Strategic Plan Preparing Team

Final Report

Innovate

Imagine

Suggest

DevelopDecide

Test

SPPrT Members

• Jim Loter, LLT Sponsor • Eve Sternberg, Facilitator• Jennifer Bisson• Kirk Blankenship• Daria Cal • Lynn Miller

• Jennifer Reichert• Jennifer Robinson• Sarah Scott • Daniel Tilton• Caroline Ullmann• Nonie Xue

Key Questions

• How do we animate the Strategic Plan?• How does staff get heard?• How do we capture and cultivate good ideas?

Guiding Strategic Goal

Foster an organizational culture of innovation

Innovation

The action of finding ways to use our resources more efficiently and

effectively to create greater value for our patrons.

Culture

Shared basic assumptions that a group learned as it solved its

problems and that have worked well enough to be considered the correct

way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture and Leadership. (paraphrase)

Levels of Culture

• Dress codes, furniture and offices• Visible organizational structures and processesArtifacts

• Strategic goals• Mission• Organizational Values

Espoused Values

• Unspoken rules• Unconscious beliefs• Things taken for granted

Basic Assumptions

Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture and Leadership.

Staff Input Sessions

• Information Technology• Central Assistant Managers• Mid-City East Region

Librarians• Safety and Security• Reference Services• Borrower Services• Branch Assistant Managers• Branch Library Associates

and Student Assts.

• Mid-City West Region Librarians

• NE and NW Region Librarians (combined)

• Shelving Operations • SE/SW Region Librarians • Central public service

Librarians• Facilities, Maintenance and

Materials Distribution Unit Managers

“Taking the Pulse of Innovation” Survey

N=254

0%20%40%60%80%

80%65%

53%

2%21%

32%

AgreeDisagree

“Taking the Pulse of Innovation” Survey

N=254

0%

20%

40%

60%

19% 21%

58% 55%

AgreeDisagree

Key Findings from Staff Input

• Clarify How We Make Choices – Communicate Big Picture Priorities– Enumerate Key Considerations– Train and Coach Staff and Managers in Proposal

Development and Evaluation• Clarify Who Makes Decisions – Define a Decision-making Roadmap– Decentralize and Fast-track Decision-making– Proposal status check– Create a Suggestion Box – Rebuild Trust

Key Findings from Staff Input

• Encourage Innovative Thinking– Respond Constructively to Staff Ideas– Provide Opportunities for Creative Collaboration

• Encourage Idea Proposers to Help Implement• Take risks and Encourage Experimentation– Grant License to Experiment– Review Policies for Strategic Flexibility

Key Findings from Staff Input

• Listen to Front-line, Customer-focused Input – Tap Frontline Staff Insights– Evaluate Success

• Invest for Innovation– Make the Time– Train for Innovation– Fund for Innovation– Stabilize the Organization

Key Findings from Staff Input

• Highlight Innovation Efforts– Build Innovation into Work Plans– Recognize and Highlight Innovation

Recommendations

InnovateTestDecideDevelopSuggestImagine

Imagine

• Inspire Imagination in the Workplace– Use time at regular meetings to discuss ideas and

opportunities• Provide learning, networking, skill-building

opportunities– Train supervisors and managers on inspiring

imagination– Encourage and support participation in conferences.– Initiate opportunities for learning outside the library

Suggest

• Define the Roles and Responsibilities of Staff in an Innovative Organization– Use personal work plans to define expectations

around innovation and experimentation• Accept Ideas and Suggestions from All Staff on

Any Topic– Support staff to pilot small-scale innovations– Develop an “INbox” for ideas on InfoNET

Develop

• Establish a Team to Support Development of Innovative Ideas

• Seek resources to support innovation– Develop funding source for time to develop ideas– Develop sustainable “innovation fund”

• Clarify Key Components and Characteristics of Proposals– Use common framework to develop and evaluate

proposals

The Team

• Innovation Ombudsman– Represent the ideas of Library staff– Work with staff to help investigate and develop those ideas– Help staff gain access to appropriate Library decision-makers

• Innovation Champions– Conduct and promote activities to inspire imagination and innovation– Communicate energetically about creative efforts underway

• Innovation Advisors– Develop and steward a process for staff to submit ideas, collect

feedback, and develop ideas into proposals– Assist staff with developing proposals– Endorse and promote recommendations to Library decision-makers

Decide

• Use an “Ideas Framework” of common principles to guide evaluation and decision-making

• Clarify routine decision-making authority– Task LLT and managers to define decision-making

roles and responsibilities at all levels• Improve Organizational Communication – Make active listening a core competency– Encourage informal communications across unit and

division lines

Test

• Encourage all managers and teams to experiment and pilot low-cost/low-risk projects

• Define evaluation criteria and cost estimates prior to launching projects

Next Steps

• Engage key management teams in working together to support imagination, collaboration, experimentation and innovation

• Develop and pilot the InfoNET INbox• Establish a team to support development of innovative ideas

and promote use of the ideas framework• Work to identify, create, and pilot resource options• Develop and lead an approach to engage the All Managers

group in defining organizational decision-making roles and responsibilities

• Develop and pilot high priority training and professional development opportunities