Noticing that the all-time most visited Post on this Blog is 21st Century Library Strategic Plan – Goals and Objectives, I re-read it for my own edification. I’ll admit (if you’ll pardon some bragging) that it is a very comprehensive Post about understanding and establishing Goals and Objectives for your 21st Century Library Strategic Plan.
Then I noticed a Comment from a well-respected colleague that invoked a reply, which could have been a Post of its own. So, here it is (just in case any of you missed that part) with a few minor author revisions.
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I was ruminating about the “So what?” related to the Strategic Plan, had put down some thoughts for future use, then came a comment that aimed straight at the heart of “So what?” (I try to ask myself “So what?” frequently about most everything. Until I answer that question for myself, I’m never an advocate for whatever it may be.)
A couple of questions naturally crop up regarding the Strategic Plan and the value of the whole process and product. “How in the world can this possibly be worth the time and effort?” and “How can this Plan possibly be that important?”. The answer is simple – The Strategic Plan is THE BEST method to ensure that your library accomplishes the Goals it has established to achieve the Mission it has determined is most important!
Everything contained in the Strategic Plan is designed and oriented toward achieving the library’s Mission – EVERYTHING! Even the measures to prove that you have achieved that Mission. Nothing is superfluous! If there is anything in the Plan that is NOT an Activity that contributes to an Objective to achieve a Goal, then it should not be in the Plan.
Why does the Plan go into such detail? – because that is the only way to ensure that what the library DOES – each individual Activity – contributes to the Mission. The Strategic Plan is the only way to ensure that library resources are being applied to accomplishing the Mission, and to ensure that they are applied to the specific Activity that contributes to an Objective to achieve a Goal. Otherwise, critical resources may be being depleted by fun activities that only contribute to someone’s self actualization.
Most libraries have Goals and Objectives that are fairly complex in terms of providing all the services to fulfill its role in the community. Keeping them all straight and ensuring that the library’s Activities ALL contribute to the Mission is complex.
While this may all seem exceedingly mechanical, as in – if you have a good Plan then any monkey can run a library – the creativity, art and talent is in developing the Mission, Goals and Objectives, and in running a library by getting every employee to perform well everyday when they might rather not this particular Monday, AND in adapting to the ever changing external and internal environment to stay the course of the Plan.
The obvious next question is – “Why bother if it all depends on talent to adapt to all those changes that weren’t foreseen by the Strategic Plan?” – because in order to get where you want to be, you have to start from where you are, and without a Strategic Plan you not only DON’T know where you want to be, you DON’T know where you are. It’s like beginning a business trip (not a vacation, because sometimes vacations are best when you don’t care where you are or where you end up) not knowing where you are leaving from or destined for – that’s not going to get you anywhere!
Remember the Forecast portion of the Plan? That considers the external environment factors that you expect will impact the library’s operation, and includes their affects. That’s all you can do, anticipate and plan. Doubt and uncertainty can cripple an organization if you let it, but you have to not let it.
Without an adequate Strategic Plan your library will likely be spinning its wheels, wasting its resources and getting nowhere. It will be treading water, trying to stay afloat and worrying about how to keep the doors open, not knowing how to solve any problems or make any progress. Sounds depressing!
A Strategic Plan should give you the road map to your vision of what you want your 21st Century Library to be. Call it anything you like, make it as detailed or general as meets your needs, just so it helps you identify your 21st Century Library and achieve it.
[Emphasis added.]
