Hump Day

It's called hump day for a reason - got a lot of work done today, and feel pretty good about it. I still have a lot to do, but I'm getting there. There seems to be a common theme with our distance-learning weeks. Each week of distance learning, I feel completely overwhelmed with the assignment at the start of the week. Once I get started and really dig into the assignment, it's like there's a moment of clarity, an epiphany, where it all makes sense. Yeah, Bart, you said so. Paul was a tremendous help today. He called me with an issue he was having with his "capabilities and competencies" portion. I made a few suggestions, hopefully helpful ones, then mentioned to him a problem I had with the same section of my proposal. Since it involved personnel with the state police, Paul offered to email the Section Commander of DRANO in an effort to put me in touch with him to get the information I needed. I haven't had that contact yet, but if it works, it just might be the final piece of my puzzle. Teamwork!

How did the day's activities relate to your real-world work situation?
The contact I had with Paul was a perfect example of what I believe is one of the most helpful tools we, in law enforcement, should have in our toolbox - connections. When you have good connections, or a network, there's always someone you can reach out to when you need something; someone that's been there and done that. Connections were priceless to me during my stints in the Detective Bureau and on the HSI task force.

How will your real-world behavior change as a result of what you learned today?
I'm definitely less intimidated by the thought of applying for a grant, after having to navigate through the grant announcement for this assignment. I hope to consider grants in the future in an effort to gain assistance for my department.

What could you have done differently that might have impacted your performance?
The issue Paul helped me with - looking back, I wish I had put some effort into this during our several week hiatus from Staff and Command. I could have reached out to the DRANO unit a week or two ago, and I would not have been under the time crunch that I am now.