reflecting on the future
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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?
