reflecting on the future

Reflecting on the Future

Joe MatthewsNovember 2013

Shameless

Commerce Section

My Road Map

• Rules of the Game

• Scenario Planning

• Library Scenarios

• Re-imagining

• Planning Horizon

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part,

the result of trying to do today’s job

with yesterday’s tools and

yesterday’s concepts.

Marshall McLuhan

It’s not linear

Alternate futures

Now

Strategic planning is not only looking down the road,

it is …

… not just a map

… it is a plan to arrive at a specific destination!

Scenario Planning

• Process of imagining alternative futures – and identify their implications

• Recognizing that we do not have one future, but many

• Allows ‘options’ to remain in ‘play’

• Seeks to consider new and different options

• Liberates us from past thinking

• Helps us move to a “preferred future”

Scenarios

• Helps us to bring new ideas into our thinking and planning

• Helps us to think more broadly about the forces that are impacting libraries

• Are a great tool for engaging others so that many views and insights are explored

• Nothing is right or wrong. Scenarios encourage us to think about things we normally don’t think about.

Disruption is a reality

Building Scenarios

Experience

Involvement

Empowerment Innovation

MEETINGPLACE

Participate

LEARNING

SPACE

Explore

PERFORMANCE

SPACE

Create

INSPIRATION

SPACE

Excite

Possible Dimensions

• Technology (Hi & Lo); Touch (Hi & Lo)

• Eco-framework; Values retention

• Institution-driven vs. Customer-led; Structure (Inflexible vs. Flexible)

• State supported vs. market driven; closed (traditional) vs. open (MOOC)

• Funding climate; adaptability

Library Scenarios

Confronting the Future

Its all about building stories & ideas

around a framework as a means

to an ongoing conversation.

It’s about what could happen,

not what will happen.

It’s about developing a preferred future!

Re-imagining Libraries

Re-imagining Services

• Search

• Discovery

• Content

• Shelving

• Librarians

Planning Horizon

• Focus on 3 to 5 years hence

• Use scenarios to explore the future with a variety of stakeholders

• Focus on a Preferred Future that will really respond to your customer’s needs

• Recognize that a plan does not survive the first encounter with “reality” - adjust

Just do not dismiss opportunities

Possibilities abound …

An Important Question

Regardless of the scenarios used in the

planning process and your choice of a

Preferred Future, how will the library

add value in the life of each customer?

Joe@JoeMatthews.Org

Joe Matthews

Joe@JoeMatthews.Org