for helping to create today's learner guide. I am thrilled to introduce today's presenters. I've been very excited about today's session for a long time. Please welcome Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, she comes to us as an amazing research bringing all of this important research, leader, consultant and coach. And Sunnie Scarpa comes to us as the library director from the EC Scranton memorial library in Connecticut and she brings a wealth of strategies and resources for us to countermeasure our low morale experiences. Welcome to both of you. I'm really, really grateful to have you here today. >> KAETRENA: Thank you so much. Glad to be here. >> All right. Kaetrena, we'll have you get us started. >> KAETRENA: Thank you so much. Good afternoon or good day, everyone, depending on where you're from. Coming in from today, I'm happy to be here. And particularly happy to be coleading this conversation with Sunnie today. We're going to jump right into it because we want to make sure that we have time for you to respond and I also encourage you to be definitely engaging in the chat. We'll be looking at it and trying to answer your questions tend. Let's get right into it. This is my mission statement which is to inspire authentic collegiality and to promote well-being, share the gifts of creativity, and cultivate empathetic and engaged leadership in the workplace. My mission statement helps me say yes and no. And if you want to know more about that, you can contact me. But for those of us who have problems saying no, consider creating a mission statement. And this is mine. So let's jump right into it. In the chat, low morale makes me feel or think? Y'all put it in there. All right. Low morale makes me feel or think, and I'll give you a few seconds. Say lethargic, breathless, frustrated, uh, some sounds going on too. Ready for another job. Lots of sad, stress, ooh. Okay. Keep going, everyone. Thank you so much for sharing these quick responses. And when I ask this question, these are not uncommon responses. So let's get into it. I want to talk to you about, first, my portion will mainly talk about my research, which I've been doing since 2016 and was published starting in 2017. Let's define the experience of low morale. So Milo morale statement, my focus has traditionally been on credentialed librarians. As I move forward, while my formal studies continue to look at credentialed librarians, I also do data collection on all workers and all libraries at all levels. So formally my work, however, at this point, because I'm trying to find out what the experience is formally. My motivation has been issues of collegiality, I'm really interests in ethics and how they play or don't play out in our practice. Professionalism and what that means and doesn't mean for both in experience and what people say. I'm also interested in workplace culture and organizational behavior, leadership trach, -- training, leadership development and education. I realized I was part of an emotional labor and my studies has been and continues to be broadly what does it feel like, more importantly what does it mean to have low morale within the environmental of social context of librarianship? Put a Y in the chat if you agree it has a unique culture and environment with which we work. Put a yes if you think so. I see a lot of yeses. Some capital. I'll take that as an emphatic yes. That's my broad question when I'm doing these surveys. Every mention what they think about low morale. What I realized from these studies and validated through all the studies is experientially, when we're moving through this experience, low morale is exposure to repeated and protracted workplace abuse or neglect. And the things that you see in front of you, those types of abuse or the ones that show up most often. It doesn't mean that other types of abuse and neglect are not happening, and also these are the ones that show up most often. In fact, as I talk to more public librarians, we hear more about physical abuse mainly coming from library users, okay. So also I want you to see that these things, the behaviors that I'm listing outside and within those categories are more, right? There could be more. So don't think that just because the ones on the screen are the only ones, there could be more. These are the examples that show up over and over again. I also want to share with you that these things happen in concert with each other. For instance, emotional abuse could take -- could be happening along with verbal abuse. For instance, silent treatment is both emotional and it's a form of communication. A nonverbal, okay. So keep in mind that these things happen sometimes in concert with each other. They're layered and they can happen also like this and like this. So hope you all like my hand movements, okay. Like that and like that. All right. Also I want you to remember that people are very, very clear about emotional abuse and what those things are, verbal and written abuse, what that is and is not. System abuse, what that is and looks like and how it plays out. People do not recognize neglect. That is the piece that I will call like an ordinary trauma when we think that's just how it's supposed to be. So keep in mind that neglect is a form of abuse. Okay. All right. Everybody, I want you all to recognize that. Let's review now we know what the categories of things that are occurring and the name for the experience of this low morale experience. How does it develop? Let's quickly go through that. Low morale experiences generally start with the trigger event. Now you might not know it's a trigger event until much later, but there will be something that will occur that will turn your relationship with the colleague or a coworker or a supervisor, what have you, from one that is positive or neutral to one that is negative. And you might first off think, oh, they're just having a bad day. Often we will throw it away like, oh, so-and-so was just having a bad day and it's not till much later that we realize this is a pattern of behavior, all right. So we'll talk about that in a little bit. But we have a trigger event, and there are emotional responses to that trigger event. Name -- if you ever had a trigger event or known someone who has dealt with low morale, name an emotional response to something that you do not expect. While you all are thinking about that, putting that in the chat, I'll share with you that we often use words blindsided, confused, taken aback, thrown under the bus is the most common phrase. So I want you all to know that my data collection is qualitative, so I'm gathering words, phrases, narratives. The most common descriptions of a trigger event is I was thrown under the bus. I see anxiety, shocked, punch to the gut, good one, confused, betrayed. And oftentimes people deal with that, that first time, those initial responses usually will turn into a version of fear. Because then they start thinking things like, is my job at stake? What happened? Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong? Okay. So those are the emotional responses to the trigger event. And then what we know as the low morale experience, which is the protracted exposures when the other thing happens and the new thing happens. Then perhaps another abuser comes in. You could have multiple abuser. Maybe it's a supervisor, the indirect report, the Provost or another colleague. You could have multiple abusers coming in and popping in at different times due to changes in the organization, people that are coming in, turnover attrition, so on and so forth. Or that original abuser does something else. So that's the protracted exposure to the abuse or neglect. >> Kaetrena, can I jump in quick? Someone asked can you provide an example of a trigger event? >> KAETRENA: A trigger event, they're highly individualized based on what's going on at work. For instance, someone says something in a meeting and you have an agreement and you go out in person and that person says something completely different and says you're at fault for it. You're like, what? And you're left holding the bag. That's a type, okay? Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. So the mark of a low morale experience is not only the emotional response, so first you already had a trigger event and had those responses. Then the new things are occurring because you're getting more and more of those layered responses. But the mark of a low morale experience is the cognitive behaviors. Your behavior starts changing. Your thoughts start changing. And then you'll have your mental and physical health impacts. Can you name some mental and physical health impacts associated with some low morale experiences? While you all are typing in the chat, I'll share some. The most common response is, a form of anxiety, forms of depression, those are the negative self-talk, self-blame. Common physical items, hypertension is the most common one, which is the most dangerous one because hypertension creates very slow changes to your vascular system. Okay. All right. Start losing sleep, sleeping too much, sleeping too little, so on and so forth. And the cognitive responses, should I still be a librarian? Maybe I should go into another career. I thought I was a good worker, so on and so forth. So the reduce professional confidence. The skepticism of coworkers, skepticism of systems. And then of course people want to end, nobody likes feeling bald, people start to try to attempt to end their experience. There are two ways this happens. Through mitigation methods, and through coping strategies. Coping strategies are those things that you do consciously or subconsciously but doesn't change the behavior of the abuser, okay. So binge watching television, yoga classes, those are good and negative. Smoking too much, disorder eating. Some of those things are good, some are not so good for our health, but then us feel better. But they don't change the behavior or anything that's going on with the experience. The other thing that is, is mitigation methods. Those are conscious, deliberate behaviors that people will do to stop the experience. Share in the comments the most common mitigation behavior. Leaving the job somebody said, yeah. Leaving. People will just leave. I don't know, I'm trying to determine, I don't know what's -- sometimes people stay and quit, quit and stay. Sometimes people quit and stay, okay. Which is very, very dangerous, very bad for an organization to quit and stay. When I say the word recovery on this screen, I want you to know that that's a loose term. Okay. Because if you've been dealing with low morale for a long time, which is related to abuse and neglect, if you go to a new job, how likely are you to bring that feeling to you new job? If you've developed hypertension, you just don't stop having hypertension once you leave your old job, okay. So recovery is highly individualized and it's not guaranteed because I'm going to use the T word, it is a trauma. But however, people do say they learn lessons, okay. And most people who deal with low morale are quick to recognize abuse and neglect in their new jobs. And if they happen to be in leadership positions, they will have a very low tolerance for it and work more deliberately to improve the culture and stop those behaviors, okay. All right. These are the organizational impacts for us leaders. And for any employee, because my latest study shares with me that organizational culture and improved organizational culture is everyone's responsibility. So when these things are occurring in our organizations due to low morale, they hinder and affect everyone. Everyone. Someone's doing more work because someone is tardy or absent, someone is not getting the communication that they need because they have been isolated from the group, someone doesn't know how to do the job as effectively because the training isn't happening. And no one trusts each other because the emotions are sustained. So these things when we think about it from this organizational impact, yes, they're important to leaders and also they are important and impact everyone. Let's talk about why these things continue to be so intrusive in our organizations. Past experience, but why is it so hard to mitigate? Well, there are factors and systems that help these things along. Really quickly, you see you'll get these slides so you don't have to do a screenshot, you'll just take them. But these are our core and general factors and systems. Remember I said at the beginning the first time somebody says something out of the way you might not recognize it. So by the time that you realize it, you have established a response and your calling response to the behaves. That's the insidiousness of the low morale experience. And that's the insidiousness, as it takes hold, there's contagion that happens. Whereas, people either engage or they either recognize the other people are being abused and neglected, that they're not the only one, or they engage in abusive and neglective behaviors in order to reduce their own abuse and neglect as