Strategic Planning Series - Part 2


Strategic Planning Part 2:  Planning for Planning

Successful strategic planning is the result of careful preparation.  The planning exercise itself should be treated as a major library project—after all, it is--and managed accordingly.  Before talking about what is involved in preparing for planning, let’s briefly preview the upcoming topics in our series:
  • Part III: Environmental & Organizational Analysis will provide for a detailed look at the external and internal factors that affect the library (and its success) now and in the years to come.  The “main event” here will be a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis.
  • Part IV: Establishing Strategic Goals will deal with what constitutes success for your library, and what broad measures are needed to attain that success.  This is where the vision begins to “meet the road.”
  • Part V: Action Planning: Making it Happen will help you lay the groundwork for the specific tasks to be undertaken that are called for by the plan, as well as ways of monitoring progress along the way.
  • Part VI: Communication will suggest how to effectively communicate your plans and progress--to all affected parties—before, during and after the planning process.
I mention these now because the first thing the library leader responsible for the strategic planning process needs to do is think about how he or she wants to orchestrate these process steps.  No two institutions are created equal, and the planner-in-charge will want to adopt a process that will fit the needs and idiosyncrasies of his /her library organization.  This initial thinking and process outlining will prove very useful as decisions are made concerning the details we will discuss in this Part II.

Having roughed out a broad planning process, it is now time for the library leader to deal with the nitty-gritty.  While it will be possible (and often quite desirable) to make “mid-course corrections” once the planning exercise begins, the greater the effort in setting the stage, the greater the likelihood of planning success.  I have listed below some of the “stage-setters” to be handled in preparation for planning.  This is not intended as an exhaustive checklist—you will think of others—but rather a few of the more important pre-planning considerations and decisions that you and others will have to make.  I have organized the checklist under the headings of:
  • Who?
  • What
  • When and How?
Before reviewing the list, some words of advice: It is useful to think of the plan as a product that you are developing and marketing.  In order for it to succeed, it needs to be interesting, compelling and value-creating.  We’ll talk more about the value proposition in Part IV, but for now it is important to consider the process you are about to undertake and to make sure you will have the best people in the room with you, and that the views of critical stakeholders will be well-represented.  The highways of commerce are littered with failed products and services that were formed in a vacuum, without the benefit of life-giving research and staff collaboration.  Similarly, there are lots of strategic plans whose primary purpose is to support a plant in the corner of the director’s office.  So make sure that your plan does not endure a similar fate—perhaps in the office of your successor?

Who? 

At one point in my career I was in charge of developing a plan.  My boss, the CEO, sent an email to all staff announcing this process—a very good thing to do.  Well, one of the staff, a very thoughtful and intelligent person, suggested to me that the best approach would be for the planning to be done online, with the entire staff (1200 strong) partaking in the process in one big virtual mixing bowl.  The rationale here was that because the staff would be the ultimate executors of the plan, why not make it their plan.  My reaction at the time was “Eek!! This cannot work,” and I politely told the person that I would not adopt his suggestion.  So I went off and assembled a strong team of creative and experienced people, and, with considerable vetting with the executive team, the Board, and the marketplace, we put together a plan that has had much success in the marketplace.  And yet, even with this external success, the plan was never fully understood by a majority of the staff.  While there are a number of explanations for this (see Part VI), the suggestion I had received (and rejected) did indeed have some merit—yes, the process suggested would have been a disaster, however I should have found an alternative way to involve the staff in the planning process, because it is a very good thing to have a strategic plan that is understood by your staff.  And this understanding comes from a sense of ownership.

