1. Building Leadership Skills: Strategic Thinking An Infopeople Workshop George Needham and Joan Frye Williams, Instructors Spring 2009

2. Today’s agenda Leadership and strategic thinking The long view The FAST approach to strategic thinking Moving ahead

3. 1. Know what difference you want to make 2. Choose your actions accordingly

4. What’s their strategy? vs.

5. Why think strategically? Save time and effort Make the most of limited resources Attract funding Get people on board Enhance chances of success Increase job satisfaction

6. Why think strategically? Save time and effort Make the most of limited resources Attract funding Get people on board Enhance chances of success Increase job satisfaction Try to take over the world!

7. What difference do you want to make? Your community Your library Your team/work group Personally/professionally

8. The long view Target, not detailed steps Principles, not techniques Strengths, not weaknesses Keep it simple

9. “Vision” implies that other people can PICTURE what you’re talking about.

10. Leveraging your assets Starts with appreciation Vision-led, not problem-driven Concentrates on abundant resources

11. Strategic positioning: Five approaches that work

12. From exception to mainstream

13. Bottom line Less gate-keeping, more convenience

14. From altruism to return on investment

15. Bottom line Less perfectionism, more efficiency

16. From a focus on the past to a focus on the future

17. What kinds of changes do you think will affect your community in the future?

18. Bottom line Less caution, more flexibility

19. From frill to necessity

20. Bottom line Less reticence, more urgency

21. From information to transformation

22. Think of a favorite book, movie, play, poem, or piece of music… What is it? Why is it important to you? How has that affected your life?

23. Bottom line Relationships trump transactions

24. Think FAST Focus Accelerate Support Tie it all together Adapted from Hagel, John et al,“Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption,” Harvard Business Review, October 2008.

25. Focus Use real data/evidence Look for patterns Ask “what if” Estimate likelihood Imagine consequences

26. Accelerate Identify actions that will move you toward your target most quickly Use resources you already have Decide how you’ll measure progress

27. Support

28. Who else wants to see the same kind of difference you do? Community segments and stakeholders Elected officials, power brokers Other providers who share your audience Friends and colleagues

29. Discovering common ground

30. Maintaining strategic relationships

31. Tie it all together Constantly check near term performance against target Adjust as you go along Repeat as necessary

32. Uncovering strategic opportunities

33. Evaluating strategic opportunities Will it show? Can it grow? Does it flow?

34. Evaluate your choices: show

35. Evaluate your choices: grow

36. Evaluate your choices: flow

37. Tell a compelling story Ideas have to fit the audience’s values Person telling the story has to be believable Integrity Commitment

38. Understand that objections are… Normal, and… Less threatening than risking failure on something new, but… Not insurmountable

39. Handling objections

40. Show the passion!

41. Thank you for participating! Please complete the evaluation. joan@jfwilliams.com george@georgeneedham.com