The organization doubled in size in September and in October, Shirley Stelbrink traveled* to Riga, Latvia and delivered training to librarians from across the small country.*  Shirley has been working with Susan Schnuer of the University of Illinois over the past five years delivering training to international participants.*  The trip to Latvia is the second time that* Learning Alliances has taken the training out of the country.*  This time last year, Shirley traveled to Sasketchewan, Canada for training farm groups.

Latvia became independent a mere twenty-two years ago and is part of the Baltic region* of* Northern Europe which includes Lithuania and Estonia.*  As the one of the least populous countries of the European Union, the Latvian’s have worked extremely hard to become one of the fastest growing economies of the European Union.*  Shirley quickly unlocked* their keen* willingness to learn new tools, methods and ways that many Americans take for granted.* The Latvian librarians were willing and eager to “share their wealth”.*  In* other words,* they were willing to talk about what works, how they could help one another to move* forward instead of simply identifying problems.

Check out the video from Shirley’s trip!

As both the “DiSC: Unleashing Your Personal Resources” and “Virtual Teams: Teamwork Without a Face”, had to be presented via an interpreter Shirley also had some learning to do and had to adjust* * her teaching style.* Shirley had to really think about the proper word* choice so that the translation was effective and more importantly, Shirley had to learn to SLOW down.

So what could we learn from a small country half a world away?

We could learn:

• :training with Learning Alliances is the safest place to learn with no judgments and fun interactivies
• :it is acceptable to take time to think before taking action
• :that it is a privilege to attend and participate in training opportunities
• :to be courageous when asking for clarity or what we call, “to buy in” on the tools and how to use them effectively
• :that different ideas can build “best practices”

As your organization prepares for the new year, consider what your company could learn. Make 2013 the year you maximize individual potential and grow your organization. We look forward to working with your company to develop a customized coaching and training plan!