I have dragged you into my past simply to stress the importance of thinking through the question of who will be involved and how they will be involved.  As with most other matters of management, there is no cookbook answer.  An approach that is helpful, however, is to ask (and answer) the following questions:
  • Whose contributions and creativity will be of greatest value?
  • Whose judgment do I most trust?
  • How do we best involve the customers? Staff?
  • Who needs to “buy” the plan?
  • Who can help me manage the planning process?
Once you have answered these questions it might be useful to think of the organization of the planning effort in terms of “layers of involvement.”  An example of this is to have these layers:
  • A core planning team who are involved in the plan every step of the way.  The core team will typically have representation from the staff, the library board (or academic equivalent), and, in many cases, the community served by the library (faculty member/student/community leader).  Seek a diversity of views, but also look for people who will work well together.
  • A review team, responsible for providing oversight and feedback at various checkpoints in the planning exercise.  This should typically involve representatives from the higher echelons in the chain of command such as college presidents or provosts, city managers, and board chairs.  And consider representation from civic and “friends” groups, as well as key customers.  
  • The overall community served by the library.  It makes a great deal of sense to get up-front input from the marketplace, using a variety of research devices such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews.  Be sure that you get input not only from your active users but, perhaps more importantly, the underserved groups in the community.  While this large “layer” will not be actively involved in the planning work itself, getting their input at the start, and sharing the resultant plan with them, will be very critical. 
The last important matter for consideration is whether to employ a facilitator or not.  Facilitators can be extremely useful in making the process flow smoothly, and allowing the planning leader to focus on content.  They can also play the role of devil’s advocate and mediate varying opinions on issues.  The expense associated with hiring a facilitator should not be viewed as a luxury item—the planning effort will involve a huge amount of staff time and other resources, so the money spent to help assure a good process (and result!) is minor given the importance of the effort.  In many cases, the facilitator will also be the person who produces plan documents.  Some final words on facilitators: the planning leader and the facilitator should be on the same page at all times, and in agreement on what roles they will play.  Think of them as a very closely knit team—after all, if the decision is to not hire a facilitator, the planning leader will have to play all of the roles him or herself!  Also, resist the urge to use a staff member as a facilitator unless you absolutely feel that this is a person who will operate with the full comfort and trust of the planning team, and without any biases.  By the way, if you have some staff members that measure up to this standard, be sure to treat them very well!

(N.B.:  I have used the term “library leader” to denote the person responsible for the plan.  While in many cases this will be the library director, it may also be a person involved in the library’s governance, a key user, or, in a very large library, a planning specialist.  Whatever the case, it goes without saying that the person with overall responsibility for the management of the library should be a key person in the planning effort.)

What?

At the same time as you are answering the “who” questions, the library leader will need to determine specifically what is being produced.  Well, obviously, it’s a strategic plan, but some further food for thought:
  • What is the planning horizon?  Is this a ten-year plan? A five-year Plan? What are we going to do two years from now to update it?  There is no simple answer to any of this, and if the last plan was a ten-year plan, that doesn’t mean that this one should also have that horizon.  Probably a smart thing to do at this point is to look backwards and ask yourself this question: “Was our last plan a relevant, living document for the whole time between when we did it and the present day?”  Or, if you do not have an operative plan now, ask yourself this: “If we had done a strategic plan five (or ten) years ago, would it have remained relevant throughout the last five (or ten) years?”  Once you have answered this first question, ask this one: “Looking forward, and given the changes we have seen in the last five years, how long do we think a plan we produce this year will remain relevant and useful?”  My guess is that after you are satisfied with your answers to these questions, you will set a planning horizon for the new plan of somewhere between three and five years.  But whatever you do, be sure at the outset to set dates when you will formally review the plan and make mid-course corrections if needed.
  • What is the context of the plan?  Planning in a vacuum is a useless activity.  It is critical that the plan you do for your library is fully consistent with any over-arching plans, such as one for your university, or city, or school district.  So be very explicit in discussing how and why what your plan says will be consistent with these “über-plans.” The other important question of context that must be resolved during the planning process, and will be discussed in subsequent parts of this series: Is this plan consistent with the library’s Mission? With its Vision? Its Values?
  • Establish a “headline:” By headline I mean a slogan (or rallying cry?) for the plan.  Here, you want to create not only some I.D. for the plan, but perhaps a little cachet as well.  Some examples: “Envisioning the Future,” or “Supporting Future Learning,” or “Our Library Rocks.”  Oh well, you can see why I was never an advertising copywriter, but you get my drift, right?  
When and How?

