Thing 23 - reflection

My reflection on the cpd23 programme

The cpd23 programme has filled a gap for me and made me sit down and devote time to my development and to looking into, evaluating and using services I may have heard of but not really investigated.

These days, the rate of change seems to be phenomenal, with new ways of doing things constantly appearing, and new software emerging. It is difficult to keep up. You get a feeling there is something you think you don’t know about but feel you ought to, but you don’t know what it is because you don’t know what there is to know! I think I put this into my annual development review at work in the very early days of the ADR, when computing power first started to change the way we worked.

So, being presented with a relatively easy way of finding out about lots of things that are available and having them presented in groups of similar things was fantastic! At work we tried to something like this a couple of years ago and had what we called a “new technologies day”, in which we had demonstrations of Twitter, facebook, Yammer, next generation OPACs etc; I know some people were glad of this, not just as a way of improving their understanding of what was going on but also so that they could use things like facebook to keep up with their distant friends and relatives!

I was very keen to do the cpd23 programme, recognising that for myself there would be a great benefit. Despite sharing my enthusiasm with many members of my team, I have been unable to convince them that the time spent on cpd23 is well worth it. Methinks, those who would be interested are already working hard on NVQs, ECDL or Accreditation so perhaps haven’t got the time to spare (and I recognise that one, having done all my cpd23 in my spare time at home!).

So, my next immediate action is to write a short article for our internal library staff bulletin that promotes cpd23 as the next best thing since sliced bread!

I have been in my current job for about 12 years, and have been a cataloguer since the beginning of my career, over 30 years ago. Of course there are gaps in my experience, but I am happy doing what I do and cannot see me doing anything else for a while. When the time comes to move on, or the job changes, I now have the courage and the support (in the form of thing23) to assess my skills and identify what I need to do or learn in order to secure that next position.

The reflection part of our ADR process at work is also good for this, although it sometimes reads as a long list of objectives! However, I do try to be honest about how well or badly I’ve done what I’ve done, and also to try and look forward to see what skills I might need as the job changes to suit the times.

Many years ago I did a similar sort of thing as a mind map – me in the centre with shoots coming out all over the place, representing me at work, me as a mother, me as a student, me as person etc., with all the things I wanted to achieve and how I could achieve them branching out. It was a very useful technique, although I never did learn Italian, but I did take those singing lessons!

The one “skill” I would like to get to grips with is confidence! Yes, I know it’s not a skill it’s a personality trait, so maybe I should think about how I acquire a skill that will let me objectively assess whether what I have done, am doing and will do has been, is and will be any good! One way of doing that is by getting out there and contributing to things, and I’ve put a toe in the water there, by taking part in this cpd23 challenge.

The other thing I find difficult is managing, but already I find I am getting better at delegating and not being afraid that if I delegate everything there won’t be anything left for me to do and my skills will become out-of-date. As I mentioned in my thing 21 post, as an INFJ I expect everything to be perfect which I think is what makes me want to do everything myself, at least that way if it’s not perfect I can only blame myself, thereby not subjecting anyone else to my exacting standards! Not sure that knowledge helps me any though.

So, here I am at the end of my post, fired up and enthusiastic about having taken part in cpd23, about “meeting” lots of other people like me, about learning lots of new stuff, about being empowered to go out and discover and try things out, and most of all about sharing the benefits of such a programme with others who haven’t as yet tried it out!

Many, many thanks to all who organised this incredible programme, and good luck to others who are following it, or are about to follow it!