If you're not failing, you're not trying

Post #7 in a series on creating better libraries and stronger communities through kindness, empathy and love.

Creating a culture of kindness, empathy and love in the work environment, in our case within libraries, creates a familial, non-competitive work culture where people feel embraced and valued. The most important lesson is that failure is okay. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying. Why be afraid to fail? That’s how we learn. There are the stupid fails, like “oh no, I just slept in” or “geez, I forget to sign paychecks again.” But if you’re reaching and falling down, you’re doing it the right way. And if everyone reaches, think of the things we can accomplish. We can really make libraries what they need to be. We can effectuate societal change. We just need to believe in ourselves and hold onto our beliefs. I believe in you. I do. You can do these things. I know so because I’ve done a lot of these things and there isn’t anything special about me at all. Not a darn thing. Nothing. My teenagers will tell you that for sure.

In a lot of cases, you spend as much time with your coworkers as you do with your own family. It’s important that the work environment is a familial environment. Work should be a place where you feel warm and valued and embraced; that you have enough flexibility to be creative and to run with ideas. It’s absolutely critical. And the more we can instill kindness, empathy and love into the workplace, the stronger the workplace becomes. It puts us in a better position to accomplish extraordinary things.

Want to reduce turnover rates? Want to make Monday feel as exciting as Friday? Make work fun. Brian, the HR Director at KDL, is a ninja at making work fun. We do all kinds of corny stuff – we have a t-shirt cannon, paper airplane-throwing contests and all kinds of good things. It’s fun to get out and stretch your legs and act like a family. We break bread together, spend time together and work with your friends. I didn’t know anyone at KDL when I started – not a single person. Now, I love everyone I work with. And I think this whole notion that Directors can’t be friends with their employees is nonsense. I really do, down to my core. If you feel isolated because you’re a Director, you’re doing it the wrong way. If you’re a real Director – a good Director – you should come to work and feel like you’re on an exciting journey with your best friends every time you walk through the door. You’re one gear in a big machine – the story is not about you, it’s about the team. If you’re a really good Director, you know what you do? You pick everybody up. You give them what they need to be successful. You’re vulnerable. And you don’t need to be afraid, because you’re among family.

Let me tell you something about libraries: Everything in libraries can be replicated elsewhere, easily, and most of the time for free – except for you. You can’t be replicated. The most important thing in my opinion – and I’m not Yoda or anything – is what you offer: your customer service, kindness, empathy, love and connection to people. This is why people come to the library. They need stuff, but they’re coming to see you, too. We want everyone to feel like Norm from Cheers when they walk in the door. We want them to hear, “I’m so glad you’re here! I love you! Thanks for coming in today. How are the kids? What are you up to?” I think that a really good library employee looks a lot like a really good bartender. A really good bartender will have regulars and will have their order ready on the counter before they sit down. Additionally, they’ll know if they can talk to that person or not, when to talk and they’ll also know what to talk about – they’ll know what’s safe and what’s not safe.

When we hire people and add them to our KDL family, we want to know that they’re willing to make a commitment to get to know people, to be vulnerable and get involved. This is what it’s going to take if we’re going to be around for another 1,000 years. We’ve been around for 3,000 years and we need to be around for another 3,000. The way we’re going to do that is to wake up every day, try hard, get knocked down and stand back up again. And, most importantly, realize that people are the most important part of the equation.

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Lance Werner is a candidate for President of the @AmericanLibraryAssociation. Learn more at LanceWerner.com. #AmericanLibraryAssociation #LibrariesTransform #ALAMW19