a defense mechanism. Contagion is not an excuse for abuse and neglectful behaviors, and offers us a lens to how it spreads in our organizational workplace. The other items, uncertainty and mistrust, that's a power dynamic. People expect silence and complicit at this time. When that occurs, you have opportunity for abuse and neglect. All these other items can be weaponized against librarians. The word enabled is used the same way we would think about it in substance overuse situations and that behavior that we think will stop the overuse actually helps the overuse continue or expand. These systems work in the same way. If you get more staffing and employment, A, B, and C. What happens is staffing and employment is weaponized, okay. If we talk to human resources and they helped us do a no tolerance or whatever those thingstor stop those negative workplace behaviors but instead the onus is on abusee. The person who is abused to prove the abuse, okay. If, you know, we think that the leaders are doing a poor job, and if the leadership style, if the leaders would help out or A, B, and C, abuse and neglect wouldn't happen. If everybody understood what library workers did, then abuse and neglect wouldn't happen. But in fact, because they think they know, it increases the low morale, okay. Everybody's understanding how these enabling systems work. And then when I did my study for formal leaders, we find that these are the factors that prevent and impact leaders when they deal with low morale. Realize had they come into the organization that the stated values aren't really the values that are being offered in the organization. So there's a gap. If everybody knows what pro tem kin is, usually people mention the Potemkin submarine. But it's a facade. It's a facade of a city. So Potemkin power is my nod to. People think that library leaders have a lot of power. Generally in the span of leader in an organization, oftentimes because the library is an investment center and not a surface-level or evident revenue driver, they often don't have the power that they use. Remember, even a library director of a large branch has to go to the board of trustees and do the board of trustees know how libraries work? Additionally, isolation. If you're a leader in an organization or the president or the head of the board of trustees is the one hiring you, to whom do you go? Do you tell your indirect reports? Probably not because your goal is to protect them which leads to the next one, which is wros -- crossfire. Being in that squeeze between your directors and indirect reports. Your organizational peers. These things make it hard for leaders to create systems of accountability and sometimes they get exhausted by all of the documentation and the systems of accountability, the performance improvement plans, all those tenured colleagues who are treating people poorly but you can't get rid of them. It makes it very difficult for leaders to create systems of accountability that -- that work for the organization. And in that case, then we run into something called legacy toxicity. That is when a leader is coming into an organization that is our group or department is already toxic and they are realizing that they cannot mitigate the low morale because either the previous person was an abuser, the systems had already been tried within that organization and they're not working well, and/or the employees themselves are consciously or subconsciously stopping the leader from working to improve the organization. So there were no new enabling systems reported for this group, but these are the factors that move it along. So there's behaviors that are occurring, and there are systems that are happening that help these -- these behaviors continue. So when we think about how we're going to deal with low morale and create countermeasures against them, we have to work within systems so we can dismantle them. This is something I'm just learning, so this study just came out. I just finished this study earlier in year. So crowdsourcing, how do you get past it? And this is -- you look to these systems for your answers. You look to the systems for your answers. And to your organization and the unique mix of systems and behaviors. Okay. I want to give a note of recognition to the pandemic. I've been gathering data for a while now. I did it basically from March 16, 2020, until May 11 are or 10th whenever the Federal Government said they weren't recognizing this as a pandemic anymore. So literally almost through the whole pandemic I received over 400 responses during that time from participants who were already dealing with low morale before the pandemic. And my goal was to see how library responses to COVID-19 impacted low morale experiences, okay. So I just want to share with you this screen that people noted upticks in negligence and system abuse, the challenges were with burnout, resilience narratives, which is fancyfanssy words -- fancy words how many of you have been told to do more with less? Yeah. Do more with less, it's your fault if you can't fix it. It's the individual's fault if the organization can't meet the demand or meet the need. You're being held responsible personally for an organization's gals. And then vocational awe, basically the weaponizing of our values against ourselves. Those are the top ones. Then we look over to the other side, people perceive that their abuser were administrators and managers and the top factors were uncertainty and mistrust which I was not surprised because there was a lot of new information coming at all times in and our communication channels were challenged greatly due to this new thing that no one had ever experienced. Also leadership, staffing, and employment, and human resources limitations. I believe the human resources limitations are linked because people were asking human resource what's do, okay. All right. Low morale countermeasures. I believe in self-preservation. Self-preservation. Tools are required for survival and deflection of acts of workplace abuse and neglect at the time the events occur. At the time the events occur. At the time the events occur. Oftentimes I know I'm an introvert. I don't know how many of you are introverts, but I'm an introvert. And the thing that always gets me when something happens to me is afterwards in the midfield the night, the next day I think of the thing I could have, would have said, I should have said. Why didn't I? Uh-uh. Thank you all for saying yes. It's not just me. I ruminate over it. And it sometimes it goes for