Lucidea Webinar series - part 4

1. Vancouver • Boston• LosAngeles• Nottingham lucidea.com
Succeeding in the World of Special Librarianship IV
Strategy: Knowing Where You Want to Be
May 23, 2018
Presented by:
Stephen Abram

2. 3
Housekeeping
Please note that the lines are muted
Use the GotoWebinar Q&A widget to ask a question
A recording of this webinar will be posted at lucidea.com/resources

3. 4
Agenda
Introduction
Today’s Presentation
Q&A

4. 5
About Lucidea
Our Mission:
To redefine how knowledge is shared
Sydney • Inmagic • Argus • Eloquent
CuadraSTAR • LawPort • LookUp Precision
We are the brands you know and trust:

5. 6
Experienced library
and information industry leader
Expert in:
• Strategic planning
• Product development
• Technology
• Training and marketing
Stephen Abram

6. • The responsibility for effective
communication is on the communicator
—not the listener.
• The Sustainable Library comes from us!
• It’s aligned with institutional
expectations—but the energy to move
forward is in our hands
• Being great doesn’t require permission
We set the expectations
7

7. Succeeding in the World of Special Librarianship
Stephen Abram, MLS ©2018 Lucidea Press
Heads up!
LucideaPress2018
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8. • Relationships: The foundation of everything
• Technology: Putting it in its Place
• Strategy: Knowing Where You Want to Be
• Execution: Just Do It!
• Marketing and Selling Are not Dirty Words
• Innovation and Managing Risk
• Managing Internal Communication
for Impact and Value
• Describing Yourself—NOT the Library
Succeeding in the World
of Special Librarianship
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9. And, Surprise! Supported by a series
of live and recorded webinars
Feb.21,2018 Introduction—FrameworkandPhilosophy(Available)
Mar.29,2018 Relationships:Thefoundationofeverything(Available)
Apr.25,2018 Technology:Puttingitinitsplace(Available)
May23,2018 Strategy:Knowingwhereyouwanttobe(Today!)
June20,2018 Execution:JustDoIt!
July 18,2018 MarketingandSellingArenotDirtyWords
Aug.15,2018 InnovationandManagingRisk
Sep.TBA,2018 ManagingInternalCommunicationforImpactandValue
Oct.TBA,2018 DescribingYourself–NOTtheLibrary
Nov.TBA,2018 ConclusionandInspiration
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• Why this book?
• Why now?
Succeeding in the World
of Special Librarianship

11. • Februarywebinar:FrameworkandPhilosophy
Webinar Series so far
The recording is now up on our website. Please use the link below to
view/share the recording:
https://lucidea.com/video/making-world-special-librarianship-pt1/
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The recording is now up on our website. Please use the link below to
view/share the recording:
https://lucidea.com/video/making-world-special-librarianship-pt2/
• Marchwebinar:Relationships:TheFoundationofEverything
• Aprilwebinar:Technology:PuttingItinitsPlace
The recording is now up on our website. Please use the link below to
view/share the recording:
https://lucidea.com/video/making-world-special-librarianship-pt3/

12. What makes us - Special Librarians - different
from our resources, tools and technology?
What are our top differentiators?
Succeeding in the World
of Special Librarianship
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13. Strategy: Knowing Where You Want to Be
Succeeding in the World
of Special Librarianship
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14. “A plan of action or policy designed to achieve
a major or overall aim.”
“A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as
achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.”
“The art and science of planning and marshalling resources for their
most efficient and effective use.”
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategy.html
What is strategy?
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15. Why do we recommend a Strategic Plan?
Most special libraries have an organizational context—they’re a
unit that supports the overall strategic goals
of top management, and their strategic plans exist
in this context.
Information professionals delve into and recommend strategies
that will have a material impact on the success of their
organizations and their fellow employees or clients.
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16. Management Trends
Master Facility Plans
Institutional Strategic Plans
Strategic Financial Plans (ROI and SROI)
Strategic Technology Plans
Facility Technical Audits and Plans
Strategic Planning for Sustainable
Programming in Libraries

18. Community Asset
Mapping = A Partnership
Foundation
Community Assets
Cultural Assets
Social Services Assets

19. To be successful . . .
Simply put, you must focus on people first – staff
and clients. Then, on the resources they need
to be successful and productive.
That means a focus on strategies for collaboration, cooperation,
teamwork, and social needs.
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20. Strategy neither survives
in a vacuum nor creates one. Strategy
creation is a social act.

