Professional Outcome 8: Administration and Management

Artifact Name: LI 805 Springfield Public Library Executive Committee Strategic Plan

Values: Leadership, Integrity

Effective change does not materialize from a vacuum, it emerges through colleagues working together to honestly reflect on their community, goals, vision and resources. In this strategic plan a team of four individuals came together, melding their strengths, to consider the needs of a library community. The library portrayed is fictional, but could be any library in the USA. The challenges of budget, othering of patrons because of differences and need for new tools are all things which are being faced by libraries currently. The reflection of Tuckman's theory demonstrates familiarity with how teams are formed. The budget ideas, SWOT Analysis, and clear paths for action with measurable objects reveal an ability to use organizational tools to draw out the best of the employees and the organization. This ability is easily translatable as any organization will have financial concerns, strengths & weakness and could benefit from objectives which are both easy to understand and measure.

Part of leadership is knowing how to engage a community. In this case all of the team members enjoyed humor, thus a humorous theme emerged. Our fictional library was located in Springfield so that the members would be motivated to go beyond abstract ideas but to include pictures and consider how this facility might look. Because all of the members cared about the shell this plan was based on it was easy to draw out the best ideas as we were all engaged. Additionally my role as facilitator for this project demonstrates a proficiency with coordinating meetings, ensure members completed assigned sections and maintaining deadlines which are the less fun, but crucial skills needed for an organizational leader. Integrity is shown through this artifact in two ways. The first is that all of the team members remained authentically committed to the needs of the community we evaluated. Secondly each of us stayed true to ourselves, admitting our weaknesses so that members who were strong in areas that we were not could help fill the gaps, while we returned the favor by doing the same for the other members. In this way our honesty, about ourselves and our community, provided a way for us to provide the best strategic plan possible.