years. I think back to it and I still, oh, my God, I can't believe. Self-preservation, that's why I say in the moment. You can't run back and get it after you're out of the water and then say give me the life jacket. What are some of those items? What are some of the things of self-preservation? Assertive communication, colleagues. We worry a lot of what people think of us and we really want to be nice. Nice is not kind. Empathetic is not nice. Assertive communication simply says, this is what I'm not going to do or this is what I will do. This is how I'm going to deep your dignity too. It may not be what either of us want to hear, but it's what is needed to keep expectations for behaviors and outcomes. That's it. That's it. But if you're really concerned like we most often are, what we're going to call the mayor, then he's going to call the president, we're really concerned with being nice. So I recommend if you haven't had a course or read a -- get your resources together, gather them, take an assertive communication course or learn about it. I'll give you a tip. I never tell anybody what they can't do in a library. I'm really focused on what they can do. Start there. Okay. The other one is, boundaries. Boundaries feel weird, again, librarians, because we have vocational awe, we'll do it. Think about it when the library is asked to do the things but not being funded but they're asked to do you will at things because we're afraid if we say no they won't give us anything. Back to my mission statement, I have to say no to some things. Or my yeses sometimes have to have parameters around a yes. Keep in mind that your yeses can have parameters. And the other one is creativity. When you're dealing with low morale, the first thing that usually go is anything that brings you joy. Anything. People that deal with low morale for a long time often look up and realize that they are actually centered in work. They're either thinking about work all the time ruminating on the thing that the other person's doing, they're talking to someone else about what's going on at work, if they even get together for coffee they end up talking about what's going on at work. And they're not doing anything that used to bring them joy. The crocheting, the chili cook off, the belly dancing, the K-Pop, that's me. Whatever the things are, okay. All those things go out the window. I believe in creativity. We need to play. We need to play. Okay. And that's when you're solutions come. Emerging self-preservation tools are conflict resolution. So part and parcel of assertive communication is being able to resolve conflict. This is a great tool, it doesn't mean we like drama. What it is, is we don't avoid drama because humans have drama and we need to be able to confront it. So everybody has dignity and come to a resolution, okay. The other one is reassessing expectations of leadership. Many of us in this room have expectations of leadership based on traditional understandings of leadership that don't come from library work. What does it mean to lead in libraries today? What has it ever really meant to lead in libraries? At any time. We have to have and clarify those conversations. And the other one is collective care. Being responsible for yourself and claiming willingly your humanity and the care of others. And the care of others. So those are some that are emerging, particularly for leaders who are trying to navigate a new workplace where people weren't supposed to bring themselves to work but we've always been doing that. And now we need to think about what that really means in the contemporary workspace. Particularly with all the ways that libraries are being attacked from the outside. It's even more important that we shore up our internal sense of care among our workers. Collective care, here's a nice definition. Basically saying what I said. We are in an individualistic society, we need to be thinking about ourselves as a collective. To empower each other, to then care for others. Continuing my work, everyone, I am -- you can scan that code for all of my data collection projects which I do all the time, the only one that's closed now again is the COVID-19 one. You can join my community and on Facebook and we have sibling communities at Instagram and Twitter. I also offer coaching for people who are considering transitional who need support in libraries and archives workplaces dealing with low morale. So scan that code and you'll see more information there. And I also offer work -- work and facilitation with groups if you have staff days and things like that, happy to come talk with you a little bit more. Thank you so much for those of you who are already joined renewals group, I appreciate your engagement with that group and I'll continue to improve. Thank you so much for giving me your attention. I'd like to turn it over to Sunnie. Thank you all so much. >> I'm going to jump in and see if we can touch on a few of the questions that came through. I'm so impressed with chat. People are really jumping in sharing comments and experiences and there are a few questions. Let's see, there's a lot. I thought this was a really interesting comment, just I want to mention this. Somebody said they were tired of having an attitude of a boss who is someone who is just a regular employee. Which I thought was interesting. That happens to us. Someone asked, what is quit and stay? I also saw lots of people talking about the quiet quitting, Cay would think quiet quitting is different than quit and stay. Quit and staying is the person that wants to leave but they stay. stay. They may not be engaged at all. It's as if they're not there but they're coming in. The quit and stay is the person that's not engaged at all that comes to work but is definitely not engaged in the work and stopping other people from doing the work. That's connected to the legacy toxicity. The person that a lot of people will say they always have something to say, the person is always doing devil's advocate. The person is always stopping the meeting, the person is always expanding the meeting, always redirecting the meeting, always starting the gossip, the person that grooms the new employee to say that it's just awful, all of those would be examples of quit and stay that's connected to legacy toxicity. Quiet quitting to me is people are working to rule. They're doing their work and leaving. They're treating their work like work. Because here in our society we think that to be engaged in work means you're overworking. When the people who are