Now is the time to finalize your process and map out the schedule of activities.  Some advice:
  • What will our process be?  One of the last (and more obvious) matters to attend to before launching the planning exercise is to finalize the process that will work best for your institution.  In this series, as well as in the reams of available literature, you will read of many theories, options and alternative approaches.  Now is the time to determine your process.  The suggestion here is that you do a more refined version of the rough outline you started with and discuss it with the facilitator (if you use one) and the core team, and then bounce it off the review team.  This is not so much to get buy-in on the process as it is to solicit any good ideas that these constituents might contribute.
  • Schedule: Think of Goldilocks: make it “just right.”  Make sure there will be adequate time for input, planning discussion, vetting, documentation and communication, but try no to make it too long and drawn out—you don’t want to unveil the plan at the same time you should be starting to put together the next one!  My recommendation is three to six months for the entire process, with the duration governed by the type and extent of (potentially) time-consuming market research and communication programs.   
  • Roles and responsibilities:  Members of the core planning team should have extra tasks to perform as part of their participation.  Nothing burdensome, but something to keep them involved in the process.  This is a good way to offload some responsibilities that would otherwise fall to the planning leader, who will have enough on his or her mind without having to worry about these functions:
  • Scribe: Planning meetings will produce copious notes.  Choose somebody for this task who thinks and writes clearly and will not use “editorial license.”
  • Scheduler: If you have ever been this, you know how challenging it is to pick times that work for everyone, etc.  So pick someone who is both organized and respected.  This person should also figure out when breaks will be taken, etc.
  • Creature comforts: While tasks associated with coffee, lunches and snacks can often be handled by an administrative assistant, it never hurts to have one of the team tasked with this responsibility.
  • Communications: Have somebody with superior communications skills in charge of drafting plan documents and designing communication plans programs and devices.
  • Meeting venues:  Although the precise number and contents of meetings will be up to the leader (with some help from the facilitator), here are a few suggestions:
  • Hold to the discipline of a schedule, but don’t try to do too much in one meeting.  One of the great things about planning is the creativity that springs forth, often from heretofore silent (or less creative) sources   The last thing in the world you want to do is to dampen this newfound energy, so allow extra time in the schedule, especially for the “meatier” phases like environmental analysis and strategic visioning.  That said, stick to the schedule you have set and do your best to not allow pointless discussion.
  • If possible and affordable, get out of the library, free from distractions inherent in the day-to-day work routine.  A different location often causes human beings to go into different, more productive modes.  If you have to meet at work, do everything in your power to keep people off the phone, email and so on.  This is especially important for the longer meetings requiring focus and creativity.
  • If convenient for the team, and within the budget, get out of town for two or three days.  This will allow for team building and informal discussion between formal sessions—often the fount of very good ideas!
  • Speaking of budget, if you have not provided for planning activities in your operational budget (or even if you have), try to get extra funding from the provost, mayor or whomever is your normal source of funds.  They should be thrilled that you are thinking about the future of the institution! 
Ready, aim…

Well, at long last, you are ready to plan.  You may also be exhausted from all of the preparation.  But all of the work will pay dividends in the near future-and hopefully for years to come.  And remember, you don’t need to do it every year! 

This is the second part in a series on library strategic planning by Frank Hermes of the Library Leadership Network.  These articles are designed to provide guidance in your planning efforts, and as such are not complete cookbooks.  If you see something advertised as a complete cookbook, don’t believe it—successful planning is a combination of intuitive library leadership, a lot of work, and a little guidance.   


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