Last week at the Future Tech Strategies for Libraries symposium, Rebecca Jones (of Dysart & Jones Associates) spoke about digital strategy. She always has good things to say, so I always listen closely.
She said this (my summary of it): Technology drives what the organization does. So, should the organization’s strategic plan come first, or should the technology plan come first? It’s starting to shift to the technology plan.
On the one hand, if you have a good strategic plan that is including technology … meaning that your tech manager is with it and has helped develop those strategies … then following a good organizational strategy makes sense. That’s how I’ve always operated. There’s no need for a real technology plan, because it’s embedded in the plans of the library.
On the other hand, today’s technology is driving the organization in many ways. Even something as “traditional” as new computer purchases, updating an OS, or replacing a telephone system (doing that this year!) can have a big impact on the organization’s budget, on planning, on training, and on organizational capacity for the year.
Then, when your “new phone system” is moving from an out-of-date system to a VOIP system with unified messaging, hand-off capabilities to a mobile device, internal chat messaging, etc … that can have a HUGE positive impact in how the organization does its work, and can … yes … have a big impact on the library’s strategic plans.
So – what do you think? Chicken or the egg? Strategic plan first, or technology plan first? Please share!
Pic by Kyle Van Horn
Since most of the libraries I work with have a strategic plan, but not necessarily a tech plan, I always have them refer to the strategic plan when coming up with goals and ideas for their tech plan – but that is because of the nature of the plans in those libraries. Ideally, the two would be done together – with the tech plan as a subset of the strategic plan. I agree that without knowing how you will manage your technology, it becomes hard to figure out how you will manage the library!
I always recommend that my clients start with a strategic plan. Technology is just a tool, a tool that helps you implement your strategic plan. Don’t let the tail wag the hound, as They Must Be Giants would say.
On the face of it, this seems to betray a very basic misunderstanding about the strategic process, and the importance of setting strategy first and then developing resources and projects to realize strategy. To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she is proposing another strategic approach that avoids the common problem of letting technology or building features or collection attributes constrain strategic planning. But if not, this seems like an endorsement of the sorts of mistakes libraries have made for years — buying the newest or shiniest or cheapest technology and then casting around for a way to use it. Realizing that technology is absolutely integral to the services a library offers, one still must answer the question “what is this library for?” before deciding which technologies to implement. (I am even suspicious of the idea of developing strategic and technology plans together, as I think that risks letting technology influence strategy in a limiting way.)
Strategic plan should always dictate tech plan. If strategic plan result is to “reduce use of telephones by 50%” there may not be a need for a new telephone system. Technology should be working in partnership with what people want to achieve as their goals.
WHats the goal? Fasten two pieces of wood together. Now lets assess the proper technology, nails, screws, glue? However if I have already invested in truckload of hammers…. well looks like we aren’t using another type of technology.
If you are a hammer “everything” looks like a nail