engaged in overwork are the people who are perceived to be working. But there are lots of people who come in at 8:00, go to lunch at noon, come back at 1:00, leave at 5:00 who are working with the they're doing their jobs. >> Excellent. >> KAETRENA: They're just doing their jobs and not centering work. >> Interesting, yeah. Interesting. Someone mentioned please talk about elected public leaders that directors are beholden to and how that plays into leadership and rule. You know, I know we're talking a lot about within our organizations, but many libraries are beholden to boards or elected officials. Have you seen any specifics come through your data that address that? >> KAETRENA: No. And people often ask this question, so -- and these are the responses that I offer when we're dealing with people -- when we're beholden to people who don't understand libraries make decisions for libraries. One, we're just now thinking about advocacy in terms of people in the libraries. Traditionally, when we think about library advocacy, and I mentioned this in several venues, so if you listen to me anyplace else in public you'll hear me say this and I'll say it here for this group, traditionally we think of library advocacy we think of buildings, facilities, programs, resources, books, technology, platforms, and services. We're just now think about the people working in the libraries. These are new conversations. So when we're thinking about advocating to the elected officials, when we're advocating and lobbying, we need to be talking about the people working in the libraries. That's one way. The other thing is we need to remember that library advocacy -- library using doesn't mean library advocacy. A lot of people coming to libraries now they went to libraries when they were little. They used libraries when they were little. They'll probably tell you the same story. I went to the library, my mom or dad took me to the library every Friday. We did summer reading. Library use doesn't mean library advocacy. And that's another reason why we need to center people in the libraries, working when we're talking about advocacy. So if we start there, the people who are working with elected officials, what might your advocacy and lobbying and conversations look like when you center the work of the people working in the libraries? In addition to all of the other things that we traditionally talk about when we deal with libraries and work with library advocacy. >> Excellent. Sort of related, the other -- one of the other questions was around how staff are evaluated and how administrators or supervisors are not evaluated in that same way. That assures social-emotional safety for everyone. I mean, I would think a countermeasure would be ensuring that supervisors are evaluated as well as staff, but -- both of you are order inning. >> KAETRENA: And just as regularly too, right? And just as regularly. So for instance, there are organizations that do these 3 sixties of high-level leaders only once in three years and everybody else is getting -- getting, you know, getting looked at every year. Or every six months. So we need to -- that's a very good equalizer of -- to me, that's an equalizer. Everybody's evaluated the same time, the same amount of time. At the same frequency. And asked the same questions. Asked the same core questions rather than creating a new sometimes too that they have a totally different model of questions for the leader than for the -- I say ask everybody the same core questions because the values are there. You're all responsible for the same values and the same culture. The same core questions. And then perhaps have other things that show off those competencies at certain levels. >> Yeah, I also -- I mean, I would advocate for system evaluation, you know, that would provide an opportunity to look at board evaluation or look at -- you know, be that library learning organization that brings a culture of learning to the rest of the community that you're engaging with. Which is a perfect segue -- go ahead, Kaetrena. >> KAETRENA: I was going to say, don't make them punitive. The other problem with evaluations is that they always feel punitive and not developed and not focused on improvement. So when we look at these tools, what questions could we ask that help people be reflective about what it is they're doing rather than saying I did five things so I'm not -- and if I did these five things then I keep my job or I get that raise. Rather how can they be reflective so it's a culture of improvement and people can talk about this is what I learned this year, this is what I can do better moving forward, these are the resources I realized that are available to me. It's almost a coaching mindset instead of this punitive you did it or you didn't and if you didn't, oh well, these gotcha culture questions are kind of what it is. It creates a gotcha culture, which doesn't create improvement or development. Thank you so much. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kaetrena. This has been so great and we're so excited to continue seeing your work evolve, participating in your studies, and participating in the renewals group. So thank you so much. >> KAETRENA: Thank you. >> Let's shift on over to Sunnie. Welcome, Sunnie, and I know Sunnie's been watching chat as well and seeing all these ideas come through. So let's jump over and hear from you and your experience. >> SUNNIE: Thank you so much. So I'm starting my first slide has this definition of success. And I wanted to just start with this by John Wooden. The definition of success for him is peace of mind attained through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you're capable. And I think this, as a correlation with low morale, this is a goal that we should have for ourselves and for everyone you manage, for everyone around you. Because other definitions of success, perhaps being imposed on you, or perhaps internal, they can include too many things that are outside of our control, especially in public libraries. So changing our mindset can really help us avoid burnout and keep things in perspective and really combat low morale. I love what I do. I love our profession. But I also try really hard not to take my work too personally. Which actually makes me better at my job. Keeping things in perspective makes me better because I'm more calm and rational. When I'm not taking things personally and I'm less territorial as a leader. I can let someone else have the best idea in the room. I can listen better. And for every level