I just want to throw out an admittedly gimmicky way of thinking about a big part of the work we do as EdLab managers: we spend a considerable amount of energy on recrutiing, retooling, and retaining. I’d like to call this “the three R’s of team-building.”

As part of the academic library at Teachers College, EdLab has a unique set of people, projects, and goals. Because our work is “in between” worlds – academia, libraries, technology, and media – our priorities are often in a state of flux.

By design, many of our staff appointments are short term (one semester or one year, for example). This allows us to work with different cohorts of students and professionals. It also means we are continually putting energy into building, shaping, and sustaining our teams.

Reflecting on this work causes me to consider a few questions:

• What strategies are effective and efficient in each of the three areas? There is of course a lot of literature on this, so: What works well for us specifically? What are some new approaches we should consider? Can better communication make our work more effective or efficient?
• What is the “cost” of investing in the 3 R’s? What specific outcomes do we seek? What are the indicators we look for to see if we need to change our approaches?