Strategic Planning for School Libraries

Part one: Planning to deal with a wicked problem by facilitating

shared understanding

Strategic planning is about managing risk

• What are the risks for school libraries?

• What are the challenges?

• What are the opportunities now and in the future?

• If we don’t manage risk, what are the likely outcomes?

• What is your current school library ‘brand’?

• How are you perceived by your educational community?

• If the knives come out, will they stand up and fight for the library and your job?

• What value do they attach to you and your role?

Critical success factors

• Explicit support and backing from senior management team is crucial

• Find a salesperson – someone with the gift of the gab – is it you?

• Find teachers who are ready to work with you (teacher life-cycle)

• Learn to speak curriculum, assessment, the language of pedagogy

• Understand the nature of wicked problems

• Understand social complexity, and the problems inherent in project work

You are dealing with a very wicked problem

“How can I embed the school library in the curriculum, making it central to teaching and learning in my school?”

Wicked problemsWhat are they?

• Wicked problems have no right or wrong answer

• Wicked problems have a no stopping rule – they keep throwing up more problems!

• When you do come up with a solution, you will not know with certainty that it will work – you simply have to try implementing it, and assess the outcomes, be prepared to be flexible.

Social and technological complexity

• Working as a group to solve a wicked problem is difficult

• It will be fraught with the potential for fragmentation

• From social complexity – the range of people involved, their world views, the ‘language’ they speak

• Technological complexity will be an issue – the language of technology, speed of change

Working towards shared understanding

• Recommended reading:Dialogue Mapping:   Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems by Jeff Conklin, Ph.D.

• http://www.cognexus.org/wpf/wickedproblems.pdf

• Compendium software for dialogue mapping

• Improved facilitation processes

• Real shared understanding can be achieved

• Manage social and technological complexity

Summarizing the process, so far

• Understand why school libraries are at risk

• Understand your existing library brand

• Identify the changes you need to make

• Connect to the curriculum, your school’s goals, vision and charter

• Become comfortable speaking curriculum and the language of pedagogy

• Begin to build the team to help you effect change

• Understand the complexities and inherent risks in project work

• Understand the nature of the wicked problem you are trying to solve

• Get ready to work together to create a strategic plan and solve your wicked problem…

Photo credit

Background image courtesy of Lin Pernille Photography CC License

http://www.flickr.com/photos/linnybinnypix

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