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Collaboration
Simply, collaboration is “The action of working with someone to produce or create
something.” More specifically, “Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a
recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize
shared goals, (this is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operative
ventures, but a deep, collective, determination to reach an identical objective for
example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature by sharing knowledge, learning
and building consensus). Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of
leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. In particular,
teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward
when facing competition for finite resources.”
[Wikipedia]

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Cooperation
Cooperation is the “act or instance of working or acting together
for a common purpose or benefit; joint action, the more or less active
assistance from a person, organization, etc., a willingness to cooperate in
activities for shared or mutual benefit.”
[Dictionary.com]

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Teamwork
Teamwork is the “cooperative or coordinated effort on the part
of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests
of a common cause.”
[Dictionary.com]

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Social
Social is an adjective meaning ‘of or relating to society or its organization’.
Libraries are social institutions.
So are governments, schools, colleges, businesses, churches, and indeed
nearly any human enterprise—formally organized or not.
Social life is the basic way we humans achieve things.
Therefore, social technology tools represent huge opportunities for social
professions.

25. Reimagine your Strategies
in a Future Context
There have been some pressures on the context of social
collaboration in the past few decades. Disruptive
innovations in technology have taken technology from a
mechanical retrieval and workflow context to one that is
socially aligned with human needs and behaviours in a
societal context. This has become more important as we
experience the real emergence of a global information and
knowledge-based economy, resulting in pressures on social
institutions to reimagine
the ways their people— employees, learners, inventors,
customers—interact, live, work and play
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26. A Reminder: The Role of Technology
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27. Keep the Goal in Mind
The best way to adapt to disruptive and
transformational change is to always keep the
goal in mind. What are the goals related to these
social and collaborative technology changes in
your industry, sector, library or learning context?
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28. These are the types of questions we should be regularly asking
within our institutions and at our professional organizations and
conferences. These kinds of questions can focus us in
challenging times.
• “We need better questions.
• How can we create amazing experiences every day
for our users?
• How can we develop our clients into expert question askers?
• How can we make our libraries invaluable and irreplaceable in
our enterprises?
• How can we nurture abundant curiosity?”
[http://andyburkhardt. com/2012/05/24/ask-the-right-questions/]
Positive questions
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29. Who, What, Where, When…
Why, How…

30. Using the process shown on the chart below,
you’re ready to start developing your plan.
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31. • External Assessment
• Internal Assessment
• SWOT
Environmental Scanning
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32. Be Brutally Aware and Honest
It requires a strong critical look at your own operations
and the entire enterprise.
• Is your technology up-to-date?
• Is your technology platform sustainable?
• Are your staff prepared to take on the new challenges with the
right competencies?
• Are your users ready for the change(s)?
• Are you fiscally ready to invest?
• Do you have an executive champion?
• Do you know your users? Can you communicate with them easily using many
channels?
• Do you know your numbers (statistics, budget, usage, etc.)?
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33. SWOT Analysis
You’ve likely been involved in these many times.
Liberate the team’s thinking by ensuring that
external and internal analyses have been done prior
to this exercise. It’s no use dreaming too big if your
first priority should be getting some organizational
or technological foundations up to current
standards. Once you know your barriers, you can
focus on what I call a “Clear the Decks” exercise to
remove as many barriers to success as possible.
Identify your organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT).
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34. Reflect on these and see if they truly matter. When you
determine they do, brainstorm some of the opportunities
again. Use your major filters:
• Will these matter in five years?
• By focusing on this, can we create a unique and sustainable
value proposition?
• Are we trying hard enough?
• Is there enough stretch in these goals?
By the end of this exercise you’ll have a long list of insights
to address within a strategic and operational context.
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SWOT Analysis

