Grassroots Strategic Planning: Involving Library Staff from the Beginning

Abstract

Column Editor's Note. This column focuses on the closely related topics of strategic planning and assessment in all types of libraries. The column examines all aspects of planning and assessment including (but not limited to) components, methods, approaches, trends, tools and training. Interested authors are invited to submit articles to the editor at wvdole@ualr.edu. Articles on both theory and practice and examples of both successful and unsuccessful attempts in all types of libraries are invited. In this issue, Anne Marie Casey, Dean of Retention and Student Success at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, reminds us that real life challenges such as staff resistance and reallocation of campus space have serious impacts on planning. She presents a case study of one library's attempt to deal with these challenges by using a variety of methods, including active employee input, appreciative inquiry, and scenario planning to encourage staff buy-in. For the most part, these attempts proved successful.ABSTRACT. Strategic planning is often considered a managerial tool. The management of an organization surveys the environment and develops a plan that they introduce to the organization as a whole. Most modern organizations seek employee involvement in the planning process and feedback to some degree with varied A. M. Casey results. But for one academic library, employee involvement in the development and execution of the strategic plans has been a vital part of the processes. The Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been developing strategic plans for several years with active input from the librarians and staff. This case study chronicles the different approaches the library staff have used to create new plans. One method was to hold a set of retreats where all library staff provided ideas for new initiatives to explore and old processes to retire. Another involved the SOAR approach, which uses appreciate inquiry to determine strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. A third method employed scenarios to encourage staff input into the next strategic plan. Each of the different approaches yielded interesting results; some failures and many successes. Some processes were more positive than others but they all included mutually agreed-upon strategies that guided the library as it planned future innovations.

Strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results: An emerging approach to organization development

“…The two qualitative scholarly articles were not in the discipline of business. Khavarian‐Garmsir and Zare (2014) completed a qualitative study investigating sustainable tourism development and Casey () applied the SOAR framework within library administration to create a new strategic plan for an established library system.…”

“…A number of recommendations were specific to context, demonstrating the broad applicability of SOAR. For example, in her study of university library personnel, Casey (2015) recommends broadening the use of SOAR in university settings to engage faculty and staff in strategic planning. Similarly, Khavarian-Garmsir and Zare (2014) envision SOAR as applicable to further research in sustainable tourism practices.…”

Building blocks for a shared vision: Creating a departmental long-term plan in an academic library

“…Perrin (2017) writes "leadership… gives us strategic plans that become mission statements by just stating that the library will do what it has always done, only now it will be done 'excellently'" (p. 713). Casey (2015) argues strategic planning without staff involvement wastes resources and will likely need to be redone, with staff buy-in. "The director was passionate about involving staff in the process because she had seen strategic plans, developed solely by management, do little but gather dust after they were unveiled" (p. 332).…”

Evidence Based Practice for Virtual Reality Spaces and Services: A Service Design Case Study

“…The literature suggests that creating a mission and vision for library spaces in alignment with the library's overall mission and vision will create a shared understanding of their purpose and will lead to clearer messaging to library users (Kuchi 2006;Rossmann, 2019;Welch & Wyatt-Baker, 2018). The literature also encourages involving stakeholders in grassroots efforts to develop a plan, mission, and vision for library spaces and services (Casey, 2015;Wójcik, 2019). MSU Library leadership decided to form a group to reenvision the mission and vision of the space and a plan for how that information would be conveyed to library users and staff.…”