Strategic planning for school libraries - wicked problems

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

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Strategic planning for school libraries - wicked problems

by halfpintofwisdom on Jul 31, 2011

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