Director's Thoughts #9 – Telling Stories

I’m trying something new with my staff as of the end of this week. I’ve been asking the question lately, “How do we make people care?” People being our staff, stakeholders, supervisors, etc. I want our staff to know that we’re making a difference every single day, I want our stakeholders to know about all the great things we’re doing and I want the township supervisors to see how we impact our community.

Statistics work great – how many people walk through our doors, how many items are checked out, how many people attend our programs, but these statistics don’t tell our story. So, this week I taped a piece of posterboard to the wall in our staff hallway (we don’t have our own break room). All I wrote on it was “Our Impact” and now I’m asking staff to share patron stories – nice words at the circ desk, a kind comment after a program or a word of thanks for help using the computers.

I’m hoping to show our staff just how much our community values the work we do. I’m hoping for great stories to share on our social media. And I want these strong stories to share with our Board in the hopes that they are not only impressed by our numbers, but also see just how much we do to impact our community in a truly positive way.
How do you collect and share your stories?