35. Clear Trends
Ready fortheirclose-up
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The Cloud - especially for our ILS, database,
and LMS space
Responsive design and its evolution beyond mobile
LinkedData to transform discovery
E-Learning, MOOCs, and accredited online courses
Beacons—beyond QR codes and NFC
BIG Data and little - computers can only do
analytics—humans do analysis.
Maker Movement—Maker, Hacker, Writer, Hobbyist

36. Strategy Versus Tactics
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Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/01/14/the-
difference-between-strategy-and-tactics

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Strategy Versus Tactics
Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/01/14/the-
difference-between-strategy-and-tactics

38. Framework forEvaluation
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ROI (Return on Investment)
ROE (Return on Effort)
SROI (Social Return on Investment)
Impact and Measurements
Intranets—responsive and knowledge enhancing
—beyond warehouses
Embedding—humans with knowledge skills and
content
Disintermediation—what’s the best response?

39. Planning and Priorities
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The hard part of planning isn’t choosing your top 3
priorities, it is sacrificing the rest. There are a lot of
strategic planning techniques that help you with
these decisions. Note that one technique is “the
‘boss’ decides”, but when this happens in the
absence of consultation and bringing folks along,
you raise your risk of failure with lack of solid
commitment on the part of the team.

40. Priorities
At this point you have a ton of ideas and initiatives—
likely hundreds. Indeed, usually too many, given the staff
and budget resources you have.
However, strategic planning exercises are about focus
and choosing the most important activities—those that
will have the highest impact and/or build the strongest
foundations for success.
Sometimes proposed initiatives are really components
of another initiative at a higher level, so putting some of
these tactics into strategic buckets is useful at this stage.
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41. Steps
Now you’re ready for the most under-used part of the strategic planning
process: Build your steps. This puts the tactics in order so you can
achieve the strategic goals you’ve committed to.
Build your tactics and put them in order—from the foundational,
through to launch, training, and managing success.
You have a three to five-year plan that you can review every 6-12 months
and adapt and adjust based on current or new conditions.
The first year will likely be front-loaded. This is OK, since often the change
tactics envisioned involve smaller teams and foundational work.
Further on, you start involving larger groups of management and users.
It gets harder to think about year 5, but you need to dream and focus on
the goals.
You’ll have time to adapt and build—and even stretch.
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42. Focus your plan on People
Builda CollaborationEnvironment
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43. Dusty, Meaningless Strategic Plans

44. Unclear View of the Future

45. Eyes on the Rearview Mirror

46. “I Don’t Have the Time”

47. Too Many Ideas

48. Analysis Paralysis

49. So, concluding on strategy
• Do some “deep” research
• Have 3 conversations a day
• Set aside time for reflection
• Schedule key meetings and coffees/teas
• Share yourself and listen
Succeeding in the World
of Special Librarianship
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Some quick exercises to try, schedule and do in order to avoid weighting
Technology too heavily in your portfolio and to break inertia and inform and
inspire progress.
• Collect the documents you need to understand your organization’s context.
Read them and share them with your team.
• Are they in one place and open to all staff? Why or why not?
• What is your role in building strategy and informing? Who matters?

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Add the webinars to your calendars
(or watch them later)
So watch for the book on Amazon!

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Have more questions?
Need more information?
604-278-6717
CONTACT US:
sales@lucidea.com
lucidea.com/

53. Vancouver • Boston• LosAngeles• Nottingham lucidea.com
Thank You!
Succeeding in the World of Special Librarianship IV
Strategy: Knowing Where You Want to Be
May 23, 2018
Presented by:
Stephen Abram