The people library.

Have you ever wondered how much you know about the people you work with? Apart from their job, what do they like, what are they good at, what experiences do they have and what specials skills do they possess?  Because everything you don’t know about them could be a lost opportunity to your organisation…

Organisations hire employees with job descriptions and yet often it’s the things that we don’t hire for that could add that extra level of value to what we do.  It can take a long time to really get to know all the extra bits and pieces about the people you work with, so why not reverse it and get them to tell you.

Imagine if each person who walked through the door announced themselves.  Hi I’m Lisa and I can drive a tractor, I sleep like a log, I can read music, love to have ideas and am double jointed.  Ordinarily it could takes ages to get to know me this well, but imagine if I told you and then was happy to help you learn my special skills.

This is called a people library, where people write a bibliography on themselves, register it in the library and wait should anyone like to check them out.  What if your organisation had its own people library, where if someone wanted to learn something, discuss something or get some help with something, they could look in the library find everyone who knew about that thing and then borrow them for a while.

The people library is a great way to share resources, for people to get to know each other and for people to be valued for more than just their job description.  Why not check someone out?