of employee, especially folks at the desk all the time, not taking things personally allows you to give the best customer service. Happy people, research shows us happy people give the best customer service. So let's change our mindset and make our definition of success be knowing that we did the best of which we're capable. And so with that, let's talk about the most important countermeasure, which is a healthy workplace culture. So Peter Drucker famously said, culture eats strategy for breakfast. He wasn't a perfect example for us to follow, but I do think about this quote quite a bit. I love strategic planning. Strategic planning is great. But ultimately, the culture of the workplace is going to determine people's experience both at work and our future experience as well. How do we create a healthy workplace culture? I would say the most important way is to hire and train empathetic staff with healthy boundaries. So you hire for that and you train your existing employees. Because healthy organizations proactively work to prevent and/or minimize low morale triggers. We can't control everything, but we should be making this a focus. We want to empower staff to empathetically enforce healthy boundaries. We've done this in my organization by getting a subscription to running trainings. There's many, many other ways to do this. But one thing that's important with training that helps is it gets staff on the same page. We all now have the same goal for customer service. We have some of the same language that we're going to use. So everyone in my organization knows that we are very empathetic in our approach, but that does not mean that we do not enforce boundaries. And actually having staff on the same page can minimize the ways in which we accidentally cause low morale for each other. And then another thing that's really important is educating our board, which we've already talked about just a little bit. They need to partner with us to provide sufficient funding and make sure that we're not understaffed. Two ways that cause a lot of low morale in libraries. So convince them of the organizational impact of understaffing, and show them the research that proves that happy, cared for employees give the best customer service. This is crucial to public libraries and library services in general. Couple other things as an organizational leader, if you're a director or if you're in any kind of supervisory group, branch manager group, working group, create supportive policies and procedures. Take a look through both your public-facing policies and also your employee handbook. Make sure that they're supporting a healthy workplace. So an example is we made sure that our code of conduct is very specific, that our antiharassment policy applies to everyone. Patrons cannot harass staff, staff cannot harass patrons. Our staff cannot harass one another. The board is held to the exact same standard. Vendors. I believe ours also specifies vendors. This applies to everyone and it will be enforced. And you also want to make sure you have a really effective incident reporting system in place for your next incident. That really, really helps. And then uncertainty and mistrust is one of those big low morale triggers. The way you can impact this positively is by creating clear goals for every staff member tied to the mission and strategic plan. And right on track with what Kaetrena was saying, I thought about this a lot and instituted a new system in our organization that is completely forward looking, because research shows us that the old way of doing annual reviews that are looking in the rear view mirror are actually counter effective. What's the word for that? You know what I mean. They're counterproductive. They're counterproductive. So we look forward, we talk about what you want to learn this year, how you want to grow professionally this year, how can I support you in those goals? And it applies everyone to. And it starts with me. I, as the library director, I do this with my executive officers once per year. As soon as I have fin nishlgd my -- finished my goal set requiring scheduled mine goal setting with my supervisors. We are talking about how they relate to that so we all know we're going the same direction and we all know what we're working on. I think that really, really makes a difference. I actually had a 360 review, so I have more accountability than everyone else, because, lead by example. And that brings me to my next point. Start with yourself. So we've kind of covered the big picture, but one of the most important things that we can do, especially important for leaders, but this is such a big way that everyone, everyone can impact the culture of their organization is by leading -- leading by example and starting with yourself. So create systems in your own life that stave off burnout, increase job satisfaction, you know, make sure you engage in those hobbies when you go home. But even at work, lead by example. Prioritize professional development. No matter what level you're at, be proactive in looking for professional development. Don't wait for someone to bug you to say you should go to this workshop. Even if your workplace does not currently have a culture of -- of engaging in PD, you can change that culture by prioritizing it for yourself. And create strong networks. This can help stave off isolation -- positional isolation. So I have a goal -- one of my annual goals written on my official plan is that every other month I find an inspirational library or librarian to visit. I walk around and buy them coffee and I talk to someone who knows exactly what I'm going through and I create a strong network and I don't feel alone. That's something anyone can do. And then it's important to model healthy boundaries by meeting on time, communicating candidly regarding boundaries, and use all paid your time off. Thank you for the hands up, Kaetrena. This is another thing that is really important for leaders. But anyone at any level of the organization can start to change this burnout, overwork culture by doing this whenever possible. I know I leave on time every day, it is possible in any way. And then on the rare occasions that it actually is really important for me to stay late, I don't get burned out and I don't feel resentful because I'm keeping those really rare and, you know, few and far between. And that really, really helps. Next, I want to encourage everyone to learn more about trauma-informed leadership and trauma-informed librarianship. I could say a lot about this, I