Skip to main content
Article
Grassroots Strategic Planning: Involving Library Staff from the Beginning
Journal of Library Administration
  • Anne Marie Casey, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Submitting Campus
Daytona Beach
Department
Staff Works - Hunt Library
Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
1-1-2015
Abstract/Description

Strategic planning is often considered a managerial tool. The management of an organization surveys the environment and develops a plan that they introduce to the organization as a whole. Most modern organizations seek employee involvement in the planning process and feedback to some degree with varied results. But for one academic library, employee involvement in the development and execution of the strategic plans has been a vital part of the processes. The Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been developing strategic plans for several years with active input from the librarians and staff. This case study chronicles the different approaches the library staff have used to create new plans. One method was to hold a set of retreats where all library staff provided ideas for new initiatives to explore and old processes to retire. Another involved the SOAR approach, which uses appreciate inquiry to determine strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. A third method employed scenarios to encourage staff input into the next strategic plan. Each of the different approaches yielded interesting results; some failures and many successes. Some processes were more positive than others but they all included mutually agreed-upon strategies that the guided the library as it planned future innovations.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1038935
Publisher
Routledge
Citation Information
Anne Marie Casey. "Grassroots Strategic Planning: Involving Library Staff from the Beginning" Journal of Library Administration Vol. 55 Iss. 4 (2015) p. 1 - 17
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anne_marie_casey/24/