have a lot to say about this it's something I've been learning about recently, the substance abuse and mental health services administration has four main sort of assumptions that guide this approach. Realization, recognition, response, and resisting retraumatization. So basically a critical element of trauma-informed leadership is being willing to listen and acknowledge the pain of those experiencing trauma is essential to allow people to share their experiences, make sure they know they're being genuinely heard. And trauma-informed leaders stay calm, which is really, really important. We're helping to create a space where staff are sort of act -- activated. I did want to talk before he -- about resisting traumatization. This has become this idea that you're not a real librarian until someone has cussed you out, a patron has aggressively hit on you, you know, it goes on and on. And I understand why this exists. This was really, really true in the first library that I worked at. And it's -- it's a way -- it's a coping mechanism that is making someone feel less alone. Right? It's very understandable. At the same time, I want us to move past this. I want us as a profession to deal with the trauma. To help people move past the trauma and to avoid retraumatizing one another with this -- with this kind of language. So let's -- let's do this. Six key principles of a trauma-informed approach are safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration and mutuality, empowerment and choice, recognizing cultural, historical, and gender issues. Doesn't that sound like an environment you'd want to work in? If you're an institutional leader, I really highly recommend learning more about the trauma-informed leadership. I think it really has the power to change our whole profession if it became widely adopted. I think for me personally it's a great way in this environment right now to retain and attract really, really talented staff. Because this is the kind of place where we all want to work. I could go on and on, but we don't have that much time. So I do want to mention the importance of supporting middle managers. And we can do this in a systemic way by creating a supportive team that has regular meetings for collaboration and problem solving, really building a cohesive group. And we have a weekly supervisors meeting at my library for a larger library, I'm kind of mid-size library, more a larger one monthly would probably make more sense. Once we started doing that and meeting that way, you will find that the middle managers then feel more comfortable going to one another for support on, you know, various things that come up because they've built those relationships. And promoting consistent and honest communication is really important. I do this we having standing one-on-one meetings with each of my direct reports. Every other month I take them out for coffee, and it gives us space to talk about nonurgent work matters, because so often we're putting out fires. But I want them to know that I also care about just, you know, worries that are in the back of their mind. Issues that, you know, aren't so important they don't want bother me, but really talking about it could help them. And then I really don't have enough time to get in to all of this, but it's important to not let one apple spoil the bunch. We need to hold all employees to the same standard. I will just say the book radical candor convinced me that in my effort to be nice I was not being kind to everyone. I was being unkind to everyone by trying to be too nice to people whose work was not up to the same standards as everyone else. And I do recommend that book for a new approach to that. A couple other things to think about. I would recommend learning more about psychological safety, which is -- it addresses the six key principles of trauma-informed approach. And it's just making sure that folks in your org know that it's okay to take risks. You can express different ideas, ask questions, admit mistakes without being afraid of how your supervisor or your boss is going to react to that. And you can do that by, again, leading by example. Share your own mistakes, talk about your process, host brainstorming sessions where people just throw things against the wall because it's part of a healthy process. And the book that really helped guide me in this was failing forward by John Maxwell. And then how do you, as Kaetrena said, selective care is really important. How do you teach staff to care for one another? I suggest creating a system of support. We have a morning meeting so everyone can say what they're up to that day so we're all informed. We have a collaborative white board where we throw fun questions out. We have a calendar to celebrate milestones, birthdays and things. And we have staff training days so we can all get together. These things support collective care. And it's an easy sort of systemic way, you build it into what you're doing and it's more likely to actually happen. And then I would also recommend becoming a continuous learning organization where staff really have that mindset that mistakes are stepping stones to success. That's also that failing forward is a really big part of my focus on that as well. It's really important because we never -- we want to make sure folks know we never arrive, we're never the ultimate librarian. We always should be learning. And we need to prioritize growth over perfection. As long as we're not making the same mistakes over and over, we're using those mistakes to get better. And then just to finish up a couple words about good habits. These things are small, but they make a big difference. Always check in with staff after an incident. Always. Have your supervisors do the same if you're a large org. And then give regular, specific praise both in person and in writing, both publicly and privately. Because you will need to step in after difficult incidents, but positive communication's really important as well. Don't let the only time that a staff member hears from you is when something bad has happened. Make sure there's both positive communication before and after that, and make sure people hear that from you. Because that's really, really important and makes a big difference. Now, we have -- I have left a few minutes for questions. But then I'll also put my email up so if you have something that you think of later, you can get in touch with me or any way that I can be helpful for you. And I know some things are potentially more sensitive than you would want to address here. But we do have a few minutes for questions. >> Wow, you guys, that is a lot of information, a lot of suggestions. I have to say, I'm feeling a little fire hosy myself, so I can imagine that participants are feeling that way. A reminder to folks that the slides, the recording, everything will be available, the chat without your names will be available. The resources, we'll make sure are clearly referenced on the event page. We tried to catch all of them. And a note that they did -- we did actually create world catalyst, the new world catalyst option with their recommended books. So I'll post that in here one more time. And you know, with our remaining time, there were -- like I said, there are a lot of sort of specific questions that maybe are harder for us to dive deeply into. If folks have some final questions, we can maybe try to grab them. But I'd also like to give each of you time, especially maybe starting with Kaetrena, because I know you maybe were able to look at some of the chat, but can you talk about sort of what you recommend in terms of how people move forward with this new information? I mine, even? Is kind of a challenge of porsing out around this topic and then people asking how do you bring this learning to your organization especially if you are not a leader. So let's start with Kaetrena. I think you might still be muted. >> KAETRENA: Thank you. The thing I take away from my latest study is that we are in the same boat on different decks. This person that gave this to me in this really great, and that's the way it is. And when we're dealing with trauma, we are considering the abuser as the enemy, because they are doing things -- things are being happening to us. And the problem is the systems. Because what the leadership study told me is, leaders are also dealing with the same things that the workers are dealing with. The difference is they keep it from their indirect reports because they're trying to keep it from them to fix it on their own. But you can't fix -- no one fixes low morale on their own. No one fixes abuse and trauma on their own. So the first thing is, even though it feels better to say that person is doing that and they need to just stop it, what does it look like if we go to -- if we get into the space without saying that they're absolved of their abuse? We also -- and get into the space of they might be dealing with something too so we can start from that collective commonality to create whatever the countermeasures are to fix it that we don't know about. Because we're really struggling with the divide. We can't really fix it until we get together on the same side. And a lot of things that Sunnie is talking about, Sunnie as a leader is putting herself on the same side as her employees. She is doing whatever she can to put herself on the same side systemically as her employees. Take that, run with it! And the people that are already on the other side, find out what's going on with your leader, move that reassessment, what you think about leadership, and find out what's going on with your leader and see what you can do to get on their side. But the system's going to keep you apart. HR's going to keep you apart. The board of trustees is going to keep you apart because they're thinking they own -- all those things are going to keep you apart. So what in those areas that you can identify that put you on the same side. Start there. Even though it feels good to a dysregulated system, you're like, that person is harming me is over there. Cause you're all in the same boat. Because when the library's failing, it's not the director that's failing, it's the people who are working in the library on the floor too. So I'll start there. >> Thank you, that's really helpful. Sunnie, let's have you wrap us up. Any final thoughts, comments on how to move forward with this work? >> SUNNIE: Well, one thing I do, I have recommended in past things I've been part of, use this webinar as an excuse to put some of these ideas in place. So you know, if you're a director, if you're a supervisor, or if you are an entry-level -- any kind of staff member, you can go to the person that you want to make changes with and say, you know, I was in this webinar the other day and they said it's a really good idea to have a standing meeting with your direct supervisor. Is that something we can get on our schedule? You know, what kind of regularity could you fit in there? Or you could go to your board and say, you know, I've heard in this webinar that, you know, it's a great idea to give the board more information about staff morale and why we are choosing to focus on that in our next strategic plan process or in our next fiscal year. So please use this as a jumping off board. Feel free to use us as an excuse to bring up these issues and to suggest positive changes. >> Absolutely. And a reminder that the learner guide is there for you to perhaps help take that action, it can be customized so you have specific resources or suggestions you'd like to include in your learner guide version, please customize that. Wow. We are at the top of the hour and I just want to note that many of you're suggesting other webinar topics, so I really want to hear from you. We have a survey we're going to send you to as you leave and there's so Leigh a question in there that you can add those to. We will be sharing that, but is it does help us guide our ongoing programming to make sure we're getting to those topics you want us to get to. I'm going to quickly mention since there's so many of you here, that we have a Webjunction experience survey that closes tomorrow. And we're really hoping to get feedback from folks on that survey so that we can share that feedback or so that we can gather your feedback, I'll get that link to post to chat as well. And I'll also send you all an email later on today once the recording is posted and I'm going to automatically send you a certificate for attending today. You don't need to request that. Thank you so much, again, to our presenters, Kaetrena and Sunnie. We so appreciate all of the work that you are doing around this topic as well as the work you've put into to bringing it to the folks in this webinar. We look forward to continuing to talk about it. This is an important topic to us at webjunction as well we are looking forward to keeping this conversation alive. Thank you all for being here. Thank you to our captioner and our support. Everyone have a fantastic rest of your week and a restful and rejuvenating weekend. Thank you so much.